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!

j is for jaguar

Worth more than a thousand words, you must watch the BBC programme The Lost Land of the Jaguar.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/tvradio/programmes/jaguar/

Guyana, I love you x

I is for interviews

(to be continued, as soon as I actually interview people :))
hang in there, it will be worth it ;)

H is for high and low

During VSO’s pre departure training, the SKWID course (Skills for Working in Development), we looked at a diagram that showed us the ups and downs of being a volunteer. Or rather some of these ups and downs.

You can check out "stages of culture shock" online.


In short, when arriving in the new country, all senses are being stimulated and excitement is the word, as you discover the new country, with all it has to offer*.

-        Even in the capital city, Georgetown, everybody acknowledges your presence. Whether or not you feel that the way it is done is appropriate or not, depends on you. I know volunteers who feel it’s an invasion of their personal space, but I, on the other side, love the fact that people are not ignored. My favourite lines are: “Shopping?”, when people see you shopping; “Taking a lot of rain” – Yeap, no locals will be seen walking in the rain and I sometimes do it without an umbrella. Wonderful, especially if you imagine temperatures higher than 30ºC and warm rain.

-        Guyanese food is delicious & spicy. My favourites are: plantain chips, fresh & soft cassava bread, pumpkin stew, dahl puree and sugar cake – YUM!

-        The variety of landscape is breathtaking: within the same region you can find the beautiful, huge skied and silent savannah and the loud waterfall-filled rainforest.

-        The work you are expected to do is highly needed. During my initial meetings with the nursery, primary and secondary teachers, there were clearly two stages: a first stage where teachers were not sure who I was, and did not know if they could trust me, because they felt that if they asked for help it was a sign of weakness or incompetence; As we gradually got to know each other, teachers started to ask for specific help.

-        There is no such thing as Winter. Although I am coming from a place where you experience the four seasons, and where Summer is slightly longer than Winter, I have never been a fan of more than a month of cold weather, so thumbs up to short sleeves!

-        Music is so sexy. Ignore the sexist lyrics, of course, and enjoy the beat. Dan has a downloadable mix on his blog.

- I have always loved cat caps and in Guyana it's ok!
 

Of course, after some time of being in the country, what you love can cause you pain: I have to admit that seldom I feel like being ignored, just one in the crowd, do my “survival” shopping and hide in the house and this is never possible where I am based. As a consequence of going shopping on an emotionally grey day, you can hear things you do not need, namely: “Looking tired white girl”; “You draggin’ yuhself”.

All the heat and humidity are perfect for fungi and terrible for your skin. Medicated powder is a skin saver!

Food wise, I miss the simplest homemade food that I cannot make here because I do not have the ingredients.
That's the time when the packages family and friends send make you smile a huger smile and cry more tears. And then, you can listen to John Legend's "Someday" and look forward to the reunion (Re lyrics: ignore the fact that it's about a couple breaking up! Focus on the "someday we'll be together")

In terms of work, beaurocracy might get in your way or power related issues and frustration can take over. At this stage it is important to remember that your role is to help improve the lives of people you know/work with and not to change the government/world. (I think I read this in the book “The white man’s burden”… not sure)

It’s important to actively find out what else has been done in your region before you arrived. Even if it is a new placement, some project has most certainly been developed involving your region, in one way or another. I remember writing recommendations (and feeling proud of them) and discovering that somebody had said the same almost ten years before me! There’s no need to reinvent the wheel as they say. That’s something we should think about while we are in placement: making connections with past projects and leaving things in place for people to take over what we are doing or to move on from there, as a stepping stone in one of the many rivers this magical country has.

So, here's to a great 2011! Keep those spirits high, beautiful people!

(Soundtrack: Save room, John Legend)

*I didn’t mention people as part of my excitement-list-on-arrival, as Mahdia is a special little place. I suppose it has to do with the fact that it is a mining town and nobody is actually from there, so it takes a while for people to open their doors to you, as - from what I now understand – the place they consider home is elsewhere. In a later stage I have been involved in unforgettable family events, which I am very grateful for. I know that this is totally different in the rest of the country.