Aba A Luke

The nos­tal­gia felt by Tri­nis who've mi­grat­ed to cities across the world, when Car­ni­val time comes around, is of­ten un­bear­able. The yearn­ing for that place where they know the breeze blows sweet­er, the free­dom ex­hil­a­rates and the com­pa­ny al­ways en­gages, sharply weighs on their every thought. Dai­ly, the Tri­ni-New York­ers plan. Those in Toron­to do much the same and even from the UK, the talk of home for Car­ni­val is all the rave.

In 2011, Car­ni­val on this is­land promis­es to be a true ex­pe­ri­ence. The stage has been re­built, com­plete with the North and Grand stands. There's even a Car­ni­val Vil­lage and the tra­di­tion­al In­ter­na­tion­al So­ca Monarch com­pe­ti­tion on Fan­tas­tic Fri­day will cer­tain­ly draw thou­sands this year as it has been quite a while since the big guns in so­ca have com­pet­ed all on one stage. Yes, Car­ni­val 2011 in T&T is turn­ing out to be quite a unique one.

'Ah com­ing fuh Car­ni­val'

Akia Valen­tine is com­ing home for the mas, the pan and the Tri­ni food she's craved for the past two years, since her last vis­it. Born and bred in Five Rivers, Trinidad, she mi­grat­ed to New York in pur­suit of ed­u­ca­tion­al eman­ci­pa­tion. Now, some ten years lat­er, she has ob­tained her Bach­e­lor's de­gree and has along the way, amassed a sig­nif­i­cant lev­el of ap­pre­ci­a­tion for home. "We have an open cul­ture and I love that. No mat­ter how long you live abroad, you can come home and blend in with the peo­ple. The free­dom is dif­fer­ent in Trinidad. The air is dif­fer­ent, the tem­per­a­ture, the ac­cent you hear as you touch down at the air­port, the scenery is dif­fer­ent," she said via tele­phone from New York, al­low­ing her mind to run away with the mem­o­ries of her last vis­it.

At the time of this in­ter­view, Valen­tine had been prepar­ing to de­part New York on Car­ni­val Wednes­day. "I am most ex­cit­ed about the car­ni­val at­mos­phere in gen­er­al," she high­light­ed, adding, "Car­ni­val is that time to have fun with every­one. It doesn't even mat­ter whether you know them or not." With Yu­ma Vibe on her mind, Valen­tine was sched­uled to ar­rive in the heat of the ac­tion. Cos­tumes for her­self and her friends had been or­dered and paid for on­line, months in ad­vance and fi­nal­ly, the time had come. She was com­ing home. "I have no fear of any­thing in T&T," she said, when asked whether she was skep­ti­cal of any­thing. "There's crime every­where, so the crime in Trinidad re­al­ly doesn't de­ter me. Peo­ple need to avoid mak­ing them­selves tar­gets," she ra­tio­nalised.

An un­ex­plain­able vibe

Ho­tels and guest­hous­es have re­port­ed high oc­cu­pan­cy rates as com­pared to C2K10. This in it­self as­sures that the in­flux will be high. Many who are al­ready here and those who are still to ar­rive, are Tri­ni-born im­mi­grants to oth­er coun­tries. They love home, de­spite their de­ci­sions to make oth­er places their bases. They come crav­ing corn soup, dou­bles, bake and shark, phoulouri and all the oth­er Tri­ni del­i­ca­cies, but more than any­thing else, they come home crav­ing the vibe. "I come for Car­ni­val every year," said New Jer­sey res­i­dent Shar­i­fa Tyrell who was born in the Unit­ed States. Her fam­i­ly is from St James and she ex­plained that Car­ni­val was a tra­di­tion. "Car­ni­val is re­al uni­ty. The to­geth­er­ness, the food and the fetes make it what it is," she said. Her flight was bound for Trinidad on Car­ni­val Thurs­day and she said in New Jer­sey, the buzz was all about the So­ca Monarch fi­nals. "Every­body's talk­ing about the So­ca Monarch. The com­pe­ti­tion is great!" she ex­claimed. Per­son­al­ly, she said she was root­ing for Fay Ann and Bun­ji but added that who­ev­er won, she would just be hap­py to be a part of the ex­pe­ri­ence.

A bit­ter­sweet feel­ing

Nicole God­dard is Tri­ni to the bone but she can't make it home for Car­ni­val. "I'm re­al­ly feel­ing it. This year, I think it's go­ing to be bet­ter than last year with Machel and De­stra back and Bun­ji and Fay Ann all do­ing their thing," she said. "I can't come be­cause I can't get the time off from work," she lament­ed. She, how­ev­er, cel­e­brat­ed with all mas­quer­aders, say­ing, "I'm so glad the stage is back." In the days ahead, they'll come like a swarm of bees ready to suck the nec­tar of this sweet fes­ti­val and we here at home will wel­come them. We know that no mat­ter what, we are all one peo­ple with one vibe-a car­ni­val vibe that'll live on for gen­er­a­tions to come. Have a safe and en­joy­able Car­ni­val!