Kaiso and Steel Pan is the Culture of Trinidad

15 pans, 15 Americans, 1 week, 5 lessons, 1 groovy steel pan band. This week went by super fast and it was a lot of fun and a lot of work. We had steel pan lessons everyday for 3 hours with Mr. Harold Headley. We started slow with a couple scales and slowly worked our way up to knowing three little tunes. We each had to hold our own and help each other remember the parts and where the notes were. And we messed up a lot. But when it all came together, we rocked it. The sound of the steel pan is so beautiful and relaxing and versatile. We played a waltz, a bossa nova, and “Love Me Tender”, and we have heard the pan used for hip-hop, jazz, calypso, and Orisha songs. I’m so glad we got a chance to learn the national instrument and get involved in the rich culture of Trinidad. It was an awesome part of this whole experience.

Other than that, this week has been full of interviews, group meetings, planning, researching and writing. We have definitely had some progress but this project is a challenge for sure. We have our outline put together and have delegated parts of the paper and now we just need to organize and write. This weekend and next week we have some important interviews including two with Ella Andall the famous calypsonian and her son who is an Orisha drummer. It will be great to meet with them and get their take on calypso and the Orisha influences and African retentions. After that we pretty much have to pump out the paper and start planning our final project and preparing for Tobago. I can’t believe that it has already been almost four weeks and that we leave so soon. Interestingly, I am not too depressed to leave but I know that when I get home I will miss every last thing about this place. I guess I am mostly ready for this project to be finished since it has had its frustrations. I don’t want to make it seem that I haven’t enjoyed doing it though. I have learned so much and met so many cool people through this research and had some really valuable practice doing fieldwork. I know that we will all be satisfied when we have our end result after all the hard work.

All this week has been We Beat festival, a music festival in St. James, nearby. Last night we all went to vintage kaiso night which is like old school calypso. It was a long night but it was full of well-known loved performers from back in the day. Listening to calypso is like listening to the news or social commentary because it is very narrative and talks about what is or was going on in Trinidad and the world. It was entertaining, comedic, serious, and all to a good beat. There was also an eight year old boy who is the “Junior Monarch” of kaiso who rocked the concert and I was completely impressed.

Update on the dreads…they are looking good and I love them more everyday. I also love the reaction they get here instead of what I’m assuming I’ll be getting in the states. Not that anyone will really care but I also bought a cool wrap and it makes the dreads look even cooler. Woo!

Bang yuh drum!

So today we started steel pan lessons. How freakin cool is that? It was so much fun. We first got a history of the steel pan, the origin and the use and how it has evolved. It started after emancipation in 1884 when the slaves had been using drums to communicate and the British therefore banned the drum. When this happened, they started using bamboo and started bands called tamboo bamboo (tamboo comes from the French word for drum). When the British picked up on this and that it was being used for the same reasons, they banned the bamboo as well. So the slaves had to look for other ways to make music and found the drums used for oil and cut them to different lengths to make different tones and you end up with what we now know as the steel pan. We all got our drums, of different tones. There are tenors which usually have the melody and the highest pitches. Then there are guitar pans, bass, cello, and more. When we got the feel for where the notes all are located and proper instruction on how to hold and use the mallets, we got to start learning a tune. Putting it together piece by piece was so satisfying because each part and pan is so important and it sounded awesome when it was all put together. Tomorrow we go back for more. We’re gonna be pro by the end of this week.

Paradise

This weekend I found a piece of paradise at Las Cuevas Bay. We tried out a different beach a little further down the windy road along the coast. I was already in love with Maracas but this was even better. It is located in a cove that cuts into the mountainous green jungle, lined with glimmering palm trees and soft white sand. There weren’t that many people on the beach and those who were there played some football on the beach or frolicked in the huge waves. It was so chill and happy. I walked down the beach and after about 200 ft there were no people just the sand and waves and a beautiful view. Around the loop of the cove I found the caves and a mini cove that looked as if it could have been untouched by man. The sun shone through the leaves, the insects sounded like buzz saws, and the holes in the small cliffs gulped down the sea water. I sat there for awhile, thinking, taking it all in. I felt pure happiness to be taking in such beauty. I felt almost guilty. I wished I had my camera but I know there was no way I could have captured the ethereality of the light, the air, the sky, the mist. But I will remember it. (Photo credit: Michelle Bilodeau)

Dreadhead

So here’s an interesting news flash to those who didn’t know…I now have dreads. Everytime I look in the mirror I am kinda shocked. I just finished making them after a 3 day process of about 2 or 3 hours each, backcombing and palm rolling, and can’t believe I actually did it. Before this trip I never really considered giving myself dreads. I don’t know if it is because I see them so often here and I love them or if I feel like at this point in my life they might suit me, or maybe because I was sick of having unruly frizzy hair everyday in this heat. I guess a combination of all of those reasons brought me to watch a ton of youtube videos, ask for a lot of opinions, and finally take a comb to my hair. Whatever my reasoning, I guess it was the right decision since that’s the one I made. I also think it will be a fun experiment. Being in Trinidad, I half assumed that going into any hair salon or hair supply store might know something about dreadlocks or have some products, but every time I asked about it I got funny looks and crazy attitudes or just a blank stare. I guess that reaction could be for a variety of reasons, but it did get me thinking as to how this decision of a hairstyle will dictate my interactions with people from here on out. Will they judge me for my hairstyle either for good or bad? What about people who already know me, will they change their opinion of me? I’m not sure what will happen but I’ll keep you updated. So far so good. I have some nice bonding moments with the rastas walking down the street here when they nod and compliment my dreads or just say “rasta” as I walk by. I’m not rasta, but it’s still better than getting a “hey tourist” or kissing noises.

Make your life art

Trinidad is good for my soul. Every day I have an experience that I feel like will change me in some way.
The other night we all headed over to the creative arts center at the University of the West Indies for an event called Women of Calypso. It is a project that is headed by Americans who came to Trinidad and recruited three powerful women as their leads. It featured Singing Sandra, one of the top Calypsonians in Trinidad, Kizzie Ruiz, and Shereen Caesar who all had amazing voices and great stage presence. They sang Orisa chants, sang about slavery and emancipation, identity, gender issues, and covered some popular older calypso songs. The whole performance gave me goosebumps because I could feel their energy and emotion and I was so happy to be there experiencing their music and talent. At the end of the show we all got up to dance and reciprocate the energy.
The other day I had another moment where I felt so happy to be exactly where I was in that moment and again I felt like that was exactly where I was meant to be. As a group we made the trek to a hilly suburb of Port-of-Spain to meet with LeRoy Clarke, the “master artist” of Trinidad. We knew a little bit about his work and stature in Trinidad before we got there and I had heard from a Trini friend who is close to him that meeting him would be unlike anyone else I have ever met and that he is a force of nature. It was quite the introduction and I had no idea what was going to happen but I knew it would be a crazy experience for sure. And a crazy experience it was. LeRoy Clarke really is like no one I have ever met and I don’t think I’ll ever meet anyone like him. He talked to us for hours about life, society, knowing yourself, and letting all the “shit” in your life go. He was not only wise but he was sassy and a little bit vulgar. I enjoyed his perspective on things and the way that he voiced it to us. We passed the afternoon in his Legacy house full of his artwork and books and with a surreal view and there was a positive energy in the house coming from all of us who were touched in some way by his words. It felt so good to be welcomed into the home of such a talented and well-respected person and for him to share his works and some of his wisdom with us. I know that I took away a lot from his talk and his energy and I hope to one day be able to have such a view on life. (Photo Credit: http://latino.si.edu/rainbow/pages/Clarke.html, http://artsocietytt.org/clarkeL.htm)

Enlightenment

Ever since arriving and even before we got here, I have felt like this whole experience was meant to happen to me. The past couple of days have made me feel this way even more. The group of people I am here with, including the professors, and the people we have met so far are really great and there is such a great energy going on between all of us. I don’t know how things will unravel in our time here but I believe that no matter what, across whatever misunderstandings or issues that might come up, we will work through them and become closer by the end. Being in an unfamiliar setting with new people makes me more introspective in general which is something I think I really needed at this point in my life. So much happens at college and when I’m caught up in the fast pace of college and city life and its nice to slow down, step back, and be alone in a new environment to see how I react. It helps me get back in touch with myself and what really matters to me, as I talked a little bit about in a previous post. Being out in the jungle furthered that feeling and being on the beach yesterday was a cleansing experience and today we all went through what felt like some sort of enlightening or at least a spiritual experience in which we looked in upon ourselves.
Sunity Best, who I introduced as our program manager, is more like a resource, mentor, and teacher. She welcomed us into her home that day to cook with her and to open up to us about her life. Today, in class, she helped us open up to ourselves. We had a session called Feeling Human in which she talked to us about looking in on ourselves and asking the question, “Who am I?” and to find out that answer before you end up in a midlife crisis wondering why you made decisions that didn’t lead to your own happiness. She talked about identifying others as fellow human beings and focusing on our similarities instead of superficial differences and from there to turn the spotlight on yourself and find out who you are and what makes you different. She then talked about owning your decisions and owning your life, not living for other people. We all have voices in our heads telling us what we should do and what is right and we need to either listen to those voices and make them our own or find our voice in the crowd and follow it. One thing she said which I loved was, “A problem won’t kill you, it’s what makes life interesting. Give me a problem, I’ve never seen one I didn’t like.” And her point was that in life its not about what happens to you and hoping that bad things don’t happen to you because good and bad things happen to everyone. Its all about how you choose to deal with it. She also talked about how you should give yourself permission to happiness and to invest in your passions because if you follow your passions and make an investment in them, you will be happy and they will pay off. I can’t possibly write everything that she brought up and made us think about because it was overwhelming in its scope and depth, but it was a powerful experience. I felt like even though she was talking to the whole group, she was talking directly to me because everything hit so close to how I have been feeling recently. After talking about it with the whole group, everyone felt the same way and hearing people talk about their reactions and experiences that led to those reactions brought all of us closer. After her talk I have such a positive outlook on this trip and other experiences that will help me start to figure out the answer to Sunity’s question. And now let me ask you: Who are you?

Bake N' Shark

So this food phenomenon deserves its own blog post. Also featured on Andrew Zimmern’s Bizarre foods and recommended to me by every Trini I talk to, bake n’ shark was top of my list of foods to try. After today it is top of my list of foods ever. At Maracas Beach there is a place called Richard’s which is the best place to get the specialty apparently. Our driver, Ivan, drove Andrew Zimmern to the place for the tv show and we heard from others that it was the best place hands down. I’m one to trust the locals’ suggestions so we hit it up. I ordered one bake n’ shark and the man behind the counter sliced open a fresh roll, plopped two pieces of fried shark into the sandwich and handed it to me. To complete the sandwich, there was a whole table full of condiments and after observing those before me I realized it was typical to put a couple dollops of everything. Cilantro sauce, hot garlic sauce, ketchup, mustard, mayo, cucumber, lettuce, cabbage, tomato, hot sauce, mango sauce, and pineapple. Quite a combo, but let me tell you, it all comes together in a concoction of pure deliciousness. I now understand why this is always recommended and I plan on eating many more while I am here. YUM.
Here's the clip from Andrew Zimmern's Bizarre Food to give you a better idea: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zh9CWFcps1w