Land of many waters

That is the meaning of Guyana, derived from Amerindian languages. Guyana is rich on many water ways and situated at the Atlantic ocean. That was why they called Guyana Guyana, so I thought. Wrong! It is called like that because the rain is just terrible here, not just a little, big drops really hard and since Georgetown is below sea level and they haven’t really figured out how to build seawalls (seawalls were first build by the Dutch in the 16 maybe 17 hundreds but never really renewed) the water also comes from below. Those heavy rainstorm are always very likely to emerge when it’s least wanted. During an open air reggae and dancehall concert for example… It didn’t stop all night. Soaked to the bone, dancing in the mud (up to above the ankles – having my own little Lowlands here). Good thing that it isn’t cold.
Also stumbled upon some true Guyanese culture at the concert. For example Rastafarians, lots of them. One in particular caught my eye, his Rasta’s were reaching his feet. Of course that is not so convenient (especially in combination with rain and mud) so he was carying his hair in his hand all the time.
Sticking like glue, in one night I’ve danced with half of (male) Georgetown. Some of the guys asked politely if they could dance with me others were not so well raised and just stuck to me like glue. At times it’s hard to make them clear that I like to dance on my own sometimes, that’s when the serious angry looks have to become involved. If that doesn’t work than there’s always Sergio (our VSO savior from Spain) to run to since they seem to have respect for other guys.
And then there’s the ‘trying to get attention methods’ in order to get each others attention the Guyanese have developed a special way of communication. The one thing that one will hear most is the sort of whistling sound that we make if we are approaching a cat or a dog, they use it all the time but then on people of course. The list that I started last time (whitey, blondie, baby) can be added with barbie, white meat, princess, beauty, white chick, white gyal (that’s how they say girl) etc. etc.
We’ve also discovered the song that is leading the charts right now: Ravi B – Ah Drinka you should watch it it’s hysterical: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zovb6FPeTJo it’s from Trinidad but also very popular in Guyana. They also performed at the concert, the crowd got insane. It’s like an amateur video, it gives you an idea of what national television is like here too. They even have commercials which are made with PowerPoint with terrible eighties music in the background, it’s just like the very local TV stations in Holland.
Regarding my placement I know a little bit more. There will be a tourism conference in Lethem (3 hrs from Annai, my village) on the 3rd of September, which we will have to attend. Right after this conference I will be dropped in Annai. Since the rainy season is still going strong half of the road from Georgetown to Lethem is washed away which causes some heavy delay. Depending on the status of the road we have to leave 3, 2 or 1 day in advance. So somewhere around the 1st of September I’ll finally find out more about my home for the coming 2 years.
My In Country Training is done now, my fellow VSO volunteers will fly out to their new homes and employers on Monday. We (Sonja, Sergio and I – who will all be placed in far far away destinations) will stay put in the Rima. The next week and a half will be filled with catching up on our project, motorcycle lessons, visiting ministries and other agencies and loads of shopping before heading to no-man’s-land.