If you have truly submerged yourself into Bahamian culture, you may have heard several of the following phrases:
Roach on ya bread!
Dog eat ya lunch!
Ya wybe sour!
Dat one name ova!
Oh what poets we Bahamians is! All of these phrases basically mean the same thing, that your situation is not good. Surely, seeing a cockroach on your food item would make you not want to eat it, no matter how delicious that food was going to be. The first phrase however, also has another layered meaning to it. See if you can figure it out from this song:
Get the drift?? No? To put it eloquently, it’s a sexual reference to someone stealing your significant other. Roaches are nasty, sneaky creatures, which could aptly describe someone trying to steal another’s s.o. If you’re not familiar female anatomy slang then I’ll let you figure out what body part the bread is in reference to.
I know, it’s a bit vulgar for my liking but people use the phrase to describe other not-so-nice situations.
Maybe you can add these to your list of Bahamian metaphors and maybe even use them, although as said in previous blogs, when using Bahamian slang or phrases, do so carefully and wisely.
When I was a kid in grade school, there was one day we all looked forward to: anti-uniform day. These days came far and few in between but this made each one special. The day you got to dress up in your own clothes at school for $1.
In The Bahamas, students must wear a uniform, in both private and public schools. Each school has it’s own rules concerning what was appropriate and allowed.
I went to two religious private schools for junior and senior high so the list of what you were allowed to wear was extensive, or minimal depending on how you look at it.
When standing at attention, skirts or short pants must be past the tip of your fingers.
Clothing cannot be too tight or fitted.
Shirts must have sleeves (i.e. no tanks tops, halter tops, tube tops etc..) unless it’s being covered with a jacket (to be worn at all times).
No visible stomach.
Leggings weren’t a popular item at that time so I’m not exactly sure how administration is dealing with it these days. The uniform rules were even more detailed.
Students in Kingsway Academy uniform. I went to this school from 9th-12th grade.
Despite these rules, I would dress up every single time, because it represented a slice of freedom. Freedom of individual expression typically unseen in my knee-length hunter green skirt and white, short-sleeve button-up with the school crest on the pocket.
Two of my favorite outfits came about in 9th grade. One was a baby blue terry cloth J-lo track suit. The other was an Asian-inspired fitted shirt and some jeans my grandmother bought me that I still have and wear to this day. They were, to me, age-appropriate “sexy” when everyone else thought I looked so cute.
We on the uniform-wearing side of the fence used to wish that we could wear our own clothes everyday and those that do wear their own clothes to school would probably gasp at the thought of wearing the same stuff as everyone else. But I understand it. Worrying about what to wear is annoying and time-consuming as it is now, but imagine this during a time of teenage hormones and social pressures. Look at some of the issues American schools are facing with what is deemed acceptable school attire:
These and many more issues could be avoided by simply wearing uniforms. Now of course, this does not mean it will eliminate social pressures… The brand of school bag (Kipling), shoes (Clarke’s) and brand of pants (Dickie’s) were all status markers. But think of how much less financial stress it would be if you only had to buy your kids 2 or 3 new shirts instead of an entire wardrobe each semester.
I think many of us could not wait until we got out of high school and into college so we could wear whatever the heck we wanted but for many in the work place, this still meant another uniform of some sort. In culinary school, I wore a chef’s uniform and my first “job” after college also had a uniform. In a way, all that uniform wearing just prepared us for the real world.
In The Bahamas toting food items from parties has become so extreme that Bahamian artist K.B. just had to sing about it! Toting itself is not a bad thing. In fact, since I’ve been here in Emporia, it’s been encourage quite a bit. But anything in excess becomes a problem and bringing your own Tupperware and foil to a shindig is a bit much!
Yes, I need a cut hip for not blogging in over two weeks! Sometimes college life gets crazy busy and then sometimes you forget your password.
Cut hip is what we Bahamians call a spanking. Actually, the grown up phrase is cut a$$, you get the point. Spanking, whopping, whipping, beating…it all means the same thing to the child that has to go out to the trees in the yard and pick their “switch”, the choice item used for spanking.
I remember having to choose a few of my own. For a kid, sure the beating hurts like hell, but it’s the anticipation of knowing what’s coming that used to get me crying before I got the first lick.
I know many people these days are against corporal or physical punishment because they may thinks its abusive or counterproductive to teach kids not to hit each other and then you as an adult are spanking them etc, etc… All that is fine and dandy, but generally speaking a good cut hip never killed nobody.
There used to be a running joke that Americans should come to The Bahamas if they want to spank their kids because we don’t play that calling child protective services mess back home! You act up, you get a spanking, quick!
Of course, you have people that take it to the extremes and take out all their anger and frustrations on their children as they’re beating them, but I believe in biblical principles, one of which said that if you spare the rod, you spoil the child. There’s another that says you should drive foolishness out of the heart with the rod of correction (Proverbs 22:15). Clearly, I paraphrased, but still, those biblical principles are what taught youngsters about respect and honoring your parents and older folks, not back-talking what you felt like. In some ways, cut hip replaced foolishness with fear because you (should have) learned that if you played the game or tried some mess, another serving of cut behind was coming up.
Back then, I could get beating from just about any respectable adult who saw me doing anything out of the way. Granted, I didn’t do too much, that thought was enough most times for me. Teachers could spank you followed by the principal, and if word got home, that could also lead to yet another spanking.
The point was that kids needed to know that their actions could result in serious and sometimes painful consequences. Does it work for every child? No, and neither does the same methods of teaching. Are some people more responsible in how they punish children? Yes. For me, when I have my child(ren), cut hip will be on the menu of punishment options along with other delectable items which are age appropriate. They will for sure have the option to “pick their switch”!
Is He Working for a Cut Hip??
*Warning: you are most free to share your thoughts and comments but I’m not going to entertain rudeness or anyone trying to convert me from by “barbaric” ways.
My little country sure has a lot of things going on these days. Crime went through the roof. At one point there were 11 murders in 12 days and for a small country, that’s quite a bit. And it’s scary. But this isn’t about crime. This is about the other crazy, interesting things that have been happening in the past day and week. (All photos from Facebook from various persons)
1. We’re being plagued by frogs. There are some disgusting cane toads (which are poisonous) have somehow made their way to our isle and and spreading. It’s a major concern for us because we don’t have any indigenous poisonous animals and without a natural predator to keep the balance, these bad boys can quickly be a disaster.
2. Today a tornado touched down at our international airport. Yep, tornadoes in The Bahamas while I’m here in Kansas. Strange. Scary.
3. There was a major drug seize yesterday. The photo is of the actual seize.
Baha Life 