Get Yo J’ouvert Mud from Marsha Smith & Family

Highly anticipated events like the Carnival Road March and the J’ouvert are staples of the September Celebration festivities that draw in spectators from across the country and the diaspora, not to mention tourists. Those activities for the past two years have been postponed or gone virtual as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. But as anyone would tell you, “Yo can’t have Carnival without j’ouvert.”  Marsha Smith, better known as the “Mud Lady,” is helping you to enjoy the bacchanal right at home. People have been calling for it and so she and her family are packaging the mud and selling it. News Five’s Duane Moody reports.

Duane Moody, Reporting

#11 Dolphin Street is home of the Smith family, but as any carnival lover would know, it is a place where the spirit of the bacchanal thrives. The matriarch of the family, Marsha Smith is known for her cooking technique of clay used annually on J’ouvert mawning as revellers and the community come out to celebrate hours ahead of the Carnival Road March.

But with the COVID-19 pandemic, social gatherings are not recommended and with that, J’ouvert too. But the Smith family is providing the mud for you to free up right at home.

Marsha Smith

Marsha Smith, Mud Maker

“Carnival, tenth of September, twenty-first – that dah fu we happiest time ah fu we life dah Belize. Soh mi lee bwai, listen to me, I noh give up. Anybody weh want di j’ouvert mud fi do family j’ouvert home, Miss Marsha di invite unu fi come buy. I got three dollars, five dollars, ten dollars. And no facial discrimination, facial lift mek unu look good. So come and enjoy j’ouvert, have the fun, feel carnival, bring wi September back mek wi feel good despite the pandemic.”

Like many others, the COVID-19 pandemic has birthed entrepreneurs across the country.  And today, we found three generations of the Smith family working the boiling pots, while others were mixing colors and bottling off the highly sought out mud.

Warren Smith

Warren Smith, Son of Marsha Smith

“We got the colors of mud. We got white, weh when yo blend it with the mud wah come look like a grey. We got wah pink weh wah come look like a peach; we got red and when yo blend dehn with the mud, it just come with a darker shade. We got white, pink, red, we got brown and we got orange. Den deh dah di color we got right now. And we got three dollars bottle weh come ina di small bottle. Yo got di ten dollars bottle weh dah like the litre bottle and yo have the five dollars bottle weh dah di dollar bottle dehn. And fi the family dehn, if unu want set up unu money together just buy a bucket of mud. Seventy-five dollars fi wah bucket; can’t go wrong, family size.”

….and the orders have been coming in.

Warren Smith

“Wah number of people come dah my ma yard and stop in and say Miss Marsha even if we have to buy the mud, please make some mud. And I tell mi ma well yo see people into yo mud so dehn wah come purchase di mud from yo. And now this year come and people still come ask before September celebration come so we have to give them it. Celebrate home. We can’t come out on the street. One thing nobody can’t put down, everybody dah Belize know j’ouvert dah di biggest parade dah Belize and we can’t go out there. So why noh do it home?”

Duane Moody for News Five.