Well five friends: Currants, Ice, Curry, Tambran and Coconut walking dong Petit Valley Road ; when suddenly dey hear gun shots BODOW, BODOW, BODOW BOW! Well geez an ages!
Currants roll Ice scream Curry duck Tambran bawl and Coconut drop.
Ya gotta be a TRINI to understand this!!!!
Trini Breakup Letter A Trini US Marine stationed in Iraq recently received a 'Dear John' letter from his Trini girlfriend back in Brooklyn . It read as follows:
Dear Leroy, I cya continue we relationship nuh. De distance between we just too great. I ha tuh admit dat ah horn yuh twice since yuh gorn, and it eh fair tuh eeder ah we. Ah rell sorry. Yuh could return de picture ah me dat ah did send yuh? Love, Gwendolyn
The Marine, with hurt feelings, asked his fellow Marines for any snapshots they could spare of their girlfriends, sisters, ex-girlfriends, aunts, cousins, etc. In addition to the picture of Gwendolyn, Leroy included all the other pictures of the pretty girls he had collected from his buddies. There were 57 photos in that envelope...along with this note:
Dear Gwendolyn, Ah rell sorry, buh ah cya remember yuh nuh. Please pic out yuh picture from de pile and den send de rest back tuh me. Tanks! Take care, Leroy
No Nativity Scene in Port of Spain:
The Court has ruled that there can be no Nativity Scene in Port of Spain this Christmas Season. This isn't for any religious reason. They simply have not been able to find Three Wise Men in the Nation's capital. A search for a Virgin continues. There was no problem, however, finding enough Asses to fill the stable.
I cannot believe that I am saying this, but it sure does feel good to be back! I didn't realize how much I grew to love the kids and how much I missed them for those two weeks. Don't get me wrong...I enjoyed the break but I missed the kids. Teaching is like a contact sport. It is definitely not impersonal. There is no way that you can be amongst all these people and not become attached to them in some way. This morning, I got numerous hugs, handshakes and smiles. It warmed my heart on a cold morning like today. By the way, it's unnaturally cold for Florida...even at this time of the year. I just looked at the weather forecast and saw that tomorrow night it will be in the 30's (Fahrenheit). Here is why I like being back.... After I assigned the work for this morning, I entered into a conversation with one of my students. Here's how it started. A fellow teacher knows that I collect the figurines from the Red Rose tea boxes. She brings them to me and this morning, I got a Cupid and a christmas tree. I was placing them with the rest of collectibles when a student noticed. He told me that he as taken to collect historic monuments. I showed him the Taj that I had received from a friend and he asked me about the history of the building. After telling him about Shah Jahan and Mumtaz, I ended up telling him about how perfect the monument was. Then we digressed a little.... actually, we went a little back in time. The student remarked that it was really amazing how the people of the ancient cultures made buildings that were so precisely aligned and with such geometric accuracy. My little heart made a leap when I heard his comment and I thought to myself..."Here's a thinker!" I posed the question to him, "then it makes you wonder how primitive these people really were, huh? Student: "It scares me to think of that!" Me: "I guess it does, right? After all, we are taught to believe that we are more advanced than these people and yet, you wonder how the last stone got placed on the pyramids of Egypt, or how these people were able to fit such large bricks together without mortar (like in the Mayan and Inca pyramids) or how Stonehenge was built...and they are still standing today." At this point, everyone was looking up and wide-eyed. It is in these moments that I know the kids are getting so much more out of school because now they begin to think. We ended up talking about discoveries and modern inventions and the same kid told me, "when you think of all the great things that were discovered, you wonder what's left to discover. Like there really isn't much." Then I told him that this is where the discoveries/inventions are more on the microscopic scale rather than macroscopic. Like in the terms of medicine and technology rather than the automobile or the toothbrush, for example. In that way, we were able to bring the conversation into science again.
Today, we completed a 24 hour drive from Niagara Falls, NY to where we live in South Florida. On the way home, we took a four hour detour to drive more in-state NY to visit my cousin. He hasn't been well lately and as the winter draws on, he gets sick more frequently. There were two things I accomplished on the trip. I wanted to get away from the normal scenery for a little and I wanted to be able to see my cousin again. I was able to do both. Road trips are nice. Ami is good company. He was particularly animated on this trip and there were good conversations along the way. Needless to say, there was a lot of time to talk, sleep, wake up, and talk again. We drove out of sunny, South Florida weather, into subzero weather up at Niagara Falls. Like always, the falls were beautiful and this time, we remembered to bring our passports so we were able to drive into Canada on one of the days. In fact, that morning, I was awakened by a phone call from a rather distraught Furgie, telling me that Tiger baby had died. It bothered me because I remembered the trip back from Texas and how even though I had never met him, he found himself a comfortable seat on my lap for most of the way. In many ways, Tiggy, as Furgie affectionately called him, served his purpose and left when he knew Furgie was not at home (she was visiting my cousin in NY). Later on that day, Nan told me of a conversation she had with my mom when she got the news.
Mom: "Nan, we wake up this morning and we went to check on Tiggy and it look like if he dead." Furgie: "Ma, what yuh mean it look like he dead? he dead or he living?" Even in the most heartbreaking situations, Furgie will deliver a joke. I know my mom didn't know how else to tell Furgie though....
On New Year's Eve, there was a street party hosted by the Hard Rock Cafe and at the stroke of midnight, the hosts dropped a 10-foot gibson guitar. There was even a little count down like the one at Time Square and hopefully, one day, Ami and I would be able to say that we were there when the first guitar was dropped at the Falls. The Canadian side celebrated with fireworks at the falls at the stroke of midnight and on our side, after the guitar dropped, the fireworks went off from the top of a garage building for about five straight minutes. It gave me the impression that us Americans had to show off of a little to our Canadian neighbors when it came to partying. Even though we were freezing, Ami said that he would do this all over again because it was something you never experience by sitting down at home. I guess he has gotten used to my madness=0)
On New Year's day, we got to my cousin's house around 3:30pm. He had been sick all morning and when we got there, I went to his room and found him sitting up on his bed. He lost more weight...something I didn't think was humanly possible. I sat with him on his bed talking while we waited for Ami. We hadn't planned on staying more than an hour because we were considering the drive back home. However, we stayed for a little over two hours and everyone in the house made the very best of those two hours. I even ended up telling my cousin at one point that he was only a car ride away. Of course I went into the kitchen and found something to eat then Ami and i both ate. Afterward, I took Ami around to show him my cousin's house. I was very happy to see my cousin come out of the room and sit with us during the time we were there. His face became so happy and so much brighter! We were joking, he laughed a lot...actually, we were all laughing, we spoke of getting better, of better days and of the prospect of moving to Florida (he doesn't like the winter-time...never got used to it). I ended up taking pictures this time. He smiled in all of them and after, I showed him the pictures as well as the video of the falls and the new years countdown from the night before. At one point, I saw Ami looking at us and smiling. I was so happy there! When we were about to walk out the door, Ami noticed the keyboard and he played and sang a few quick songs for them. I watched my cousin's face take on a peaceful look as they did the same thing I always do...marvel at how easily Ami's fingers find the notes. Vim (Vimla) ended up telling him that he should have just sang and played instead of us doing anything else. On our ride back home, i thanked Ami for driving there and staying so long. He then told me that although he knew we were very close, he didn't realize that we were so comfortable with each other to the point of being like siblings and my aunt being just like my mom. He was telling me that I went into the kitchen as if it was our house and did whatever I wanted. He used the word comfortable and comfortable is exactly what it is. Sanjay's house has always been like my own. Ami even mentioned how nice it would be if he was that close to his cousins or if he had grown up with them. I will now address the issue of hope and that tiny flame that burns, even while flickering in the tempest of his sickness, it burns. Seeing my cousin gave me hope. I saw a person who is putting up a fight...and a strong one. He may be weak in body but his mind is strong. He has a strong will. While talking in the car on the way back, I told Ami of a conversation we had back in October when he was in the hospital. The doctor had told him that week that his cancer was terminal and nothing could really help him anymore. We were talking about the possibility of continuing his treatment and he told me that just because the doctor said the treatment wouldn't help doesn't mean he can't try it. I looked at him yesterday and even as he appeared so thin and frail, his eyes, the smile and the personality was all the same. His will is stronger than ever and I saw hope in that. In many ways, the visit showed me just what I needed to see. I drove for the greater part of the night while Ami slept so there was enough time to think. For the rest of the ride home, I was in the mood for light music...ghazals. The songs were on Ami's cell phone and i found myself holding the phone to my ear so as not to miss a word while Jagit and Chitra Singh work their individual magic...In fact, I hadn't realized that I was singing along with Chitra until Ami offered to teach me the ghazal later on in the trip. I asked him why and he said that he heard me singing it in the night and wondered if I had known it from before. I didn't.
While driving, I told myself that there is a harsh reality ahead of me and there is hope but what if that hope becomes reality? Before Ami fell asleep, he said that doctors only tell you what they believe to be true based on what they have seen but they cannot tell you that you are going to die because their profession is based on trial and error and thus, they are just as unsure. I was listening/singing along with Anup Jalota as he sang the Hanuman Chalisa and I realized that just as the sun was coming up and brightening the night sky, a light came on in the deep recesses of my mind, showing me the answer to my thoughts from the night. It was in those 40 verses written by Tulsidas so long ago.
