A little over a month ago, I returned from a magical two week vacation/University business trip to the French West Indies or, the lower Antilles islands of the Caribbean, specifically Martinique and Guadeloupe. It all began during my French-Caribbean Literature class where we read a massive amount of work by poet and Négritude co-founder Aimé Césaire (The amount of Césaire literature we read in class made a LOT of sense when we got to Martinique, but that's to be revealed later). When spring broke, a group of wonderful students from AMEP (Association Martiniquaise d'Education Populaire) came to the States and visited Howard University where we hosted them for a day. We enjoyed them so much we decided to go visit them in Martinique and also try to establish an exchange program between Howard University and the Université des Antilles et de la Guyane (UAG). We put on our artillery uniforms and marched to the A Building at Howard University and asked for money to go. After weeks of follow up emails, phone calls and impromptu office visits, we managed to secure the funds for the trip.
Martinique.
This island may as well be known as "Aimé Césaire-land", there are pictures of this man EVERYWHERE! The airport is named after him AND we went to see a play based on a poem he wrote in an "Aimé Césaire" theater. He is definitely their hometown hero! Either way, the Martinican land, people and culture are beautiful and amazing. It was so intriguing to see brown skinned people and listen to them speak their native language of French. And, because Martinique and Guadeloupe (along with French Guyana) are territories of France, so was their lifestyle. Their food was like a mix of French and Louisiana Creole. For breakfast, we had baguettes with Nutella and hot chocolate. At my host family's house, I woke up to the sounds of fighting roosters, where I also find out those suckers crow all day, not just in the morning!) We slept under mosquito nets At Tati Marie- Élise's, a fabulous woman was awarded a prestigious Légion d’honneur (Legion of Honor) by France. Every get together (party, kid birthday, religious holiday) was celebrated with lots of people, delicious Kreyol food and rum. Lots and lots of RUM! In keeping his promise to always provide a good time, it was thanks to rum that we witnessed our upstanding professor get loose (and LOW) on the dance floor! We met lots of great people including many members of our Professor's family, University and high school students, authors, government officials and random people who heard speaking English and wanted to practice. We even learned some of their Antillean Kreyol. At the moment I can only recall "Mwen pa sa parle Kreyol" which means "I don't speak Kreyol" so there you have it...I'm a polyglot :o) My favorite Antillean food is definitely gonna be the "accras", a fritter. We firsts had "accras de morue" which is codfish fritter but THEN we had the overwhelming pleasure of running into "accras de crevette"... SHRIMP fritters! I ate so many fritters at the Francois house, I should have been helping with the dishes. And it didn't help that they also served a delectable thick yellow cale with a layer of banana jam between the cake and its crust. It. was. DELICIOUS. My mouth is watering just typing about it. (By the way, Dimitri if you're reading this, tell your mom my email inbox is still waiting for those recipes...whenever she's ready :o) Definitely, Martinique's best features are those of their origin. The "métissage" of Antillean (Caribbean) culture with the French is what makes Martinican culture so exciting.
Guadeloupe.
We spent a few days during the latter half of our trip in the neighboring island of Guadeloupe, also a French territory. My colleagues and I felt a little more at home here because (1) we had an entire apartment to ourselves, thanks to our professor's family and (2) Guadeloupean culture was a little more Caribbean than French so we all felt a little less like outsiders. We also met with the UAG students at the Guadeloupe campus where, among other things, I learned about a local treat called "bokit".
A "bokit" is a hot sandwich served on "agoulou", a warm chewy bread that LOOKS like a pita pocket. We found a little park near our apartment that had vendors, live music, and kids playing-- all at 11pm on a Sunday. Like we were warned, the line at the bokit stand was long and the types of bokit VARY! They had dozens of toppings but I played it safe and got one with steak, egg and chesse. It was DEE-licious and kinda reminded me of a breakfast sandwich. We also had lunch at a trendy little restaurant whose name I have NO IDEA of because there was no sign on the building. Just know that everything else was on. point. Food. Decor. Music selection...ON POINT!
We walked in this "hole in the wall" to find small but quaintly decorated white paradise bumping D'Angelo. Yes....D'ANGELO. A mixtape of live covers and songs from his albums. I was so pleased (Color Purple voice). When we saw/tasted our food, I was looking around for St. Peter. It was perfect! I ordered the stewed goat. Erica and Brandon ordered the tandoori chicken, of which Erica labeled "the best tandoori she'd ever had"and she's had her share of tandoori. Erica, the trip's resident picky eater (love you Erica!) even dubbed this the best meal of our entire trip. I was forced to oblige. I wish I had gotten a picture of the building or asked our waiter the name of the place. Everything was delightful.
Needless to say, I greatly enjoyed my trip to the Antilles. It was the best trip I've been on in my 22 years and I hope to be able to experience other countries this way. BUT I also think that Martinique and Guadeloupe will hold a special place in me forever. I've already settled on buying a home there some day. If you know or want to learn French, go visit! I think you'll enjoy it :o)
***À ma famille martiniquaise***
De nouveau, je crois que je suis vraiment Martiniquaise et à présent
j'attends avec impatience mon retour :o)
A la prochaine fois!
