arima to tobago...

aite y'all, i'ma try to do the inverse of my last post - pictures in lieu of words. here goes:

remember antoinette's house in arima with the 13 family members living there? here it is, in a part of arima called "pinto;" according to the baby brother forde, it's the hood...

after getting hella bit up by mosquitoes at antoinette's, we went to tobago from tuesday-wednesday. tobago is the twin island of trinidad; much smaller, with more beaches, and far more reliance on the tourist economy. and yes, we saw our first white people in days once we got there. the first night in trinidad, we followed up on one of the queer contacts we got from mutual friends (shout out to marques!), and look what we turned up!

meet eswick, a quintessential queen who works for the tobago health department getting services to MSM's and commercial sex workers. even though homosexuality is illegal in T&T, there still is significant AIDS funding going to the queer community. which, by the way, was popping at the "corner bar," wher you can see me and p getting on each other's nerves, plus, p sharing deep thoughts about "noah's arc" with another gay boy, luke.

the next day, we went to this gorgeous beach - pigeon point. unfortunately, p doesn't really love the beach, but agreed to go with me anyway. it was nice to have company, but it didn't really feel like company - exhibit a:

i'm like dude - the beach is hella lonely! but, i tried to get over myself and had fun splashin around anyway:

tomorrow morning we are going to see the re-enactment of the canboulay riots that enslaved africans led against the british when they tried to outlaw Carnival in the 1800's, so i'll put up more pictures then.

i still love you, and can't wait to see you when i get back! i talked to a few of my students on ori's phone this week, and i was like, "damn, i wish i was at work." then, i looked up and saw this, and had a change of heart!