King & Queen Prelims and Blue Devils

Man, where do I even begin with these two events?! The King & Queen Prelims was on Thursday night and it was a competition where different mas camps makes a costume for a King and/or a Queen to compete in and represent their band and theme for the year. There were so many beautiful, shiny, huge costumes that walked the stage! We have been luck enough to stop by a few mas camps at the beginning of our trip to see the hard work that goes on behind the scenes to craft these costumes. It was amazing to see that these costumes were the outcome of hours and hours of sewing, gluing, stitching everything by hand! I mean, some of these costumes were 18 feet tall and 20 feet wide! They were beautiful! We not only got to watch them cross the stage for judging but we also got to go to the side of the stands where they put together the costumes and prepare to get on stage. We got to take some pictures with some of the costumes and meet a few of the competitors. It's so nice to see how passionate and competitive they are about this. It shows their appreciation of their culture and tradition.

On Friday morning we got up and ready for the Traditional Characters Parade. This parade showcases all the traditional characters of Carnival from the very beginning. There were so many groups of kids and adults dressed up in all types of characters like the Jab Jab, Dame Lorraine, Clowns, the Bookman, Moko Jumbie, Pierrot Grenade, and many more. Our group was part of the Blue Devils of Paramin. The Blue Devil is a mockery of the character that slave owners saw their slaves so when they get in character, they act as if they were devils begging for many, ruining homes, getting in your face and everything. Doing this was a big step out of my comfort zone but it was cool that we got to get all painted in blue and wear horns, we couldn't even recognize each other haha. We got some lessons a few days before the parade to learn how to be a Blue Devil and act like one. It was a little weird and embarrassing but those lessons definitely paid off because the rest of the group were pros at acting like one! Kids as young as 7 years old and guys in their 20's and 30's were chanting and dancing around with their pitchforks. I ended up getting $2 out of two women during the parade, shows that I did a good job! ;) And as kind of sad as it was seeing some little kids cry at the sight of us, it was very entertaining crawling up to them and feeding off their fear hahaha. The sun was sooooo hot throughout the day but they had people handing us water bottles which was real nice! I definitely wouldn't have survived the entire parade without all those waters I had haha. I am so happy I didn't back out of being a Blue Devil because this event only added to the list of all the fun things we've done here so far! As hard as it was to wash the paint off my body and clothes (all still in progress haha) it was totally worth it!