X Marks the Spot

And the spot is definitely Kopinang. The most amazing village I have been to in Guyana. Why?

An Orange is an Orange and an orange is Orange

Oranges and tangerines are actually orange and as juicy as drinking juice right out of the fruit itself. This as opposed to the green and dry fruits we get around the rest of the country.

Initiative

People are getting out there and working hard for the improvement of their lives. I saw an active PTA (Parent/Teacher Association) fixing the school's roof and building extra latrines around the school, with money they had fundraised and/or invested themselves.

The School Feeding Programme is a World Bank funded project that provides a hot meal a day for every child in the hinterland schools which applied for this programme. It's more of a match funding project and the WB is preparing to pull out next year from reports I heard. Does this mean children will stop getting a hot meal every day? Yes, in most cases, I'm afraid. Certainly not the case at Kopinang Primary School. The committee has everything sorted out or underway.

Some good old play a day keeps the doctor away

Kopinang Creek aka the shower aka the playground

Ignoring the fact that I was fascinated by the idea of having a toilet, a shower and a kitchen with running water, I was so delighted by the rocky creek just below the house, that I ended up never using the shower.

Every morning I'd go for a bath in the creek and most of the days children would be swimming, paddling up and downstream in their miniature canoes, before heading out to school.

One of the many things I've learned in this wonderful country is how important it is to slow down. Back at home, children are rushed out of bed early in the morning after a late night watching TV, playing video games or facebooking, whereas here (and mainly in remote areas, due to the non existence of electricity) children go to bed early, which means they get up naturally with the sunrise and end up having time to play, bathe and have fun before going to school.

If at home I used to try to beat my "up and out" record, having made it in 30 minutes, minimum time (this is from the moment the alarm rings to the moment you put your foot out of the door), here in Guyana it takes me about three hours. Yeah, not one, not two, but three!

How shocked are you, dear friends from home? And I suppose you're wondering what on Earth might I do during that time. Easy: I go for a jog or a walk, have a shower, do my laundry, eat a slow breakfast and read for fun.

So, here's to slowing down and savouring each moment!

View From the Classroom

Kopinang Primary School

The Kopinang Airstrip

Our Transpee

72 steps to Ms Daisy's house - it's just like being in a fairy tale!

Pretty church!

Is this a cute bridge or what?

W is for Washing Line

This was my washing line in Kopinang, North Pakaraimas, Potaro/Siparuni. Living and loving in Guyana for two years has made me a very resourceful woman, and that gives me points in the marriage market, doesn’t it, CB?

S is for sundays

Sundays are normally slower anywhere in the world,  aren't they? Well in Mahdia things never get too slow, thanks to the  flow of miners who've just done a wash down and are looking for places  to spend their money.

A  good Sunday normally involves crepes with melted cheese shared with the  neighbours for breakfast and a cricket match in the afternoon.

The weather has been extremely dry here and therefore the water tanks are almost empty so we’ve struggled a bit with water.

Nonetheless, a powerful cloud landed right above Campbelltown (Amerindian village in Mahdia) in the early afternoon, as everyone was getting ready for the cricket match. So… we sat, drank some cool beers and waited, while the kids played football in the cool rain. Nothing like a Sunday lime!

The shower was strong and fast, so the match still took place. I tried out some batting before the game… and ouch how heavy was that bat?! Especially after having made 3 cakes for a birthday boy. Girly arms I have! *shrugs shoulders*

 Is there anything as glorious and contagious as a child’s laughter?  (unless it’s excessive hyperactivity!) I love my Mahdian babies!

 

Sun coming down... let's hide from the mosquitoes!

a is for annoyed :(

annoyed. had a pretty sweet post. lost it as well as all the time spent uploading.
boo.
red face.

M is for Map

The Venezuelan map is quite interesting. In this version they have at least highlighted the "Zona de Reclamacion" with stripes.
So, according to Venezuela, Guyana consists of Georgetown and Berbice. Good enough, no?
I mean, who cares about region 1, 2, 3, 7, 8, 9 and 10?!
Guyana would just have to give up the gold mining, the bauxite mining, Shell Beach, Rupununi. And we'd still keep Orealla, 63 Beach and GT!

 

A wonderful weekend began with a normal day of work (not that that really exists around here). I typed and I printed, getting ready for next school year, which begins in September and I had another little communication failure with my boss. A true tragicomedy. Oh, and a girl moved into my house. It's now a much tidier cottage.
Four fellow VSOs met me here in Mahdia, where we had a cruiser waiting to take us to Pamela Landing, where we hopped onto a boat that took us to Amatuk Island. From the Patamona "Ama Tuok", meaning "Love Falls" and the story that originated this name shall be told in another post.

Amatok Island

The miners limed at the shop you can see in the above picture till around 10pm. Then there was a guy who jumped onto the excavator and went home... great family car, no?

When we got to the island night was already falling (nite a shut), so we slung our hammocks annd headed out to the Amatok Falls, in which me and Selina bathed our feet and tried to communicate with the rest of the group using our flash lights. Unsuccessfully. I don't care what people say, about pirai and electric eels, getting my feet in the water is the least I can do.

Early morning faces, heading out of Amatok

The following morning, we hopped into a boat at the top of Amatok and headed up the powerful Potaro during about an hour. 


When we got to Waratok Falls, we helped move the boat to the top of the rapids. About half an hour later we stopped at Tukeit, with a view to the Old Man Beard Falls.

Waratok, helping to carry the boat.

Tukeit was precisely the place where all our easy and chilled boat rides up the Potaro ended and were replaced with a four hour walk, passing at “Oh My God I” and "Oh My God II”. (Truth be ttold, it's an easy hike. I can't say the same of the 8 day trip to Kaieteur, as it involves way more walking... but hey, why suffer if I can have more boat riding fun up the beautiful Potaro?)

Magnificent Potaro

Wonderful Potaro

The peeps I walked with down from Kaieteur

The hike is relatively easy and has several strategic stops. My favourite is undoubtedly Grandmother Falls. It was given this name because, just like a grandmother will take care of her grandchildren, these falls will provide drinking water no matter what. Even in the dry season.

Grand Mother Falls

About four hours and a lot of sweat later, we caught a glimpse of the magnificent falls. It's always surrounded by mist. When we saw the falls for the first time we were a bit disappointed, because the mist was hiding it almost completely, but it gradually disppersed and when we got closer the view was breathtaking.

The great Kaieteur Falls, hiding behind the fast moving mist.

Valley that Kaieteur falls into

Where else in the world are you allowed to walk straight up to the last centimetre of rock right above the waterfalls? I actually sat with my feet dangling over the edge and no one said a thing. There is no protection, no barrier, no artificial separation between the visitor and the falls. It's a fabulous feeling, of oneness with mother nature (or miss universe?), fuh true!

Kaieteur Grand Ole Times

When we got to the guesthouse, our guide told us that the shower was broken, and that was exactly the excuse I needed to go to the top of the falls and bathe. And a bath that is a bath... involves no clothes. True bliss, to be there right above such a powerful force.

(No pictures, at least that I know of lol)

Come and discover this Guyana now, the Guyana that lacks a paved road connecting its capital to the south, the Guyana that lacks limits and stress, the Guyana made of idyllic landscapes, because a new Guyana will be born as soon as the tarmac is spread out.


Oh Guyana, meh love yuh bad bad!

A is for accent

As I’ve said before, one of the many things I will miss when I leave Guyana is chatting with each and every soul whenever I go down the road. And I’m not very good at it… I misunderstand what people say half the time.

Just today this happened:

Insane, init?

I’ll leave you with some of my favourite expressions:
- Night a shut – Night’s falling
- Wapen? – What’s up?
- Ok ok - When you’re walking down the road this is one of the ways of saying hi. And the reply is Yeah yeah.
- Fuh true? Seriously? Really?
- Yuh mekin joke! You’re can’t be serious.
- Just now – This defines a period of time that can range between “this second, as we speak” and “in a decade”. It’s quite a nifty word!

Leh meh go fuh wok, nah. Ah gonna write a new post just now, fuh true!

T is for Tukait

T is for Tukait
Do you know those days that exhale perfection? Those days that are so beautiful you wish you could save some of the moments and pictures in a safe box easily accessible so that you could jump in an relive the dream whenever you’re down or feeling less inspired?

Well, I have no photographs to prove the day, because I broke my camera and got my phone robbed. Again. So I didn’t want to spend a day in the river with the new phone… let’s give this one some more alive time, shall we?

The day began at an early 5h30. We drove and ATVed to Pamela Landing, just 9 miles off Mahdia. At Pamela we hopped onto a boat with a 15 engine and believe me I also thought it was too small until I tried picking it up when we had to travel with the boat overland.

During the boat ride to Amatok Island we passed by several land dredges and water dredges (aka dragas, due to Portuguese influence). These are impressive floating buildings, with the mining components at water level and a house on the top floor. They normally have satellite TV and internet access. To me it’s always a sad site, because the impact is unavoidably huge.

As we got closer to Amatok the number of dredges reduced and suddenly the latte water turned into thick-black-oil-water. That’s what it looks like, oil, because it’s so dark. The colour is due to the tannins, just like in tea. And that’s exactly what a glass full of river water looks like.

Bad news at Amatok: the water was very low, so we had to carry the boat for about 10 minutes, which felt more like an eternity. I was really proud of myself at the time and now, one day later, am in terrible muscular pain… Oh the Tom Boy!

Feeling tired but glorious, with boat in water, we continued up the Potaro River and stopped again at Tukait Falls. It’s a series of rapids and due to the low level of water, we splashed and got dragged by the current, having some fabulous fall fun!

Just below the falls there’s an idyllic white sand beach where you can hide from the sun in the shade provided by the jungle trees.
I swam across the Potaro with the pirai in mind and therefore looking at my feet whenever something brushed into them. Ok, not quite, and hey I can say nothing bit me, yay! The best swimming pool is the river, no doubt!

So, after a brilliant day with some of the people I will miss the most when my time in Guyana comes to an end, we headed back and were blessed by four rainbows. Ahead of us were two rainbows, reaching from one bank to another, as if handles of a basket, being the Potaro River the basket. The other two were the reflections on the water and the water was so still the picture was too good to be true – a circle of rainbows!

L is for Love

Looking at the calendar I realize that I’ve been living in Guyana for over 16 months. Guyana is no longer an acquaintance, it’s like family, our love will survive anything, it’ll always be a part of me, even when I’m angry with her. And of course, it’s not only out of habit that our love has grown, as you can see from the posts in this blog!

Every day I discover a new love here, something that moves me: the amazing view from the hill, a tiny water frog sitting on the tin of corn (come on, water frogs rock because they eat yucky bugs… and are cute when they don’t panic and jump onto you), my neighbour teaching me to make roti and eddo leaf stew that doesn't "scratch your mouth", the rain that fills the tanks and washes the dust away (the roads too, which is not so good), the amazing and forever changing skies, the slowing down of my hectic lifestyle, and a never ending list…

I was sat here, wondering what Guyanese love about Guyana, so I decided to ask around.

Like me and you are here now, gaffing. I love having the time. Out there you don’t have time, people always working and running.

(Ruth)

Peace. There is no war to go out to.

(Ottis)

  

Everything in general. Freedom in particular.

(Ian)

 

The magnificent sceneries.

(Vernon)

The cultural variety. Women are all so different. (smile)

(Andre)

The rivers, I love all the river life.
(Margaret) 

And last, but not least, my favourite answer and the most passionate one, that you have to read as fast as you can, until you loose your breathe, because Guyana's beauty is precisely that: breathe taking:

The women, cheap food, never ending variety of greens and fruit, parties are the bomb, generosity, one man buying drinks for all his friends, cricket and cricket parties, the variety of food, curries, black pudding, coconut water, the unique expressions, Amerindian tribes, the spectacular Indian weddings, funeral wakes, dominoes, coffee, friends and liquor, US dollar exchanges, new and old cultures, undocumented, boats, 4 wheel bikes, donkey carts, cell phones, satellite phones and bush radios, everybody knows somebody that you know, price of gold, African Kweh kwehs, big noisy sound systems, soca music, reggae music, young women and men contorting their bodies in wild sexual abandon when they dance.

(Nicholas)

Oh Guyana LOVE!

r is for rain

In Guyana, we don’t have four seasons; Life is easier as we have two summers: a wet one and a dry one (officially Rainy season & Dry season). In actual fact, in Mahdia there is never a truly dry season; Even in the dry season it normally rains twice a day, at around 5AM and then at about 5PM, so we can easily rely on the rain water for everything. This is wonderful, because it works like natural AC, bringing temperatures down quite a lot. Especially at night the rainy season can be pretty cool.

When it rains it pours, especially if you are in the rainforest, as the name suggests…

[Extension of RH Hotel, the only one in Mahdia - When it rains, you can't see 2 feet ahead of you]

The energy with which the rain falls here reminds me of the Atlantic Ocean back home on a stormy winter’s day. It is so powerful and godly, making me feel tiny and defenceless and at the same time grateful for the chance to experience such intense beauty.

I love falling asleep to the sound of rain and thunder, as well as the random brightness that illuminates the house when lightning strikes. 

Waking up to the loud thunder is scary and really makes for the perfect cuddle moment.

It has been too much lately and some villages and towns are flooded. Mahdia is on the top of hills, so it’s almost impossible to flood. I heard a theory about this the other day whereby the Patamona tribe (the local tribe) were the weakest, so they always built their houses on high spots, borderingthe savannah and the forest, so that they could easily run and hide away in the lush forest if they were attacked. For that reason, the Patamona are more fortunate when it comes to excessive rain.

I haven’t read the papers yet, but hope the situation doesn’t get too bad and I also hope food is getting to the villages suffering with these floods.

W is for Warning

Inspired by a book I read years ago, by Juan José Millás entitled The Alphabetical Disorder (wildly free translation of El Orden Alfabético), I've decided that this blog will no longer follow the alphabetical order; we’ll follow our heart and talk about what moves us at a given moment. So, eventually the whole alphabet will be here, but till then, each letter shall land here in its own order.
By the way, you should grab yourselves a copy of this creative and surreal world, narrated by a teenager, in a very enticing book.

M is for Mahdia

My Mahd Little Mahdia is the Administrative Centre for Region 8, Potaro/Siparuni. It started by being a simple “landing”, which is a place where miners gather to stock up for their camps, sell gold and have some fun. 

Just the other day I spoke to Mr Fredericks, who did some mining here in the 70’s; In those days this place was literally a landing, with only 1 trail and some stellings (stalls).

Many people come, set up mining camps, invest all they have and expect the best. Life in the backdam (out of town mining camps, where all you see are clearings, deep pits filled with water of different colours, big tents made of tree trunks and tarpaulin, 4x4 vans, caterpillars, bulldozers and men in rubber boots) is hard and intense; there is no such thing as a holiday. So people tend to spend a couple of months there and then head back home with their money.

Notwithstanding, upon leaving the backdam with a pile of money, there is a tendency to spend some wild time at the landing, ie, Mahdia. Normally this involves lots of investment in drinks and lady-fun. Money flies away… and so it’s better to head back to the backdam for some more time before visiting the wife (hopefully still…) and kids.

Truth be said, many miners are focused on their aims in life and manage it in an efficient manner. There are men that came with the intention of spending a year and making enough money to build up their family house and ended up staying for over 12 years, because they had children and those children are now studying in private schools.

So the backdam can be brill, although it’s quite a gamble.

In Mahdia people move at the same rhythm as gold can be found, ie unexpectedly. If you are planning on opening a store, for instance, there is no telling what will sell, nor which will be the best day of the week. Everything comes in from Parika or Georgetown by road, which involves over between 7 to 10 hours of a rough ride on a bumpy red-road trail. This causes prices to be double or more the shelf price in Georgetown.

What do we have around here?

- A district hospital with the friendliest staff in the world. The building is new, but equipment is not amazing; you need to go to Georgetown for an X-Ray for example.

- RDC compound – The Regional Democratic Council is the Administrative body. Here you have the Department of Education, the Board Room, the Accounts Section and Personnel Section

- A Nursery school, a Primary school and a Secondary School. Most of my time is split between the primary school and the Department of Education.

- Shops/Stalls/Restaurants/Bars – Lots of liming and drinking spots on every road/trail.

- A hotel with an amazing swimming pool. Again unexpected. And it’s brilliant to see the changes as when I first arrived you could not use the swimming pool without being filmed by men and listening to a lot of nonsense (and you know I don’t take it on). Now things are changing and some Sundays are pretty normal, ie, I see girls in swimsuits and bikinis! So obviously I’ve been getting mine out too – but only when there are more girls around, because it does get intensely awkward sometimes!

- GGMC – Guyana Geology & Mines Commission

- GECOM – Guyana Elections Commission

- Post Office – Post arrives and leaves Mahdia once a week. It can take quite a while, as you can imagine, but most things do arrive, and I’m sure that the ones that fail to arrive get “misplaced” upon arrival in country. Our Post Master (known as PM) is a super star and calls people when he sees them on the road and knows they have post.

- Police Station – My neighbours actually, so it couldn’t get safer!

Ok folks, made this list off the top of my head so I’m pretty sure I am missing out on some major things…

What does it look like? See with your own 2 eyes:

Eagle Mountain as seen from Mahdia

Main road. If you turn left, you'll get to Campbelltown, the Amerindian village

The air strip - TransGuyana and Air Services fly here

This place is definitely worth a visit and if you drive yourself up with a cruiser, even better, as you will be able to visit the Denham Bridge, aka Garraway Stream, check out the Hydro Power station that is being rehabilitated (UK equipment from the 1950s), take a look at Salbora falls and more. When you come, let me know, it’ll certainly be a weekend to remember ;)

Mahdia is where my heart is. Mahdia is home.

(This post is dedicated to Phil & Bill)

M is for Marvellous Minibus

The best way to travel within Guyana is definitely the minibus. For those of you who haven’t been in the Caribbean, delete the bus image right away and exchange it for a picture of a Toyota Hiace.

They all have wild sound systems and music is always flowing full blast. You’ll normally hear dancehall, soca, but not all is profanity! I know some minibus drivers who are very religious and active church goers, so they play religious versions of the same vibe. Interesting, really!

Minibuses are magical, I’m certain of it! There’s no way we at home could do what they here do with these vans.

K is for Kaieteur

coming soon!