The Car­ni­val Oa­sis, Trinidad and To­ba­go’s pre­mier lux­u­ry Car­ni­val recharge ex­pe­ri­ence, re­turned on Car­ni­val Tues­day for its fifth edi­tion. The high­ly an­tic­i­pat­ed, in­vi­ta­tion-on­ly event reaf­firmed its sta­tus as an in­ti­mate sanc­tu­ary of re­lax­ation, well­ness, and in­dul­gence amid the vi­brant en­er­gy of The Great­est Show On Earth.

“I go to Ba­naras (in the north In­di­an state of Ut­tar Pradesh) and play a song I wrote half in Trinidad Bho­jpuri and see stu­dents’ eyes shine,” she says. “I’m writ­ing in their lan­guage.”

Vagi­nal health is a top­ic many women feel hes­i­tant to dis­cuss open­ly, yet it is one of the most im­por­tant as­pects of over­all well-be­ing. As a gy­nae­col­o­gist, I of­ten see pa­tients who de­lay seek­ing care be­cause they are un­sure whether what they are ex­pe­ri­enc­ing is “nor­mal.” Un­der­stand­ing the ba­sics of vagi­nal health em­pow­ers women to recog­nise when every­thing is func­tion­ing as it should—and when it is time to seek med­ical ad­vice.

Car­ni­val 2026 may be over, but there is still time to cel­e­brate the girls and women who emerged as win­ners in the var­i­ous com­pe­ti­tions held dur­ing the sea­son.

Twen­ty-two, bub­bly, bright, and fran­ti­cal­ly fash­ion­able. Je­nesse Montablo is the wit and dri­ve be­hind Vi­va La Di­va pop-up, the hottest trend­ing thrift event in the coun­try, one that she has been co­or­di­nat­ing for the last year and a half. Un­der her care­ful eye, Vi­va La Di­va has pushed thrift­ing in Trinidad to­wards be­com­ing an en­tire ex­pe­ri­ence, mov­ing away from its less glam­orous ori­gins as a poor man’s means of shop­ping.

“As I con­tin­ue to re­new and re­vi­talise my spir­it, I be­lieve that women can rise above chal­lenges they face by wel­com­ing guid­ance that em­pow­ers and trans­forms their lives, build­ing a strong and pos­i­tive mind­set, and em­brac­ing in­de­pen­dence.” These are the sen­ti­ments of ad­vo­cate and be­liev­er of lo­cal and the go-green phi­los­o­phy, Hea­matie Bho­la-Gopaul.

If you’ve felt stretched thin at work late­ly, you’re not alone. Across Trinidad and To­ba­go, em­ploy­ees in every sec­tor, from bank­ing to health­care to re­tail, are qui­et­ly car­ry­ing more than ever. Dead­lines are tighter, ex­pec­ta­tions high­er, and the line be­tween “at work” and “off du­ty” has al­most dis­ap­peared. For many, the dai­ly grind feels like a marathon that nev­er ends.

“Trinidad is wall-to-wall tal­ent,” Rhon­da Glynn says, with the con­vic­tion of some­one who has spent a life­time em­body­ing the tal­ent with­in. Glynn knew who she want­ed to be at eight years old, but it took near­ly 50 years to ful­ly be­come that per­son she al­ways knew she could be. Hers is not a sto­ry shaped by chance or short­cuts, but by in­ten­tion­al choic­es, rein­ven­tion, and a re­fusal to be­lieve that time places lim­its on pos­si­bil­i­ty.

Women do not fail be­cause they are lazy. They strug­gle be­cause they com­mit to rou­tines that were nev­er sus­tain­able with­in the de­mands of their re­al lives.

For decades, many women of African de­scent have, for var­i­ous rea­sons, tried to “tame” their nat­ur­al hair with the use of chem­i­cal treat­ments. In re­cent times, though, there has been a shift to more women wear­ing their hair in its nat­ur­al state, with some hav­ing a lit­tle more dif­fi­cul­ty man­ag­ing it than oth­ers.

A per­son’s home is their sanc­tu­ary – a con­cept that re­al es­tate agent and man­ag­ing di­rec­tor of XIP­PI Prop­er­ties Ltd, Marisa Davis, un­der­stands all too well. In ad­di­tion to try­ing her best to find the right fit for her clients, Davis is part-own­er of a home for se­nior cit­i­zens, en­sur­ing that they, too, have a place where they fit in.

Civ­il so­ci­ety in Trinidad and To­ba­go has al­ways been dri­ven by pas­sion, and NGO Veni Ap­waan was born out of a clear-eyed un­der­stand­ing that pas­sion alone is not enough. At a time when com­mu­ni­ty or­gan­i­sa­tions were de­liv­er­ing vi­tal ser­vices with lim­it­ed sys­tems, train­ing, or sup­port, Veni Ap­waan emerged to pro­fes­sion­alise the sec­tor from the in­side out.