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.
