Twenty-five students of the Princes Town RC School participated in a NCC-sponsored workshop on traditional Carnival. The theme of the workshop was Pierrot Grenade .

The participants in this workshop were between the ages of seven and eleven years of age. The workshop tutor Joyce Dillon-Taylor visited the school every afternoon for a period of about two and a half weeks to conduct her sessions.

The sessions introduced the students to the Pierrot Grenade with a display of his costume and some details about who he is and what he does. This character, they were told, is one of the clowns of the Carnival season.

He entertains people by demonstrating his scholarly nature. Part of his portrayal is the carrying of a book and a teacher's stick, which he uses to demonstrate that he is a well-educated character. He is noted for his ability to spell words in the most unusual manner. He creates a story from the syllables of these words in order to spell them.

A very familiar example is “a chic in de car and de car cyar go and that is the way to spell Chicago .” The students were taught how to create their own stories to spell words that they had chosen.

Hands-on activity in the making of the costume was another part of this workshop. The basic gown, sleeves and hood were done by two of our neighbourhood seamstresses Joan Moodoo and Ms Dolly.

The multi-coloured strips, which were put on the gown, were done by the students with the assistance of teachers and a few parents. The first step to mounting the costume was the collection of scraps of coloured fabric from seamstresses.

The students then did a paper pattern, which taught them how the strips of fabric were to be mounted on their gowns. They were then involved in selecting and cutting their fabric into strips of appropriate length and width and arranging them in patterns on their gowns starting with the darker colours at the bottom.

Lisa Madhosingh assisting students with costumes.

These strips were hand basted by students and then stitched by a teacher, parent or seamstress on a sewing machine. Finally, the students employed the same process in the decorating of their shoes.

Each student then finished off the costume by then adding shiny spangles and glitter dust. All costumes were completed for a display at school on Thursday, February 3.

The students involved were very excited and completely caught up with the activity, so much so that they brought in to school pictures of Pierrot Grenade which they had cut out from the newspapers and spoke continuously of seeing the Pierrot Grenade on television during some of the pre-Carnival programmes.

The highlight of the workshop was a parade through the streets of Port of Spain on Carnival Friday afternoon from Victoria Square to Woodford Square . In the absence of music they jumped to their own chant of “Pier..rot..Gre…nade!” as they made their way through the streets.

Their stunning and colourful display made them the target of many photographers. During the long periods of wait in the parade the students of Princes Town RC continued to enjoy themselves entertaining spectators by their ability to dance the Limbo. These young masqueraders thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

Showing limbo skills

Finally, they had the opportunity of demonstrating their spelling ability on stage at Woodford Square.

Seven year old Keegan Ellis stated the ball a-rolling greeting the crowd with the words

“Bon jour, Bon jour toute moun,

I am the Pierrot Grenade the master speller,

I can spell better than any fella.

You want to hear me spell Trinidad ? Well Trini is a man who now find he dad and that is the way to spell Trinidad .” He was then followed by two other Pierrot Grenades who also amused the crowd of spectators with their spelling ability.

On Carnival Monday afternoon these young masqueraders again took to the streets, this time in their home community of Princes Town where once again they gave a spirited presentation of their costumes and amused the crowd of spectators with their spelling, Pierrot Grenade style.

All in all it was a wonderful experience for teachers, parents and students alike. It was truly a pleasure working with these students who were models of exemplary behaviour. I could not be prouder of these young ambassadors of Princes Town RC.

I shall like to publicly thank the NCC for affording us this wonderful opportunity for supplying our students with material for making costumes, for transport to and from Port of Spain, for providing lunches for all thirty five of us, ten adults and twenty five children.

It truly was an experience worth remembering. Hats off to you NCC! If we want to preserve the Carnival this is indeed the way to go.