Rupununi ABC

(And no, I’m not getting married…)

A – Arapaima
The largest fresh water fish in the world (which can reach 3m in length and weigh up to 440lb). Lives in the Rupununi river. The Amerindians are putting an effort in protecting the fish since the population is shrinking. By the way I tried some fishing the other day, Rupununi style, that means a line, led and some beef as bate, swing it above the head (like a lasso) and throw it in the river. Up until now I only caught wood…

B – Benab
A benab is a circle formed structure, normally with a thatch roof and without walls. Some Amerindian families have a benab next to their house which they use as a liming (Guyanese equivalent for chilling or relaxing) spot. Sling up your hammock and lime away. Some villages also possess a gigantic benab in which village activities can be held. The largest benab can be found in Annai, perfect to host the 2010 heritage activities.

C – Cassava
In the Rupununi you can’t get around cassava. The Amerindians eat and drink it all day. The cassava is made into ferine, which is yellow and has very small grains. It is extremely hard (it breaks your teeth), they eat it just like that or soak it in anything or fry it with garlic and some other herbs. Cassava is also used to make bread. It’s white thin, a bit dry, so again tastes best when you soak it in something. I’ll come back to the drinking cassava at K. Mind you, cassava is poisonous, when not prepared properly, one can die…

D – Dirty
99% of the time I feel dirty in the Rupununi. 3 showers a day like I did in the Rima (Guesthouse in Georgetown) is not an option here. Water runs out frequently (and it isn’t even the dry season yet) so a day or two/three without a shower isn’t that uncommon. Very nice in this heat and when you have been wading through puddles and mud all day (which almost happens on a daily basis). Nice and dirrrty.

E – Eco Tourism
Can’t be missing in this list since that’s what I’m here for. Still trying to get a picture of the level of tourism here. Been to one lodge up until now, Rewa, and I must say that this lodge is beautifully situated and has super friendly staff so it definitely has the potential to grow out as one of the top end lodges. On a different note, VSO is looking for another 3 Hospitality & Tourism advisors in this region so if anyone would like to join me here drop me a line.

F – Forro (pronounced Foha)
A Brazilian type of music that is not my favourite, unfortunately it is everybody else’s favourite here. So it’s played all the time. 1 song maybe 2 songs I can bear but not more, they all sound the same! Let me try to find you an example…http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPOoPKUQ48c. You be the judge!

G – Gravel
I still don’t really understand why they cover the road (there is only one road – the rest are dirt tracks) with gravel. It should help in the rainy season making it less muddy but that doesn’t really help and in the dry season it only makes the road a highway to hell for motor bikers. Everybody that owns a motor bike is covered in scars due to gravel sliding.
My motor bike will arrive next week, not to scare you of course…

H – Hot
The intensity of the sun seems to be increasing every day. The rainy season is approaching its end (should have been over already for 2 months, but also the Rupununi is experiencing climate change) and the dry season is waiting around the corner. Soon the savannah will trade it’s fresh green colour for a more brownish yellow. Soon there will be even less water available. Soon I will have to wear even more sun protection cream.

I – Insects
Something I expect to never get used to. My legs still have a polka dot pattern, due to all the bites. Mosquitoes and all kinds of other biting little creatures. They told me that the mosquitoes are disappearing when the dry season kicks in. I guess every negative has its positive (quoted: Johan Cruyff).

J – Just now
Where I discovered the meaning of ‘Just now’ rather quickly when being in Georgetown the people of the Rupununi have brought ‘Just now’ to a whole new level. Here they use the same expression but in Georgetown it could actually mean that something would happen just now (which according to my understanding should be somewhere between 1-5 minutes but should never exceed 10 minutes) but here ‘Just now’ means at least an hour (and that’s optimistic).

K – Kari
Like almost every country the Amerindians produce their own alcoholic beverages. On top of the Rupununi list is Kari. Surprisingly made from cassava. More specifically the juice that comes out of the cassava. And it is the juice that makes the cassava poisonous. So the juice has to boil for a long time and then has to be put aside until it starts fermenting. If it isn’t boiled long enough… right trouble.
The drink has a bit of a grayish colour and tastes a bit like sour apples. It’s not too bad but it isn’t one of my favourites either. I like fly more. Fly is made out of sweet potatoes and has a bright red colour and can be very sweet.

L – Legends
What always intrigues me about cultures are their legends. This culture has so many that I keep hearing new ones every day. One of my favourites is concerned with the ‘Wild Indians’. Apparently there seems to be a tribe of wild Indians living in the jungle nearby. They have never been officially discovered but everybody has a story about a cousin’s grandfather’s brother who has seen one of the wilds, wearing nothing more than a cloth and the skin covered in mud. You look once you look twice and they’re gone. They use canoes made out of birch. They look at you all the time but you can’t see them…

M – Makushi
One of the Amerindian tribes that is mostly presented in this area along with the Wapishana. Every tribe has it’s own culture, tradition and language. Been trying to learn some Makushi, haven’t been progressing a lot I must admit.

N – Nature
The strength of mother nature becomes really clear to me while I’m here. People have no fruit or vegetables available at all at this point due to the heavy rainy season. All the crops are washed away. The people live here with whatever mother nature has in mind for them. Floods, drought but mother nature also provides them with large fish, turtles, lizards, cassava, coconuts and herbs and roots from the forest that are used as medicine. The key is I guess to live in harmony with her, do not piss her off, like you shouldn’t with any woman. Mother nature.

O – Oasis
Oasis is truly my oasis. Oasis is a bar about 15 minutes (by bicycle) from Bina Hill. It also has a couple of rooms available. It has cold drinks, cakes and bread. Do not expect to always find what you want because also they are dependant on whenever the next supplier decides to show up. Once I was really in need of a cold coke, no, a cold juice, no, ok what do you have? A V8, me being as desperate as I was and not knowing what a V8 was anyway, I agreed. Wrong, there was a reason why that was the only drink left. It is a drink made out of vegetables, somewhat salty. Anyway I didn’t like it. Next to the Oasis one of my favourite hangouts is the Dakota Bar. A bar next to the airstrip (hence the name). Always lots of activity going on in the sense of the plane that arrives once a day, some drunks walking around and the interesting choice of music (Celine Dion, Enrique Iglesias or Boyzone with a reggae beat).

P – Pit Latrines
Always one of my top of the list subjects, washrooms in different cultures. I have seen all sorts, Asia can be very inventive when it comes to the smallest room in (or outside) the house. Here they have pit latrines. A little wooden hut with a huge hole underneath somewhere in the field far from the house. With a little bench with a circle in it. And that’s the thing that I have a problem with, the bench thing! I prefer a little house with just a hole in the floor, skip the bench. I don’t want to sit on it anyway. It’s disgusting, it’s a wooden bench so everyone who is a poor navigator will hit the wood, and the wood will nicely absorb. It helps training the leg muscles though. Oh and never ever leave your house without toilet paper, because no toilet in the entire country comes with the paper.

Q – Queen
During the heritage celebrations the evenings were filled by a true beauty pageant. Which wasn’t really a beauty pageant according to the MC, he kept saying that it wasn’t about beauty but how well the girls are presenting their culture. During the pageant the crowd forgot about the MCs wise words though… I was invited to join to represent my culture, I kindly declined.

R – Reading
As most of you know I have never really been much of a reader. Here I treasure books, next to writing it’s an excellent way to kill time without a TV around. Books are also scars here. So anyone who still dares to come out here after reading all this, bring some books! I even battled some Amerindian girls the other day over one of those books out of the ‘Silhouette Desire’ collection, yes it is as bad as it sounds.

S – Sweet!
Every single thing that comes with sugar comes with loads of sugar. All the drinks are so super sweet that I’m just always adding water. At the heritage celebrations I had the opportunity to buy a lollipop and ice-cream (those are real delights here and very hard to find but during the heritage festivities all effort is being put in getting those pleasures to the area) and both were so sweet and therefore so chemical that it felt like my teeth were dropping out of my mouth. I am not surprised that dental health is very poor in this area.

T – Traditions
It is amazing to see how the Amerindians are trying to preserve their culture. The heritage celebrations are an excellent example of this. All the different tribes present their traditional dances (with appropriate outfits of course), cotton spinning, fire making, basket weaving, arrow making, archery competition and kari drinking competition. Nice to see how the young boys in the crowd are wearing 50 Cent T-shirts, Timberlands, scarf’s around their heads, caps and wide pants showing bits of their boxer shorts with a Coca Cola in their hands.

U – Unique
All in all my experience up until now is truly unique. I do admit that it isn’t always easy. I still have to get used to the lack of facilities available and I do miss my friends and family. But what I get in return in priceless, warm and hospitable people, opening up my shutters in the morning I see the sun coming up from behind the in jungle covered mountains. Well just read my ABC and you’ll understand what I get in return.

V – Vehicle
The word ‘car’ is so 2009. Vehicle is what it is. Bus, truck, car all vehicles. After using ‘car’ for the first 2 days followed by some weird looks I also started talking about vehicles. Because vehicles are special here, why? Because they are scars and very much needed, due to the large distances. So whenever you hear a vehicle that means a free hitch! It is also weird how I now look up every time I hear a vehicle (because that only happens 3 or 4 times a day, so it’s special). Who might it be, someone from Georgetown with some new supplies for the shop (than the shop might have 6 different products instead of 3) or some friend from a neighbouring village. It actually brings me back to my teenage years, when I used to have a boyfriend with a moped When I was doing my homework and heard the sound of a moped getting closer I was jumping up and looking out of the window to see if it was him.

W – Wowetta
Will it ever be my village? Up until now I’m still at my blue and green room in Bina Hill. I was suppose to move in the beginning of October. Wait isn’t it the 3rd today… I did arrange for them to build a veranda to sling up my hammock (I started the negotiation with a Jacuzzi and ended up with a veranda, still not bad ehh?).

X – Xtreme travel !?
Occasionally a tourist can be found in the Rupununi. Not in large numbers but once in a while one can stumble upon a group in Ray Mears outfits (for the ones that are not familiar with Ray Mears – Dicovery Channel’s survival expert – he wears the same type of outfits as the late crocodile man – Aussie – Steve, for the ones that are nor familiar with Aussie Steve, they wear those hideous kaki survival outfits). But why people? You are all staying in Eco Lodges with king size beds and mosquito nets, flushing toilets and showers. 4x4 trucks are bringing you from A to B and you even get chocolate cake for dessert. There’s no need to wear your kaki pants and shirt with a million pockets, your bug socks (little nets that you can put over your socks and trousers with an elastic string so no bugs will attack your ankles) and to carry your Swiss army knife everywhere you go. You are not sleeping in hammocks in the jungle, eating bush meat and drinking river water!

Y – Ya man
The Rupununi is very different from Georgetown, in fact it seems like a completely different country. Different people, culture, lifestyle, architecture, food but there’s one thing that makes you aware of the fact that you are still in Guyana, the accent! The Creole also got through to the Rupununi. It’s she house (her house), brok up (broken), gyal (girl) etc etc can all be found here.

Z – Zzz
Yes the Rupununi nights. Some can be better than others. Especially when I hear all kinds of sounds in my room my night is more restless and I tend to dream some more about snakes. Usually the sound is a frog, lizard, cockroach, grasshopper, mouse or bat. The other night it was a (to my opinion) seemingly big centipede. And since I’ve been watching the Discovery Channel and National Geographic frequently before I left to prepare myself for my jungle adventure I had learned that these species are extremely poisonous. Ok, out of my bed, trying to get out of my mosquito net, where’s my flashlight, ooh the thing moves quickly *legs are slightly trembling* bug spray in one hand shoe in the other. Spray, bang, bang, bang, ooh it’s still moving *heart beating like crazy* bang bang, dead! Pfff, now try to calm down and sleep. Dreams about snakes again… Luckily I never found a real one in my room, yet.