Travel Diary - Day Forty Eight

Day Forty Eight – Cleaning Up
Friday 16 Oct 09

Never let it be said that we managed anything on time. Enough said about that! Eventually we were on our way back to Georgetown – about an hour and half journey – split between two buses. Not the most comfortable way to travel that kind of distance, but there it is. It was kind of funny in a way. I had thought that I had begun to reconcile myself to leaving Guyana. I love this place in a way that I can’t really find words for. When I was in India I loved being there, but I was happy to come home. This is a whole different feeling. The people have got under my skin in a way that I never imagined could be possible. I can work with people for years and when it comes time to say goodbye I say it and move on, you could quite reasonably accuse me of being hard and unemotional. This time there is an emotional turmoil that if I was being macho I would be embarrassed of. I really, really don’t want to leave. And the closer we got to Georgetown the worse I got, to the point it was easier to stop talking and just look out the window.

Once we got to where we were staying the night it was a bit easier because I had a pretty full timetable. First up was to go into town and get the last of my gifts organised. That was reasonably easy, although I would have moved quite a lot faster if I had been on my own . But that is just one of the joys of being part of a team. We cruised around looking for crafts for some people, shirts for others – I found a really nice one for myself, and a variety of other bits and pieces. We had lunch at the City Mall, a small indoor mall that barely counts as a mall but is as close to what we have in NZ as you’ll get in Guyana. It even has a food court. In the end I left everyone to it and headed back to the hotel because I still had a string of things to get done before the evening and time was ticking.

First up was to organise my ‘cultural’ piece for the evening. I hummed and hahed about this one and eventually decided that given I am not Maori I would tell a Hairy MacLary story. Ruth emailed me the story and pictures and I put together a powerpoint to follow along with story. Then it was deciding what to do with my video. I had run out of time to do what I had originally planned and so I had to severely cut everything back. In the end that was actually a good exercise and I think I ended up with a much better clip as a result. I also had to iron my shirt and trousers, wash a bunch of dirty clothes because otherwise I was going naked for the next couple of days, visit Keith and a friend of his, and get back in time to have a shower and set up the projector and sound for what I was doing. You would think that by now I would have got my head around the fact that 6pm start has a different meaning in this part of the world. Anyway, I dashed around doing what I needed to do. I caught a taxi to see Keith because that was the best use of time, and given it was only $300 each way I couldn’t really moan too loudly. By the time I was ready to go it was 6:15pm. Hah! Nothing started happening until after 7 – mumble, whinge, complain. And to top it off, having been promised a projector there was none in sight and the sound system wasn’t doing what it should with my laptop. Grrrr.

I spoke to the appropriate person and someone was dispatched to get the projector. It finally arrived about 40 minutes into the evening programme – well before I needed it, but well after a couple of other presenting groups could have used it.

The evening began with some great singing and then we settled in to watch the young people from different areas give some presentations about the 6 races of Guyana. The information that they gave was quite interesting but it got good when we first had an East Indian dance, and then the African group did a series of songs and dances. That was great. The cultural presentations were followed by a snack break where there were lots of small samples of Guyanese food spread out under the headings of the different races – AmerIndian, East Indian, African, Portuguese, European and Mixed. That was quite good, although I was most interested in the juice – I hadn’t had enough to drink in the course of the day and was hanging out for something cold and wet. Sat with Keith and Felissa to eat as they were kind of out on a limb. There wasn’t anyone else from Sophia there and while someone sat down to talk to Keith, Felissa was left to her own devices. We chatted happily for the twenty minutes we had to fill.

Next up were the presentations from our group. I was first up with Hairy MacLary. It went OK, but the best laugh I got was when I explained that one of the reasons I had chosen the story was because of all the dogs in Guyana – you have no idea just how many dogs there are here! It is quite unbelievable. The best presentations came when the girls came on and started doing their cultural dances. Brendah, who has been quiet and subdued the whole time we have been here came on and did a song and then began doing that African hip thing that is just amazing and it just brought the house down. That was followed by Kateimoa doing something from Kiribati that was equally well received. Then as a whole group we were thanked, and then thanked individually. Each of us was given a tie pin for the men, and a broach for the women, made of gold and with an image of Guyana on it. Very nice. Each of us was called forward to receive our gift and as we stood there we were given an extend thanks by the person making the presentation. What was really weird was when Pastor Salter, who was thanking the women, managed to weave a quick summary of the, ‘Sexy Church,’ into thanking one of the girls. Gratifying for me, but almighty strange from every other perspective.

Next we did our play. Helen and Dawn had put together a drama based on a song that Helen had heard about from one of her hosts. We had all searched high and low for a copy of the words but no-one else had heard of it. We decided it was a figment of the imagination, but the idea was sufficient to get quite a funny drama out of it. The song is called something like (we’re not even sure of the title), ‘3 White Women on a Bus,’ and the idea is that they are complaining about all sorts of Guyanese experiences – the heat, the crowding, the starting and stopping, the loud music – all sorts of things that you just get used to. Helen and Dawn turned it into, ‘9 Foreigners on a Bus,’ with us each taking on a particular complaint and by the time we had finished the whole place was in hysterics. A great way to finish.

Well, not really finish after all…everything got a bit murky after that, different parts of the programme sort of mixing in with other parts. I was up to do the thank you and that was missed out and then put in later but eventually we got there. The video clip went down a treat and I finished it off with a prayer for the people of Guyana. It was really a rather special opportunity and I appreciated having been asked to do it. And finally we were done. It took ages to see everyone off, but there was a good feel about it all, even if it had taken absolutely forever. Bed never looked so good!