lovin' the lime

i have neglected for far too long now to talk about one central part of life for trinis: the almighty LIME. where to start...

the trini world pretty much revolves around liming, and this is a word you've got to know. Liming is... hanging out, relaxing, shooting the breeze, chatting with friends, having a drink, taking in the sights, playing chess outdoors on the promanade. at it's best, it's people enjoying the day, eachother's company and life in general. at it's worst it's mostly young men with time on their hands, avoiding work and getting into trouble (so i'm told). but mostly it seems to be the former and, man, trinis love their lime. this weekend i dove head-first into the biggest lime fest since i arrived.... rooftop terrace friday night, saturday hanging out and eating on picnic tables near the port, saturday night invited to karen's friend's place where the men made bbq and we sat around eating corn, feet up, enjoying the warmth of the late november night. sunday another afternoon at the beach after teaching... almost got swallowed up by monsterous waves - literally. this was scary! but in the end nothing could ruin the laid-back mood.

another thing i've not talked enough about is the food.
or have i? oh well. it's important enough for further mention and is very directly related to liming anyway. i'm probably gaining a million pounds with my newfound love of west indian food (a love which certainly did NOT take 8 weeks to establish... more like all of 8 seconds after arriving) ... this is my kind of grub. here's a list of things that i can't get enough of:

channa - chick peas (usually curried)

pelau - rice and peas dish

callalou - pureed okra and spinach

paw paw - papaya . usually eaten with lime juice squeezed over it

roti (of course)

macaroni pie

doubles - people are lined up and grouped around street vendors in the early morning to get these for breakfast - channa, cucumber and pepper sauce (if you can handle it) spread between two dumplings

"bus up shut" - sort of like an exploded roti. a big, dense roll of soft indian dough and side orders of pumpkin, channa, bodhi, curried mango etc. are scooped up by hand with it.

buljol - salted codfish (yummy on bread with chopped tomatos, avocado and onion)

poolouri - a bag of seasoned bread rolled into balls and dipped into a bag of tamarind sauce

provisions - plantan, sweet potato, 'fig' (cooked green banana)

mmmmmmm...... i'm getting hungry just writing about it.

on anthor note, i have recently been granted permission to drive the car around on my own after days feeling like a 16-year old with a driving teacher! i have to say i am quite skilled at remembering to stay on the lefthand side of the road and am not too bad at avoiding the potholes. one thing - don't tell karen - i have to improve at is remembering that there are speed bumps all over the place. i swear they leap up out of nowhere. i don't know... i think there's some weird connection between the number of potholes and the number of speedbumps.... hmmmm

hope you're all well!