Guyana Travel Blogs

Africa

Antarctica

Asia

Central America Caribbean

Travel Blog » South America » Guyana

Links: Guyana Travel Blogs (all) | Guyana Travel Photos | Guyana Travel Forum | Guyana Facts | Map of Guyana

Guyana Travel Blogs

Background: Originally a Dutch colony in the 17th century, by 1815 Guyana had become a British possession. The abolition of slavery led to black settlement of urban areas and the importation of indentured servants from India to work the sugar plantations. This ethnocultural divide has persisted and has led to turbulent politics. Guyana achieved independence from the UK in 1966, but until the early 1990s it was ruled mostly by socialist-oriented governments. In 1992, Cheddi JAGAN was elected president, in what is considered the country's first free and fair election since independence. Upon his death five years later, he was succeeded by his wife Janet, who resigned in 1999 due to poor health. Her successor, Bharrat JAGDEO, was reelected in 2001.

Guyana

Map of Guyana

Guyana's Flag

Hostels in Guyana
Latest Guyana Blog Entries
Guyana Photos

By blmoffit
March 12th 2007

Stapler Extraordinaire

South America » Guyana » Lethem

List of Villages

Today was pretty much the same as yesterday. Mrs. Foo cooked breakfast and we headed to the hospital. Because it is a normal working day here I lost my desk by all the windows and got stuck in a little room with half a desk and few windows. It was a little stuffy, but bearable overall. I saw about 30 people. Some were just picking up the results from their last test and some were new patients, which is always good. One thing I had to do today that I didn’t do yesterday was fold and staple result sheets. It [View Full Entry]

By blmoffit
March 11th 2007

Some Real Work

South America » Guyana » Lethem

Mrs. Foo

Mrs. Foo cooked an excellent breakfast for us this morning: oatmeal, eggs, sausage (hot dogs), and toast with guava jam. I wasn’t so sure about the jam since I don’t eat many fruits but it was excellent! I am going to try to find a couple jars in town before I leave. The whole team headed to the hospital to start work. I spent a little less than 4 hours registering patients. I get all their information like medical background and current problems so that the doctors don’t have to take time doing that. RAM has a huge database of [View Full Entry]

By blmoffit
March 10th 2007

The Wild West; Sort Of

South America » Guyana » Lethem

TGA

Georgetown to Lethem Georgetown to Lethem Georgetown To Lethem Becky We took a taxi to Ogle Airport to leave for Lethem. We checked in at 9 a.m. and our flight left a little after 10. It was the smallest plane I have ever flown in. There were 4 rows of 3 seats and only 1 pilot whom we could see the entire time. From the air we saw only rainforest until we were eventually over the savannahs and landed in Lethem. Lethem is completely different from Georgetown. It i [View Full Entry]

By blmoffit
March 9th 2007

Run Around

South America » Guyana » Georgetown

KFC Georgetown

At 8:00 a.m. we met the doctors at Ward E of the Public Hospital where the patients are staying and discussed solutions to yesterday’s problems. One problem that I forgot to mention was how we are getting our stuff to Lethem. We are taking a TGA, Trans Guyana Airways, flight from Georgetown to Lethem and they only allow 25 pounds of luggage per person. Dad and I have around 250 pounds together. Someone was supposed to drive down all our bags, but he is working with Wings of Hope right now. We talked to Sheldon and he suggested putting it [View Full Entry]

By blmoffit
March 8th 2007

The Aliens Have Landed

South America » Guyana » Georgetown

Sci-Fi Mass

Jenny picked Dad and I up at 8:30 and they dropped me off at the Public Hospital. I hurried up to the theater, which is the operating suite basically, expecting to find the doctors already in surgery. I got some scrubs on and my little hat and booties and went to the operating room. No doctors. I went back to the lobby area and someone told me the doctors had not arrived. They showed up after 10 minutes, they were visiting our patients, and we sat around until the first patient was ready for surgery. I didn’t help with this [View Full Entry]

By blmoffit
March 7th 2007

Nurse Becky!

South America » Guyana » Georgetown

Bill and Christine

Today began early with breakfast and taxi ride to the Public Hospital. We met Dr. Bill Irvin, Dr. Christine Wamhoff, and Laura LaBore, an American nurse/pilot who lives here in Georgetown. All three are the type of people you would expect to find volunteering for RAM: friendly, dedicated, and hard working. A nurse at the hospital hunted down some scrubs for me, and the first surgery began around 10 a.m. It lasted until noon. I made it through without getting sick or fainting and we grabbed a quick lunch at a little shop across the street. The second surgery was [View Full Entry]

By blmoffit
March 6th 2007

Still No Doctors

South America » Guyana » Georgetown

One of the doctors I will be working with, Christine Wamhoff, was supposed to arrive late last night, but she missed her flight in Miami. She and Dr. Bill Irvin, the other doctor I will be working with, should arrive late tonight. Today was scheduled as a day for Christine to go to the Public Hospital and do exams on all our patients before the surgeries start tomorrow. There are also three CT scans scheduled for today that plans have not been finalized for. We waited around the hotel after breakfast for a call from Terrence to find out what we [View Full Entry]

By blmoffit
March 5th 2007

Phagwah and the Zoo

South America » Guyana » Georgetown

Guyana Zoo

Today is a Guyanese holiday called Phagwah, which is for celebrating the triumph of good over evil. Apparently they have quite a few holidays around here. They celebrate most every religious holiday, Canadian holidays, and British holidays. The only celebrating I’ve noticed due to Phagwah is that most people have this silver powder on them. Someone told us that they used to throw water on each other, but then everyone was walking around soaking wet so they started throwing powder instead. The powder is supposed to have some medicinal significance to ward off the colds of springtime. [View Full Entry]

By blmoffit
March 4th 2007

No Work for Me

South America » Guyana » Georgetown

Part of Mecry Hospital

The team headed for the Pakaraimas left at 4 a.m. this morning. After another lazy morning, Stan, Terrance, Dad, and I took a taxi to the Public hospital to speak with Dr. Rangel about the upcoming surgeries. We returned to the hotel where we met up with Radeck, who is from Guyana originally, his wife Rebecca, and their nine year old adopted Guyanese daughter, Michaela. They live in Canada but are down here visiting and will be helping out since they know the area. He does something to do with teeth and she is an RN in women’s health. They [View Full Entry]

By blmoffit
March 3rd 2007

The Guyana Cinema

South America » Guyana » Georgetown

Paul

There wasn’t much on the schedule today for Nicole and I, so I decided to sleep. I think I got up around 8. I am losing track of time here since I don’t have a watch with me and most of the hotel clocks are terribly wrong. I got my shower and all that and then did some Sudoku puzzles until about eleven. I went downstairs and found Nicole on the computer. We watched the last half of some Indian (India Indian) movie called “Sanjay.” It was soooo funny. It wasn’t supposed to be, but there were several horribly done [View Full Entry]

Links: Guyana Travel Blogs (all) | Guyana Travel Photos | Guyana Travel Forum | Guyana Facts | Map of Guyana

Travel Blog » South America » Guyana