Welcome to my world of uninterrupted bacchanal! No, that’s not true. I’m actually writing this in the laundry room as I wait for my clothes to dry. Since the article last week, the first wave of Carnival madness has hit. The Saturday the paper came out happened to have been the Causeway Jump Up. If you haven’t heard, I’m pretty sure you live under a rock and I am very concerned for you, please go outside more. Besides the insane amount of press coverage it had, how could you not have noticed the stifling amount of traffic terrorizing the entire Dutch side of the island? In any case, because of my work assignments and the fun new tasks I gave myself, I was able to attend that night.
Having been very out of touch with public places, I set out to warm up my “humaning” skills the night before. There was a notice that pageant delegates would be having a meet and greet at Walter Plantz Square; so what better way to start than there? Heavily equipped with my newly purchased camera and a very socially anxious body, I drove myself to the event. It was a great icebreaker that I am actually a reporter, so it’s not weird that I creepily strolled up to people asking for pictures. I say “creepily” because I assume that’s how people think. I was able to meet with Anna Rabess-Richardson and some of the members of the Posh Productions team, because I write about things like queen shows and pageants and I really have no clue about what I’m saying. I kind of just say words and hope that the sequence is right. In addition to my having met “Posh,” I was invited to the events that led up to the culminating pageants.
I met with some of the queens and had a chance to really understand the processes that these ladies take and the gruelling behind-the-scenes madness. When the delegates showed up, they used the underground fountain thing as a catwalk and began introducing themselves. Some stumbled; some went through like champs but looked scared; and some did amazing jobs. It made me think, “Would I be able to put myself out there?” I can barely ask people for a picture much less display my personality and lack of poise to the world. They pulled out all the stops as the interviews ended and the water rose. Wait. Are they supposed to get wet? Are queens supposed to do that? Oh, ok, they’re doing it. They’re getting wet. When you think of pageants, you don’t exactly imagine them being able to get wet and ruin their look, but they did it! After the performance, they had to get dried and meet with the people. They changed clothes and makeup faces within one hour. The ladies did an amazing job, and I felt more at ease about this project. I was learning and it was only my first night!
I hit the ground running at the causeway jump up. That was not meant figuratively; I literally hit the ground running. I was standing on top of the stone barriers to get a good angle and when I was done, I jumped down. Misjudging the distance, I would have fallen flat on my face had I not started running. The entire night was spent trying to climb up on things to get better angles. This would have been an easy task if I were a more coordinated person; but thanks to gravity and my lack of grace, it was almost death defying. Jump-ups are essentially a very large workout for everyone during the carnival season. There was not much learning to be done, but I saw some of the guys in the band and I’m interested in talking to them for a future story. I’m also really glad I decided to get in shape for all of this, #30DaysAVegan is paying off. If you didn’t understand my plug, go read the Health & Beauty! But in all seriousness, my legs felt great and there was no painful recovery time.
I met a few Calypsonians, Fish da Mega Boss and Lil Blossom, only to find out that Calypso is derived from oration during the time of slavery. You can check out part of what I learned in the centre spread of this week’s Out & About. I was also able to take pictures of the pageant contestants getting seared by the sun during Sunday’s motorcade; those ladies are real troopers.
These two weeks are very slow for my activities, so there’s not much else to find out, but I hope you’re ready for how long my articles will be when everything really gets cracking. For more up-to-date pictures of what I’m doing during the week, check out my Instagram page @revelry360.
