So my birthday was last Tuesday, as most of you know. I had class that afternoon, and I was a little bummed out because we had a lecture for Prof. Ramchand's class that night and since he didn't really fill us in on what it was (he just said it would be about the history of Carnival- Trinidad's biggest festival which takes place the two days before Ash Wednesday but is prepared for all year, and especially from Christmas on) I kind of assumed it would be kind of boring. However, as soon as we got there, people came out in costumes with music playing, tied bandannas around our foreheads, gave us some rum punch to 'loosen our spirits,' and escorted us inside in two teams to dance fight. We were with a group known as the Malick Folk Performers, and they proceeded to teach us about the history of Carnival, a Caribbean wide festival that is most famous in Trinidad, through song, dance, and costumes. They started from the very beginning, acting out the emancipation of the slaves, the French influence on Carnival, the traditional characters involved, and the modern day costumes. It was SO much fun! We got to stick fight, dance, play tamboo-bamboo (an instrument that used to be used in Carnival when drums were banned, it's like using a log to hit the floor and then hitting the log with something similar to a drumstick at the same time, to two different beats, which needless to say I was terrible at), see amazing Carnival costumes, and dance some more! It was probably the most fun I have had since being in Trinidad. The people were so friendly, and they didn't care whether or not we were good at whatever it was they had us do, they just wanted us to try it and have the experience of learning about Carnival in a way that is more true to the actual spirit of the festival. I have a bunch of pictures from this one. (PS- I steal most of these pictures from Kismeth and Christine because they are the ones who ALWAYS have their cameras, so thanks girls!)
The first picture is me wearing pieces of the costume from the guy who was acting out the Amerindian influence in early Trinidad.The second one is a well-known Carnival character, called the Blue Devil. He has fake blood dripping out of his mouth, a bottle of alcohol, and a torch. He puts some of the alcohol in his mouth, then spits it at the torch to make a huge fireball. During Carnival, huge bands of Blue Devils- tons of people all dressed up like this- parade around the streets. So scary. The other picture is him attacking me/giving me a lap dance, I'm not sure which. Either way it was absolutely terrifying, in case you can't tell my from my expression. I thought I was going to have a panic attack. My friends thought it was pretty funny. 
The next picture is me attempting to play the tamboo bamboo. I was not very good. The whole two different rhythms thing is not really my strong point. Actually, rhythm in general is not my strong point...
The woman in the pink is wearing a more modern Carnival costume. They involve a lot of bright
colors, a lot of of feathers, sparkles, and many of them are decorated bikinis now. They all involve a lot of detail and are really ornate.
colors, a lot of of feathers, sparkles, and many of them are decorated bikinis now. They all involve a lot of detail and are really ornate.The last picture is another traditional character in Carnival, known as the Pierrot Grenade. It is a type of poet who spells things out in rhymes. For example, she would tell a story about putting a chicken in a car, and getting the car to start, and she would end with "Ya put a chicken in de cah and de cah go, dat's the way ya spell CHICAGO!" She also did ones for New York, Japan, and Colgate University. It was really impressive.
So after we learned all about Carnival, we went back to Milner (our hall where we live). When I got there, the Colgate girls and a few of the Dartmouth kids had decorated my friend Laura's room and made me a cake (with those candles that relight themselves, I might add) and they totally surprised me. It was so sweet! They turned on music and we had cake and had a little dance party, it was really fun.
Also on Milner, they have this tradition of 'bouncing' (throwing buckets of water on) people when it's their birthday. So we had been keeping birthdays quiet, but then my friends thought it would be great to tell pretty much everyone on Milner, especially the boys on North Block (the building on Milner that's all guys, and they LOVE to bounce people) that it was my birthday. So I had kind of been hiding from them all day. I went downstairs to talk to one of my other friends, and all the Colgate girls thought that I had been kidnapped by the boys on North Block. So they went to North Block to try and rescue me, and then the boys wouldn't let them leave. I didn't realize what was going on so I just went to find them, and ended up being kidnapped too! So they took me outside and filled buckets of water, and then the boys gave the Colgate girls the water and told them to bounce me. But instead, the Colgate girls bounced the boys and a whole water fight was started. So we had a water fight for a long time and more people kept joining, and it was really fun. (Imagine, having a water fight at the end of September and not being cold at all!) However, we were using a pipe outside North Block for water, and somehow it broke! The water was shooting straight up in the air and it was really late at night and no one knew how to turn it off, so North Block ended up running out of water for the rest of the night and part of the next morning. We felt soooo bad! But it got fixed so it's okay.
Overall it was such a fun birthday, though I obviously missed everyone from home and 'Gate. Thanks so much to everyone who sent me cards, etc! I'll send you thank you notes eventually, I swear! But thank you Grammy and Grampy, and Grammy Sheila, and Aunt Dee and Uncle John, and Sissy, and Mama and Daddy, and Ally, and Hane, and Lea and Jessie and Cait! I really appreciate it, that was soooo nice of you!
I will hopefully write more soon, I still have to tell you all about going to the Eid-al-Fitre service, visiting Chaguanas (central Trinidad), and some of the political discussions in my classes, which are super interesting. Also, sorry about the formatting. I struggle with the pictures/text thing because it looks way different when I'm typing it up than it does when it actually appears on my blog. It's super stressful.
Love and miss you all!
xoxo
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