Study Abroad goes to Trinidad Carnival
by Prufer
While most of us were decorating, shopping and enjoying the traditional holiday festivities, 14 Coastal Carolina University students and two faculty members were watching preparations for Carnivale in Trinidad, playing and listening to calypso music and crashing a Hindu wedding ceremony.
The group had just returned to the area the night before classes resumed on Jan. 8, and spirits were still high from the Wintermester study abroad trip to the Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tabago. Students were able to get three credit hours for successfully taking World Music (MUS 207), Understanding Other Cultures (ANTH 102 ) and Independent Study (ANTH 399).
Gillian Richards-Greaves, assistant professor of anthropology, and Jesse Willis, assistant professor of music and director of percussion studies, accompanied the students, instructed them and gave them hands-on assignments.
“It was so heart-warming to watch them walk through the open markets asking the vendors the names of fruits, vegetables and other items, and frantically taking photos, jotting down notes on their phones, or purchasing some of the items,” said Richards-Greaves. “It was even more fascinating and humorous to observe their strategies for learning new words. When one student asked another, ‘Which one is correlli again?’ she pointed to a pile of correlli (bitter melon) and promptly replied, ‘The one that looks like cucumber with cancer.’ One student reminded another of what ‘bodi’ was by telling her it was the ‘long-as-hell string beans.’”
“The CCU Study Abroad Trip to Trinidad was amazing!” said Willis. On the trip, students took a course entitled Festival Music of the Caribbean. They learned about the history of the Caribbean and the way that music has played an integral role in the development of the culture.
“They got to experience how music intersects with daily life in Trinidad," said Willis. "The students were exposed to the rich and diverse culture of the island through study and firsthand experience with religion, politics, nature and much more. Everyone we met on the trip was so nice and interested in helping us learn more about their culture. The group experienced several authentic styles of Trinidadian music including calypso, soca, steelpan, parang, tassa and tambo bamboo.”
During the pre-carnival celebration, senior Emily Taylor from Andrews learned from a native how to “chip,” a cha-cha style of parade marching for the Carnivale, and “wine,” moving your hips in a winding motion, also for Carnivale. On a phone call on the way home, she shared some of her newly-acquired words with parents: “Do you know armadillos are called ‘tattoos’ in Trinidad? And they have ‘tree porcupines’ – they live in trees, that's why they call them tree porcupines.”
Taylor said the study abroad class “really helped to envelop me in the Trinny [Trinidad] culture and way of life. I’m a public health major, but I’m interested in global health, so I really received a new aspect on different cultures that I would need to be successful in global health. The trip was educational, interesting and fun! We went to a pre-Carnivale celebration on New Year’s, and later even had a famous Calypso artist come and sing for us at our hotel.”
Marine science major Jake Brine enjoyed learning about and hearing the festival music of Trinidad and Tobago, especially such things as soca and calypso.
“I was excited to learn more about the spiritual Baptist community that practices a form of syncretism similar to voodoo and Obeah; however, they were shy to our group so we only attended a more [traditional] Christian religious service. I would have liked to experience more of their faith, but I still got to learn so much about local forms of Hinduism and how the music of steel pan came to exist. We even attended private concerts of the national steel pan orchestra and a Calypsonian named Lord Relator, who were both quite talented!”
Megan Jackson, an anthropology major, decided to go on the trip for the field experience. “I wanted to learn more about ethnographic field work, and the Caribbean is a different kind of mixing pot than America, so it was an ideal starting point,” said Jackson. “Field experience is so vastly different than a classroom, and I'm grateful for the opportunity. Some highlights: We visited a Hindu temple, called the Temple in the Sea. We unexpectedly saw a Hindu wedding, and the guests and wedding party welcomed us, so I got to talk with a few people about the wedding and location.
“The music students on the trip got a taste for the Hindu music that was performed after the ceremony, too,” Jackson said. “The last day of our trip, Jan. 5, we visited the University of Trinidad and Tobago, and met a few local students and saw the National Steel Symphony Orchestra of Trinidad and Tobago. After having been to as many pan yards as we had and hearing the variety practiced for the Panorama music competition, the orchestra showed me how diverse the steel pan is. At one point, I thought I heard an organ, but nope, just pans.”
The group also went to the Dttatreya Hindu Temple and viewed the 85-foot tall statue of the Hindu god, Hanuman Murti. They saw one of the country’s architectural wonders, the Sri Dattratreya Yoga Centre, and strolled around the open market in Arima.
"During my time in the Caribbean, I feel as though my eyes were opened to a new view point as an anthropologist, said Rachel Whyte, a senior from Pittsburgh. “I have never traveled outside of the United States before, so for me this was an extremely exciting trip.” Whyte is double majoring in anthropology and geography and history.
"We attended many steel pan group practices and were even given a private performance by the National Steel Pan Orchestra," said Whyte. "We went to the beach, saw several Hindu temples and the National Museum. My favorite opportunity, however, had to have been when we met with several other students who attended the University of Trinidad and Tabago. Asking them questions and getting to know them was definitely an enriching experience. It opened my eyes to realize that there are people all over the world studying something similar to me, and that they are not much different from me and my friends. This experience is something that will deinitely change the way I look at the world and other countries," Whyte said.
Willis, Richards-Greaves and all the students were so enthused about the trip that there are hopes of repeating it next December.
“Our accommodations at the Xanadu Resort in Surrey Village were great, and the scenery we experienced throughout the trip was breathtaking,” said Willis. “I hope we can offer this fantastic opportunity to more of our CCU students in the future.”
