a carnival story [or seven days without sleep makes one week]

scrapped.

i reread what i`d written about 5 times and i wasn`t at all happy with it. there was no way to tell the tale of that carnival without including all the sordid details.

carnival is an interesting time in trinidad. all the wining and the semi-naked bodies may seem sexual but up until fairly recently it wasn`t. a wine was a wine and at the end of the night you said your farewells and went on your way. it wasn`t assumed because someone wined with you that there was going to be sexual congress.

things have changed a great deal in the last six years, the behaviour is more lascivious and wanton. and that`s kind of scary, the innocence of carnival, per se, as with almost everything in day to day trini life seem to be drifting away.

i can`t say i`ve heard much of the music this year, so i`m in no position to judge. the thing i`m missing most about this carnival is j`ouvert. the official beginning of the two days of revelry.

i`ve been involved in various aspects of carnival, from building costumes to playing mas on the two days, to documenting the spectacle. i don`t miss the two days much but j`ouvert has an energy and feel to it that surmises the whole season for me.

in 2002, when i was working at the newspaper i was rostered to work carnival monday morning. i told them i would come in, but i was coming straight from j`ouvert. they thought i was joking.

i wasn`t, that`s been my condition every j`ouvert morning since 1993. the colours may have changed by not much else. i worked my shift then went home, had a shower and slept right through until tuesday.

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carnival, trinidad