stan' pipe laugh

A friend emailed the other day and asked how my Spanish was coming along, thinking that Trinidad is Spanish-speaking. I replied that my Spanish was alright, but that my Trini-English needed a lot of work. When we are out on morning rides, the accent reaches it’s peak and the language is spiced with as many colloquial sayings and words as the food is packed with flavor.

To help out, Rafael got me a copy of Cote ce Cote la, the Trinidad and Tobago Dictionary. It was there that I got the definition for “stan’ pipe,” which is a public water source where we fill our bottles on longer rides. A “stan’ pipe laugh’ is a “loud, raucous laughter associated with crowds around a stan’ pipe”. Fortunately the public water here is good, so I don’t have to “stan’ up on mi ches’”, which of course is indigestion. After each ride, we swing by a coffee shop, where I have to fight off the generosity of these guys to “stan’mi han’” or pay for a round.

By the way, here is the website for my T&T team, Heatwave Cycling Team.