Where tha party at!?

Above all of the learning and growing that we've done, we have still found time to enjoy the Trinidadian night life. From beaches to clubs, to bars we all travel in a group and have crazy fun!

*A few of us at the beach as the sun went down. BEAUTIFUL*

*Our first night at club Zen*

*Bar hopping in Port of Spain*

*Foam party at club Zen*

*Our first night out at club 51 degrees*

Yellow girl is lovin' the night life here. Free drinks! Say waaaaaaaa

IRE-AIKU*IRE-AJE*IRE-ULE*IRE-ISEGUN

Four Blessings

IRE-AIKU: Long life, health

IRE-AJE: Wealth, prosperity

IRE-ULE: Growth/development, continuation

IRE-ISEGUN: Victory over all center forces

Yesterday we had a speaker come in to speak to us about Orishas and the Shangoh Baptist religion. The man that came in was named Efuwape (sp?) and he is also the son of an Orisha priest Ella Andall, who is very prominent over here in Trinidad. To sum up what he told us about Orishas and the Shango Baptist religion basically “Orisha” is not the religion, “Orishas” are different deities that represent a certain form of spirituality. For example, one might stand for strength while another Orisha stands for weakness and they all have names and purposes. So, when one who is a Shango Baptist prays, depending on the issue they are trying to defeat they call upon the Orisha that can assist them in that situation. After telling us some background about the Orishas Efuwape told us a personal story about how he found spirituality in the Orishas/Shango Baptist. He was in his 20’s (he didn't really specify his age) and was leaving a club in New York late at night and he was mistaken for someone else in the street and was taken into an alley way. 5 men surrounded him in this alley as he pleaded to them for his life and tried to explain he was not who they were looking for all the while they had a loaded gun shoved in his mouth. This whole time he was praying to god to save him, not really knowing if there was a god, as the trigger was pulled into his mouth, the gun didn’t go off! So the men just started to stab him all over continuously until he had no fight left in him and fell to the floor. With the little life he had, he heard a voice tell him to play dead, he listened, held his breath and pretended. The 5 men believed their work to be done and started to walk away, after holding his breath for so long he went into shock and started shaking. The men noticed, went back to him and broke a knife in the back of his neck. All the while, he was still alive! As soon as they left he thought he was definitely going to die, but the voice came back and told him to get up and run, RUN! Despite his weakness, and bloody body he got up and ran to stop a van which then took him to the hospital after about 20 minutes. So at this point he had been stabbed over 100 times in his head, half a knife in his neck and stab wounds all over his body. Once he got to the hospital he got stitched up and they realized he still had half a knife in the back of his head, so once they took it out he said made him pass out. 3 days after was his first experience with Orisha’s and spirituality, which he was reluctant to attend but did anyways. At this gathering/ feast (feast- celebration done every year to honor a certain Orisha and manifest that Orisha in the body of a human) he was touched by an Orisha which healed him of headaches he’s had all his life and at this time the human that was possessed told him the story of his near death experience. He was still reluctant to this new spirituality until the second time when an Orisha manifested in though the body of a famous Calypsonian which healed the wounds on his hands and told him the story of his experience again. Ever since then, he has devoted himself to this belief system. So, it was crazy to hear this story because this is something seen in movies and now I can say I’ve met someone who’s had one of these experiences! Not being a very spiritual or religious person this put the idea of spirituality, its wide ranged affects and the African retentions in this Trinidadian belief system. Once again I am inspired to find a belief system that I can fit into and relate to. I love the fact that all of the people we are meeting, tell us about the history as well as putting our own self to question as to values, beliefs, and identity. DOPE is all I can say, very happy I’m on this island!!!

Yellow girl is in a different mindset*

Maracas v. Las Cuevas

Today (Saturday) we had another free day and most of us decided to go to the beach. Usually we go to Maracas beach but today we decided to go to a beach a few minutes further than Maracas call Las Cuevas and it was well worth it!

The beach was so nice and so much fun! We got to see the sun set which was so beautiful on any beach! I have to say that although Maracas beach is really nice and tourist friendly Las Cuevas is prettier and a little more secluded! So I guess Las Cuevas takes the cake!

The sunset at Las Cuevas

Maracas Beach

What can I say? Yellowgirl loves the beach

To LOVE is to know.

Today was another really really great and enlightening day. We traveled to Port of Spain to visit a man named LeRoy Clarke, when I say "man" I should really say artist, poet and someone with enough wisdom to fill up the whole island of Trinidad. We went to his home which is called the "Legacy House" and he calls it a live in museum. Its a large house on a hill that is covered with all of his paintings and trinkets he's collected over his lifetime. When we first arrived he told us to make ourselves at home and take a look around. All of the walls contained large canvases of his paintings and some from other artists, but mostly his own.

He even let us look into his bedroom which was one of the most beautiful spaces I've ever seen! It's located on the corner of the house so its surrounded with windows and soo much natural light. Anyone could get inspired by sitting in that room, and just to think that's where he sleeps! So after we all take a walk or two around this EPIC home we sit down in a circle and begin talking. To make a really long story short LeRoy is an amazing poet/artist who's work is hanging up in museums around the world, he believes in Orishas and he is extremely spiritual. He spoke to us about his paintings and all of the journeys he went on with many of them. I guess one could say he is somewhat of an abstract artist. He talked about how in his 71 years of life, he's still on a journey and he separates his artistic life through Trinidad in three phases: The Douens, El Tucuche and the pyramid (or similar to the shape of the pyramid) each has significance to Trinidadian life and life in general. After long conversations about his Art, once again, the conversation about finding your self arose. LeRoy talked about our inner devils and in order to get rid of them we must face them and tell them to "FUCK OFF" and yes, he actually said fuck off. He touched on love, happiness and "the journey" a lot. I was mesmerized by the way he spoke and his use of language, I always say you can tell when you're talking to a writer because they have a way of captivating you. He spoke softly and had a Trinidadian accent but, I heard, listened, and understood every word he spoke. I began to think about my own life and what I'm put on this earth to do and to be. We often think about what the earth can do for me, instead of thinking what can I do for the Earth. Personally, I struggle with understanding who I am and what meaning my life has. I've been defined by so many people that I no longer know whether or not my definition of myself is my own. I've also learned to put up so many walls because I'm afraid if people see the real me that they may not like it or that I may not reach the standards I'm supposed to. So, now realizing that I have these walls up is the first step towards tearing them down, reaching my spirituality and my true character. Aside from my own revelations LeRoy introduced us to his protegee Muhammed, he's about 27 years old and is a poet and really really good at spoken word (he was one of the people that came in to show us about MAS). He recited in spoken word one of his love letters that he wrote to his girlfriend and when I say WOWZAAA I mean it! That poem was one of the best I've ever heard, so romantic, rebellious and structured soooo well! I really hope he reaches the goals he wants and I believe he will be just like LeRoy someday. The time came for us to leave but, LeRoy asked us to stay and have a glass of scotch with him, he hit on the ladies a little and told us about his past love endeavors as well. He said two things that I will never forget:
1. To love is to know.
2. "Age aint nuttin but a numba', girls wanna get their mind fucked": Meaning, once u get into her head sex no longer matters because she's already been captivated.

Some other LeRoy quotes that I enjoyed:

(From one of my group mates notes)

"I know my own loneliness, and it's expensive."

"I like war."

"I had the extra blessing of knowing I was blessed."

"My paintings are my paintings, but they are not my paintings."

"And you are going to make me beautiful if you read me."

"You must learn how to dance the language."

Best experience ever!

Yellowgirl is in awe!

Caribbean Culture.

Today Sunity came in and taught us about Caribbean culture and the history of Trinidad itself. Yes, it was a history lesson and yes, I do not like history but when Sunity's teaching it is never boring. It's as if she captivates you with her intelligence, she even taught me some things about Haiti that I'd never known. The second part of our day consisted of Ivan (our bus driver if I didn't already mention) taking us on a tour of Cuerep (the city in which we are staying). We got back fairly early so we walked to get some KFC, yes I said KFC! some people in the states said we had to try it and that it was wayyy better then the KFC we have. So, I tried it. anddddd its pretty much the same, I can say that I will not be back. So tonight we're gonna go out to club Zen in Port of spain it should be a lot of fun I'm hearing good stuff about this place. high hopes. But for now, we do have a quiz tomorrow so I'm gonna go study for that. 2 fingassss

Yellow Girl is tireeeddd and needs a nap

Rain fall, Calypso calls

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!

First Day of class

So it was the first day of class Monday, and the past four days we've been here it's hard to even believe we are here for research and to learn! Especially since the previous day we went to Maracas beach (to the left), sooo nice!! Getting into school mode was hard for me, but the course curriculum is so fun and interesting it doesn't even seem like school. Each of our academic days for the first two weeks are structured from 8:30am to 4:30pm with a break in between from 11:30 to 1:30. I know, sounds rigorous but it's not as bad as it seems. According to the schedule a lot of that time will be spent on tours and learning about the country. So, the first half of the day our two professors who birthed the Afro-Caribbean Music Research Project (ACMRP) talked to us about conducting research and a lot of the technical reasons as to why we are here and what we will be doing. The second half of the day was one of the most enlightening experiences I've ever had in my life. Sunity came in for the 1:30-4:30 session she started off with two activities having to due with the human nature, which basically explained that we have more similarities as humans than differences. She asked us if we've ever asked ourselves the question "who am I?" and I, much like my other group mates have asked ourselves that question many times, but have yet to find the answer. She taught us that life is about living and being happy, and if you are unhappy it's a waste of life. Although she was talking to everyone in the group I felt as though her words were aimed directly towards me. She said many of the same things I've heard before but how she said it and the context of which it was said touched me differently. I thank her for that experience and I took a lot away from it.... On another note! I've realized that my spending has been crazy and I've only been out here for 4-5 days! I need to BUDGET BUDGET BUDGET!

Yellowgirl is wondering how do I focus on school when in such a beautiful place!?