The LIghting Parade On Aruba

[charlescroes]

Several things are clear to me – the foremost of which is that if you – the Aruba Visitor) wants to know what is happening on your destination island, that the various bulletin boards offer a wealth of information. It seems to me to be factual that you could read the various postings and be able to plan a damned nice vacation. For my part, I am a compulsive observer and poor writer of what I observe and feel, however I hope that the wealth of information and my observations (feelings) will give you another dimensions of our island.

Carnival on Aruba is a mixing pot of experiences. The sounds and colors are as stimulating as they are aggressive (in a rhythmic good way) and it is apropos to honestly just (for lack of a better expression) “go with the flow”. In most cases, that “flow” involves quite some beers ( I discovered ‘El Presidente’ this year) a lot of moving and gyrating (you will be sorry tomorrow) to what is going on around you and in the event you do have prejudices, they seem to melt away into the colors and sounds that seem to blanket you once you enter the street and pick your spot to hang around.

Last Saturday was the lighting parade. It is a night time event and is something that should be seen by everyone. I am not sure how it started but it basically involves a light show that is attached to the people in the parade as well as the trucks or other vehicles that pull the massive and brightly lit floats. Thomas Edison, or whoever invented the dammed light bulb would be proud to know that this invention has been molded into a way of designing and emphasizing the human body and certainly the spirit for this one magnificent parade. It is a time and moment when those dancing in the streets are covered in light-bulb glory. I tell you that they even have light bulbs that sit on your teeth (much like a boxers protective mouth piece) that have an interesting impact when the mouth is opened. I have never seen a blue, red and spinning orange smile before. The rest of the planet is working on making those teeth white and here are these mouths shining into the night. Ahh well, so is the parade.

To get to our invited trailer, we had to park a ways off and walk there. On the way, I passed a young mother sitting on a wooded chair. She had a baby in her lap and looked at it endlessly and intensely. It was the love-look that young (first time) mothers can only have and she had it in such a wonderful way. My guess is that this young mom was of Haitian ancestry. Her lovely small and round face with lightning bright white teeth reflected her heritage. She had closely cropped hair in a short Afro of sorts and was impeccably dressed - almost too much so for a carnival parade. Her true loveliness came from the fierce pride she had for this lovely little baby that she cradled in her lap. The father figure stood to the side of her and also doted on this little guy - he with a beer n hand and she with a bottle of water. The baby slept. In all that noise and ruckus, that lovely child slept with the calmest face I have ever seen. “Get rest now” I thought before the parade truly starts. When that happens, the nose will wake up a rock – much less a little human being. For some reason, this held my interest and I continued to sneak a look back at the threesome to see how things were going.

The parade started with a tremendous amount of drum, horn and guitar music. Lights started swirling and people marched to a cadence set by the lead drummers and singers. It was madness to say the least. The wall of sound was overwhelming. Between beers, I decided to take a look over in the direction of the couple and child to see what was going on and how the baby was handling this. Finally I got a glimpse of something;

The baby had awakened and the mom simply took his small little head and put it under her blouse. She cradled his head into a feeding position and from under that blousy shirt exuded calm and peacefulness. I looked away for a moment and when I looked back, she was taking his head out and placing it on her chest – where she went thought the process of burping him. An insignificant burp amongst al the blare and glare of the night not heard or hinted at. The only trace of that silent burp being the small marking on the shoulder towel. Eyes still closed, that wonder of a child went back to sleep as if she were in a monastery.
Meanwhile the noise only became louder and the lights glared even more so. Yet -- the baby slept.

At the onset, this confused me a bit since the sound was so loud I was having problems talking to person next to me. However I was missing one small detail. A mother arms.
In this multitude of colors and sounds. In the glaring of the lights and all of the madness that surrounds that, it was a mothers arms that did the trick.

People started to pull out and get back to their vehicles out to get back home. Te threesome stayed put until the very end and then moved away from the departing throngs.

In and of itself, was it an important thing to see or write about? The answer is YES and the reason was that it showed the eloquence of parenting between mother and child..

Just thought I would share.

Charles
arubafastphones.com