Trinidad Update

Finally, time for a long update on the last couple of weeks. We got back from Tobago on January 17, and then had a week to get settled in at Tunapuna and UWI before classes started. We registered at UWI, which was a long process and took several days, and then had a short international students orientation at UWI. There aren't very many of us! We got a short tour of campus, which wasn't very good but at least I got to look around campus some, and figure out where my class is. I'm taking one class at UWI, Steel Pan History and Development, and one class at Mt. St. Benedict, Theology of Creation. Each class is about 3 hours once a week. I haven't had my steel pan class yet because no one else showed up for class last week. But my theology class is really interesting. Mt. St. Benedict is a monastery, seminary, and Roman Catholic church up on one of the mountains, and I'm taking my theology class at the seminary. My class is only 7 students, which is kind of nice. The focus is on the relationship between God, nature, and humans, and what the church's response to the environmental crisis should be. At our first class we watched An Inconvenient Truth, and we've been discussing all sorts of ecological problems, and discussing the church's views. I've read documents by some of the recent popes on what the Catholic Church should do in regards to our problems. It's been really interesting, and I know I will get a completely different perspective than I could ever get at home, because I'm being exposed to both the Catholic response to environmental problems, along with the Caribbean response to these same problems.

We've also had a lot of interesting cultural events. We've visited a lot of different mas camps and panyards, which are fascinating to look at for a little while. The costumes the mas camps are creating are so elaborate. Watching them make the costumes, it's hard to imagine what the streets of Port of Spain will look like on Carnival Monday and Tuesday. As part of the Caribbean Culture and Society class we've had lectures on rapso, soca, and calypso at the Caribbean Lodge, which have been interesting. We went to the Kaiso House on 1/23 to watch a calypso performance, which ended up being four hours long! Our lecturer, Chalkdust, was one of the biggest people performing there. Another highlight was going to see the Malik Folk Performers. There we got a small taste of many of the traditional dances of Trinidad and Tobago. There are different dances presenting some of the different influences on culture, including the French, African, and East Indian influences. Our group got to participate in some stickfighting and limbo, and some of the people got a great video of Barbara dancing!

Our dance class for Carnival started upon our return to Trinidad as well. We are playing mas as sailors, so we have a dance we have to learn to perform in front of apparently thousands of people in Port of Spain. We are also participating in a re-enactment of Canboulay (the 1881 riots against the British when they tried to ban Carnival), so we have to learn our part as soldiers. During a lot of our classes I just feel like an idiot trying to learn the moves, but apparently we're starting to look really good. We also got a tour of Port of Spain. It was the first time I'd seen much of the city, besides driving to the Kaiso House and mas camps at night. There are so many beautiful historic buildings and churches! The Financial District down by the water is also pretty. We stopped at the Botanical Gardens, where we learned all about many of the plants there, some of which are native to the Caribbean, but a lot are also native to India and Africa. The Governor's House is right next to the gardens, so we got to see the outside of that, as well as the Red House (their Parliament building).

We took our first trip to Maracas Beach on January 22. It was amazing! Probably the softest sand I have ever felt, long wide beach, swaying palm trees, the Northern Range surrounding the beach, and delicious bake and shark. While the water in Tobago was nicer for swimming, I don't think you can beat Maracas for the beach. You couldn't do much swimming because of the current and the waves, but the water was still nice. We will be making several trips back later this semester, which I am looking forward to. The beach was actually fairly empty when we were there, but I heard that it gets really crowded on weekends and after Carnival, which is when we're next going.

Last Saturday we went to the Chutney Soca Monarch in San Fernando. Chutney Soca Monarch is a big music competition for chutney soca music. It was amazing! The showiness of the performers was incredible to see. Everyone at the very least had background dancers with elaborate costumes, but some went completely over the top. There was a fireworks show at the beginning, mini fireworks ON STAGE while they were performing, and some big torch things, and lots of confetti, and one guy got rolled onto stage on a couch, and a different guy started riding a horse on stage. It was just amazing, and the music was fun too. Plus, my favorite performer of the night won, which was pretty cool (even though we didn't stay until the end). But some of the guys in the crowd were kind of creepy. Some of them just tried to dance with you, but would leave pretty easily. But there was one old guy who just stared at Nina for about an hour, even when all of us moved with her and were surrounding her. He was a creeper.

Then on Sunday we went to the Panorama Semi-Finals at the Savannah (big park) in Port of Spain. Panorama is the big steel pan band competition, and the bands are amazing. But, we got there at 1 pm, so it was ridiculously hot, and it was so loud it was hard to hear the bands. But it was a good experience, and when we go to the finals we will be in the stands where it will be a little less of a party and more focused on watching the bands and hearing the music.

The next two weeks are going to be pretty busy, leading up to Carnival. But everything should be fun, as long as I have the energy to really enjoy the experiences!