Day 2 of classes was another fulfilling/eyeopening experience. Firstly, it rained soo much today NON-STOP which brings true meaning to "rainy season"! A man named Winfred James came into our class to teach us about linguistics of Trinidad and Tobago. He taught us about the pronunciation of words and what different words mean as well. The second part of his lesson involved him showing us how we would say certain things in Trinidad's form of English. Seeing and hearing are two vital senses but seeing the actual language on paper was a great learning mechanism for me. The second part of the day, Sunity was supposed to come and speak to us again, but something came up so she couldn't make it (by the way, I love her!) so Prof. Brown and Price taught us their intended lesson plan for tomorrow. Price started us off with talking about assumption and how we should always ask before we assume. He then put on a DVD that looked like it was supposed to be a documentary on MAS or masquerade. There was a lot of info in it but it was very poorly done and looked unedited. After-wards Price asked us our take on it, and we told him that it wasn't a very good production. He let us talk and then told us it was fieldwork that was unedited and not the final product, and went on to say we shouldn't assume. And we were kind of like okayyyy well that seems like a trap, but in order to get our brains jogging/sprinting Price likes to give us riddles. The conversation soon turned into our feelings on blending into this new culture and how comfortable people felt in this situation. Now, coming from a place where me (a person of color) is normally the minority I was interested to see what everyone elses feelings were. Some talked about being completely comfortable, and others about not wanting to blend in and continue to be themselves. Most of the conversation I stayed out of, not because I was afraid or anything of that nature, but because I wanted to hear and really listen to responses and feelings. Race is always a sticky subject which is why I'm happy it was discussed, but I can only hope it doesn't change the group dynamic. Finally, at the end of the day we saw a performance called "Women of Calypso" this performance was breath taking to me because I always love to see empowered women doing things where normally only men reside.
The women of calypso *from left to right*(Shareene, Singing Sandra, Kissie)
There were three female Calypsonians that had their own stories on how they got into calypso and what it meant to them. From what I've learned so far calypso is a music form used to relay messages, mostly political and is prominent in places like Trinidad. Although the sound wasn't all that great the singers were great and performed really well. I really want to download some of the songs they sang! It seems like these days are going by so fast! Also, this was the first day we had really heavy rain! I'm happy because we arrived right after Trinidad had one of their biggest droughts in 40 years and rain was so helpful to them, but I personally hate the rain! hopefully it doesn't rain when we go to the beach.
Praising the women of calypso and hopes that one day I can captivate power as they have. Two thumbs up!
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