From: jasammer@eos.ncsu.edu (JOHN ASHLEY SAMMERSON)
Subject: RE: A write-up on Trinidad!
Originator: jasammer@c00365-247dan.eos.ncsu.edu
Reply-To: jasammer@eos.ncsu.edu (JOHN ASHLEY SAMMERSON)
Organization: North Carolina State University, Project Eos
Date: Fri, 9 Oct 1992 06:30:22 GMT



It's always interesting to get an outsiders perception of Trinidad.

> that I began to discover the hidden riches of this little-known cultural
> capital, this tropical Dublin.
                ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I didn't quite ketch what was being said here - why Dublin???

> You don't look at Trinidad, you listen to it; this is
> an island of poets and musicians.  Where the peanut vendor pulls a couple
> of verses of calypso out of his back pocket; where your taxi driver is a
> virtuoso of the steel drum, or pan where the percolating rhythms of ordinary
> daily speech will drive you to drink, or to dance.

I couldn't have said it better!

> Port of Spain isn't anything like what you imagine as the Caribbean,

Ah fine dis writer farse! :-)  For the caribbean "perception", there is
always Tobago...Tobago is a must fuh me dis Christmas holidays.
Dis writer had tuh be a woman...no mention of the beautiful women that
grace our presence. No wonder I find Port of Spain beautiful...I doh be
looking at no dam buildings walking dong de road. Yuh either looking to
see who yuh know or who yuh want to know.


> Tens of thousands of Trinidadians clog the capital for the
> festival, as do a sprinkling of foreign regulars (Mick Jagger is often
> spotted wearing satin tatting                     ^^^^^^^^^^^

Doh forget Kareem Abdul Jabber....always dong there fuh carnival.

> Culture comes alive: the steel-drum bands,
> hundreds strong, begin to practice for hours every night in vacant lots
> scattered throughout the city. The pan yards are open
> to everyone and are easy to find: you follow your ears, stay as long as
> you like.  Chances are you'll end up eating pepper-steamed boiled corn
> and drinking crisp Carib beer all night

Oh gosh!!! Well is now dey talking!!!

> There are African families in Port of Spain that have never known slavery.

Dis is news to me...

> Nowadays if a Trinidadian doesn't like you, he
> won't smile and pretend -- he'll cut you off with a "Go nuh!

How about "Haul yuh tail" or "Haul yuh arse", actually there are several
more potent flavours of "Haul yuh...."

> You make a friend here, and it's for real.  And the door to
> the country really does open.

Preach on!!!!

> The first time I came to Port of Spain, I ended up renting a room from an
> Indian family in a sprawling house in the bustling suburb of St. James
                                                     ^^^^^^
suburb???!!!! Since when St. James become a suburb? St. James is roti and 
rum shop haven...open all night!!!

> All day, chickens and goats traipsed nonchalantly through the courtyard,
> eventually to reappear in curry, wrapped in flat roti bread, on my plate
> that evening.

Say what yuh want, I like my GOAT ROTI!!!! First stop is Hott Shoppe!!!

> "So, you want to go to the _beach_?" asks Rudder, laughing at the word,
> because in Trinidad, nobody "goes to the beach."  You _bathe_.  This is
> an activity that most definitely does not involve large towels, Evian
> water, and assorted tubes of sunscreen.  Instead you hop in a car and
> drive twenty minutes from Port of Spain on a spectacularly heart-stopping
> two-lane road over a thickly forested mountain range to Maracas Bay,

Dat is right...yuh take a sea bath and yuh lime, yuh get some shark and bake
and yuh have yuh a stocked cooler tuh wash it dong. If yuh not confident
about yuh drivin' don't even think about driving to Maracas...

> Trinidadians have developed to a fine art and even have a special word
> for: macco.

Dat is "minding other people's business". Not to be confused with "tracking",
yuh know...instead of scoping out de masses, yuh scopin' out de assets....
Watch yuh mouth!...I didn't say dat!

> He points out the women passing by, notes the way they
> strut and bob their hips in private, sensuous rhythms that are
> quintessentially Trinidadian.  To "roll de bum bum" in Trinidad,
> rhapsodizes my friend, is to make a patriotic gesture.

A cultural manifesto if you like...

Ah Gone!


John S.
100% Trini
I'm in love with Betty-Lou
  She sister Mary say she love me too
Ah tell she tings doh work out so
  She say de next sister eh bound to know
                       Both of Them - Sparrow '92
-- 

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