C is for Chutney

Dear all, today we have a guest, Dan:


Wow, I'm a guest blogger. I feel important!

(I am very easily pleased)

Anyway, on with the alphabet . . .

C is for: Chutney

Not the edible kind (although as an aside, achar, a spicy mango pickle/chutney type thing is one of my favourite food discoveries here, spicy/sweet/sour/tangy deliciousness, let down only by it's rather offputting dark grey colour).

Chutney is in fact devoured through the ears.  It is, simply speaking, East Indian Carribean music, a baffling collision of calypso, soca, bollywood songs and traditional indian styles.  The singing can sound whiny to western ears, and the music can sound cheaply produced and rough around the edges, but it certainly has an energy, style and flavour all of its own.

Together with the baffling mix of musical influences is a strong emphasis on storytelling in the lyrics. Almost all songs tell a story, and some even come in a series of tracks based on the same backing music, telling different aspects of the same story.  A popular series at the moment 'Catch me Lovah' tells the story of a man finding his girlfriend in the car with another woman, who as the series progresses is revealed to have been his best friend, wearing a wig.

Nearly all Chutney songs are about either infidelity, drinking rum (generally the men drinking rum, and complaining about the women telling them off for it) or whining.  Whining means dancing like you are having sex.  Again with Chutney this leads to a thundering collision of cultures, with twisty bollywood hand movements and side to side shaking hips combined with the low down and dirty grind of typical dancehall/soca dancing.

So altogether, a unique and spicy flavour, but it can be an aquired taste.

Video for 'catch me lovah' - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFtUZ




[Me again: Just to say thank you for your emails and text messages; I really appreciate reading about what you are up to, even though I often get over nostalgic when I realize that "my world and people" are changing without me being there.
Haven't received any snail mail yet, so it takes over a month to arrive...
Loving hugs to all]

B is for Bai & Bumper

B is for Bai & Bumper

You read it “bye” and it means “boy”. People like describing you as they approach you in the road. So if you’re a guy, you’ll hear:

Wappenin whai bai? (How are you white boy?)

Talking about bais brings me to the next word. They like a good bumper!

The dictionary gives 2 explanations:

1 - a horizontal bar fixed across the front or back of a motor vehicle to reduce damage in a collision or as a trim.

2 - archaic – a generous glassful of an alcoholic drink, typically one drunk as a toast.

It also includes a phrase, that does seem more close to the point: “bumper-to-bumper: very close together, as cars in a traffic jam”

I suppose that from the above phrase you might imagine what a bumper is: buttocks.

All the Chutney, soca and dancehall musics (Dan will further explore these when the time comes) have to have this word in them. Or at least almost all of them.

So, nothing better than giving you some music: hold on to my bumper baby!

The other day Pam said that this word reminds her of me. She was my roommate at the Rima during the In Country Orientation and put up with my soca music. It was great fun sharing with you!

A is for armadillos & airstrips

Armadillos
The Bradt Guide to Guyana says that “Armadillos are easily identified by their protective bony shell”. You can find 2 types of these animals: the Giant armadillo, and the Great long-nosed armadillo.

I’m not expecting to see any, or at least not too soon, because they are nocturnal creatures and I can’t yet imagine myself going out for walks in the forest during night.

Airstrips

From what I know (and I shouldn’t be writing this without being sure), Guyana only has one airport: Cheddi Jagan International Airport. It’s in Tamehri, about an hour drive (41 km) south of Gerogetown.

If you’re visiting me, you’ll probably be bringing me things; In that case, the Bradt Guide advises the use of a taxi (20 USD) instead of the minibuses.

So, because it is not easy to get around by car – in many cases it’s impossible – there’s a lot of other ways of getting around. Namely: on foot, by boat, on an ATV and on an aircraft. These are small, allowing for up to 12 passengers and generally speaking, old. Getting into detail, you can find some that are old, quite old, or extremely old.

My first trip from Georgetown to Mahdia was on the best aircraft and it was pretty old. I was lucky enough to sit next to the pilot; As you can imagine I was like a kid, wearing a huge smile on my face and wanting to ask him trillions of questions during the flight. Of course I asked none at all: the man was piloting, for goodness sake, let him concentrate!

The view is amazing. Again, I need the modem to upload some pictures; I’ll do so as soon as Guyana gets more! But so that you get an idea, imagine never ending fields of broccoli and long wide rivers. Oh, when you imagine the rivers, think of brown water, clay coloured. My brain kept telling me it was the wrong colour, but is slowly getting used to it.

Every now and then you see a clearing and lots of colourful (I saw brown, yellow and blue) puddles. Probably gold mining camps and/or abandoned mining camps. Unfortunately this is still a problem, nothing too surprising, of course. There has been a lot of discussion going on between the miners and the government and they are trying to make mining more sustainable.
So, a little about "my" airstrip, the one in Mahdia. No duty free shopping, no building at all. Just a rough, bumpy and good enough strip. Right now some sort of building is being built: I saw the cement blocks!

[This post is dedicated to Sandie, you can imagine why :-)]

Story recommended: Goodnight Gorilla, by Peggy Rathman. For a set of activities simply follow the link.

Redesigning

Dear all,

After beginning to write lots of posts and not finishing any one of them; After having family and friends asking me for blog updates, I have now decided to do this blogging business in a different way. I love Carol Read's blog and hope that:

a) You check out her blog and pass it on to all the teachers and parents you know. It's packed with wonderful do-able, realistic and practical ideas about education and language learning

b) Carol Read doesn't mind me copying her a, b, c idea.

So, I'll be back with the "A is for..." soon!

Cheers from a very hot Georgetown

Hi there again! The weather is just perfect for snoozing. Another thing I've found quite enjoyable is doing the laundry and being careless enough to take a shower at the same time! Pretty refreshing. This  is the washing machine I've used at the Rima Guesthouse:

Confuzzling post

I am a lucky bunny*, what can I say?

Guyana has 3 counties, one of them being the Berbice, which I visited during the weekend.
I went to Cumberland, New Amsterdam and made my 1st visit to a market: Port Mourant. And what a  colourful market! Here's a photo to show you the colour of ripe oranges and tangerines (mangoes and bananas look like mangoes and bananas!):

After buying some fruit, veggies and spices, we headed of to the 63 Beach! Yeah! I love the names of the places in this road, numbers. It's perfect for a girl, because you know that the 63 beach is after 62, no worrying about north or south. Horrible sexist comments aside, this is the beach:

After readjusting my brain to the idea of brown water not meaning polluted water, I decided to go for a swim. According to Dan, it was quite cold, about 32ºC, so imagine how cold we felt, considering that the temperature outside was about 35ºC.

I also had the never-full-minibus experience: there were 22 people in a Toyota Hiace kind of van and there was space for more, believe me!

And this is the Rima Guesthouse, in Georgetown, where the new vols have been staying:

And to end, I leave you with a message, to the lord within each one of us ;)

[I suspect this post is pretty messy, but it's the best I can do]
Hugs to all, oh and send me snail mail:

Raquel Coelho - VSO
106, 107 Lamaha & Carmichael Streets
PO Box 12199
Georgetown
Guyana

Believe me, I am looking forward to reading your letters! Hugs to all and keep the love vibration!
*my surname, Coelho, means Rabbit, in English, ok??

Hello Guyana!

Hello Georgetown and thank you for welcoming me so warmly. Literally.
After quite a long trip: Faro to Gatwick; Gatwick to St Lucia; St Lucia to Port of Spain; Port of Spain to Georgetown phew! Well, I was saying: after such a long trip and rewinding the watch 4 hours, I must admit I felt a bit confused. Nothing like sleeping and eating some delicious Rima Guesthouse food to make me come back to the world of the lively living.
I haven't been taking photos, as a security precaution, but don't be fooled by this, Georgetown feels safe! It's just that I'm already a bit too obvious in the street in my bright white skin, so why not try to keep as low a profile as I can?
I only have good things to say about my first days (and in spite of not asking any questions, I am dying to discover Mahdia! I'll get there when I get there): the weather is perfect for me: warm but not too much and I love the fact that there is no need to wear long sleeves nor trousers at night. I suppose the weather varies between 24 and 30ºC, but don't take these numbers too seriously, they are the temperature my body is guessing!
VSO is smart in the way they organised our training: calm and slow, with lots of good food and time. Today is the first day which with an early start for training: we're visiting the hospital to talk to a doctor and they say it can be scary!
Off I go now for a very British breakfast in "the cleanest guesthouse in town"!
(Will add some photos, eventually!)
Hugs to the people I love!