Writing POC 101

Trinbagonian Characters - @wonderhayes

Hey guys! I've been considering doing this, but I wasn't completely sure until I saw other posts about Caribbean characters. Trinidad and Tobago are sister islands located at the end of the line of Caribbean islands and right near Venezuela.

I've never really seen anyone besides myself write about a character from Trinidad and Tobago, so I decided I would give you guys an little lesson on the basics. By the way, m name is Sumayyah and I'm from Trinidad. I'm of East-Indian descent and I'm a Muslim :)

PEOPLE

In Trinidad, there is a mix of people from all around the world. The main ethnicities are Indian and African. Once someone is born in the country, they're considered as either Indo-Trinidadian or Afro-Trinidadian. There are other races too, like Chinese, Syrian, European, Venezuelan, and Guyanese.Some people even have slight traces of Cuban. Also, people who are mixed are considered as 'Dougla' or simply mixed.

In Tobago, the majority of people are of African descent, but there are a number of other races as well. (I'm not from Tobago, forgive me)

(P.S. We don't use the grade system. You go to preschool, primary school, secondary school and then college or university. And, it goes from first year, second year, standard one-five and then forms one -five or six in secondary school)

HOLIDAYS/ FESTIVITIES

Trinidad is known for it's Carnival, which has been attended by Rihanna, Amber Rose and Blac Chyna (that's all I know of) Basically Carnival occurs after the period of fasting of Lent and it lasts for two days, Carnival Monday and Carnival Tuesday. During Carnival bascially masqueraders dress up in costumes and parade through the capital city.

Some other holidays

-Emancipation Day

-Indian Arrival Day

-Independence Day

-Republic Day

-Christmas

-Christmas Eve

-Eid-ul-Fitr

-Eid -ul- Adha

-Spiritual Shouter Baptist Liberation Day

-Divali

-Corpus Christi

-Boxing Day

RELIGION

The people here are mainly either Catholic, Hindu or Muslim. In some cases there are very very religious people, but not always. The older people are more religious, obviously, but there really isn't an issue with everyone living around each other. It's really just everyone living in unity. (Well sometimes at least)

LOOKS/ PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION

Not everyone from Trinidad and Tobago is thick like Nicki Minaj, okay? Okay so everyone is different. There's darkskin girls with wide hips. There's lightskin girls with skinny waists and there's Indian girls with cute tummies and such. Everyone is different, and no specific trait belongs to one race or one people. But, I can tell you for sure that Trinidadian and Tobagonian girls and boys are downright magical. There's no doubt about it.

FOOD

Well, we eat everything ahaha. From doubles (hard to explain but it's very popular and tastes like heaven) to KFC and McDonald's.Our food consists of the foods of the different cultures. So there's Creole type dishes, Indian dishes, Chinese dishes, even dishes that we have no idea where they're from. We love food, to be honest.

MUSIC

Fun fact, we listen to a boatload of different genres of music. Sure we listen to the mainstream pop on the radio, but at the same time we listen to our own music.(Another fun fact, the steel pan was invented in Trinidad)

Here are some types of music we listen to :

-Soca

-Kaiso

-Calypso

-Reggae

-Dancehall

-Rap/Hip Hop

-Rapso

-Chutney

-Parang

THINGS TO DO

Considering Tobago is a tourist hot spot, there's a lot of things you can do. There are a number of gorgeous beaches, forts, waterfalls, swamps, nature reserves and other things. There's the Buccoo Reef and the Nylon Pool in Tobago, along with The Mystery Tombstone. In Trinidad, the most popular tourist attraction is probably Maracas Beach which is famous for its Bake and Shark.

Also, in Trinidad there's the Caroni Swamp which lets you witness literally hundreds and hundreds of Scarlet Ibises, the national bird.

So basically our people are fairly well off and don't cause too much trouble. We celebrate together, share cultures and appreciate and respect each other. We're also very proud of where we come from, and generally we're good people I guess. We have our own weird political humor, among other weird things to poke fun at, and it's just a comfortable sort of living. Well, for me at least.

If you want an insight on how we actually speak, there's a local Youtuber by the name of Kriston KK who's really funny, and you'll get a taste of our humor also.

I hope this was useful!