Student Writing about Carnival in Trinidad

Author: Benjamin Voisine – Adelis

Location: Trinidad

The music, the costumes, the dancing and the food you could possibly eat. These things might have different significance for different people, but each of them will tell you that they mean one thing... party. And that’s what carnival was, a time for people to come together. Trinidad was a fantastic place and was made even more so by my carnival experience. Our first day we went to Kiddie Carnival. I’d never seen anything like it. Thousands of kids were chipping (rhythmic walk/ dance) down the street in incredibly colorful and elaborate costumes. I’m surprised anyone in Trinidad can hear at all; even at Kiddie Carnival, giant speaker trucks drove along the parade route blasting soca music at an earsplitting volume. At some points I was afraid I’d have a heart attack because the bass was rocking my entire body and beating rhythms into my chest. The adult carnival a few days later was like Kiddie Carnival on steroids. Everything was bigger, louder, and probably more elaborate. The music was a blast, but probably my favorite part of the day was in the morning when we order phoulourie from a street vendor. Phoulourie are deep fried balls of dough made from chickpea flour. WE ate them with manor and tamarind sauces. I’d say it was among the top ten best tasting things I’ve had in my life, which is saying something because I’ve had some fantastic food in my life. Overall it was a fantastic cultural experience and I hope to go back.

Author: Ben Hudyard

Location: Trinidad:

Music so loud you can feel the vibrations throughout your entire body. Masqueraders chipping and dancing down the streets in a huge parade, and trucks bouncing up and down the streets in a huge parade, and trucks bouncing up and down with entire steel bands playing wildly in back. Six or seven soca songs blasting loudly down every street, dancers giving you pieces of their bright elaborate costumes and pulling you up to dance. Moka jumbies running around and dancing on tall stilts. Vendors selling delicious local food and cold coconut milk strait from the coconut on every street corner. People dancing, having fun, and going crazy everywhere. Trinidad Carnival 2011.

Author: Will Burke

Location: Trinidad

My sight was blurred with the vibrant colors of mas camps going by, their neon feathers and sparkling makeup attributing to the already high quality of their costumes. The music trucks rolling past hindered my hearing, each one laden with more speakers and more decibels that some people experience in a lifetime. Their workers, lacking earplugs, must have already been deaf. The pounding in my chest was nothing short of rhythmic, causing my body to move in a steady chip. And with each step came a breath of warm, equatorial air. The smells came from all directions, staggering themselves in waves so that my curiosity and longing for food would remain somewhat checked. There were scents of pholourie, roti and doubles. There were even venders pedaling around ice cream and snow cones. Needless to say, there was something to be smelt for everyone in Port of Spain. As all this was going on around me, speaking would have been rendered useless and inaudible by the thunderous trucks spaced only one hundred yards apart blasting “walk, walk, walk, walk, walk”. The day spent at Carnival was momentous. I had never seen a group of people so inspire and enlightened by a cultural celebration. Everyone seemed to be in full, teeth revealing smiles that permeated to everyone around them. Throughout the whole event, I saw no looters steeling items, no suspicious figures lurking in alleyway, and everyone let go of their worries and had a good time. This is what the world needs more of: Happy people, good food, thunderous music and an understanding that when people are happy the world is a better place, a realization previously obscured to my eyes.