we had to get up super early for our workshop. we hopped on a bus and headed to a local school. i wish i could tell you our teacher’s name but it was slick really difficult to figure out. if i tried to type what i heard.. it would probably look like “sdfjbskdfehgor eoeterbsdvk.” lol. so yeah.. i’ll just skip that. but she was really nice and really informative. it's my own fault for not getting her name down. she said it a couple of times and i was too afraid to ask her to repeat it again. our workshop was a music workshop! we learned some of the traditional tobagonians dances and songs that would be performed at the tobago heritage festival. my research project while here is to basically see how tobagonians perceive themselves to be linked to africa and how the heritage festival fits into that story. however, their traditions, so far, look a lot like connections to slavery and not necessarily africa to me. some of the funeral dances looked definitely african. besides the fact that many african societies would dance and try to celebrate someone’s death, the moves themselves looked african. however, a lot of the jigs and stuff we learned, displayed definite traces of its colonial past. most of the dances and songs we learned were going to be performed during the "moriah - old time wedding," which is a reenactment of the wedding rituals performed during slavery. the workshop was so much fun though. we learned a song or two... this one is done in "call-in-response" form (african tradition that you find a lot in american jazz, blues.. and in black churches)...
"billy gone a jail oh
billy gone a jail oh
billy gone a jail oh
billy gone a jail oh
what billy do make dem put him in jail oh?
me no know boy, me no know
what billy do make dem put him in jail oh?
me no know boy, me no know"
we also danced.
after all that dancing, we were so hot and tired. we went down the road for some cold drinks and waited for our bus to arrive. i was so hot and thirsty. i went ahead and spent some money and that was the best gatorade i've ever had. after the bus showed up, we went to "fort king george," an old fort built by the british. it offered great views of the island and some history on the area.
after the fort. we came back to hotel to chill for a while. shannon and i went to the really nice pool and splashed around for a few hours... and then.. IT WAS CHURCH'S CHICKEN TIME! guess who was at the register? the same chick from the day before who was basically a bitch to us. and she was a bitch this time too. just had a real attitude. and the church's chicken was definitely a slick sham.. because, shannon and i got the 10 piece with 5 sides. they didn't have okra on the menu but i'm thinking.. "family meal.. yes!, i want mashed potatoes, corn on the cob, biscuits, cole slaw, and one of these random other items... jalapeno poppers or something." the corn on the cob and random items were "add-ons"... not sides.. apparently.. and they didn't even have any more cole slaw. and and and... the sides weren't family sized styles i would expect from a family meal... no... they were individually sized sides. -_- they gave us 3 individually sized mashed potatoes and LITERALLY 2 biscuits. TWO. ... those little sides... and then we got 10 pieces of chicken. what kind of unbalanced offering is that? we got enough chicken to last for days and days but we been having to basically taste the sides... i been eating my biscuit in 1/4ths. lol. it's kind of a mess.
we ate and chilled out. i then we went liming. the walk was pretty far and when we got there, there was a cover charge of 40 TT$ (not a lot america.. but im broke in tobago... so........ that's a lot. lol). the club was called "the shade" and it was like an outdoor nightclub under a large gazebo. it was really awesome. of course, i had to get on the dance floor. no one was really dancing at first and i was afraid it was going to be like woodford cafe... however, after a while, everyone was dancing. and it became a situation of too many guys... not enough girls, and your scared to dance almost because guys are like stalking yah... if they see you moving to good to a song, here they come! but, we had a blast... and i'm starting to really like a lot of the caribbean songs. I LOVE TO LIME! that's all i can say...
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