Steel Pan Band

After living here for a couple months I have settled in and become quite comfortable with the everyday work and visits to town. I’m pretty good at navigating the country, as well as the culture. I still find myself a little confused sometimes, but all in all I have made a home and life here.

Partly because of this, I am finding less to write about. Things seem more normal and the stories less worthy of telling. While we are still going on adventures and meeting new people, it’s all just life.

We have a very efficient group which means lots of time off and lots more vacation. This also means spending more money and doing less Portuguese and productive stuff but when is the next time I will be in Trinidad!?!?!

We went back to Tobago for almost a week, which was great. Got to see Dr. P again and stay at his place. Went SCUBA diving on a beautiful reef with some friends and saw all kinds of cool creatures. One highlight was Sunday School.

Sunday School, as described in the guidebook, is not for the pious. It is a big party on Sunday nights in a little town. It is basically what normally happens on Sunday nights around here but they gave it a name so they could attract and overcharge tourists. They did have a steel pan band and it was the first live one I have seen here (They don’t really play until after Christmas when people are really gearing up for carnival). It was made up of young musicians who were enjoying playing as much as we enjoyed listening.

We were traveling with a couple of locals, one of whom is a dance instructor, so we spent much of the evening learning to dance to calypso while the older sailboat tourists looked on. Some of the older, gentlemanly regulars could really cut a rug and would go around the circle looking for willing partners. Most would nervously shrug them off as they glanced at their significant others but we were all partner-less. I can best describe it as salsa with some swing but it is energetic with lots of twirls (which is always fun) and easy to do with a good lead. As it got later and the band finished up and blaring Soca ushered in a younger crowd.

My new friend Marta made this night what it was. She is a masters student from Spain who lived with us for a bit and came along to Tobago and other adventures as well. Long after everyone else had gotten board or gone to bed she and I were still dancing, laughing, and practicing my Spanish!