This is part II – Jouvert, the first event of Carnival, was last week.

By the time five o’clock rolled around, it was time to start getting ready for the Carnival Monday road march, which went through downtown Scarborough. I had a black and neon green mesh and spandex two-piece suit which I wore with Carnival-strength stockings my sister-in-law picked up for me.

Somehow, the thick stockings made me feel like I was decent even though I was walking around in a bathing suit with mesh panels.Our group was fairly small, perhaps twenty or so people, and my sister-in-law was with us this time. She was the person who organized the events before we arrived, and she is a great friend. I was so glad we could all go together.

There were glow sticks again, and a late start, again. Instead of standing around waiting, we took a walk down the hill into town from our meeting place. We got ourselves doubles, a local street food, and checked out the scene, then headed back up to the house where our group was leaving from.

The costumes we wore were designed by a local designer. Some people wore body suits in similar but different styles and colors, and others wore black t-shirts painted by art students at the local high school. All the costumes were designed to glow under black light, so in addition to having huge speakers strapped to our truck like we had that morning, we also had two huge black lights shining down on us, making us glow.We were glowing, we were a smaller group, and I was the only white person. I knew I looked good in my costume, but I felt a little conspicuous, and ended up putting on sunglasses even though it was dark, just so I could be a tiny bit more “invisible” (HA. The games we play).

It sort of helped. This time, we remembered our fancy earplugs, and it made a world of difference, because there were trucks everywhere blasting music at top volume. (I heard an ad on the radio that said “If the soca is too loud, YOU’RE too old.” And maybe that’s true. But MAYBE ALSO THE SOCA IS TOO LOUD.)

There were tons of different themed groups of different sizes, and it was fun to see the costumes. Our truck took us in a big loop, and like in the morning during Jouvert, our group leader fed us at the end of the route, corn soup again (but a completely different recipe and sooo good) and some kind of curry meat, which I skipped since I already had cheated and had bake and shark that morning.We were finished in a few hours and headed home to bed.