Ash Wednesday

Today I went to the market with Dominique, my landlady, who's really more like a host mother than a landlady. She helped me pick out fish, some palika and some loubine, and showed me how to properly clean them. We also picked out some other stuff, which I'll get to later in the week when I finally get a chance to cook for myself (she's been making lunch all week), and by the time I get home from the internet café I'm too tired to cook. We did however pick up some ramboutan, pictured here. It's okay, but I won't buy it again. It's not that yummy.


After doing a bit more work, I went to town to view the last of Carnaval. On the way, Dominique's partner/boyfriend/companion saw me walking along the road and picked me up, saving me about 20 minutes. We talked, and I convinced him to speak to me in Creole, which was nice. I might ask him to be a consultant, that is, someone who I can ask detailed questions to about acceptable and unacceptable sentences.

He dropped me off in time to see the end of the Ash Wednesday parade. For Ash Wednesday, it's the day of mourning, so everyone dresses in black & white. Notably, I haven't seen a single ashen cross on anyone's head. If seeing a costume from Mars Attacks wasn't enough to make me realize that the holiday had been thoroughly secularized, this was it. Well, this and the fact that today was the first day that shops started to open again. The other thing about the Carnaval parades that I haven't yet mentioned is that they are not restricted to organized groups. Anyone can just tack themselves onto the parade. Ideally, they follow the theme of the parade, but not strictly always.