Herdmanston Lodge Georgetown

... swimming pool where Peter and I spent quite a lot of time. In the evening parrots made a cacophony in the nearby trees, but we did not see any until the next morning. In the evening there was an amazing natural display of lightning storms over the river, it went on for ages. Camp consisted of a tarpaulin strung over some poles with hammocks underneath. I liked sleeping in a hammock, the mosquito net on top makes it feel like a little den. There was one of those tropical ...

... man rushed to and fro but it took us several attempts to get his attention to find our what we were supposed to do, and then there was a rush to get our backpacks into his minibus as the ferry was almost ready. On board everyone was given immigration and customs forms to fill in, which took a long time as there seemed to be only two pens to go round! At the Guyana side we queued up again for immigration, and saw our bags being unloaded from yellow-shirt's minibus ...

At last we have arrived in Georgetown and have made our way to the Pegasus Hotel (N6.49.30.97W58.09.38.90) on the sea front. On arrival we checked with the management and they are happy for us to stay in the guarded car park for a few days, they were especially good about it since it is the premier hotel in Guyana and they did not even insist we eat there. That said the food was very good. Our first priority is ...

... doesn't mean the people don't drink. Bars are everywhere, but I'm not sure I'd be welcome. There's nothing worse than drinking alone in a bar full of merry-makers, except maybe being harassed by *********d drunks. It's hard to find a balance. But the taxi drivers seem nice enough. They probably want tips; yeah, right. Maybe it's the inherent racism of the system here. I'm pretty sensitive to that even when it's well-hidden, like here, even ...

... Well, I'm cutting up the boxes because they're a fire hazard, Pat responds. Oh, but the teachers wanted those boxes, the Acting Headmistress says. But they're garbage, Pat says. "But how do you know what is garbage?!" she asks a 63 year old North American woman with as much condescending authority as she can muster. And liking the feeling of power she gets from embarrassing an old white woman, she again demands about four times, "How do you know what ...

... I would rather forget. Let's just say that no one cleaned them, most toilets had no seats, and only a select few flushed. Occasionally. The stalls had showers that actually worked, but (the ice cold water not withstanding), no one would clean these either and so they would get clogged up and just incredibly dirty. Let's not even talk about trying to do your business with everyone else around. I took to getting up at 5:45 a.m. every morning just so I could have ...

... The bus hurtled its way for the next 6 hours along dusty red jungle tracks, carving its way through the deep untouched beauty of the rainforest, only yards away, and often hanging over the road brushing the top of the bus. It felt very enclosed, and there was a sense of intimacy with the forest that is impossible to get on a river boat down the Amazon. Eventually the forest started to clear and we came out into a landscape of thick sandy scrub ...

... frightening one. Instinctively, I turn and try to spring away, but those little buggers are fast! I eventually succumbed to being attacked with massive amounts of Phagwah water and colored powders. It actually ended up being hilarious and fun, and we eventually got the boys back as best we could. Afterwards, all of us just ...

... such a huge sky put things into perspective and brought about many questions. It is just that kind of awe that makes me think of G-d and what a masterpiece this universe really is. Of course, traveling in the dark, on a wooden speedboat going who knows how fast on a river in the middle of the jungle brings up thoughts of G-d as well. And it was He I was asking to get me to my destination safely. Thankfully, I did arrive safely.

So here is a quick post showing a little bit of how the Creolese language spoken here translates into "normal English." This is probably why the first couple weeks of school I said "what?!" to my students at least a thousand times. After you get the hang of it though, it's awesome to use it back at them (and at other people you meet) and watch ...