EMANCIPENDENCE

No matter where you are, you can identify a celebration no matter where you are. The telltale signs are the same the world over: music, food, dance, and a large number of people. Dancing isn't always required and never does everyone participate, but when all of these factors are there is is a celebration. When only two items are involved you probably stumbled upon a party. You may not want to know what you are eating, understand what you are hearing, or able to communicate with any of the people, but you know that you should be having fun.

When you are a Peace Corps Trainee, they take away the food and the large number of people (I'm pretty sure it is a cost savings measure), put it at the beginning of a day of training, don't give you the holiday off, and tell you it is a celebration. That being said, it was still fun. Early August is a good time to be in Jamaica. August 1 is Emancipation Day and August 6 is Independence Day. To celebrate (and use it as a devious ploy to teach us about Jamaican history and culture), we celebrated Emancipendence Day on August 1. Our festivities only included the music and dance (along with a very nice play in the middle). I volunteered to sing and then was told that to sing I also had to dance. Carrie joined me in the song/dance troop and we did enjoy ourselves as we learned some Jamaican dances and songs. Some people took pictures and when I get some I will post them. Luckily I don't think anyone has any video or audio.