Carnival - a (truly wonderful) Hot Trini Mess

My friend Garron (whom you may remember from our travels together during the summer of 2006 and my visit to Rwanda in December 2007) has been living in Trinidad for the last year and invited a bunch of us to join him there for their biggest celebration of the year - Carnival! I used to automatically think of Rio de Janeiro and maybe New Orleans in connection with mardi gras celebrations but, as I have recently learned, Trinidad plays host to the greatest carnival on earth every year and when they're not celebrating it they're reminiscing about last year or preparing for the next one.

One of the things that makes Trinidad's carnival so great is that you don't just go to watch - everyone participates. So, with a little help from friends in high places (thank you Miss Universe, Wendy Fitzwiliam) Garron and his friend Eva got all of us into a "band" and we prepared ourselves (mentally, if not physically) to "play bikini mas."

The Fetes

Leading up to Carnival there are lots of street parties in Port of Spain called fetes. Some are casual, some are elaborate and all-inclusive and some involve parading through the streets while being covered in mud and paint. Ridiculous but so. much. fun.

Sunny Side Up

In the wee hours on Sunday morning (starting at 4am) we attended Sunny Side Up - a huge street party on a blocked-off residential street with a bandstand at one end and food and drinks stalls everywhere - on the sidewalks and in people's yards. As the sun came up and it got hotter people just partied harder. Tickets to the party included all day drinks (including an Absolut martini bar, mimosas, and run and coconut water), food (doubles, roti, bake and shark) and entertainment (a live band, lots of dancing and foam and water hoses to cool us off when it got hot). SO much fun. We lasted until 10am but the party continued until at least noon. When do they sleep?

J'ouvert

J'ouvert (pronounced joo-vay) is a contraction of the French words "jour" (day) and "ouvert" (open) and means break of day - the party starts around 2am and lasts past dawn Monday morning. It is also called "dirty mas" because during this parade through the streets the participants cover themselves and each other in paint, mud and chocolate (if they tell you the paint is water soluble and that the chocolate doesn't stain, they're lying). We joined a j'ouvert band called the Red Ants at the last minute (as the band we were supposed to play with fell apart at the eleventh hour) and followed their soca music truck with the other dancing mud and paint-covered people through the streets until about 5am. At that point we decided to head home to clean ourselves up - a process that involved showering in pairs and much futile scrubbing. I still haven't gotten the last of the blue paint off my toenails.

The Main Event

Carnival Monday

A few hours later we were heading out again, this time in half of our carnival costume (just enough to be identified with a particular band and section but not enough to ruin your entire outfit before the main event on Tuesday) to meet up with our band for a practice march through Port of Spain. We walked and danced along with the music trucks and throngs of revelers for miles. We were very lucky with the weather - patchy clouds kept us from getting completely burned or passing out from heatstroke. It was a bit difficult to figure out where we were supposed to be and we had a hard time locating and then staying with our drinks cart. We had no luck finding the lunch truck either and eventually gave up and left the parade to buy a bake and shark. I think we all agreed that while it was a fun day out it was mostly just exhausting and a little frustrating because we were all unfamiliar with how the parade was supposed to work. We all slept very well on Monday night.

Carnival Tuesday - Mardi Gras!

On Tuesday morning we rose very early to get dressed for the main event - the big Pre-Lenten Carnival Parade. We put on our full costumes (not that there was much to them...) and topped the look off with false eyelashes, glitter, the works. We were supposed to meet our band at the starting point at 6:30am but by the time we finished dressing, took myriad group photos to commemorate the occasion and made the long walk into town it was 7:30am so we spent some time wandering through the streets looking for Harts. We finally found them lined up at the Savannah getting ready to go across the judging stage. We got there just in time to line up with the rest of our section, Babylonia. It was so exciting to finally be reunited with our group - all wearing exactly the same ridiculous costume - and the music truck which now included a live soca singer who was getting everyone pumped up and dancing in unison for the triumphant march across the stage. There were camera flashes and TV cameras and people watching from the stands as we crossed - it was such an exhilarating and adrenaline-fueled moment. So much fun! After Monday I have to admit I was a bit skeptical about putting all of the kit back on for the second day but with everyone in full costume and a super pumped crowd it was an entirely different and electric atmosphere on Tuesday. Even when a little rain shower broke through it didn't dampen the spirits of the bedazzled and wet-feathered masqueraders who just kept on laughing and dancing. We also successfully found the lunch truck this time and sat on the Savannah with our containers of rice and bbq chicken before we finally made our way back to where we were staying. It was an exhausting but thoroughly successful day and a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Ash Wednesday - Beach day

After all the non-stop action and excitement of carnival, everyone takes the narrow windy road across the mountains to Maracas Beach on Ash Wednesday to relax in the sun, eat bake and shark and see all their friends. The beach was beautiful and the water was refreshing. On either side of you the lush green mountains frame the postcard-perfect beach and provide a beautiful backdrop while the smattering of palm trees offer welcome shade. It was easy to forget in bustling downtown Port of Spain that we were on a beautiful tropical Caribbean island; Maracas was a welcome reminder and we all appreciated returning to the island pace of life after such a crazy few days playing mas.

A few things that made the Trini carnival experience so unique:

 •  SOCA MUSIC - Fast paced calypso-related dance music that was invented in Trinidad (steel pan music was also invented there) and blares from every music truck in the Carnival parade - it's completely addictive and fun to dance to.

 •  PARTICIPATION - As I mentioned, everyone gets into the carnival spirit and there is a high percentage of participation from the local population, Trinibagoans living abroad, and others (like me) who come along for the experience. People don't come to watch, they take part in the weeks of (almost nightly) parties (fetes) leading up to mardi gras and of course to march in the Carnival Monday and Tuesday parades.

 •  INCLUSIVITY - It's not just for Catholics, or spring-breakers for that matter. Trinidad has a very diverse population to begin with (40% African decent, 40% Indian decent, 20% European, Arab and Chinese decent) and all races, ages, religions and socio-economic groups participate in the carnival celebrations which just adds to the joyousness of the ocassion. Everyone from young teenagers to grandmothers plays bikini mas. If you can't afford to participate you can take out a special carnival loan from a local bank. No one is left out.

Trini Talk

 •  Relax yo-self! For true?! Serious! Pressure! - common Trini expressions.

 •  Wine - (v.) to dance with your hips, i.e. "Wine up on me! (keep workin' it, keep workin' it)"

 •  Lime

Because I promised...
Here I am in all my Babylonia-costumed glory. This is from the photo shoot we took at about 6am before we walked into town to meet up with the rest of our band.
- (v.) to hang out, loiter, i.e. "We liming in the Superpharm parking lot."

 •  Get on bad - (v.) to dance and jump with abandon at a fete.

 •  Slight pepper - (adj.) a little spicy. i.e. Q: "How would you like your doubles?" A: "Slight pepper please."

 •  Band - (n.) a large organized group that marches in the carnival parade together and is divided into sections, each having its own matching costumes. e.g. We marched with the band Harts and were in the section Babylonia.

 •  Mas - (n.) short for "masquerade", i.e. dressing up and participating in carnival.

 •  Bikini mas - (n.) the type of carnival costume that is popular currently, i.e. women wear a jeweled bikini and men wear either board shorts or speedos and everyone wears headdresses, feathered arm and leg bands, breastplates, etc.

 •  Traditional mas - (n.) more elaborate and themed parade costumes, often coordinated with matching parade floats. See my photos for some examples.

 •  Dirty mas - (n.) another term for the j'ouvert march which takes place the night/morning before Carnival Monday where everyone ends up covered in mud and paint.

Trini Treats

 •  Spicy mango and pineapple - slices of fruit marinated in spices

 •  Roti - Indian-style meat or veggie curry with pumpkin in a wrap

 •  Bake and shark - fried fish sandwich and so much more

 •  Doubles - little Indian-style spicy chick pea packages of love

 •  Channa - dried and spicy chick peas, good for snacking

Thank you Trinidad (and Garron, Eva and Andrew!) for hosting an inspirational (I was either inspired or completely delusional to wear that costume in public for close to 20 hours), entertaining and cultural carnival experience that I won't soon forget!

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