Well finally I am back to updating my blog, there has been lots of work, travel, events and great food since my last update. We just got access to Internet so I hope you will enjoy some of my reflections and pictures as much as I have enjoyed living in Guyana.
A few weeks ago we traveled with Ravi & Melissa, volunteers from Victoria, BC to visit Ravi's Auntie. ( I still don't know her name). Ravi was born in Guyana but as many other thousands of Guyanese people his family moved to Canada for more opportunities. Auntie is a divorced women of two adult children, she runs her own farm on 10 acres, travels to Georgetown every day (on a mini bus 1 hour each way) with fruit from her farm to work at the Staboerk Market, then returns home to look after her house and family. That is her typical day but right now Auntie also has recurrence of breast cancer, she recently had a mastectomy and is undergoing radiation in the mornings before she starts working at the market. It was an humbling but fun experience to spend time with such a hard working, courageous and strong woman.
We traveled to Parika in a mini bus and then followed a side road for quite awhile to a community along the river called St Lawrence, that is where her home and farm is located. When we arrived we were treated to freshly made chow mein and fresh pineapple juice. I thought that was lunch but she was just getting started!
Her house is also on stilts and underneath the living quarters was an small kitchen and sitting area with hammocks, chairs, lots of kids, dogs and a parrot. Pictures below. I followed her into the kitchen and watched as she made curry chicken in this magnificent cast iron pot in the shape of a bowl on a gas burner. Next we learnt how to make Green Mango Achar, warning VERY HOT and very popular with the locals.
Following lunch the kids in the neighbourhood took us for a walk to the creek, by the time we found our way through the fields and forest in the hot afternoon sun, our feet were chewed up by the most annoying ants in the world and I was beyond hot & sticky. Without thinking I slipped off my sandals and jumped into the creek after the kids, clothes and all! As soon as my feet landed on the bottom of the murky creek I sunk up to my ankles in mud. Ugh ! Thank goodness there were were no pictures from that mini adventure, my clothes were soaked and I was covered in mud from head to toe after trying to scramble out of the creek and climb up the bank.
To end an amazing visit we followed Auntie through the fields, across another river and through the rain forest to get to her farm. Again, in sandals and shorts the ants and mosquitoes feasted on their own human buffet.
Lesson for next adventure: BRING SHOES IN KIT BAG
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| mini bus to Parika |
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| Auntie's House |
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| Auntie |
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| Hammock under sitting area |
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| Mixing the curry |
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| Veggie's for the Chow Mein |
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| Green Mangoes |
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| Freshly made red hot pepper sauce |
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| Green Mango Achar |
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| Living Room |
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| Trekking to the farm |
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| Hot Pepper Plants |
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| Auntie trimming new lime trees |
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| Freshly cut sugar cane snack |
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| Katahar |
Next update: Diwali in Guyana
