Posts

Respecting the rivers, the Berbice Art and Craft Collective and others in the leap year..

Image
Thanks Esther for the photo Rivers  "Mr Kissoon, you arite..." the boat captain asks me as I decide to be one with the river and not be afraid of it. I say yeah man.. I more concerned that he is arite because if the captain is not arite then we will not be arite no matter how much my soul and the river are intertwined. Leap year and after years of working from the comfort of home , where commuting is clicking on keys in house clothes.. Universe says get  off your flattened ... and get on the rivers to go to work. And so I have to say yes to the fear, and yes to the work and I go on the rivers in the first months of the leap year.  Dressed to protect from water spray but knowing really that  should the water embrace me fully there will be no protection except to swim.. which I can't do. But respecting the river seems to ease the discomfort of not being able to swim in the river. And to enjoy the river, the smooth and the rough, the bamboo and other plants on the banks.. an

"I want he to leave me alone" - lessons from walking with an 18 year old Indigenous survivor of gender-based violence

Image
  Walking with the 18 year old survivor 8pm or so, some drizzles in the night. The 18 year old tells her story. She was working with her friends. The man who is a powerful man in the village came up behind her, slapped her , took away the phone. She had ended the relationship with him. The man had started to contact her when she was under 16. He has 'spoiled other girl children' Her friend brought her on advice of a village leader.  The 18 year old says she will make a report, since the police cannot do anything unless a report is made. We feel that she is certain and understands the process. Even as she knows that he has paid off other persons he has attacked. My colleagues and I go, walking with the 18 year old and her friend. Rain drizzles a bit more. For the first time, I use the umbrella I bought- swag for the commemoration of the rebuilding of the Ram Ayodhya mandir in India. Ram returning to Ayodhya, Ram is not here though in the village. Her friend turns back at the s

Writing the first mango first for 2024..

Image
  Writing...   "Keep writing" I tell the woman who sent me the links to the news stories about the Attorney General saying Venezuela using the criticisms of oil as part of their arsenal and to the stories about the General Secretary of the PPP saying they will be going after social media influencers and so who want to divide Guyana. As though Guyana not already divided and cut up into pieces and segments which keep merging and joining from time to time for various things while splintering into other things as sometimes the stronger pieces push aside the weaker pieces and so on.  I have a thing left over from 2023 to write and then four other things to write before the first month.. but I been busy reading cozy mysteries and watching junk TV and I push everything to 'next' week when deadlines due.   And then I see the sunset coloured mango on the grass...  First mango first..   Weather dry and blossoms not turning into fruit like they used to. I see the tree has like

Lace, fruitcake and tangerine a year later...

Image
      Lace I wake up at 4am on the day when the 'putting away' would have been completed with headache, nausea.  The year shraad has been completed. I am grateful that all cleaning done in time, all rituals completed even in the sadness as another chacha has died.  The two night satsangh was good but the memories of all the other janjhat come back and stress manifested itself You would not be pleased that I decided to just stay away from the rest of the funeral rites for the chacha, but this year, this time, I do not want headache and nausea. Moving around 4am and I decide, yep. put back the lace tablecloth and the red Christmas placemats. Last year, the table was bare, no cloth, but some of the items needed to provide the care to you in your last days. Today as I write this a year later , remembering at this time you had pulled out the feeding tube, refusing all food, and then Yamraj took you Christmas Eve night.   So 4am on the putting away day, I clean the table and so, and

Many Guyanas and the one Venezuela , etc?

Image
Many Guyanas  "Please a tousand" the Indigenous child said in the open air restaurant/bar area to the coastlanders and any other person who would listen. A colleague assisted the child. The hotel is nice, A/C and running water. I am in a village, Indigenous community. I am not writing the name because I did not seek permission from anyone I met or didn't met to write about the place, or about them. The village centre seems to be around the airstrip, like other villages. Much like how other places might be built around rivers, the transportation hubs. I can't see any creek or river. "Today is holiday, only one person come to work.. Toshao say we must employ local people" the owner of the hotel said. I am not sure if he considers himself local. The woman who cleans the hotel, who comes to work every day, is the only Indigenous resident of the community with whom I speak. There is a nice small shop, unpainted boards. Big TV.  Grill to do 'roast'. I th

Laxmi Maa amidst the rubbish in Guyana 2023

Image
  Rubbish  Diwali morning early and I come out to go mandir. Place quiet, nice and cool.  Aunty V is out with her dogs - one on the chain, one with three legs running around. Someone had chopped off the fourth leg, Aunty V took the dog in and looked after it.  Is a kind of blessing, to witness this kindness to the animals. Walk towards the seawall. Rubbish all over.  The Diwali motorcade was successful the night before, thousands of citizens  coming out to support and enjoy the spectacle.   The citizens left the rubbish all over. Not sure which HIndu scriptures say that people should worship and then litter the place. Seawall would have been nice to look at.without the rubbish. Laxmi Maa with the rubbish  Minibus passes the Kitty roundabout. There are Diwali decorations , the pink lotus. Important symbol - the lotus- for growing in mud while not having mud on it.  The ground is littered .. plastic bottles, bags, cups. Signs of the prosperity in Guyana and more to come.   And then I l

Madness in the art gallery on the opening of Timehri Film Festival 2023

Image
Still from The Procession by Hew Locke   Madness  "What is wrong with madness?" Bassodee Dolly asks in the film playing in the art gallery which once housed Burnham as I explained to the people from Belize who did not know they were standing in the space Burnham might have stood over Guyana which Janet Jagan converted into the Art Gallery. Bassodee Dolly talks about being mad through Joan Cambridge-Mayfield in a film with some amazing archival footage which moved too fast. She wants to sell her land for 10 billion US dollars and dares anyone to say why the land is not worth that amount. The film Just 3 People Talking doesn't seem to go anywhere or to be about anything really, but  it is about everything now. Ancestors,  African, Indian and others.. 'all our ancestors' , and imagining that they are speaking to ask to act now. Joan Cambridge-Mayfield explains that she and idea for a Jumbie Jamboree,  and she felt The Procession by Hew Locke was that Jamboree.  Th