Trini is beating Africa

My 1/2 Trini, 1/2 African children are getting more and more Trini everyday. After 10 days in Trinidad for carnival this past February, Mischiefmaker#1 has perfected a few Trini habits, most notably his taste in music has wained from Baby Einstein to soca!

Now our conversations on the music selection in the SUV goes like this:

Mischiefmaker#1: mommy, I don't want to hear "wheels on the bus, play the 'mas' song."
Me: Er...the what?
Mischiefmaker#1: the mas song
Me: Boy, I don't know what you are talking about, how does it go?

Mischiefmaker#1: the one that goes like this, "jump up... we movin...we playin..jump..jumbeeee dat..."

Aaaaaahhh THE MAS SONG!

Now, it's just Machel...and "tack back"...and Jumbie...and...ah get a cold sweat...all the way to school...and back. Which I don't mind, because I love soca, but it sure looks funny to our stodgy neighbors as we're singing loudly at the top of our lungs rolling into our driveway.

And then Mischiefmaker#2, the boy can't hear a soca tune emitting from the next car and he's bopping his head and twisting his little body in his car seat. Hmmm. With me gravitating to Caribbean music, party, friends and lifestyle, I wonder if I'll be able to maintain their Africaness and make sure they are aware of African culture.

My parents would surely be jealous. It's not just that Mischiefmaker#2 is just 1 and has been to Trinidad twice already and 4 year old Mischiefmaker#1 has been there 4 times already. It's more so that they've never been to our native Sierra Leone, West Africa.

I gotta get these boys to come with me if I get to go to Africa again next year. This January's trip to Africa was work and business, but now that my parents are nearly done with their country home, I'm hoping next year to take the entire family with me to Sierra Leone.

Sierra Leone is very much like Trinidad in its climate, carefree relaxedness of the people, its politics, the seriousness of the natives over futbol...though in a moment of awe last month, I was shocked and amazed to learn that the oil rich Trinidad which has boasted a Miss World and Miss Universe and has hosted a MTV Real World "Gauntlet" series (here my American sensibilities show through) also had a stock exchange!! augh!!! Trinidad is soooo much less of a Third World country than Sierra Leone it's not even funny. I love Trinidad with all its flaws, I'm in love with the place and the people. Mischiefmaker#1 and #2 are in love with it too.

So...Mischiefmaker#1 will soon start Soccer (futbol) and hopefully will get to practice cricket using the cricket bat that his brother's godmother, Natasha bought for him in Trinidad...and they will become more and more Trini boys. Gotta sneak some Africa in there somehow, after we finish this last piece of Roti and get tired of the 2K& soca we brought home from Carnival! hahahahahaha!!