A Girl in Guyana and Suriname

I have been here just over 48 hours, and I have so many thoughts each day when I sit down to write on the internet that I forget many of them. I’m going to try to get most of them down right now. Forgive me if I repeat something from a previous posting, but the internet is so slow, and I don’t want to go back and double check.

Examples of Creoles (pronounced CREE – o – lees):
“fine girl” = thin girl
“me not know” = I don’t know
“pull ya in fo’ fitness” = many different meanings depending on who you say it to and who’s saying it, but it can mean “come here and get close to me for some snuggling” and it can mean the person wants more than that

Tyrone was telling me a story last night, and I really struggled to understand everything he was saying. He doesn’t like to speak English. I think I got the jist, but I really don’t know. We were talking about the reasons why he doesn’t want to go to the interior of the country. And the disputes with Venezuela and Suriname over some land Guyana claims as theirs.

The music played in the minibuses cracks me up. They will take an American hip-hop song, and then mix in some Carib tunes or Indian chanting. Tyrone told me that young men in their 20’s aren’t afraid to listen to blast Celine Dion while driving around. They also love Enrique. And I’ve seen quite a few Britney Spears and selections on CDs in the minibuses. Hey, whatever floats your boat!!

Lara (the Peace Corps worker) has been explaining different things to me about the Guyanese culture, and Tyrone told us last night that he feels like we’re making fun of him. She was telling me that some Guyanese think they get these light-colored patches on their skin from eating too much Chinese food. It’s actually a fungus in the water, and to get rid of it, you have to rub Selson Blue on them. Some Guyanese also believe that the AmerIndians turn into animals and hunt at night. I tried to explain to Tyrone that we weren’t making fun of him, but that it was really interesting for me to learn about his culture and their beliefs.

Lara is a teacher at a local school here on the west coast, and she has been coming home from work very frustrated. Last night she said it was their 2nd day back to class since the Christmas break, and they didn’t teach any classes because there were so few students in class (also due to the rains, but due to classes just starting too). The teachers said they didn’t want to teach because it would be unfair for the students who did come to class. Lara attempted to teach 2 classes, but other students were chasing each other around her chalkboard (the school is one big room on the first floor and one big room on the second floor, and the classrooms are separated only by chalkboards). So she gave up and read a book all day. She came home for lunch today and said they’re not teaching again. Very strange educational system and extremely frustrating for Lara.

Last night, Lara had brought me some “black cake” that a co-worker of hers had made. They first soak fruit in rum, and then bake it into a dense dark cake. She didn’t know if I would like it because it’s not really sweet like our cake back home, but I really did like it.

I love walking down the street in the afternoon here because everyone says, “Good afternoon!” as you pass. Everyone. It’s so nice.

Today I woke up and learned how the Guyanese wash their clothes by hand. Lara said there is a certain way to do it, and if the neighbors see me doing it a different way, they will come over and correct me. So first I put all of my dirty clothes in a big bucket, and Lara sprinkled in laundry detergent. Then we carried it downstairs with another small pail. I dumped water into the big bucket full of clothes, and then had to put the small bucket in front of the “tap” (a hole in a brick wall that we plugged with a wooden stick). So I had to wring my clothes out in the washbasin, and then wring them out two or three times in the rinse bucket. Then I hung them on Lara’s veranda, except not under-things… they get hung in the bathroom.

I did some reading in the hammock on the veranda while I waited for my clothes to dry, and then I walked to the market to buy some potatoes for dinner tonight. When you first walk in, all you see is a cage. Everything is behind the cage, and you have to tell the cashier what you want and they get it for you. I bought 3 lbs of potatoes for $180 Guyanese (about 90 cents US). Then I stopped and bought a pint of lychee-flavored ice cream for $200 G (about $1.05 US).

After I dropped off the potatoes at the house, I walked down to the FX to get some passport photos taken for my visa for Suriname. The FX was actually in a container, like the ones you see semi’s hauling around. I walked in and there was a little room with two large flashes, a camera, and a mirror. I was so thankful for the mirror since it’s about 88-90 degrees F today and I was covered in sweat.

That’s another thing I’ve realized. I’m definitely not a fan of traveling in hot-weather. I almost always travel in the cold, and now I remember why! 🙂 I’ll survive, but it is definitely an adjustment. They tell me it gets cool at night in the interior, and I’m really looking forward to it. Cold to people that have adjusted to this climate has got to mean 60-65 which I can definitely handle (thanks to Mom, who always turned the heat down to 60-62 in the winter).

I’m going back to cook up some potatoes, and then I’m going to lay in the hammock and read the rest of the book I started today, “Autobiography of a Face”.

Tomorrow, I am headed to Georgetown in the morning because I have to apply for my visa for Suriname. Hopefully I’ll meet up with a Canadian girl, Camilla, that I met at the airport on Tuesday. Then I leave Saturday for my trip!

Tags: Guyana, South America, Travel

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 5th, 2006 at 3:53 pm and is filed under Guyana, Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.