Henry in Guyana

On Saturday I was taken on a trip to work on some bee hives, something I know very little about but sounded interesting. Anyway, six of us piled into a 4x4 and headed out of town past the airport, then off road through some thick vegetation until we arrived at what seemed like a secluded spot with five bee hives. I was given a head net and wore long clothes, and some had bee suits although one chap who was an old hand at bee-keeping didn't wear any particular protection. I thought this might been the bees knew him and left him alone but actually he just got stung a lot.

Anyway the process consisted of taking wooden frames out of the hives, scraping off the outer layer of honeycomb and then putting them in a hand-crank centrifuge to extract the honey. I helped a little but the main effort was left to the proper beekeeper. Despite mixing the honey at the truck, maybe 100m and through some bush away from the hives, they caught on pretty quickly and weren't too happy with the fact that we'd stolen their hard-earned food. Pretty soon there were hundreds if not thousands of bees all over, and we did our best to use smoke to keep them away but everyone (apart from me!) got stung a few times, even through clothes. I think I escaped because I wasn't really doing anything or getting in their way.


Later that evening I headed out for a meal with some VSOs, followed by a party at a sports club next to a bank. The music was incredibly loud - there was no chance of talking. The night warmed up as we worked through a few bottles of white rum and by the end it was very jolly. Most of the music was what I understand as Caribbean dance-hall which doesn't make much of an appearance back home in my experience. Also the DJ's role is to growl things into the microphone, stop songs 30 seconds in and restart them, then play for about a minute before moving to another song. It wasn't an accident - that's just how they do it. Rather suprisingly there was a Klute -esque (that's a cheesy nightclub in Durham if you didn't know) 10 minutes or so with Billie Jean, Barbie Girl, Summer of 69 and some Britney Spears if I remember correctly, and naturally this sparked a response from the overseas element on the dance floor. Following this we headed to another ba which seemed to continue the energy as I didn't get home until 4:30 (fortunately it was the weekend).

As I was writing this I noticed a mouse had been caught on the roach/rat paper we had down in the kitchen. It must be a horrible way to die so I folded it over and jumped on it outside. I think I felt a bit of mouse skull crunch, but hopefully it has found peace.

Until next time...

It's been a busy few days again, I have just returned from playing the piano at a rehearsal for the St. Stanislaus College choir, made up of 11-13 year olds mainly. I am not really an experienced accompanist so it will take a little work, but tomorrow we are rehearsing in the Cathedral which should be fun. I have yet to come across any pianos in really good condition, most are fairly tired uprights that don't quite hold their tuning and it goes down from there. Both the Catholic and Anglican Cathedrals have magnificent-looking organs, but I haven't heard either of them; I hope they are in good condition but I think organs cost hundreds of thousands of pounds to refurbish so they may also be a little tired.

On Friday I attended sports day which was quite a jolly affair. It is run by the school governors and as a result was quite a slick operation. There was a varying level of support from the teachers, but there was a good number who really threw themselves into it which was appreciated by the students.

The atmosphere was very strong - much more than the sports days I have attended. It was held at the former national cricket ground, where in its prime a number of cricket stars played. The event began with a very impressive march past, where each of the four houses had a team of dressed-up marchers who had to march in time and parade in front of some judges (complete with drummers who may have been from the army). Have a look at this video which captures a bit of the atmosphere. I'd actually seen some rehearsing at school but not really understood why a small girl was bossing a load of others around in the assembly forum.

Once this was over the main competition began which contained all the usual events. There were some hotly contested teachers races too (which got the crowd roaring), as well as some more fun ones including tug-of-war, sack races and my favourite - late for school. This race involved perhaps some of the less athletic students starting in just their shorts and a vest. At the starting pistol they had to get dressed from a pile of clothes with shirts, ties, shoelaces etc all sorted and make it to the finish line.

All in all it was really a good day out and most importantly the students seemed to enjoy themselves and have a great competitive spirit. Hopefully in the future it can be as successful as an entirely staff-run event.