It's Carnival!
If you click on the following link and look between the red costumes, you can see the pattern of my costume.
http://www.mynottinghill.co.uk/nottinghilltv/gallery/carnival/carn-sun-2005_2.htm
The red and white costumes were in the same camp as I was.
That probably doesn't make too much sense, so I will do a quick explanation.
Carnival is a celebration done across the world. It is a chance for people to take the streets and say I am here. The Notting Hill carnival began when people from Trinidad and the West Indies came to Britain. No longer slaves, they could claim the streets. Many immigrants were brought to Britain to help rebuild after the war. Though, they were welcomed for their work, they were not welcomed into the community. It was much more difficult to find a place to live than find work. Carnival became a celebration for them to say I am here.
Over the years it has developed into a huge community event. The week prior there are calypso, steel band, and costume competitions. The Carnival yesterday was the end to the celebration, a parade throughout Notting Hill.
These parades often consists of different camps. These camps compete with each other for costumes, bands, and sound systems. Many of the students in our program worked with a camp called Mahogany. Mahogany is one of the most technically advanced of the camps with all the costumes supporting a theme- this year's theme was Stretch of the Imagination. The main costume competitions involve the costuming of the King and Queen. The rest of the performers support those costumes using the theme.
Because of my research I was unable to work with Mahogany throughout my stay, but yesterday when I got to the camp base, I did some last minute costume building- putting fiber glass rods into huge skirts. We had the opportunity to either 'play mas'- dance/perform in costume or be stewards- crowd control and aiding those in costume. I decided to play mas.
My costume was called Kaleidscope and I walked with many of the children. It was a long day. It's the combination of club dance party and parade. We walk behind a truck with a wall of speakers facing us. They told us before that we would have much more energy if we danced as opposed to walked. The costumes are designed to move. Many of them appear to have a circular ring of fabric around the waist, but they can expand to encase the entire person. Mine wasn't that exciting but it did have a large fiber glass hoop around the bottom and neck piece that I spun around my neck. I looked like the Queen of Hearts from Alice Wonderland and I also looked about 4 years old.
I feel like I gave you more of a lecture than a retelling of the day's events. The days events weren't terribly exciting. I got my costume, I danced, I walked, I stood, I danced some more and finally 12 hours after I left, I got home.
Now I enter on my last week of London. I'm not sure what I am going to do this afternoon. I may go to a park or a museum. Tonight we are seeing a show in Gilford which is a 40 minute train ride from London so I can't stray too far from Ramsay.
I hope all is well.