Government juice | Yuh is ah Trini

Triniglish|Trinididioms Spoken and Explained #25
Yuh is ah Trini|if yuh know what is government juice

On a very, very hot day, and it can really get hot on the island, one of the best drinks available, free of charge, is government juice. 

Now if you are Trini that is a no-brainer but as a foreigner this term 'government juice' will be foreign. Isn't it amazing that the government will provide juice free of charge for the entire population. Well if you believe that then look out your window because the pigs are flying. 

So what are we talking about and how did we come to the point of naming something government juice. Ok straight to the point, government juice is the water that you get straight from "D'Pipe" and we are talking about the stand pipe. To be honest when I think about it and recall the days of going to the stand pipe to fetch water on certain days at certain times the water really had the color of orange juice - it was colored water not the crystal clear bottled water that you pay for today. 

If you think that was funny people would collect the water in buckets and allow the sedimentation to settle and as the used to say back then, "yuh good to go". Maybe in some areas drinking that water resulted in belly wuk or simply put belly pain and a few visits to the latrine (in those days it was latrine because toilets that flushed were en vogue and costly). 

On a serious note government juice on a very hot day was the best drink available and we are talking about the crystal clear water that flowed from stand pipes (stand pipes are rarely found today). The kids would stick their mouths in "D'Pipe" and suck that cold and delicious drink that flowed through the lines - sweet! It was cold and we could not get enough. 

The Creole language of Trinidad and Tobago has so much to offer and it was only recently I realized that we say so many things without thinking about it - no big thing because that is the way it has always been. However, there are some terms that have passed on and hopefully with 'Yuh is ah Trini' we can reflect and laugh about all over again.
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