Henry in Guyana

One of the thing about Guyana's multicultural society is that there are plenty of public holidays - last week we had Phagwah, which I think mainly involves running around and covering each other with colourful powder, unfortunately my cultural awareness hasn't grown enough to know what it's all about, although I'm sure Wikipedia will tell me. I went with a group to someone's house a little out of town, where we had a meal (eaten out of a big leaf, I've never done that before but it certainly saves on washing up) and then proceeded to get very messy indeed. Water, glitter and powder filled the air as everyone enjoyed themselves. After this we headed to a bigger place in Georgetown which had a stage and live music - and was full of people throwing/rubbing powder at each other. Photos taken with a flash came out with an interesting effect because of the amount of dust in the air, and everyone's face changed colour multiple times.

The following day at work was interesting as there were a number of (students mostly) who had green faces and hands - some of the colour doesn't come off too easily, I had a slightly red forehead and blue neck, and even now my fingernails are still a bit pink. Still the whole thing was good fun and unlike Mash alcohol was not a key factor.


Last Saturday I went to a cricket match - I've only ever been to one before at the London Oval and my memory is that it was a long way away and quite boring. This time we headed out to the National Stadium and had good seats under cover. The West Indies were playing Zimbabwe and after what seemed like a strong last innings (based on my limited knowledge of cricket) and won. There was quite a good atmosphere as every time anyone scored any runs people started jumping up and down waving whatever they happened to be holding. I wondered if I would get bored but actually it was a really fun day out. We only went for a half day this time so maybe I'll get a full day in before I leave.

Once again it's been a while since my last post, and now with just over 7 weeks left in the country I suppose there won't be that many more. Anyway, the past couple of weeks have seen a lot of activity - a trip to a beautiful house across the Essequibo, Mashramani and plenty of partying inbetween. There's a bar in Georgetown called Jerries which is open pretty much all of the time - visits at 4 or 5 in the morning are always entertaining as it is the "wash-down" place to be, so I've been spending a bit of time there recently.

Last weekend a group of 15 hired a bus and headed West, across the Demerara (my first crossing of the harbour bridge) to Parika which is a major crossing point over the Essequibo. The Essequibo is in parts a massive river, and I am told is 26 miles wide at its mouth. Anyway we boarded a boat and took about an hour-long trip up and across the river to Bartica, a mining town a little inland. The boat then took us 1 minute further up the river to Bidarabu, a big wooden house with five big bedrooms, big verandas, a swimming pool and a private beach. Well I say private, when I went down there in the morning a local woman was having a wash so I had to make myself scarce pretty quickly but essentially it is a secluded spot - perfect for a party!



It felt like something from a Hollywood film; a pool party with seemingly endless food, rum, party games and splashing around in a swimming pool. I know one of the biggest things I will miss about Guyana will be sitting outside in the warm weather. The group was great fun too - a significant number are development workers, who are much more glamorous than volunteers. I get the impression that there's an ex-pat hierarchy, from volunteer types (like me) at the very bottom, living in basic housing and counting cash, right through development workers with housing allowances and all the way up to diplomats with swimming pools and guards. Anyway this crowd is particularly good fun and our weekend was a non-stop party although some people balked when I cracked out the rum again the following morning. Hair of the dog I suppose...

The following Tuesday was Mashramani - Guyana's carnival. I went on the road at about midday and it seemed that every square meter lining the road had someone with a cooler or a stand selling beer and food. There were barbeques everywhere and floats from different groups, organisations and political parties. It was very jolly, although it seemed to take a long time (sometimes an hour and a half) between floats. The first part of the day was quite overcast but when the sun came out in the afternoon it got seriously hot. In the evening a small group of us went to sit by the sea wall and watch the sun set which was nice, and very busy. There were cars and speakers playing loud music everywhere which meant there were people bouncing and dancing everywhere - in Guyana, if there's music everyone bounces.


That evening we went to a Machel Montano concert, who is apparently a leading Soca star from Trinidad. It was great fun - although the support act didn't start until past midnight and he didn't come on until 2am, and he was only on for about 90 minutes. Still, armed with some brown rum we had a good group and it was a great show.

So after all this partying it's time to calm down a little - although it's Paguah on Monday so another day off and a party at someone's house. I'm also organising a final trip down to the Rupununi for Rodeo which is at Easter weekend. Still, I have also spent some time at Mercy Wings school recently and their computers are now in good condition and next I hope to help another VSO set up some literacy software on there. Saints is doing well too - I'm moving towards wrapping things up and leaving it to improve without me.


Until next time...

Well, it's been a while since my last post, mainly due to a large number of things going on at once. The last week has been very busy as my Mum came out to Guyana to visit me. Her last visit to the country was in 1985 so things will have changed a bit. Apparently the main differences are more cars, traffic lights and imported goods, but otherwise the feel is the same. I think she had a good time and got to meet up with some people she hadn't seen for a very long time. I took her to have a look around Saints and Mercy Wings, and also took her along to Woodside choir to see what that was like! During her visit I got plenty of free meals which is always a bonus.

For the weekend we went to a resort called Arrowpoint for an overnight trip. It was nice there - although a little odd as we were the only two people so we rattled around a bit. Nevertheless we did a few walks in the forest, kayaked and went on a few boat trips where we saw some small Cayman. Most people have recommended it to me but I think it would be best with a decent sized group - I think our trip only ran because two guys came out with us to fix the wireless internet.. I have now packed her off on a plane to Carnival in Trinidad where I imagine she will have a great time.

It's coming up to Mashramani - Guyana's own carnival and there are a number of events going on in the lead up to it. One was a Steel pan competition held at the National sports hall in Georgetown which I went to last night. It was a really great evening with a good atmosphere. There were soloists and duets which got a bit drowned out by the ambient noise (people selling stuff and shouting "Pringles", "Nuts" from time to time, as well as general chatter and shuffling) but the best shows were from the bands. The police band ended up winning but there were a number of very good acts. Everyone played the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's Messiah (which comes off surprisingly well on the steel pan) and a piece of their own choice, which in all cases involved a lot of jumping around, swapping of pans and so on. By the end everyone was bouncing around and for the police band encore the centre of the hall was filled with bopping persons.


An entertaining aspect which to me didn't actually detract from the event was that it started (naturally) very late. With a start time of 5pm I dutifully took my seat at 4:58pm at which point a couple of the bands were still arranging their instruments and unpacking. Music finally started at 6:30pm "a few minutes late" which apparently was to "allow for efficiency later on". I didn't see much of the efficiency and it didn't finish till 10pm but nevertheless it was good fun. Other funny things included a chap selling nuts wearing a blue Cellink (mobile phone operator) cape and chef's hat, and the fact that there was one slow person serving at the food table with no change and 100 hungry customers not exactly queuing during the interval.

As for everything else, well with just over 2 months left it's time to get on with things. This week I'm going to be spending some time at Mercy Wings so I imagine there will be more on that shortly.

Until next time...

Well the last six weeks have involved plenty of travel and holidaying but now I'm back in town for the foreseeable future and back to work. I mentioned in a previous post that I was interested to see what would happen at Saints if I disappear for two weeks - and fortunately it went without mishap. I had made an effort to leave some documentation and check that the technician I work with had everything in hand and it all worked out. A dry run, if you like, for when I leave in April; I am trying to avoid coming in to set something up that will only fall apart when I leave.

In fact the work at Saints is going well and we have a good platform for building up the facilities and ultimately their education benefit, so I will soldier on. I also saw another side of Saints on Friday - one of the teachers put on a Spanish afternoon - Cafe Caribe, which involved small tables being set out in the forum and a number of performances on stage. There were several Spanish presentations and poems, and a number of dance acts which were all very impressive. Two couples wowed the crowd with some quite enthusiastic dancing and there was one group act of about 12 people which was quite outstanding. Apparently they had only spent two weeks preparing but it came off very professionally. Some of the people I associate with are a bit skeptical of what goes on at Saints and it is easy for that to rub off - but it is a vibrant and lively place with some very talented and intelligent students - which showed at Cafe Caribe. They also gave me some cake, and free food always improves my opinion. As well as the dancers a group of about 15 boys from the 4th or 5th form (I think) sang a couple of songs - including "La Cucaracha" which was very funny to see. There were some good costumes too - unfortunately I wasn't armed with my camera (myself and the technician were forcibly escorted form the IT lab to our table by two chicas) but I did manage to get hold of some photos.

On Wednesday I took another trip to Mercy Wings school, where they are hoping to install a network and increase the usage of their (fairly decent) IT lab which is only used for a few hours a week currently. I have said I will help with this, and I also hope to do some work to encourage/guide the use of the facilities to help with teaching. A while ago I wrote about a trip to Mocha where I was planning to help with some community IT project; the problem there is that I would not have time to set something up from scratch that could be sustainable, particularly given that I have never done anything like that before. Mercy Wings has good facilities already so all it would really need my enthusiasm which I hope to lend over the coming months.

Last night I was invited to a lime (read drinking session) with my landlady who lives upstairs which was quite fun, and her daughter who had just returned from the UK presented some Wine Gums and Jelly Babies for the snacks bowl - both things you can't get here so I had plenty with the ensuing sugar low.

Not many photos this time unfortunately, I shall have to do some more scenic activities for the next post. Also my mum (who is British) arrives in town on Wednesday for her first trip to Guyana in 25 years so it will be interesting to see what she thinks of it after all this time...

Well, I'm back in Georgetown and am in one piece after spending two weeks in the jungle on a survival course, and it was an amazing experience. There were 6 of us on the trip; three Brits, a Dutchman, an Australian and an 18 year old American called Blaze, whose also happened to be good at building big fires. The trip was run by Bushmasters, a British company which runs trips in Guyana, and if you want an adventure I'd recommend having a look as it is extremely well run and you will have no shortage of adventure and Ian, who runs the company, will make sure that whatever happens you do a lot of cool stuff.

We began with a trip to Kaieteur, reputedly one of the world's largest single drop falls and amongst the most powerful, which is one of Guyana's must see attractions. After a flight lasting about an hour we got off and were guided around by a local Amerindian chap. I have never been to Niagara or any other similar attraction but I imagine there are hotels, shops and all kinds of things there - upon arrival we found a small airstrip with a few guys sitting around outside a lodge building that I don't think is quite finished! Of course Niagara must get many hundreds of thousands of visitors if not more in a year and I imagine Kaieteur probably doesn't have more than a few small group in during a week, but it was an entertaining snapshot of Guyana and one of its national treasures.

The falls themselves were magnificent as expected and we were taken to a number of viewing points and then to the top. One of the nice things is that there are no barriers - you can sit right on the edge, and I did. Also it was quite spectacular to crawl to the edge of a ledge and look right down into the waterfall. All in all it was a great experience; the only downside is that it is quite expensive and quite a lot travel to get to.

After this we headed back to Georgetown to get the bus down to Surama where the real fun was about to start. This time I took the Intraserv bus, a proper coach which is built like a tank to be able to handle the rough road down into the interior. We left at 9pm and had a bumpy and uncomfortable overnight trip, arriving in Surama at around 8am the following day. Surama is a small village of just under 250 people on the road to Lethem with a great Eco-Lodge which serves tourists and I imagine provides a significant income for the village. The Amerindian people seem to live a very good life - with good weather and beautiful landscape they farm cassava, hunt and fish in the forest and live apparently very peaceful lives. If you ever feel like starting a minimal rural life - go and live in an Amerindian village!

We spent one night at the lodge and having collected and prepared all our kit we donned rucksacks and went for about an hour's trek into the bush to the first camp. This consisted of three wooden buildings that were originally built for a TV show and was a good place to start. We stayed there for four days learning how to use a bow an arrow, fish, light fires and generally live in the jungle. We had four Amerindian guides to help us and show us how to do things. Bush related things to them are second nature - they don't seem to ever sweat, some walk around the jungle in flip flops or barefoot and generally find all the jungley stuff easy. Tourists are quite funny to them I think, as they are always chuckling at our inept machete use in our jungle boots and camelbacks. Following this we took a 30km trip by engine boat along the river to the second camp - Rain Camp, where it did in fact rain a great deal and we had to get used to being damp.


The main tool was the machete which we used to chop firewood, build shelters and generally always was at our side. The Kukrit nut contains a small grub which is good for eating and fishing bait but has to be cut out - a number of us (including me) sliced bits of our fingers opening them as they were quite tough. Some of our group were definitely camping outdoors people - sadly I am not really. As a result I tended to take longer than everyone else and be last at most things as I was not so good at the practical stuff - fires, cutting, setting up hammocks and so on.

All of this was gearing up for the final event - two days and two nights in isolation where we are dropped off with only a few things to survive with: bow and arrow, fishing kit, fire kit (cotton wool and striker), iodine (for wounds and water purification) and machete. We also could take in a medkit, emergency radio and camera for those all important self-portraits. Anyway I was dropped off at my area by boat at about 9am (although I had to leave my watch) and set to building my shelter. This was quite a good shelter, I thought, and it took me perhaps about 5 hours to get finished. After this I spent a number of hours getting a fire going as the wood around was generally a bit damp and it took a lot of effort. As we are near the equator it essentially gets dark at 6pm and stays dark until 6am consistently, so as it got dark I settled down in my shelter to sleep for the night. After a while my fire went out and it got a bit chilly, and I could hear a few mosquitos buzzing at my ear. It turned out to be a very cold and uncomfortable night and I didn't get much sleep - but there wasn't anything else to do as it was pitch black outside and I imagine there were a few scurrying creatures I didn't want to meet.


Finally daylight came so I got up but felt pretty bad - 20 hours with no food and poor sleep made life a bit more difficult. I did some fishing and caught some small fish, and tried using them to catch bigger fish but with no luck.As the day got on I started a fire again and thought about getting some food in. I chopped down a heart of palm tree which has a core at the top which is good to eat, and I roasted 9 Kukrit grubs on my fire, which was very tasty. After this I started gearing up for the night ahead and collecting firewood. I popped into the river for a wash which is when I realised I was covered in bites - it turns out the mosquitos must have found me quite tasty and bit me through my clothes. I later counted over 300 bites on my body! I was already quite miserable and didn't want to face another night of being eaten alive so I got on the radio and got picked up. I then had a glorious night's sleep in my hammock and mozzie net which seemed like a palace in comparison!

I was quite disappointed not to make the second night, but isolation was much more of a challenge than I thought, and I believe in the past people have come out for all sorts of reasons - some just because they didn't like it. It was quite an interesting personal experience and perhaps showed me that I am, in fact, not indestructible. Handy to know!

The next morning we picked up the other survivors and headed back to the lodge for a hearty meal, real (cold water) shower and to pack up all the kit. We also took a trip into Surama and saw some village animals including a very friendly tapir, followed by some drinks at the lodge and much needed sleep in a real bed. The next day, back on the bus and back to civilization!


It was a truly amazing experience - just to be so deep in the jungle and living in a hammock, washing in the creek and watching the Amerindians at work. Although isolation was miserable, it also made the trip and I am glad I did it - I think everyone got a lot from it. A shame to come out, but at least now the bites are healing! For now, back to Saints for me, and back to their home countries for the others. Needless to say, I hope to return to the jungle again sometime...

A whole bunch more photos here.

Since I returned from Lethem things have been quite busy on the social front; the three Canadians I went to the ranch with were in Georgetown so we spent most evenings socialising with various bits of the volunteer community and sampling Guyanese nightlife. On New Year's Eve - called Old Year's Night here, we went to a party at a diplomat's house along with 150 other people which was great fun. I ended up wandering into a new group of people and later we went to another party which was still going strong when we arrived at 4am. Finally we headed to someone else's house and watched the sun rise on their balcony before heading home for 8am and a good sleep. Naturally it's warm enough to be outside all night - from the news it looks like it's a very different story in the UK!

Life is returning somewhat to normal now and term has just started. However I'm about to head off on another adventure - this time a survival course in the jungle where I will learn to build a shelter, light a fire, kill my own food and do other cool stuff. After spending around 10 days learning what to do, you are then placed in isolation with a machete and some flint to fend for yourself for three days, finding your own food and water etc. I'm pretty excited about it - since I arrived I have wanted to see what the jungle is really like, I'm about to find out! I'm also heading to Kaieteur falls as part of the package which everyone says is a must-see so I'm looking forward to that also.

Bushmasters, the company running the trip, provides all the equipment but suggest that you bring a headtorch for night time (I don't think there are any streetlights out there.) I've hunted around Georgetown for a while with no luck so I'll just have to manage with a standard torch unless someone lends me one. The reason I mention it is that despite my normal experience of indifferent customer service here, I was pleasantly surprised that upon asking in a store the person I asked a) made the effort to call someone to ask if they had it in stock and b) gave me a number of suggestions as to where I could find some (without me even asking). It turns out if you go to the right places people know how to get their customers to come back. This store, Giftland Officemax, has a good reputation  among other things stocks a huge selection of DVDs which I have spent a reasonable amount of time perusing. They didn't have any headtorches though.

I'll be heading into the bush during term time, which on the one hand is not so convenient (but the only time I could go) on the other hand it will be a chance to see if everything will work without me there to keep an eye on it. I've spent this last week preparing proper documentation for the systems we have in place and ensuring the technician I work with has everything in hand. I'm treating it as a bit of a dry run for when I leave; a standard problem for volunteer types I think is to come and set up some whizz-bang system and then leave without anyone knowing how to maintain it (or even what it does...) Anyway I hope not to do that, so we shall see how the next few weeks go.

Provided I am not eaten by a Jaguar, Anaconda, Cayman, bitten by a venomous snake or die of starvation I'll be back in a couple of weeks with plenty of pictures and stories to tell. Until next time...