CARNIVAL

Carnival was amazing! It was a busy time here, but it was a lot of fun.

2/ 10
5:00 pm: Lecture on traditional Carnival characters: Some Midnight Robbers and a Pierrot Grenade came to the lodge to perform for us and give us some background information on their characters. It was really interesting to see the characters perform up close and then to get to ask a lot of questions about the characters.
8:00 pm: Leave for Traditional Carnival competition: This was a competition in Port of Spain with all of the traditional Carnival characters. We didn't stay for too long, but we got to see Dame Lorraines (including one who had come to do a presentation for us the week before), Baby Dolls, Clowns, and Moko Jumbies. The Moko Jumbies (guys on really tall stilts) were exciting because they had awesome costumes, and danced a lot, and they were the tallest Moko Jumbies I've seen so far.
11:30pm: Back at the lodge, sleep to prepare for Canboulay

2/11
3:15am: Leave for Canboulay south, in San Fernando: Canboulay is a re-enactment of the Canboulay riots of the 1880s. The British tried to outlaw Carnival, but the Africans rebelled because it was such an important part of their cultural expression. Part of our group was in the Governor's Ball, where they got to dance a variation of the waltz, pretending to be the British preparing to go crush the riot in the morning. The rest of us were members of Captain Baker's troops, who were supposed to quell the rebellion. We had to paint ourselves black (to fit in with the rest of the troops who were African, it's not offensive here like it would be in the U.S.), and then marched into a giant mob of people armed with sticks and fire, where we did a choreographed stick fight for about 30 seconds before we retreated. The re-enactment started at 5 am, and then we got food afterwards before heading back to Tunapuna, where some people still had class to go to. I didn't go to my mas class because I had only been able to sleep for 2 1/2 hours, but I found out later it had been canceled. I ended up sleeping for several hours, and then being lazy for the rest of the day.

2/12
4 am: Leave for Canboulay north, in Port of Spain: This re-enactment was exactly the same as the one in San Fernando, but we were better prepared for what was going to happen, and we were closer to the action so we could see what was going on better. The location for this re-enactment was on the actual location of the riots in Port of Spain, and it was cool to be there and realize that we were in a historical site. Downside to this re-enactment is the soldier next to me got a little overly enthusiastic with his stick fighting, and he kept hitting me in the head, which was painful. I was excited to retreat to get away from the end of his stick. We got back to the lodge earlier (around 7), so I was able to sleep for another few hours.
1:30 pm: Leave for Traditional Carnival parade in Port of Spain: Some of the members in our group joined a group of Candice's friends and played with the Blue Devils for the parade. We went later to watch the parade, and got to see them all painted in blue. The Blue Devils get completely covered in blue paint, and then get red food dye in their mouths which makes them drool, so they look like blood is coming out of their mouths, and they are supposed to scare the crowd to try to get donations of money. We also saw several other traditional Carnival characters, including one of the Midnight Robbers who had been at our lecture.
8 pm: Leave for Soca Monarch: An optional trip for us was to go to Soca Monarch. Soca Monarch is the biggest soca music competition in the world. All of the artists with the most popular soca songs get together and compete to see who was the best performance and song. (Maybe compare it to if the most popular musicians on the radio in the U.S. got together into one stadium to perform their songs, with extreme amounts of special effects, to compete to see which song is the best. There is absolutely nothing in the U.S. to compare it to.) There were two competitions, the Groovy Soca Monarch and the Power Soca Monarch, and it took place in the cricket stadium in Port of Spain. It was completely full, and the music was loud, and there were huge special effects (more fireworks). It was similar to the Chutney Soca Monarch, except with more people, more musicians, more effects, and more bars. It was fun for a while, but I didn't enjoy the music as much as I had enjoyed the Chutney Soca. We ended up not leaving until around 3 am, so we didn't get back to the lodge until around 3:30, and the people in our group who went were all falling asleep in the maxi on the ride back. But the song that won was Palance, which is the best dancing song and is a lot of fun.

2/13
9 am: Junior Parade of the Bands in Port of Spain: The Junior Parade of the Bands is the children's Carnival, so it if just junior bands parading through the streets. We saw lots of amazing costumes, and took lots of pictures. I especially enjoyed getting to see Rosalind Gabriel's band, since they are the band we play mas with, and they won the junior Carnival last year. It was fun to watch the parade, but at that point a lot of us were exhausted, and I was getting a headache from the sun and the music.
6:30 pm: Leave for Panorama Finals: We went to the Panorama Finals at the Savannah, where we got to sit in the stands this time to be able to see and hear the bands better. Panorama is the large steel pan band competition, where bands from all over the country perform to try to be the best band. There are different categories based on the size of the band, and the music is amazing. It's also fun to watch the performances because the players get really into their music, and dance around a lot, and really live up their moment of fame because for the performers there is no guarantee they will ever make it to the finals again, so they have a lot of fun. The bands were amazing to listen to, but there is a lot of down time between each band because it takes so long to move each band on and off the stage. Some of the group chose to go to Insomnia from Panorama, which is an all-night fete, but the rest of us left around midnight.

2/14
Sunday was a lazy day for me. I slept in, and then made brownies and watched a movie to celebrate Valentines Day by myself. I am getting so much better at lighting our gas oven now! I used up so many fewer matches making brownies this time than when Nina and I first made brownies in January.
4:30 pm: Leave for Dimanche Gras: Dimance Gras is a big culmination of the competitions of Carnival, and it takes place at the Savannah in Port of Spain. We got there really early so we could get good seats, and there was a calypso band playing some older calypso to entertain us. The first song had a Big Band sound, and it made me really want to swing dance, and then I got sad because I don't know anyone in Trinidad who swing dances. The show started around 6:30, with the national anthem played on the steel pan. The first competition was for Kings and Queens. Most mas bands have a King and Queen who compete to try to become the King and Queen of Carnival, and the winner is the one with the most elaborate costume. Most of the costumes are supported with wheels, and are around 25 feet high, and 20 feet wide and 15 feet deep, they are so amazing it's ridiculous. However, some of the performers support their costumes all by themselves, which is impressive because some of the costumes can weigh around 150 pounds. Unfortunately, the wind was really strong, and several of the costumes tipped over or collapsed, including my favorite ones, which was really sad. Thankfully all of the performers are ok, but they lose a lot of points for that. My two favorite costumes didn't do so well, though. My favorite one for Queens was a Dame Lorraine on stilts, and it was so amazing! I had no idea how she could walk like that. But then part of her skirt fell apart, so that was the end of that. My favorite for Kings was a huge dragon, and without wheels, it was incredible, and was the favorite to win, but then it tipped over in the wind and was destroyed.
The next event was a big performance, it wasn't a competition. It was a choreographed dance with amazing costumes, so there were dancing flowers and trees and clouds, and a huge puppet of a dancing girl, and a large multi-person caterpillar and snake. It was a great performance. After that was the Calypso Monarch, which is the big calypso competition, with 15 people performing their best song and trying to win the Calypso Monarch title. I don't like calypso too much, and we had already seen some of the songs when we went to the Kaiso House, so I was kind of bored for most of that. At the end of the night they announced the winners of Kings and Queens and the Calypso Monarch, and then performed a finale dance to Palance, so that song played over and over again for around 20 minutes, which was a little ridiculous.

2/15 Carnival Monday
9:30 am: Leave for Port of Spain to play mas with Rosalind Gabriel: We didn't get to participate in J'Ouvert this year, instead we played mas on Monday and Tuesday. Monday was kind of hectic because we didn't know what to expect, and Candice wasn't around for the first couple of hours to help us figure out what was going on. We played with Rosalind Gabriel, who's theme this year was "Love Your Country", so each section portrayed a different aspect of Trinidad and Tobago. We were the section representing the Chagaramas Sailors, and we had a choreographed dance planned, but our music/dj truck didn't know about it, so at the first judging point we just did whatever in front of the judges and felt ridiculous. Rosalind Gabriel was a medium band this year, and traveled with a music truck (a huge truck with even bigger speakers which was our music for Carnival), and truck holding all the extra costume pieces people didn't want to wear all day, only at the judging points, and an ambulance. It was interesting to have our own little caravan, and some of the other bands had way more vehicles traveling with them (some bands had traveling bars, and food trucks, and trucks with several port-a-potties to use along the parade route). We played mas for about five hours on Monday. When Candice finally joined us she straightened out the whole thing with our dance, so we performed it at the other two judging points. The whole day was hot and exhausting, but we got lots of free water to keep us hydrated. It was fun, but exhausting to be expected to dance in the streets for five hours. We finished earlier than anticipated, so we had to wait at the mas camp for our maxi for about an hour. The people at Rosalind Gabriel saw us sitting in the yard looking so tired they felt sorry for us, so they took us inside and fed us pelau, which was delicious! Their hospitality was so typical of how we have been treated all trip. The majority of the Trinis I have encountered on this trip have been so welcoming and friendly, and it was so nice of them to take us in and feed us, even when they had been playing mas with us all day too and were probably also tired. After we got back to the lodge I was asleep by 8:30 because I was so tired.

2/16 Carnival Tuesday
6:30 am: Leave for second day of playing mas in Port of Spain: Tuesday started early, we met the band at 7:30. We first met up with Mr. Fullerton and his Malik entourage (they travel everywhere together and know everyone: they performed at the Malik performance we went to, and were in Canboulay with us, and then played mas with us), where we got the flags we were supposed to have on Monday, and little wristbands (which I got a tan line from just from that one day) and hats which didn't fit anyone, so we didn't end up wearing them. Mr. Fullerton also gave us drinks and food, which is always nice to get. Tuesday was way more intense than Monday. There were a lot more bands, and more people, and as a result we were stuck waiting at the judging stages for a long time. At the last stage at the Savannah we were waiting to perform for probably around 3 hours. But the whole day was similar to Monday. Hot sun, lots of dancing (my feet and hips are so sore!), drinking lots and lots of water (I'm pretty sure I had the equivalent of 5 nalgenes of water on Tuesday). But it was a lot of fun! I wish we could have seen more of the other bands, but we are pretty isolated within our band, so we really only saw the bands in front of an behind us. The song Palance won the Road March easily (award for most popular song played on Carnival Monday and Tuesday) so we danced to that all day (it's still stuck in my head), but it's an awesome song to dance to. We performed our sailor dance with our new flags three times on Tuesday, and I think we kept getting better. By the time we finally got the last stage we had been trying to be energetic and had been dancing to Palance for so long that by the time we finished our dance, I was so tired and just walked down the road. I had absolutely no energy to try to dance down the road. Thankfully, we were finished then and went to Mr. Fullerton's office (Ministry of Culture) and got to sit, and eat food and wait for our maxi. We had to walk a little ways to our maxi, but it's way easier and less tiring to walk down the road than it is to chip down the road (chipping is a kind of rhythmic walking which we had been doing all day, so tiring!). We finally got back to the lodge around 7:30, and it felt so good to just take a shower, and then I sat down and watched the new episode of Lost, which was confusing as usual.

2/17
We went to Maracas Beach on Wednesday to just relax after the craziness of Carnival. It was so nice to just sit on the beach, and go in the water and play in the waves. The beach was really crowded, a lot more crowded than the other times we were at Maracas, but the waves were amazing. We also got a spot in the shade, and I remembered to keep putting on sunscreen so I didn't even get sunburned. Hannah and I split some pholourie after lunch, which was delicious. Definitely a relaxing day at the beach. The water made me feel less sore, but then I got stung by a little jellyfish which I couldn't even see. It didn't hurt too bad, but I got out of the water for a while after that. It was also interesting to note how soca music is not on the radio anymore. Soca was playing 24/7 from when we got here in January through Carnival, and then the music switches and soca isn't really played until next Carnival season. It was so weird to walk into Tunapuna and not hear soca anymore.

2/18
I had a make up class for my missed theology class on Carnival Tuesday, so I was up at Mt. St. Benedict for most of the day, finishing my homework and going to class. Two people were missing, so class was only 4 students, which is still taking some getting used to. It's really interesting though. Rosalind Gabriel placed 2nd for medium bands on Tuesday, so there was a party at the mas camp we went to. There was a buffet with delicious food, and they had decorated with some of the costumes from Carnival. It was interesting to get to talk to several people who were in our band. People kept asking us if we were coming back for Carnival next year, they really seemed to enjoy having us there.

Carnival was a lot of fun. It was really exhausting, but it was an experience I will never forget.