Taxes and Carnival Queen(s)

Taxes are very confusing here in the V.I. We pay taxes - we use the federal 1040 forms. But the forms get sent to the V.I. Bureau of Internal Revenue; the building near the health food store. We can hand deliver them. And the taxes we owe go straight to the V.I. too. The confusing part is ... well, not really worth going into very much. But for example, we're not supposed to receive W2 forms. We're supposed to get VI-W2 which is a little different. If you work for the feds, it seems you get a regular W2 and have to either complain until they send you a VI-W2, or tweak it when you enter the data into the forms. If you don't know what to watch for, then TurboTax is not the solution. Also confusing was the deadline - the IRB website said Monday; the newspaper said Tuesday. We don't have a "state" tax form, b/c the V.I. is the "state", but it's also the "federal" taxes.

In other exciting news.... Carnival is here. This is the first of two weeks. I'd say next week is what really counts. But over the weekend the Carnival Queen pageant was held. And yesterday they had "Carnival at Schneider Hospital", which apparently involved the Hospital Carnival Queen competition. As far as I can tell, participation was not limited to those in the hospital. The Junior Calypso competition was tonight, but I forgot about it. I was interested to watch elementary school children calypso (if that's a verb...). Calypso lyrics are often politically charged. The words are spoken quickly sometimes too, and given the dialect, it can be difficult for us to understand at times. Roads are closed near the Carnival Village which is being set-up by all the people who will have food booths next week. Those people are busy painting over last year's decorations for the new theme.

Next week Carnival will be in full swing. Monday the Village opens - lots of good local food will be available for lunch and dinner all week. Wednesday is the Food Fair. Thursday is J'Ouvert. Friday is the Children's Parade. Saturday is the Carnival Mile race and then the Adult's Parade. I have friends coming from Alaska and Puerto Rico to participate in the week's events as my blog posts from last year were so exciting!

My sodas all expired yesterday.... I will continue to consume them until mold grows on the aluminum. That could happen any day... Oh yeah, and they're advertising in the paper again for people to try-out for the national soccer teams. That still seems so bizarre to me. They had try-outs last year - most countries maintain a national team at all times. Here... well, I know people who were on the team. Some quit because it was too disorganized. Others said it just kind of fell apart. The BVI couldn't even put together a men's team because they didn't have enough players. Last year I tried out for the women's national soccer team with dreams of playing in the World Cup qualifier. This year, they need a team for the Olympics qualifer. It's the all-american dream. I'll think about it.