clear blue water... soft sand... little colorful beach umbrellas. it was like something from a postcard. along the right side of the beach, there was a line of boats. these boats have glass bottoms (so you could see the ocean floor) and took people out to the coral reefs. we waited a minute and then made our way on to one of the boats. we waited a while for more people to get on the boat and for the crew to get the boat ready to leave. while we waited, the boat was going up and down over the waves. i wasn't getting sick BUT i could see how if i had to do that for a long amount of time, i would get sick. so, i asked lavergne if she had anymore of that seasickness medicine just in case. all she had was pepto bismol. i took a swig of it and then we were off to the reefs.
i had to snorkel. and the only reason i had to do it was because i was in tobago... with the opportunity to do it. if i didn't do it, i'd be a complete loser. but me and water/swimming have a "checkered past". i almost drowned when i was really little in a pool. my mom had to dive in and rescue me out of the deep end of the pool where i had accidently jumped in. then, i remember my mom's family went to whitewaters water park... i was in the wave pool with all my cousins for about, i swear, 5 minutes... and my floating tube flipped over after a wave came and i took in a lot of water and ended up having to sit with my grandma for the rest of the day on the sidelines while everyone else had fun. and she wouldn't let me go back in. lame. i've never really been able to "swim".. i have my own technique which i like to call "staying alive." lol. and let's NOT forget my run-in with swimming in the ocean for the first time in south africa where i freaked out. i still feel bad about that (sorry jayden for almost drowning you). so... yeah..... i was super nervous but i knew i had to at least try.
the boat stopped at the main part of the buco reef. the crew let out a lifesaver with a roap attached and people slowly began to get off the boat at different spots along the rope. i waited until the very end because i wanted to be as close to the boat as possible. lol. when i got in, it was... okay. the water was warm and salty. i was close to the boat and holding on to the rope for dear life. this guy on the crew told me to close my mouth and look down in the water. IT WAS CRAZY. there were fish and coral right under neath me. brain coral is my favorite type of coral and it just so happened i was right above one. i looked down a couple of more times then i was like.... "okay... ready to get out of here." i lasted about 3-5 minutes in there. lol. i mean, it was cool and all... but #1, we had on these 1/2 a life vests that they had us wrap around our waists.. i'm thinking "this is not the correct way to wear these." lol. #2, they wanted me to go further out from the boat along the rope... and give the rope some slack. NO. lol #3 im in the middle of the ocean. #4 there are living things underneath my feet and i couldn't tell how far away they were. through the goggles and water, they looked so close that i was afraid i would touch one and i know the people who had jumped off the boat into the water had scraped some of the coral (which actually damages the coral). i'm not trying to touch any coral and i'm definitely not trying to touch any fish. #5 remember those "bake and sharks" i was eating at maracas beach? yeah... there are sharks in the water. #6 i looked at it a couple of times.... ok. i'm amazed... and now i'm over it and ready to get out of the water. and really, it all boils down to #7 i'm not confident enough in my swimming to really be out in the ocean.
the day before when i was in the pool, i realized that i hadn't gone swimming without my boyfriend since we had been together... so, excluding my freak out in south africa, for over 6 years, he has always been in the water with me. and he's an excellent swimmer.. he loves to swim. he wants to go as soon as it gets warm outside every year. and when he's there swimming with me, i know he's not going to let me get hurt. so, i'm more confident.. i'll go into the deep end. i'll try to do some laps. i'll try to keep up with him (which is impossible because he's 1/2 merman... lol). even before we were dating, i'm pretty sure he and arielle and random other friends were always there when i went swimming. but he's not here. and neither is anyone i can trust to actually care about my well being. so, was this the time to try to stunt in the water? not for me.
after i got out... all the crew members and some of the people from my trip were calling me a "chicken." which i thought was pretty messed up considering i actually did get in the water.. did look at the coral. i didn't do it for long but i did do it while others didn't do it at all. after being called a chicken, i decided to get back in... but i didn't stay for long (maybe another 5.. lol) because of all the reasons previously stated. the buco reef is amazing. you don't have to get in the water to know that... let alone stay in there for a long time. i was amazed.. and then i was ready to move on.
after everyone got back on the boat.. we went to an area they call a "pool in the middle of the ocean." in the middle of the ocean, there's this really turquoise, clear water and its only about 3 feet deep. it was absolutely gorgeous. and i enjoyed myself here. it was one of those "why does insignificant me get to see such beauty?" moments.
after the pool.. i went on top of the boat for some sun as we headed back to shore. the crew handed out some coca-cola and sprite and a handful of chips. it wasn't much but it hit the spot! when we got back to the "bed minus breakfast," there was just enough time to shower, eat, and dress for the old time wedding at the hertiage festival. we got there just as the procession was getting close. the old time wedding is a reenactment/performance of the weddings that were performed during slavery. i still find it quite interesting that in tobago, "heritage" seems to equate to slavery... i had hoped it would be some concrete african traditions but you really have to play "blue's clues" to find the connections.
as soon as they were about to begin the play, it started to rain. it was subtle at first, so many didn't move, but all of a sudden it started pouring and the wind came! i ran under the tent where the electronic sound system was (bad idea now that i think about it.. lol). the wind blew the rain right in on me.. so, 1/2 of me was dry and 1/2 of me was completely soaked and dirty. after the rain left, i grabbed a nice seat in front of the crowd, because the heritage festival is supposed to be a part of my research project. so, i was trying to get some good footage. i was getting so annoyed though for many reasons.... there was a lady sitting next to me just snorting and gulping back her snot... this is the second time this year i have found one of these snorting people.. JUST BLOW YOUR NOSE! eww.... even though i was soaking wet, i was okay with the rain. i did want one of the free umbrellas they were giving out though because the rain would come and go. when i went over to the booth, i saw the attendant give away 2 umbrellas to one person and then tell me she didn't have anymore. then later, i saw her give out some more. -_- ... it also seemed like people would just find my line of sight and stand directly in my way. no matter where i went. it made it hard to get footage of the events and i have a audio/visual portion of my research to do. i don't want to turn in some sloppy work. people would literally get to me and decide that that's where they wanted to stop....there were kids just sitting in the middle of the stage in my way. GET YO KIDS OFF THE DAMN STAGE! my momma woulda gave me a whooping if i was up there all laid out on the stage... every time i would get up to take a picture or video (i would have to get up when people kept standing in my way), someone would steal my seat! i'm like.. "YOU JUST SAW ME GET UP.. AND U SAW WHERE I WENT.. YOU SAW WHAT I WAS DOING.. AND YOU REALLY 'BOUT TO JUST SIT DOWN? FORREAL?" it happened at least three times. and i would have to go search for another seat. i was really frustrated. if it weren't for the play, i probably would have let it get to me.
but the play was really good and i really got into it. there were these two women, one of them the bride's mother and the other her friend, who were talking about their relationships. the mother of the bride's husband beat her and her daughter and didn't care about them at all. he was mean and left them. the other lady bossed her husband around but he loved her and loved to please her (and, she was given him that good loving.. [i'm so serious. lol]). she was big and loud and didn't take any mess. they were telling the story in flashbacks.. and when they got close to the present, the wedding, the mean husband shows up and says he heard his daughter was getting married. he's all remorseful and wants his family back. but, the lady is like "no.. you need to go! you don't have a family..." and the big bossy lady tries to help her, but she's like "naw.. mind ya business. i can handle it." so.. the story is laced with all these morals and lessons. it reminded me of "nollywood" films from nigeria and was really good. in between the story, there would be dancing that was done during the slavery weddings. some of them were ones we had learned the day before. remember "what billy do make dem put him in jail oh?"
i was still trying to capture moments of the play when lavergne and the rest of the crew were getting ready to go. i was slick amazed... cause i knew it wasn't over... we hadn't actually really seen the wedding yet as far as i could tell. lavergne said she'd never seen the entire thing before. so, apparently it goes on for a long time... but dang, i thought we would have stayed longer. it seemed like an hour and 1/2 went by and then it was time to go. the drive there seems like it took longer than we were actually there. i wasn't even able to get a lot of footage. and also, like... they know my research project is the tobago heritage festival... the festival has events going on for a couple of weeks. we were on the island for 3 days and only did 1 event (even though our schedules say "cultural event" during the night time slots on some of the days.. and they had us write in "pageant/play" under one night, and we didn't do that either) AND we didn't even stay that long at the one we actually went to. it's kind of fucked up because my paper is really not going to have the observational evidence that it needs to be successful. i kind of feel like i got screwed over. the social coordinators are supposed to help us get those kinds of things together... gimme a calendar of events.. suggest ones for me to go to... organize some travel for me... drop me off at the tobago library... at least let me stay long at the one we're at. i mean really.. damn? i'm going to have to contact a few of our lecturers who are from tobago to get some information.. and even then, i feel like it still won't be good enough. i don't like turning in sloppy work especially because it's the director of my program who is going to be grading these.
we i got back with the group, they were complaining about... i really don't know.. i guess the whole event. and they didn't know what the play was about. so, i'm sure that's at least a part of the reason why we left. because, if everyone was openly having a great time, we would have stayed longer. anyways, we went back to the rooms, chilled, and went to sleep. if you're wondering what i've been eating, it was that church's chicken! lol. the sides taste the same as they do in america but the chicken is not as greasy and is a little spicy. it's good. i'm still mad about those baby-sized sides though.
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