Triniglish|Trinididioms Spoken and Explained #17
Yuh is ah Trini|Yuh had worms as a child and scratched yuh bottom when nobody was looking
This one is interesting because I smiled when I decided to do the post. Why? The truth is that in my little world just about anything is considered funny. I can just see someone seeing the subject and saying, "What in heaven's name are they talking about?" Well some people may remark that this is simply disgusting... Disgusting you say well it gets better.
Not so long ago in Trini land the government in conjunction with the WHO(World Health Organization) had programs where they would go into the primary (grade) schools and administer drugs to kill worms and to flush them out of the children's system (it was that bad). Oh before I forget, weeks earlier we were given little cans (very small) to put some poop in to bring back to school. I suspect this was to check for worms and other parasites.
I remember some things but the taste of that oil that I can recall now as chinaponium (of course the spelling is incorrect but it will suffice) was awful. After two drops on your tongue you were sent to another line where you were given a cup of Epsom salts to drink - Yuk. After that you were sent home. Let me tell you if you were foolish and did not immediately go home then you were guaranteed to poop your pants - gravy style.
Well back to the subject of scratching yuh bottom when nobody was looking. In the villages this was common. A scratch here or there was no big deal but I believe that not all of it was because of worms. People had to deal with latrines not toilets. The main material used for cleaning up after using the latrine was gazette paper. I now have a very silly grin as I write this because this is where you ask, "What is gazette paper?" Well if you are a true Trini you should be smiling now however if you are not then here it is... Gazette paper was the news paper! Yes that hard paper was used to get the job done. Oh yes, black bottoms resulted from the ink used to print the news paper. In other word if you did not pay attention to cleaning up then dirt track could be the end result. A bottom that was not cleaned properly resulted in a good scratch bottom. If someone was caught scratching, people tended to say, "Like yuh have worms in yuh bottom or what?"
Those of us who had the experience (I forgot but my brother reminded me out it) there was a local brew that was used to get rid of the worms - worm grass. Now that did not smell good and the taste was even worse but as Lord Relator said in Kaiso, "D Worm Grass used to show the worm where to pass". This remedy my friends eliminated the scratching episodes. This local remedy dealt with shark infested waters and eliminated the discomfort and sickly feeling that came with worm infested guts. Trust me that local brew works better than the stuff you get at the pharmacy.
I do hope that you read this with a smile and not with a look of disgust on your face. It was a fact of life then... today we can joke about it. So in the end if you recalled any of this then my friend, "you know that you are a true Trini". Now let's take a listen to Relator singing about "Bush Medicine".