So. Exciting thing #1- On Thursday the 18th, we went to Professor Ramchand's office for class to see a Parang band. Parang is a type of music in Trinidad, based in Spanish culture but it has come to include Indian and African aspects as well and the bands traditionally travel around to sing at different houses, though now there are Parang competitions too. (Here's a link to the wikipedia article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parang.) A man named John Cupid was there to talk to us as well. I had a hard time following what he was saying but the impression I get is that he's a pretty important guy who knows almost everything there is to know about the history of Trinidad, which made him being there pretty neat in and of itself. It's kind of weird because I wouldn't really be that excited about someone who knew a lot about the US, but I feel like in my mind that's because the US lacks anything resembling one cohesive culture. Trinidad is a mixture of many different cultures as well, but there is still something about it that is distinctly Trini- it has music, festivals, dance, food, etc. and the combination of African and Indian, along with Spanish and Indigenous and various other peoples, creates something incredibly unique.
Anyways, the Parang was super cool. They sang in Spanish and even though I tried really hard to understand what they were saying, I only caught a few words here and there. It was really neat for one of the girls in our group, Kismeth, because her family is from the Dominican Republic and she said that a lot of songs they were singing were by a famous singer from the DR. The singers translated the general ideas of each song, though, so that was really helpful. The whole thing was really informative and very fun. The thing that struck me the most was how much the people performing were enjoying themselves. Everyone looked so happy, like they were having so much fun! If one of the dancers messed up a bit, they just teased each other and laughed and continued and it totally wasn't a big deal. People just kept walking into the room and joining the band, there were even two little kids playing as well. I can just imagine a whole houseful of people singing and dancing and laughing. Plus the music is beautiful and the outfits are lovely. They had us dance with them a little bit, and even though I can't dance at all I had a great time trying. The people were so kind and again, they just seemed so content with what they were doing. I think that is one of the things that strikes me most about Trinidad so far. People seem to be so kind and helpful and positive for the most part, regardless of circumstances. I don't think I've ever met so many fun, happy people in my life. I'm so used to people at school or on the streets in the US being tense and stressed and in a rush with something to do or somewhere to be or some drama. It's a nice change to see people who are just taking their time and being happy.
So then the next Tuesday we had class with Merle Hodge, who is a professor at UWI and also a famous Caribbean author. We read a book by her for Ramchand's class. The book is called Crick Crack, Monkey and it's the story of a young girl growing up in Trinidad. It has a lot to do with the effects of colonialism and the dynamics of race in the Caribbean. She wrote the book when she was pretty young, in her early 20s while she was at university. It was really interesting to actually be able to talk with a famous author about one of her books and see her perspective on what she had written, especially after so much time had passed. There were some things we saw in the book that she hadn't really been consciously aware of putting in there.
Then the next day, Wednesday, was a holiday- Republic Day- so we went to Maracas Bay, a really pretty beach about half an hour away by maxi (which is basically a van taxi- we have our own driver for when we go on class trips). Maracas Bay is the nearest beach to UWI. We left around 7:30 a.m., so we got there around 8 and stayed until 12. We couldn't have handled it much longer because the sun is just so hot, we were all getting tired and sunburned. Plus it started to get more crowded around then since it was a holiday. We ended up leaving just as it started raining. It was such a blast, though we did get attacked by sand flies and that was not so fun- a bunch of us had bites the next morning. Overall though, it was really nice to be able to have a day off and spend it at the beach.
To the left is a view we had of Maracas Bay on the way there. If you looked to left from where we were standing, you could just barely make out Tobago on the horizon.
To the right is a picture of the beach at Maracas Bay.
Okay I'm going to write more in another entry in an hour or so, since I should probably do some homework. Then I can tell you all about my birthday!
Love and miss you all!
xoxo
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