Yesterday's highlight

City Gate, Port-of-Spain
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Yesterday was not a great day, but Dandelion as usual lifted my spirits. In the evening I had my last class in the first phase of drumming. Rather than learn specific beats, I was shown techniques, as well as how to create moods and add textures, colours, tones and spaces. Even though drumming is an aural thing, I experienced the sessions visually. It's easier for me to understand things through images than through words (spoken or written).

E.g. there is a particular slap which I was not getting on the drum. Peter explained it to me as a whip-like motion of the hand on the skin, but also told me to envision this: "Imagine you are slapping your hand to catch a fly on the drum skin". That enabled me to get the slap and, with practice, I will really get it.

Yesterday he also made me close my eyes and every time he clapped his hand, I had to open them and there would be a new image before me. These images depicted either different moods or things. I had to spontaneously play what I was seeing before me. This was and interesting process. No time to think, just feel and respond.

Drumming really is like life. There are things I was learning in the class that I easily related back to life itself. Things like strength, purpose, follow-through, etc.

Basically, what I appreciated about this experience was not only its visual and creative approach, but the fact that it was not a matter of "This is how it is done, so do it this way." There was no formality and rigidity. I was given a structure and allowed to play and self-express within that structure. Once you know the proper techniques, the rest is up to you, the individual ... to just be you and express through the drum in whatever way you feel moved to. I now really understand how a drum can talk. It will take deep connection and practice.

Peter also told me that for all his years of drumming and instruction, I am by far the best learner he has ever come across and that I must keep at it. :)

Next week there'll be one more class where he'll teach me some traditional rhythms like Bele, stickfighting, Orisha, etc. After that I will seek other drummers and jam with them. Everyone will have their own way and their own 'tricks of the trade' to pass on.

Public Private Parts

One rarely, if ever, sees women in TT squatting openly in public spaces, by the roadside or against walls urinating. Is it that women have stronger and larger bladders and can therefore wait until they get to the nearest toilet? In the event that females are on the road (in a car) and have 'an emergency', they generally tend to stop at the side of the road and open both car doors (front and back) to shield them from public view. (I've seen this mainly on country drives, on the way to the beach, etc. where the likelihood of a toilet being around the corner is less). Either that or they go in a bush or behind a tree, where they can't be seen by everyone. At Carnival, most women (in absence of a toilet, bush or secluded spot), get their friends to form a circle around them, quite like a human toilet cubicle.

Men however (those who urinate in public) have no problem pulling out their 'penii' in full view of people on the road. Walls, bushes, sidewalks and trees are their main urinary targets. Don't they feel embarrassed about someone they know seeing them in action? Obviously not. In fact, maybe they like the display, because some of them don't even attempt to hide anything from pedestrians and drivers.

Hand-painted signs asking men 'not to pee' against public property are fairly common. One of my favourites is the grammatically incorrect: DO NOT URINE HERE.

What I found amusing about the sign in the featured photo is that it is just outside of a small snackette in St. Augustine. It looks as though the snackette owners are announcing to customers that there's no Urine available today. Sorry, folks. We've run out of stocks. Try again next week.

(P.S. Worse yet, it's painted over an old Lucozade sign ... also a yellow liquid!)