Blogs from Guyana, South America - page 4

The route from the border to Georgetown consists of almost continuous housing, constructed upon wooden stilts to keep the properties from flooding. The housing is intermittent with mosques and other places of religion, which typifies the ethnic mix in this country. This mix originates from the abolition of slavery in 1834, when Africans refused to work on the plantations for wages, and many established their own villages in the bush. Plantations closed or consolodated because of the labour shortage. A British company, Booker Bros, resurrected the sugar industry by importing indentured labour from India, drastically transforming the nation´s demographic and laying the groundwork for fractious racial politics that continues to be a problem today. Georgetown still bears the scars of the elections of 2001 when entire blocks of Georgetown were set ablaze. The capial still has ... read more

just in case you missed my message, i've shifted my blog to http://candle4kindness.wordpress.com enjoy! julie.... read more

DAY 1: I forgot to setback my watch when I crossed from Suriname and hence woke up an hour earlier than I should, I sat in the front desk area of the hotel reading all the local papers trying to kill time. I get to encounter English words we don't normally use in the USA. Frank arrived to pick me up at 6am Guyana time, Ashley(from Delaware) and Emily and Tad(West Virginia) were already in the 4WD truck, they will be my trekking buddies for the next 5 days, the girls are Peace Corps Response volunteers and Tad is here to visit his sister. The roads were good up to Linden, we saw Bauxite processing plants in the area, raw materials for aluminum. The rough roads started after that, dirt, gravel road, not so bad the ... read more

Six dark figures approached me on the jungle path. Five of them were carrying machetes. Hotel Rwanda? Long sleeves or short sleeves? Would this be my end? Music emanated from the approaching men. The sixth figure was carrying a boom box. I breathed a sigh of relief. The men were pork knockers on their way back from a long days work. Since the world diamond price had dropped, they were in need of a new source of income. There be gold in them there hills! The switch had left its consequences. Battery casings lay everywhere, mercury polluted the rivers. People were sick, there nerves at an end. Relief coming from puffs of ganja. Rodney had owned a guesthouse until gambling left him pork knocking the tiny stream behind the village. A karat of small, low quality ... read more

Another update from the jungle. Guyana just celebrated its republic day in the form of many street carnivals around the country. The festival is the biggest in Guyana and is called Mashramani. I have been lucky enough to help in organising the event, in making the costumes and dance in the carnival. I helped with the Presidents Youth Award costume that consisted of a 3m long dove and 30 volunteers dressed in bright colours dancing up the street. The day, Saturday 23rd February, started with the most horrendous tractor journey to Kumaka. I had to share this tractor with a dove, 20 people and a singing bird. I swear I almost fell off the side so many times. We arrived in Kumaka at 9.30 when the parade was supposed to start at 9! I was told ... read more