Thoughts of a minibus traveller

Tomato jubilee Man weeding the yard said look you have a tomato plant near the gutter and I said okay, not going to touch it, let me leave it, throw lil water on it.  Seeds from other tomatoes grown in other parts of Guyana (I try not to buy Brazil tomatoes but I not sure.. )settle in the sediment of the gutter which then generate at the side.  I am in awe even though last time the tomatoes dried up before they ripened and then the plant dried up   I have zero expectations when anything grows in the yard.  Tomatoes in the market were 600GYD a pound and visitors who live in other countries with rising prices keep asking me, why are prices so high in Guyana (even as they are high in other places)?  It is not as though we are further from the Strait of Hormuz than anyone else.  I don't know myself but as the nation which I am part of but feel apart from talks about Diamond Jubilee for the Independence and I see that it seems the Government has organis...

Section of Birth of Kaieteur by Ohene Koama (2024)   Unknown   The entrance to the gallery frames a piece with orange overtones and some bright circles. There is no label. I thought maybe that it was a deliberate act of the artist. I asked and it seems the organisers of the Burrowes School of Art 50th Anniversary exhibition at Castellani House could not find the information.  Was the information lost in the web created by the insecurity of the leaders who cannot trust their technical staff ?   There is no catalog, and nothing really which says anything about the story of the ER Burrowes School of Art, which perhaps says a lot about Guyana 2026. (The linked news article has more information) Unknown here probably linked to the oil flowing over the past, seeming to wipe out history and limiting how history and culture are important as we actually move through this unknown future created by oily wealth derived from killing girls and adults in Iran and which is g...

  Passion Fruit Walk in the market and see apples for GYD100 each and a young woman with a tub of passion fruit. I ask her how much and she doesn't turn around as she tells me 5 for GYD1000 .. she leaves me to pick out the five because I think passion fruit is good for me, and that a passion fruit a day has benefits like an apple a day though the way things are in Guyana.. it seems like is foreign things, things imported from outside are cheaper, and so economically better (even for rich people like me) than things from Guyana  Bus driver says 'dis guvament is stupid' as the bus with people from different origins laughing and celebrating the wheelbarrow of coins which one friend take to pay his other friend costs a few weeks ago. 'New Wheelbarrow..' Does the guvament care that locally grown passion fruit is more expensive than imported apples? Do people care anymore? 1616 to 1966 to 2026 1616 - the Dutch come and found Essequibo  1966 - British Guiana turn Guyana...

     The Dog  Pete is one of the rescue dogs at Hope for Animals Inc in Lusignan and he comes and jumps up on me and I do this kind of fake embrace to say nice to meet you but don't come too close because I am not one of those people who love love love dogs and cats and animals.    But many dogs and some cats don't really seem to care and in my self-righteous way I think okay since they say that animals know nice people and so,  then I must be a nice person then and this picture could be used to get votes and so on when I run for President.   Two visitors from France who love animals, both vegetarian for animal rights, said yes to going up to Lusignan.  Big smiles and watery eyes when they met some of the animals which Genevieve "Judy" Beepat single-handedly cares for - over 50 dogs and over 50 cats. Judy knows their names, histories, personalities I am a bit nervous as I wonder if any of them would attack me given some of their ...

Stabroek News 16 June, 2007  Letter to the Editor  "Is who you really think you is?" was the only reaction I ever had to the first letter I wrote to Stabroek News way back in the 1990s. The letter was sent via fax in those days. I was happy that at least one person read the letter.  Many people have paid tribute to Stabroek News since news of their closing hit us. Many people have talked about the letters to the editor section especially.  Stabroek News has published many letters which I have written.  Many people have told me that they read the letters. Others said they hear I write some letter and I would then send the link to them. Stabroek News has also not published a few letters - at one point I thought they were not publishing the letters I wrote about the alcohol industry and its contribution to our alcohol problem in Guyana. I wrote in the third person, or sometimes, in the first person plural 'We' not as in the royal 'We' but hoping that I could inc...

  Pumpkin  Man in the market asks if I want the pumpkin cut at $400 which is the same as 2 pounds of carailla and 2.5 pounds of ochro and I say no, then I see that it dry and look nice and I have not cooked pumpkin for a long time as the price was too much in the oil and gas luxury range .  Visitor to Guyana asks me 'is that grown here?" and when I tell him yes , the man said "wow, that is so expensive"  and I tell him since oil flowing, the vegetables and fruits more expensve and he ask me why  and I say, 'I don't know'.  Kadoo And is a nice pumpkin and I think would be nice to make something else other than the regular pumpkin and the internet throw up 'Borani Kadoo' ..   کدو Kadoo  - is Pashto/Urdu/Persian for pumpkin though the pumpkin might be a different one from the expensive one which growing in Guyana. And 'Borani Kadoo'.. as with food, so many different ways to cook it. All start with slicing the pumpkin into thin slices and dee...