Changes about the articles

Hello everyone! It has been a while! Sorry about that I have been busy lately with College life and so on... I'm here to say that I will no longer write my articles about the different islands of the caribbean. I'll still talk  about the Caribbean though... but in a whole new level. In fact I'll talk about the different problems Caribbean Young people  face in their country, especially in terms of violence and lack of employement. I know it won't solve all problems but at least I think we should really talk about it and figure out ways to make our voice heard to say stop. It's such a shame that most of us have to go abroad to have a better life whereas there are still so much to do in the different islands. Feel free to share with me your experience in your island and I'll make sure to talk about the situation in the islands concerning those problems. Since I'm french I'll make the articles in both languages so that everyone can understand . That's all for today. Thanks for reading!  See ya :) 

Dominica

Hey everyone !

Today I would like to talk to y'all about another beautiful  Island, Dominica. This article is dedicated to one of my best friends who is from there. Love you Marcia :).
So first of all let's talk about its location. It is located at the south of Guadeloupe and at the northwest of Martinique. Their official language is English but due to the fact that it was a former French colony and also due to it's location (between the French islands Guadeloupe and Martinique) the Dominican Creole French is widely spoken. The Capital is Roseau.
                                       

   Dominica Flag   

Now let's talk about Food. Dominica's national Dish is Callaloo Soup.  It is a combination of leafy vegetables such as spinach or dasheen mixed in with seasonings, provisions, meat and coconut milk. Moreover, we can find more food in Dominica such as cornmeal porridge for breakfast or plantains such as the ones we find in the neighboring islands Martinique and Guadeloupe and especially local foods  like saltfish, or codfish and of course brown stew chicken. 


                        Callaloo Soup

Concerning Music and Events : Just like many caribbean islands, the kinds of music widely spread  in Dominica are calypso, reggae, soca, kompa. Dominica is even influenced musically by the genres found in Martinique like bèle or zouk love.  However Dominica developed its own genre called bouyon, which is a mixture of several genres along with a group called WCK (Windward Caribbean Kulture) Other  local artists represent the other genres like for reggae we can talk about Nasio Fontaine or Lazo or for another style from Dominica like kadans we may listen to Exile One or Ophelia Marie. The major events in Dominica are  firs of all the Dominican Carnival, which takes place on the Monday and Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, where we can listen to a lot of calypso and steel band music. The other major event here in Dominica is the World Creole Music Festival.  It is an annual three day music festival hosted on the island of Dominica during the final weekend in October, as a grand conclusion to Creole heritage month.WCMF is the premiere festival of Dominica, and is widely regarded as the world's most prominent stage dedicated to the advancement of global Creole culture and music. 


                                                    Members of the WCK Band


 The World Creole Music Festival which will take place in October, so if you are in Dominica and interested by this event, you can stop by :)

Last but not least we will deal with Sports and Literature. Cricket is a very popular sport in Dominica. Dominica competes in test cricket aspart of the West Indies cricket team. Other sports like Rugby, Basketball or soccer are very popular. Sadly we have not much info concerning literature.

That's it for today ! Hope you like it tho ! Stay tuned for another article. Peace and love, Meli PINEL

My Instagram Page

Hey everybody! 

I just made an Instagram page for the blog so y'all can see when I'm going to post and what I plan on doing exactly with it. Feel free to follow it to stay updated 😁I'll post a picture of it so y'all can see it 😊 

That's all for today Thank you once again 

Peace and Love ❤️Meli PINEL 

 

Guadeloupe

Hey again everyone !

Today I'll talk to you about my second favorite Island which is Guadeloupe. A special article to all the amazing people I've met from there :)
Guadeloupe, just like Martinique, in an Island from the Lesser Antilles  which belongs to France. They are the French West Indies.  It is located at the North of Dominique and this department  also includes the Dependencies of Guadeloupe which are the small islands called La Desirade, Marie-Galante and the Iles les Saintes. It's official language is French but in fact the people there speak their regional language a lot which is Creole.
Comment : The Creole from Guadeloupe and from Martinique aren't exactly the same, but the people manage to understand each other.

                               

Map of Guadeloupe 

So as for their culture,we will first talk about Guadeloupe Food.  The National Dish of Guadeloupe is Porc-Colombo (is like a stew made with pork, chicken, lamb or goat) originally from India. This island has varieties of food as well such as "accras" which is a kind of fritter made of codfish or shrimp, often eaten before the meal. Concerning Desserts we have the homemade Coconut Ice cream which we call here "Sorbet". Last but not least we have the unavoidable Cake "Mont Blanc". 

                                                        

                                                                        Chicken Colombo 

Then we are going to deal with Music. The kinds of music here in Guadeloupe come from Africa, France and India, All those mixtures created the local genres such as biguine, kadans, cadence-lypso, zouk and gwo ka. The same local genres are performed by artists like Kaasav (if we include Patrick St-Eloi) and Gilles Floro, or Francky Vincent. In terms of Events and Dance, Guadeloupe host each year the Creole Blues Festival at Marie- Galante and of course the Guadeloupe Carnival. 

I'll finish this part by talking about the dancers called  Les Twins, dancers originally from Guadeloupe who are internationally known now. They even danced with Beyonce on the Mrs Carter's Tour. 

Patrick St Eloi (1958- 2010)                                              Guadeloupe Carnival 2017 

We will finish this article by talking about Literature and Sports as usual. 

About Literature we will of course talk about the winner of the Nobel Prize of Literature of 1960, Saint- John Perse. He is known for his Poetry but he was also a Diplomat. We can also talk about Maryse Condé who wrote Tree of Life in 1992 or Ernest Pepin who wrote Lettre ouverte à la jeunesse in 2001. Concerning Sport we will certainly talk about Teddy Riner who  became the youngest world champion in the history of judo when he won the world title in 2007 aged 18 years and five months. Football being very popolar in Guadeloupe we may talk about Thierry Henry, originally from Guadeloupe who was a star of the French national Team. 

                                             

Saint-John Perse (1887- 1975)      


                         

                                                                       Teddy Riner

That's all for today I hope y'all enjoy it :) See you next week. 

                                                                                                                   
Peace and Love, Meli PINEL

I came back/ Je suis revenue

Hey everyone !


Sorry that I took so long to come back I didn't have the time to post anymore but now I'm ready to post again !
For now I'll post about the Caribbean and then I'll post about the rest of the World.
I don't know if I'll write the French version since most of y'all ready are from English Countries. Moreover It's way easier to post in English because it enables me to improve my English Skills.
A little reminder : I'm a french blogger so feel free to correct me if my writing in English isn't good.
I hope y'all will enjoy my next articles and Thank you if y'all are still here to read it I truly appreciate it.

Last but not least I'll leave y'all with a picture of my town which is Vauclin, in Martinique.

Peace and Love, Meli PINEL

Puerto Rico

Hey everyone ! Today we'll deal with another island, which is Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico, officially The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, is a United States territory located at the northeastern Caribbean. In addition, Puerto Rico is composed of a a main island and a number of smaller islands. Puerto Rico is a Unincorporated territory of the United States , which means that the President is Barack Obama, and the current Governor is Alejandro Javier García Padilla. The official languages spoken there is Spanish and English, with Spanish as primary language. The Capital is San Juan, and currently 3,548,397 live in this island.

Puerto Rico Flag

 

Puerto Rico map

 

Right now we are going to focus on the culture of Puerto Rico. First of all we'll talk about Food. The national dish of Puerto Rico is Arroz con Gandules (Rice with Pigeon Peas). It’s a rice-and-pigeon-pea dish seasoned with sofrito and Pernil (Pork shoulder) diced smoked ham. There are other specialities from Puerto Rico such as Steak with onions, or roast suckling pig, a dish served on festive occasions. Moreover, Puerto Rico has its own locally producted food like peanuts, Ají Caballero (hottest Pepper from Puerto Rico) and guavas.

 

Rice with Pigeon Peas

 

Let's now deal with Puerto Rican Music. Puerto Rico has several music genres. It can be bomba y plena, Aguinaldo, or more recently reggaeton. There is also classical music, there's even a festival, The Casals Festival, which takes place anually and attracts classical musicians from around the world. Concerning Opera, Puerto Rico is the birthplace to the legendary Antonio Paoli, who even performed private récitals to the Pope Pius X and the Czar of Russia Nicholas II. Moreover, Paoli was the first operatic artist in world history to record an entire opera in 1907. Many other famous artists come from Puerto Rico like Daddy Yankee, Marc Anthony, Tito Puente, and Omar Alfredo Rodríguez-López.

 

Daddy Yankee

The Casals Festival

 

We'll end up this article with Sports and Literature.

 

Concerning sports, One of the most popular sports in Puerto Rico is Baseball. There is the Puerto Rico Baseball League, which serves as the only active professional league, operating as a winter league. The Puerto Rico national team has participated in the World Cup of Baseball, and won one gold medal in 1951, four silver and four bronze medals. Puerto Rican players have their name at the Baseball Hall of Fame like Roberto Clemente (1973) and Roberto Alomar (2011).

Another popular sport here in Puerto Rico is boxing. Wilfredo Gómez Rivera and McWilliams Arroyo won their respective divisions at the World Amateur Boxing Championships. In the professional circuit, Puerto Rico has the third-most boxing world champions and it is the global leader in champions per capita. Some of these champions are Miguel Cotto and Félix Trinidad.

Basketball is also very popular. Indeed, The Puerto Rico Basketball Team joined the International Basketball Federation in 1957. Since then, it has won more than 30 medals in international competitions, including gold in three FIBA Americas Championships and the 1994 Goodwill Games.

Last but not least about sports, Soccer. The Puerto Rico Islanders Football club, founded in 2003, plays in the NASL which constitutes the second tier of football in North America.

 

About Literature, There are famous writer such as Alejandro Tapia y Rivera, known at the Father of Puerto Rican literature, one of his book is La antigua sirena (1862) . or Cayetano Coll y Toste, a writer and historian  who wrote His work The Indo-Antillano Vocabulary is valuable in understanding the way the Tainos lived. More recently, there are other Puerto Rican writes as Ed Vega, Piri Thomas, or Esmeralda Santiago.

 

Roberto Alomar

 

Esmeralda Santiago

 

To conclude we can say that Puerto Rico is very rich when it comes to culture, there are alot to learn there. Beautiful Island as well.

 

 

Peace !

 

More articles coming soon ;) 

 



St Vincent and the Grenadines

Hello everybody ! Haven't talked to you in days ! Today i'll talk to you about a beautiful island named St Vincent and the Grenadines (or just St Vincent). This island belongs to the Lesser Antilles. Indeed, it is located to the South of St Lucia, and to the west of Barbados. St Vincent took its independence from the British colony in 1979. Right now it is a  parliamentary democracy and constitutional monarchy with Queen Elizabeth II as Head of State. The Governor General, who represents The Queen, is currently Frederick Ballantyne. The Official language is English, and the local language is Vincentian Creole, spoken by almost everyboby in the population. The Capital of St Vincent is Kingstown, and approximately 120,000 inhabitants live there.

St Vincent and the Grenadines Flag

 

St Vincent and the Grenadines Map

 

Now let's get into détails about St Vincent and the Grenadines Culture. For the moment we'll talk about Food. The national food there is Roasted Breadfruit and fried Jackfish. There are also specialities as billjau, a stew with salted fish, tomatoes, onions, coconut oil and hot peppers. , or madongo dumplings, a baked or fried specialty made with arrowroot flour, nutmeg and coconut. Some vegetables such as yams, potatoes, dasheen, tania, carrots, bananas and plantains, grow in St Vincent and The Grenadines.

Roasted Breadfruit and fried Jackfish

 

We'll continue with Music. Several music genres exist in St Vincent like big drum, calypso, soca, or steelpan. Concerning artists, one of the most famous artists from St Vincent is Kevin Lyttle, known for his worldwide song Turn Me on. In 2013 he was named Cultural Ambassador for the Island. Each Year, St Vincent and the Grenadines has a festival named Breadfruit Festival. It's held at the month of August.  There are some activites like Local cultural activities. They include dancing, drumming, and performances by calypsonians among others.

 



 





We'll end up this article with Sports. The most popular sport in this island is Football. Indeed, St Vincent and the Grenadines has its own Football League, entitled the NLA Premier League, and also a national associal football team. There is a notable Vincentian player named Ezra Hendrickson who played at several Major League Soccer clubs in the United States, he is now a retired footballer and a coach at Seattle Sounders FC. Rugby is becoming very popular too, St Vincent and The Grenadines has its own national rugby union team, ranked 84th in the world.

Furthermore, netball is a major local sport and comprises women only.

 

 

 

In a nutshell St Vincent and The Grenadines is a great island, with lots of advantages. A good destination for vacations.

 

Peace !

 

More articles coming soon.