My maurning (not misspelled…just creolese…something you learn to love…yeah? yeah!) routine: I wake up early early early early (in creolese repeating a word is a way to demonstrate emphasis, as if to say very)! 5:30 am on a Saturday maurnin? Of course! It’s bright and sunny Guyana! I treat myself to my coffee made with the lovely powdered milk, sugar, water, and Folgers instant coffee granulates that I despised in the states, but enjoy oh so much here. Sometimes I even add in a little Milo to make it “mocha.” Then, I head out onto my veranda to lime (hang out) in my hammock and slowly wake myself up. Brilliant!
Black outs: In the states this is often a cause for distress and chaos, but not in Guyana. They are an often occurrence, happening numerous times on some days. I love when I the blackness fall on the usually bustling streets of my town at night. The normal thunderous music (and I mean thunderous… they love their speakers here!) from the shops halt and the sounds that are Guyana can be enjoyed. The lazy cow and donkey fighting in the middle of the street, the venders from the bakery behind my house gaffing (chatting/gossiping), the amazing creolese phrases that I can now attempt to decipher.
Modes of transportation:
There is nothing I love more than when I see an entire family of five travel together… all on the same bicycle…. Yes they do it… it amazes me every time I see it! The balance, the coordination, the strength of the peddler, and the sheer lack of regard for the dangerousness of carrying a 4 month old in this fashion, along with 2 other children and a wife! It is awesome! Speaking of bicycles, I also love when I am walking to school and see a student of mine riding his older, much fatter brother to school on his handlebars (obviously being forced to do so)!
OK, let’s talk minibuses! Make yourself small is the saying! Imagine a 15 passenger van with up to 30 people… no I am not exaggerating… this is common! Many volunteers refuse to take the minibuses for this reason. However, I love them! First, they less expensive than taking a cyar (car) on the street or a taxi and they are SO much more entertaining! There is always a story. Remember that traveling family of five? So just when the minibus is so full that the conductor has to ride with his butt hanging out the window (yes this IS normal) we stop… for that same family of five and they all fit in!!! Mom and all three children sitting on top of each other in one small seat! How about when my minibus was stopped at a road block and the man dressed in a military uniform told the conductor he wanted to search my bag!?! I pause and think, followed by the quick “why?.......NO!” and they say OK, go ahead!?! That would never fly back home!
Yes, I almost forgot my favorite minibuses… the “boom-boom buses.”
There was a recent law saying music can’t be played in the bus… its Guyana… like that rule will be followed! So they play all sorts of random music that skips around and is so loud you can’t think. Then the random guy behind you just starts singing and can’t carry a tune to save his life! So, what do I do? Sing along and laugh the whole time! Damn right!
Then we have those cyars I was talking about. They are a little more expensive, but very accessible. Every time Im in a cyar I think of my brother, whom when he was younger lost his license numerous times for reckless driving (sorry Jesse). They drive well over 120 KM/hr on the roads, everyone passes everyone and just get to the correct side of the road in time before a full head-on collision without a blink of an eye from the country nationals. As I, at first was pleading for my life! It doesn’t phase me now. If the swerving in and out wasn’t enough there are always animals in the middle of the road. The cyars just swerve around them too…a huge cow, the random dog, a goat with a few kids… whatever. They also use one and only one signal for all warnings…. Honking the horn! Beep “need a drop?”… beep “im passing you”…beepbeepbeep “get the hell out of my way”….beep “ hey baby” … BEEP! so I pretty much ignore all the beeps! It will be weird to come home and drive without hearing all those BEEPS!
The animals: It’s like a 24 hour petting zoo! Any animal that might be penned up back home is just free to roam the streets, but they are not strays! Oh no, someone owns them, but don’t ever ask me who because I have NO IDEA! It funny how things just become normal to you, like the other day when I was leaving school and there was a bull blocking the fence. I just pushed him out of the way not even thinking any different. A horse was drinking out of the trench in font of my house and two donkeys are getting it in on in the market. Oh and the dogs here are never nice! But they are soooo funny when they get stuck together after matting and cannot figure out how to get apart… and you can’t help them because they will bite you! YES, I said they got stuck together! I can’t even describe the hilariousness of it!
The music! It is ALWAYS loud! Guyanese love loud music. There is no such thing as a noise ordinance that’s for sure! They build walls out of speakers bigger than me for any function… or even in their homes! Religion is always talked about so I wake up every maurnin to the loud Christian gospel and fall asleep to the shop’s random mix of soca, reggae, A-kon, Celin Dion, and 80’s soft rock. My favorite is when you get in a cyar that is all pimped out and the driver looks all thug (to use American terms) and he is rocking out to Richard Marx or Shania Twain. Yeah this is common! I love the randomness of this country!!!
There are many more random acts that occur everyday. I’ll be sure to share more another time! The randomness may be my favorite part of Guyana!
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