Carnival!! It's not a day, it's a season

Before I explain anything about the Carnival festivities, it is important to understand all the terminology, otherwise nothing will make sense. First of all the different groups in a Carnival parade are called bands, within a band there are sections, each section has different costumes. Being in a section in a band and participating in the festivities is called jumping, so I jumped in Red Unlimited (the band), in the best section in the band, yes we actually won that award, Tempted to Touch.

Almost every village has their own Carnival, with a lot of t-shirt bands instead of super fancy costumes like the main Carnival festivities that I jumped in. If you wanted to/you were completely insane you could jump carnival for about 2 months straight, traveling around the island.

That would mean staying up all night to do Jouvert which is basically a street party that starts at 4am and goes till 7am, then going home bathing changing, and jumping day one of carnival, from 10/12-6pm, then you rest up, the crazy people party more, and jump again the next day. Needless to say I only jumped the one carnival this year.

Now for the main event with all the fancy costumes dancing along the highway in the capital there is a little more to it. I would say the Carnival Weekend starts Friday, with Sexy in Black concert in which everyone wears black and parties/hears local Soca artisits (the type of music played at Carnival) perform. For some of us, meaning me, I then got up Saturday morning went to a meeting, then went to coach my vaulters, which means I rested Saturday night, but a true reveler, the people that jump carnival, would have gone to the Calypso Monarch Finals Saturday night. Calypso is a type of music similar to reggae, but it has a message behind it, usually about the state of the nation, and fixing problems, the Monarch part literally means the years best or King of that type of music. Sunday is the inter-Caribbean Soca Monarch Finals concert, in which the top Soca artists in the region compete to see who wins in St. Lucia, it almost always a Lucian cause so much is based on how the crowd gets into the song. After that its to the pre-jouvert party put on by our band, then jouvert, then breakfast, we found a place wit $5 waffles and pancakes, which is unheard of here. Breakfast may have been my favorite party of the whole thing, I was with my 4 best friends on the island, we were all slap happy from being up for 24 hours, and half the people working in the restaurant were about to go jump carnival in a few hours.

After Breakfast it was time to get ready for the main event, no I didn't leave out going to sleep, we didn't. Instead we changed into our fancy carnival costumes, and went down to the highway to join our band for whining , dancing, on the streets for the next 6 hours by the time we actually caught up with our band a little late. The best part of day one is going past the judges, everyone is so amped and the best songs play, and the whole section just goes crazy when they pass the judges. At points it is almost as if the whole thing was choreographed because there is a specific dance to the song that played as we passed the judges and everyone did it together brilliantly. Right after the judges it started pouring rain, which was so nice cause it cools you off and everyone is dancing, singing, and being silly in the rain without a care about getting wet, which is not normal at all down here.

Then its time to rest up, so you are ready for day two. Day two everyone looks tired at the start, but after a few energy drinks, monster sponsored our band, every is starting to get going, and since we aren't being judged today and we don't have to conserve energy, and there is a less caring. For example when we walk through a round about/traffic circle the whole band runs around it in one direction, stops then runs around in the opposite direction, just silly fun really. By the end of the day tuesday, most peoples costumes have fallen apart between being rained on and dancing in the streets for over 12 hours, the costumes just weren't made to last.

Then you go home and sleep. It was an amazing experience for me and I'm so glad I did it, I'm not sure it would be as much fun for people who just come down for carnival because the best part is being care free with a bunch of friends, music you know, in an environment that is completely comfortable to you, and I only had that because I live here and nothing seemed strange or out of sorts to me. I could see how the entire 5 day weekend however could be rather overwhelming for people who don't know what they are getting themselves into. My friends and I agree though that we will have to do the DC Caribbean Carnival, especially if we are all studying in the US.

The photos are of me and friends I jumped with in our costumes, our section, our truck, every band has a truck that plays their music, the massive costume is our band's queen, pictures of breakfast/post jouvert and pre-jumping, and the ladies in red are the beginning of our band/the vip section.

Hope!

When I signed up for the peace corps, I'm not really sure what I expected. I know I decided being a Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV) was the perfect fit for my life, I'm addicted to travel and I want to save the world, but I don't think I really had any clue what to expect. I remember thinking about what it would like to not have electricity, but I have that. My fridge my be the size of a dorm fridge, and I only have 4 outlets in a two bedroom place, which would be crazy in the states. What, every room back home has four outlets with two plug spots in each one, so really eight, but at least I have electricity. Running water, well I think maybe I was hoping I wouldn't have that, I was soo excited about not bathing for a month, but that didn't happen. Sadly I shower more here than in the states, big disappointment, but boy is it necessary. Also I found that not having water just makes life miserable, but on the bright side I can bath in 0.5 liters of water if necessary.

I will say nothing is what I expected, which I guess is really what the peace corps is about, ask any volunteer, every day is a new adventure of patience, will power, laughter, tears, and some craziness. By every day I mean every hour for the most part. The biggest and I think most unexpected thing for me has been what I have come to view my role as a PCV as being. Its not really to be a teacher, coach, facilitator, organizer or any of the things I came in expecting. My most important job here by far is to bring hope.

In that way PCVs are sort of like missionaries, but we don't bring hope through the belief in some external power or a god, but we do try to convert people to try and believe in a better tomorrow through hard work and perseverance. Sometimes and probably the hardest conversion to make is getting people to believe in themselves.

I will never forget the time I told a group of children, they can do anything they want to as long as the work really hard at it, and one little boy maybe 7 or 8, looked up at me and said even me miss? It shocked me he was so young and had already given up hope. Its not just the kids that feel this way, the grown ups frequently don't believe in themselves either, they don't feel capable of taking on small tasks that they could easily accomplish because they think they can't. So frequently I hear the words I can't, and almost never do I hear I can. You could call it capacity building if you wish, but especially with youth I call it hope building.

Thankfully for me I am already seeing those changes. I've seen an 11 year old girl go from saying I can't do this miss every time I gave her math work, to sitting down doing it without a word, and being the first one done. I've seen little boys go from telling me they can't read to asking to borrow a book, and asking for harder work. Changing the I can'ts to the I cans is the biggest victory I can imagine in my peace corps service.

Some people criticize the Peace Corps for just going out in the world and promoting American values, which it does, thats actually part of our job to teach people about the USA, and its something I myself I have questioned. Does the United States really have the answers, should we really be guiding other nations and other people that come from such different backgrounds and cultures. I for sure believe that in a lot of instance Americans are the ones that have it wrong, a nation where people choose work over people, just doesn't seem to have their priorities right. One thing America can spread to the world and has been so good at is the concept of Hope.

It is the very basis of our foundation as a nation, a hope for a fairer future, granted at the time the fair and equal future was still for a select few, but that concept has stood strong. Some may disagree with me, but the more I travel, the more I learn about the world, the more I believe the US is really the place where opportunity is most available to everyone, and maybe thats what breeds hope. Or maybe its the general nature of our culture, a culture in which as a 5 year old I wanted to grow up to be the first woman to play professional baseball, all the while being a pilot and a rancher too. Nobody told me I was stupid or that it was impossible, instead I was told anything is possible, and I can do anything I want to do. Maybe that was just my America, maybe other people's America are filled with hopelessness and despair, but I like to believe that is what America has to offer to the world, hope for a brighter future, and as a Peace Corps volunteer I hope that is the message that I get to spread, converting people to believe in themselves, and in their own nations.

Up next my Carnival Experience....