Henry in Guyana

Last week was really quite busy - my efforts in meeting as many people as possible and milking every contact have started paying off. I have been rehearsing with the Saints choir accompanying them on the piano which is fun although some parts are a bit tricky. We had a rehearsal in the Cathedral (Catholic) the other day but unfortunately we had to wait 90 minutes for another group to finish and then it turned out all the important notes on the piano didn't quite work so everything was a little messy. Practicing is a bit of a challenge as I have access to the piano in school but there are usually people wandering around chatting, and when I start practicing somehow small children emerge along with a conductor and it becomes a full blown rehearsal pretty quickly.

On Friday I went to a comedy show at the National Culture Centre, a nice building with air conditioning and a big auditorium with room for at least a few hundred people. The show was good, although I'm not sure if it's my ears but they overdo the treble on the speakers here which I found occasionally a bit painful. Anyway there were some satirical songs and sketches, some about quite current and controversial events. A significant number of jokes revolved around people stealing each other's wives/husbands and who is who's father/sister and so on. Anyway it was a good evening, even if some of the Creolese eluded me..

The following night I felt a bit like I had stepped into another world; I went to a party at a house in a gated community, and as you drive in you can feel the difference in atmosphere. Despite the guard seeming not to bother who was coming in the streets were clean, had proper pavements, the trenches didn't smell and all of the houses were in good condition - it was a bit like an idyllic American suburb. The party itself was good with excellent buffet food (which I always make the most of) and waiters serving drinks faster than you can drink them. I gather that there are compounds like this around Guyana, where businessmen and so on live, and it was a glimpse into a side of Guyanese living that I haven't seen much of so far. There was still plenty of Guyana about it though, with big speakers playing music late into the night which I imagine the stuffier communities further north would not enjoy quite so much.

Then came Sunday, when I went limeing (that's drinking) out of the back of a 4x4 with some Guyanese people I know which was fun, although not too late as most of us had work the next morning. What was quite amusing was that a couple of them had young children who spent most of the time jumping around in the 4x4 and seemed to be having a great time. Someone felt a drop of rain and immediately everyone ran for cover - in England when you feel a drizzle you might think about moving but things aren't likely to be too bad. Here if you feel a drizzle you'd better get under shelter quickly because the heavens are about to open.

Changing tack a little, a chap I met recently runs a small charity called Troopers of Charity, which from what I gather holds occasional events to help the poor, raising money for equipment for the disabled and distributing food. Anyway I have agreed to have a go at the website, and there is a plan to set up a small IT lab to help teach some children to use computers which could be quite empowering for them. My work at Saints is going well and I hope will help, but having spent some time in Guyana St. Stanislaus is relatively speaking a very privileged environment. I have time to give, so perhaps there is an opportunity to get involved in a project to make a far-reaching difference. I imagine I will write more about this in the future...

I've been here for five weeks now and continue to get a better feel for the country, so here's a few things I've noticed. In terms of vehicles, a favourite seems to be the Nissan Titan which is a (probably unnecessarily) huge car. I have yet to see any Hum-vees but I am told there are a few. There isn't a huge amount of space on some roads so I imagine having an oversized vehicle might be a bit of a challenge.

There's a reasonable amount of wildlife in Georgetown; most roads have trenches running along either side - deep gutters (maybe 2 feet) which once I imagine provided drainage but are now stagnant and have quite a bit of rubbish in them. There are little things swimming around in there, I'm not sure if they are fish or lizard things but there is life. Some parts are covered, with boards or concrete, and sometimes there are just big holes in the pavement, and I don't imagine it would be very nice to fall in. The other night I was walking home from volunteer frisbee and felt my foot come against something followed by a splash in the trench. It turned out I had inadvertently booted a rat into the water - it quickly scrambled out and ran into some bushes. Rats are not generally visible so this was a bit of a surprise, although there are plenty of dogs roaming around looking for food. Fortunately, there's enough around as there are used polystyrene food cartons all around. Many areas are quite messy, and in most areas there aren't any bins. Main Street is an exception - there is a central walkway where local craftsmen sell quite impressive wooden carvings, and there are bins all along and it makes for a nice place to walk in my opinion.

I haven't seen as many insects as I expected, just the occasional tiny lizard thing in the shower and they keep themselves to themselves. Cockroaches are rarely in sight but I'm sure they're here having a good time on bits of food and so on. Fears of a tarantula wandering over the back of the sofa were misplaced however, and at least in Georgetown there isn't any more insect life than anywhere else I have been. I have plans to venture into the bush in the new year where things will be a bit different I imagine, but more on that some other time. The flying insects like to bite, and they haven't given up, I've taken to staying in my work clothes to cover up my skin in the evening as it is a bit of a pain and you can feel them having a meal. In the morning I usually wake up to see four or five mosquitoes sitting above my head on the mosquito net licking their lips, just waiting for the chance...