As most of you know, my name is Kirt Morris, and I am the owner of Trini In Xisle. What you may not know is the origin story, and why I started TriniInXisle.
I migrated to the 🇺🇸 in 1994 after “A” levels in Trinidad to attend University because my moms had a bigger plan for me. While sitting for Advance Level exams, I was also repeating CXC English at a school in Port-of-Spain. After finishing A-Level, I was sweating part-time at Galeota Point, Guayaguayare, Trinidad, for an oil services company, on the accelerated route to achieving zilch.
I was also living at 🏠, access to my parents 🚙 and no real plan for the future. As they say in Trini, “What sweet in goat mouth does sour in de bam bam”.
Around de same time our 🇺🇸 green card paperwork was finalized, and moms said:
“Yuh going up de road to live with yuh grandfather”.
Nols
Up de road didn’t mean around the corner. It meant foreign, the United States. Pops, my paternal grandfather, had lived in Maryland (MD) since I believe the 1970s and my only relationship with him were when he came 🇹🇹 on holiday every couple of years. See my blog here on the life and legacy of my paternal grandmother Ma Morris.
Anywho, in 1994 yuh boy reach MD summertime and started school hunting toured Howard University and University of Maryland College Park (UMCP). I signed up for fall classes in computer 💻 science at UMCP.
Winter ❄️ is coming
Then fall – aka autumn- rolls around and the breeze starts to attack ah wee bit and before you know it, is WINTER. For my opening day of school at UMCP, I had to catch the shuttle from New Carlton in the blistering cold 🥶. I remember wearing 🌲 layers of apparel: underwear 🩲, Long Johns, 😓 👖, then my jeans and I was still freezing. It was all snow and ice outside. The only time I saw ice was in my fridge back home in Trinidad. Now it felt like I was held in ah freezer.
Trini-In-Xisle
It was at this instant in 1994-1995 taking the bus to school. I asked myself what the fuck was I doing hereabouts- in an unfamiliar land. Dwelling with kin that I scarcely knew and attending lectures with two hundred kids at a time. I sensed I was in exile.
At UMCP my email 📧 moniker was trini@umd.edu. Over the ensuing few days, the concept of being one of the few Trini’s on-campus and surviving away from my parents the idea of Trini In Exile transpired with the twist on X isle.
In summary, I established TriniInXisle to promote Trinbago culture and to connect Trini’s living abroad.To share our perspective beyond the Caribbean diaspora. Carnival is Trinidad’s most renowned commodity. But I intend to articulate the culture of our people, the diversity of our customs, and the milieu of culinary selections the islands offer.
