Travel Diary - Day Thirty Eight

Day Thirty Eight – A Day Off
Tuesday 06 Oct 09

A fairly quiet day really. The morning saw a bit of writing and thinking about my reflection. In the afternoon I went into Georgetown to do a bit of shopping. I found myself a Guyanese shirt that I was happy with. I have hunted high and low to find something I liked and the one place I found something that was getting there they had nothing that fit me . First stop was at Quaminah House, the offices of the Guyana Congregational Union to pick up my pocket money for the week. After a bit of a conversation with Kaoma, our official minder, I got some fresh directions to somewhere that should have what I wanted. His first question had been to ask where my host/chaperone was. I shrugged my shoulders and said I had no idea, that I had caught the bus into town on my own and was perfectly happy finding my way around. He laughed and told me that I was far more adventurous than any of the rest of the group. I’m not sure that is actually the case, it’s just that I have pushed the point of getting around on my own a little harder. When I found out what shop I was looking for I nodded and said, no problem, I know where that is. At that the whole office burst out laughing and said I was a true Guyanan and I should apply for citizenship. It has been a bit of a running joke since then that I just belong. It’s kind of nice to have people thinking that way.

Once I had where I was going sorted out it was just a case of getting there. Kaoma directed me to a bus that would take me there, but rather than catch the bus I decided I would walk. It was a bit of a hike, but nice to find my through and around another part of the city. Mostly it’s pretty easy to work out which way is which, unlike in BA, simply because you can see the sunshine. On the other hand the sun is nearly directly overhead for a good chunk of the day so there is still a certain amount of guesswork tied up in it. Nevertheless I managed to make my way across town to the place I wanted. Once there it was all a piece of cake.

From there I found an internet café and spent a while online, really just filling in time. I didn’t have any of my days with me so I couldn’t do anything there, it was just catching up with email, reading some NZ news and spending a little time in a cooler place – most internet cafés have airconditioning to help keep the computers cool – something you realise is important when your computer shuts down because it is too hot!! That’s happened on a couple of occasions now and I am much more careful about how and where I set up my laptop, especially if it is for an extended session.

From the internet café I wandered my way up Regent St where there are vast numbers of street vendors and shops. It is quite nice walking along and listening to the hustle of the vendors doing their best to sell their particular stock. The sad thing as I see it is that the vast majority of what is being sold is imported junk. There is very little in the way of value added or creative work in any of the stalls. The only real exceptions seem to be the food vendors who have often taken something and added value by cutting the quantity to a more manageable amount and packaging in a more useful way, and the sandal sellers who sell a range of leather sandals that have been made in country. The best of the food vendors are the juice sellers. They carry a chillybin full of ice and have boxes or bottles of juice that they pour into clear plastic bags and place on the ice. There will generally be three or four flavours of juice. Someone will buy a bag of juice and be given a short straw that they use to pierce the bag at the top and then drink the juice. Not bad! I do confess that I haven’t been game to try the juice bags – there are just a few too many unknowns for a short trip. I think if I was in country for a bit longer I would be strongly tempted to try them.

Eventually I caught a bus up the road to meet Felissa for dinner. She had borrowed my laptop to do some study and it seemed like a good way to get the laptop back. We went to The New Thriving Restaurant, renowned in Guyana as the restaurant you ought to go to at least once. Actually, to be honest the restaurant was nothing special as far as the food went, it really got interesting when I went to pay with my credit card. The waiter went away and came back a few minutes later saying the card had been declined. I was bothered, but not too worried. I gave him my other card and settled back to wait. A couple of minutes later he is back to say that one has been declined too. OK, now I’m worried. I don’t have enough cash with me to cover the bill but I do where I am staying. So it’s on the phone to ask someone to come down and bring the rest of my cash. They duly arrived like a knight in shining armour and I sighed in relief at how an otherwise difficult situation had been resolved. However it was only partially resolved and so it was onto Ruth to chase the bank and find out what the problem was.

We spent an hour texting each other while Ruth was on the phone figuring out what the problem was. Turns out that most banks around the world use the second of two sections of the magnetic strip on a card. Some Guyana banks use the first and obviously the restaurant was connected to one of these. What this meant was that when NZ was contacted for approval of the charge the computer didn’t recognise the information and declined. In the end it was easily sorted from NZ. I kept one card standard and the other was changed to suit the banks here. It just means that until I get back to NZ I can use one card in some places and the other card elsewhere but I can’t bring them together. That’s OK, I can live with that. It would have been nice to have known that before I left NZ and not have to find out while sitting in a restaurant!!!