Village Reunion?!

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So Sharon told me last night that they were going to a village reunion way down in the south of Trinidad, and I could either come or stay home. Given the choice of sitting by myself all day or going I decided to give it a shot. Once again...didn't really know what I got myself into.

When I asked her how far away it was, she said very very far. Turns out it was at most 3 hours, but I suppose we drove the entire length of the country from north to south so in Trini terms I guess that's a pretty long road trip. So we got in the car and headed down to Cedros, a tiny fishing village and the southern tip of the country where apparently from some places if you stand on the beach it looks like there is just a river between you and Venezuela.

We picked up some family members along the way who were just waiting on the edge of the highway, and then made a stop at a rum shop at 10:30 in the morning. That's how it works here...but while we went in for snacks they ran into a friend who just so happened to be selling cell phones. So I gave him every penny I had and had myself a cell phone. Every penny being only about $30, so pretty cheap for a nice phone even if the purchase of it was a bit shady.

So we made it to the school where the village reunion was being held after honking at pretty much every person we saw in the village to say hello. Who knew whole villages had reunions? They put O'Quinn reunions to shame there were so many people. It was definitely an odd experience, because I don't think I could have been much more of an outsider. I was pretty much the odd white girl who sat there all day.

There was food and some performances and awards and they gave a whole new definition to open bar. Even young kids were drinking, which I thought was really strange. But apparantly the small villages are known for drinking all day every day. And lot's of liming, the local term for just hanging out. There was a family from California visiting a friend, so it was a relief that they were there and felt equally out of place. They echoed the same idea that they could barely understand anything anyone says, so we sort of stuck together. The big event that wrapped up the day that everyone was most excited about were the races. They were all different categories and events for 50 yard dashes. The first three places got prizes, and even though some of the prizes were just random trinkets, they were not messing around about winning them. I'm thinking this is what our reunions are missing, I can just see Grandma knocking everyone else out of the way for a piece of tupperware. I got a little scared of what would happen if for some fluke I won and took a prize away from them, so I just spectated. But someone thought it would be fun to have a foreigners race, so me and the family raced. Thankfully I have no proof of this ever happening, except for the stylish baseball cap and cd case I won while running barefoot and trying to stop my skirt from flying over my head.

I accomplished what I came for though, which was to find a wedding. Within the first 30 minutes of getting there some family member said they would be going to a Muslim wedding the next day that I could go to, so I suppose the day was a success. It was a full day event, so by the time I got home everyone went straight to bed...exhausted from the excitement I suppose.

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Photos

Worn out by all the excitement
What I felt like doing