Thoughts of a minibus traveller

 "Aye , aye .. come come .. see what we building..." the man calls me. I am walking in a kind of fuzz and not feeling like I could carry on a small talk conversation. Man calls me into the place which used to sell food. There is construction work going on, has been going on for awhile. Glass cases still there.  "Look, we aint doing food, we doing these things to sell.. pepper sauce, chips..." . Man is full of energy "You aint ever had this.. like pringles.. " He opens a plastic bag with cassava chips. The last molar had broken so the dentist said don't chew rough things. I was craving things to crunch and had been holding back from running down to the supermarket to pick up crunch things. Back in the day I didn't care when the mood caught me.. I bought and binged. The women who makes my favourite plantain chips had not come for two weeks. Nothing else compared. The thing with plantain chips though is that nothing like a pack which lil hard and not

Book club 3am, I can't sleep. I get up, collect the laptop, bring to the bed under the net. I open the PDF of the book. I want to sleep but I am glad that I can finish reading the book,  not only because the book is a kind of page turner but because well is book club that day and I want to finish the book. I remember reading a Kafka's Metamorphosis the night before First book club meeting in 2005 and thinking what the hell , this is like school.. hustling up to finish assignment the day before it is due. Reading is a wonderful solitary activity. Reading in community has this other dynamic of sustaining the joy in the encouragement and sharing.   Pandemic The pandemic has not stopped the reading in community. Thanks to the Internet, we can set some goals and then meet to talk about the book and the things in the book, or not to talk about the book at all and talk about other things - sex, politics, mental health, more sex, politics, environment, writing, films, other books.. M

Navratri A clear night one Navratri. Beautiful satsangh in a beautiful mandir.  Mandir created as so many others in Guyana out of community desire for sacred space. Our Hindu ancestors came and land was set aside and made holy. Navratri celebrations are popular.  We sang that night in the Ramayana Gole, like the ancestors.  Young pandit, young people seem to be leading things. The blessing in connection, not so much to Shakti, the Divine Feminine energy, but to the ancestors who sustained belief in that Energy. Come out at the back of the mandir to look at the sky. See the smouldering pile.  Styrofoam boxes.. slowly burning.. huge pile.. plastic containers also burning. Wish I could say something. I don't know the people though. Host, guest relationship. Similar issues around as the generosity of the mandir hosts , the new technology of the disposable 'sanitary' , the noise, the murtis out of plastic, means around the world that Hindu festivals now create environmental prob

  Dear PAIN, I embrace you to let you go.  I felt you coming and was worried as you appeared in the sides of my waist and I thought of kidney stones and prostate issues and wondered why the pain was there not going away no matter how much I breathed and stretched.  I did not think of the triggers of squabbles with the patient, the brief sad exchange with the loved one , the work thing.. the loss of the last tooth to crunch on.. the transformer which keeps blowing.. the other things ..  But I was thinking of those things and in thinking of those things you creeped up slowly, crowded from waist to back to shoulders.. The interview and then the offer of the job and saying yes when thinking 'are you sure you want this janjhat' and not feeling the excitement which comes with possibility but dreading all the things which could go wrong.. and so PAIN  you flowed all over.. head to shoulders.. both shoulders.. each site in the pain a site associated with one of the triggers which I d

  Community archives are those archives which are maintained by individuals or groups outside of the State/National archives. These archives are vital in understanding different aspects of our humanity.  This conversation was held to discuss community archives related to the Caribbean.   These notes reflect some of the discussions in the conversation. (The conversation was not recorded) The need for community archives in the Caribbean The need for community archives is based on :- the gaps in information about marginalised peoples in the Caribbean and in the diaspora. This is an issue especially with regards to indigenous peoples and cultures, where the historical records are kept by colonisers and others with similar interests.   to improve access to untold stories and histories related to Caribbean peoples The nature of Community archives related to the Caribbean and its diasporas.  Ego shared some of the archive projects where she worked. Olive Morris archiv e Black Cultural Archi

Democracy On the dawn of the International Day of Democracy 2021 , 15 September 2021, police broke into the home of Junior Orin Boston at Dartmouth Village, Essequibo and killed him. The family of Junior Orin Boston has called for an independent investigation . The villagers of Dartmouth have come on the road, blocked the road. The Guyana Police Force has said they can do the independent investigation themselves.  In the democracy, the institutions can reject calls from the citizens who do not trust them. In the democracy, the Guyana Police Force does not see the benefit of transparency, of opening its procedures and investigations to the independent team.  Warhead, war Stabroek News reports that the Government Pathologist removed a 'warhead' from the body of Junior Orin Boston. Warheads are apparently meant to kill when they enter, rather than say wound or subdue.  On the International Day of Democracy 2021, Guyana's police thought it was okay to arm themselves with weapo