Georgetown

Apologies to all our avid readers for the lack of blogging activity.  This could be due to the activity packed social life which prevents us from getting anywhere near a computer during waking hours -  or to the fact that we are normally in a zombie state by 7pm (unfortunate for the Spanish class at the Venezuelan Institute which ends at 7.30pm!)


Anyway, we are still here in Georgetown, in the relatively safe and up market area of Queenstown. We have settled into our flat and a domestic routine, and even learned to cook rotis - flat Indian bread.

Our nice flat, though, has turned out to be situated in a block with drain problems - the sewage refuses to depart and floats about in an open drain.  If the wind is in the wrong direction, the smell is well... not nice.


We have complained to the landlady who claims it is the Ministry of something or other which maintains the sewers and it's impossible to get them to do anything quickly (or at all?)  She did hire a septic tank firm to suck out the inspection pit and drain.

This helped until someone flushed a toilet or two and now we are back with the pong.  The smell is bad enough but Halina has not been feeling too well recently with a recurrence of her Syrian tummy or something like it.


You can tell that Halina was not feeling well as she actually went to see a doctor at a nearby hospital.  He's given her antibiotics and anti-cramp pills, though it is not clear what the matter is yet.  Of course, the whole business of attending hospital is accompanied by various Guyanese drive-you-bonkers systems of seeing different people for different bits of paper with queues for each one in a number of waiting rooms with a variety of unclear waiting proceedures. Volunteers who work in the hospitals strongly advise not getting ill!  Still, Halina's doctor seemed very competent and had trained in France, so was much more interested in her French relatives than her insides.
(Big crash of thunder! Halina might be better off coming home by taxi!)


Despite the drains we live on a very nice street  - New Garden Street - which on some maps is called Shivnarine Chanderpaul Drive, between Forshaw and Lance Gibbs St - also on some maps as Almond St - so now you can find us on Google maps. It even has some pavements! The street has trees with lots of bird life - noisy green yellowheaded parrots, lovely yellow and brown kisskadees, and lots of other exotic birds that we haven't yet identified or photographed.

There are two cricket grounds on the street, the Demerara Cricket Ground and the Bourda Cricket Ground, home of the Georgetown Cricket Club.  The Bourda was Guyana's test match ground until they built the new stadium for the Cricket World Cup.  It has a capacity of around 22,000, opened in 1884 making it the oldest ground in the Caribbean, and has seen Test cricket since 1930. It is the only stadium in the world to be situated below sea level, and has a moat round it to protect the pitch from flooding.


It is unfortunately now showing its age, though events are still held there and last week the cantilever stands were full of screaming schoolchildren - I couldn't see what they were screaming about.

We went for a cycle ride out to the University of Guyana along the railway embankment road - they pulled up the railway track after independence and built a road instead.  Guyana could really do with a railway now! The University has a lily pond with the local giant Victoria waterlilies and the fascinating wattled jacana  bird, which has such long slender feet that it can walk on the lily pads.  This is another bird that very hard to photograph.

The University was a bit deserted as it was a Sunday but they have one or two interesting departments.

The ride back was along the sea wall.  They have lots of advertising painted on it but also encouraging slogans.

Sadly, you can make out the mountains of rubbish deposited over on the beach.


The sea wall has a series of sluice gates to control the water in the many canals and drainage ditiches criss-crossing Georgetown and the whole coastal strip of Guyana. It is quite an engeineering feat, though the system does not completely prevent serious flooding, as happened a few years ago.

One of the nicest things to do on a hot and humid day is to swim in the Pegasus Hotel pool - we can't sometime believe that it is already time for Autumnwatch in the UK.

Out and about

Saturday 17 Sept.  Feeling a little Georgetown claustrophobia we decided to take to the river system and visit Bartica which is up the Essequibo River.  The Essequibo is the third largest river in South America, so is quite big! 600 miles long, 20 miles wide at the mouth with some 365 islands.
So off we went at 7am to Stabroek market to catch the 32 to Parika which is around the coast to the north.  Of course the 32 doesn't set off until it is full to bursting,(and there are several other 32s all touting for customers, all insisting their bus is about to leave) so a 20 minute wait...  The locals, being inured to this, are incredibly patient, the europeans (us) not.
Eventually the bus fills and goes, and makes up for lost time by going at breakneck speed - best not to watch the road!
The first obstacle is the Demerara river - Georgetown is built at its mouth - which is crossed by means of the Demerara Harbour Bridge.  This is a floating bridge, reputed to be the world's longest.  View from the Bridge (taken through the bus window):

On the other side is a succession of small settlements - most of which have Dutch names, eg Vreed-en-Hoop, Den Amstel, Uitvlugt - more or less ribbon development with fields of what looked like cereals behind.  Arrived in Parika at 8.45am with the ferry due to leave at 9am.  However the buses stop by the "stelling" (landing stage) and the loading was still going on.  The gang plank was a large plank (no handrail) and to get to the passenger section involved clambering through the tightly packed vans and cars, carefully around the stacks of eggs, vegetables,boxes of groceries and live chicks, and past the seasoned travellers in their hammocks and the card school.

View from the ferry showing the stelling and the speedboats which also go to Bartica and across the mouth of the river to Supenaam:

The guidebook suggested that the ferry, though cheaper,  was "much slower" than the speedboats; more on that later.

Halina on the ferry:

Then off we went, very sedately.  Timber yards near Parika:

showing a speedboat returning to Parika.

The river bank is forest, with mangroves edging the water:

This is broken with a series of homesteads each with their small landing stage.  There is a lot of river bank.....  We were hoping to see lots of birdlife and some animals but only saw a few swift like blue birds and a collection of large birds of prey which circled lazily in the distance.  A young boy, Lonzel, was fascinated by our binoculars so we let him have a go - he'd been to Parika to visit the doctor.

About halfway, the boat paused and small boats came out from the bank and tied up to us.  This enabled some passengers to disembark and we took on some produce - large numbers of eggs among it.

We eventually arrived at Bartica - at 3.40 - six and a half hours later.  The guidebook did suggest bringing a book (or two?).

Bartica has a golden beach and it was good to see some children playing cricket:

The stelling boasts the evocative rubric: "Welcome to Batica" (see our Syrian experiences)

However, "one horse" is a bit of an exaggeration to describe the town, even the craft shop identified by the guide book has vanished.

So back to Parika - by the speedboat!!! But... they need to be full before starting, so it was nearly 5pm before we set off.  It gets dark at about 6pm, so we were becoming anxious.

The speedboat lives up to its name and really bounces along - memo to self "take extra cushion on speedboat trips".  And we were back in Parika by 6.20pm.  On to the Georgetown bus - wait to fill up - then hurtle through the dark to Georgetown.  Stabroek Market still buzzing, so we went for the 40 bus instead of a taxi and arrived home 7.45pm. 

Time for bed!

At work

Halina is working for Guyana Community Based Rehabilitation Programme (GCBR).  This is a non-governmental organisation that aims to ensure that every person with disabilities, whatever their age, type of disability or place of residence, is able to fully participate in the social, educational, economic and political life of Guyana, and can access high quality services in their locality that are appropriate to their needs. 

Here is Halina in her palatial office:

ie a corner of the meeting room.  However she does have internet access sometimes.

Kenneth, one of the other volunteers officially ended his year with the organisation and was given a send off party with speeches.  Everyone had to make a speech - even Steve who was only there to bring the camera!

Mr Gregory (Chairman), Mrs Thomas  (volunteer worker), Kenneth Opio (VSO Volunteer),  Ms Maison Halls  (Founder and National Advisor), Mrs Eastman  (Office Manager).

We signed up for free Spanish lessons with the Venezuelan embassy and had a very good introductory speech from the ambassador last night.  The first class is this evening, so we'll see how it goes.

Home Sweet Home

The problem with taking photos in Georgetown is that we have been warned not to show cameras or fancy phones on the street for fear of robbery.  Two of our party were mugged on the sea wall early one morning - they only lost a pack of cigarettes and a lighter and the robber offered them one of the cigarettes before wishing them a nice day!  Two young men also tried to snatch a bag from someone on a bike.  So be careful is the mantra ...  and don't walk around at night, and don't visit certain areas of the city... and use taxis to get around after dark.  That's not as bad as it sounds as taxi rides are £1 for up to 4 people to most places in the city - mini-buses are 20p per journey!

Meanwhile here is the full group at VSO Headquarters:

 We managed to get to the Botanical Gardens where there are manatees:

which are very hard to photograph!

We were unlucky to have to wait "a few days" before moving into our designated apartment so were billeted on a lovely Filipino volunteer called Miles:

  But her flat was very small and we were in a bedroom 7ft6in by 10ft6in with a double bed and wardrobe - we took turns to stand up.  So we moved in with a volunteer in our group - Carol - who had a bit more room.  Meanwhile the date of moving in to our apartment kept being put back and we were getting seriously stressed.

View from Carol's flat:

Nice!

Talking to Carol's landlady, she mentioned that there was another flat in the same block which was vacant.  Although it costs more than VSO are willing to pay we have taken it, agreeing to pay the difference. So now we have finally moved into our own apartment, in a lovely wooden house in New Garden Street, in the Queenstown area of Georgetown.

View from our flat - omitting the razor wire and building site.

Welcome to Guyana

Well, this is the first posting from Guyana.  It has been long delayed because we have been in temporary accommodation so far and still haven't unpacked our bags.  Hopefully we are about to move into our more permanent address very shortly.

Meanwhile here is our view from the Rima Guest House where we stayed during our induction:

As you can see, the Hibiscus bar was right across the road, very convenient for pre-prandial Bank's Specials.  It also had disco nights on Fridays and Saturdays - very loud music until 3 or 4 am.  We were told to bring earplugs to Guyana!

There were 14 in our group of volunteers, 5 from the UK, 1 from the Netherlands, the rest from Canada.  Some of us ventured out to the sea wall on the first weekend: