Sorry I have not posted in a while; just got caught up with everything
happening.
Carnival was a lot of fun, but it was a LOT of standing in the sun for hours. They changed it up this year and took different routes, which brought a lot of confusion by the time we got to the main stage. We had never performed with our pans before so that was an experience! We did not realize we would get hungry sooo fast; no one ate enough that morning. A truck came with us for half the way with drinks and our bags. After a while the truck split off since the road was too full and that is when the standing started. By that time it would have been worth it to have money for food with us. Rosalind, the head of our band, was really nice and bought us snacks and brought us drinks. We did our final performance (less than stellar by that point) and then most of use rode in the truck the last few miles back to the Mas camp. It was worth it to have spent more on shoes because most people's cheap shoes had fallen apart during the day. In all we were chipping and dancing for about 10 1/2 hours that day. When they say you have to experience Carnival to know what it is like; it's true.
Wednesday, the day after, most people went to Maracas beach. I stayed and slept all day. I guess the beach was really busy and not as relaxing as they hoped. The rest of the week was break; most people slept. The next week lectures started again, this time focused on the Indian presence in Trinidad rather than the African. We took a tour of Central Trinidad in Chaguanas (Shu-GWAN-es) and looked through their big market, got the most AMAING doubles for breakfast, saw the Temple in the Sea, and another temple in the area. We stopped for a lunch of roti and after looked at a few other places. It was a fun tour!
Carnival was a lot of fun, but it was a LOT of standing in the sun for hours. They changed it up this year and took different routes, which brought a lot of confusion by the time we got to the main stage. We had never performed with our pans before so that was an experience! We did not realize we would get hungry sooo fast; no one ate enough that morning. A truck came with us for half the way with drinks and our bags. After a while the truck split off since the road was too full and that is when the standing started. By that time it would have been worth it to have money for food with us. Rosalind, the head of our band, was really nice and bought us snacks and brought us drinks. We did our final performance (less than stellar by that point) and then most of use rode in the truck the last few miles back to the Mas camp. It was worth it to have spent more on shoes because most people's cheap shoes had fallen apart during the day. In all we were chipping and dancing for about 10 1/2 hours that day. When they say you have to experience Carnival to know what it is like; it's true.
Wednesday, the day after, most people went to Maracas beach. I stayed and slept all day. I guess the beach was really busy and not as relaxing as they hoped. The rest of the week was break; most people slept. The next week lectures started again, this time focused on the Indian presence in Trinidad rather than the African. We took a tour of Central Trinidad in Chaguanas (Shu-GWAN-es) and looked through their big market, got the most AMAING doubles for breakfast, saw the Temple in the Sea, and another temple in the area. We stopped for a lunch of roti and after looked at a few other places. It was a fun tour!
The next week we had our mid term exam for our CCS class; I’m glad I
studied! One of the parts was naming island in the Caribbean on a map and what
country they belonged too; that was a little harder than I thought since the
map was missing islands! That
Friday we went to Holika Night, which tells the legend connected to
Phagwa. Honestly, I don’t think I
get the story; I kept getting mixed up who was supposed to be good and
bad. On Sunday we met with the PLU
people who were visiting for the 20th year celebration for the
program being in Trinidad. We made
suggestions about the program and amenities and it sounds like things will
change for next years program (sadly, our beds are staying just as hard and
mattress topperless). We all then
went to Phagwa, close to the same place we went for Holika night (or maybe it
was the same place). I wore
sunglasses because I didn’t want dye in my eyes and it was a good idea! A bunch
of the girl’s contacts got dyed from powder being blown in their faces and they
had to throw them away. The little
kids there were the worst; they would sneak attack you and get you right in the
face with dye or powder. That
evening we performed with Malick our Carnival dance for the PLU people.
Wednesday was the big celebration dinner; some of the students wore
traditional costumes to welcome guests, there were a lot of speeches, and we
performed our dance with Malick again.
On Saturday almost the whole group went to a beach at Chaguaramas (Shog-er-RAM-us) and went zip
lining! It was about 45 minutes long, 7 zip lines, the highest was about 100ft,
and less than $20 US a person! We
all agreed we want to do it again before we leave if we have a chance. Sunday the 30th we went to the Spiritual Baptists Liberation
day. I don’t think I have ever
heard so much singing. Someone
would start to say something and everyone would sing it. We only stayed for a few hours; it
started about 10:30am and didn’t end until around 5 or 6pm.
This
week we had two lectures and some meetings, but have a free weekend this week. I am working on my mas costume for
class; have the frame of my headpiece done! Now it’s mostly working on finishing up all the papers and
final projects that are due; the program tries to finish everything by the
beginning of May except for the final presentations.
