Light candle, breathe deeply and stretch..
There has been a lot of death in Guyana this week. I went to a funeral - a celebration though of an extraordinary life of a woman who her daughter said did not fear death. Other people though, were killed in violent ways. Grenade, domestic violence, bandit violence. Surviving and Thriving in Guyana in 2011 would require great physical, mental and spiritual strength. The economy is doing well we hear, gold has exceeded its target 'despite' its challenges' Gold though does not mean that children can read and write or get food to go to school in many places.
Things are tense. The work plan this year is not going to have to change.. some problems are escalating beyond our expectations, and the 'elections' tension means that every thing has to be put in such a way that takes into account its sudden cancellation or postponement. Liquor companies have further reach than social services.
Some of the colleagues I work with are burnt out or are running on energies which are manic and cannot nurture others. A few people still want to be creative, and already in the first week of 2011, there is a kind of whirlwind feeling of moving between trying to manage, counsel, inspire, resolve conflicts with people to get important work done; while also trying to be positive and creative and innovative so as to see what could be good out of Guyana to break the endless negative headlines on the newspapers and Internet updates and people's Facebook status.
Spiritual strength - God does exist in Guyana as everywhere else - including in the people dealing in grenades and channa bombs. The good news is limited.. nothing much created in Guyana this week, no inventions patented, no innovations, no new Guyanese books launched, or films or plays or TV shows or computer programmes written by people in Guyana, No new medical discoveries..
One Guyanese woman said she moved to St Lucia to be creative so they bring her story here to liven up the week.. but she talk about why she move.
Where then to find the good news? Amidst the death, quarrels, missed deadlines in the workplan, and the uncertainties and anxieties.. the first chocolate cake for 2011 worked out good; a taxi driver tell me he sorry that the end of the journey meant the end of the gaff; a man has a complex crowdsourcing mashup film project he thinks I should work on in 2012; a small sewa project concludes, interesting stats reveal themselves on this blog and I am starting to learn that detachment does not mean apathy , that it is not necessary to be consumed with horror or anger at every story until it no longer matters.
So, today , after a week of bad and good things, and with the anxieties and hopes about the unknown future.. I lit a candle, did the yoga to celebrate the ease of the back pain, breathed deep to release the tensions and then thought about what to write in this blog.
Things are tense. The work plan this year is not going to have to change.. some problems are escalating beyond our expectations, and the 'elections' tension means that every thing has to be put in such a way that takes into account its sudden cancellation or postponement. Liquor companies have further reach than social services.
Some of the colleagues I work with are burnt out or are running on energies which are manic and cannot nurture others. A few people still want to be creative, and already in the first week of 2011, there is a kind of whirlwind feeling of moving between trying to manage, counsel, inspire, resolve conflicts with people to get important work done; while also trying to be positive and creative and innovative so as to see what could be good out of Guyana to break the endless negative headlines on the newspapers and Internet updates and people's Facebook status.
Spiritual strength - God does exist in Guyana as everywhere else - including in the people dealing in grenades and channa bombs. The good news is limited.. nothing much created in Guyana this week, no inventions patented, no innovations, no new Guyanese books launched, or films or plays or TV shows or computer programmes written by people in Guyana, No new medical discoveries..
One Guyanese woman said she moved to St Lucia to be creative so they bring her story here to liven up the week.. but she talk about why she move.
Where then to find the good news? Amidst the death, quarrels, missed deadlines in the workplan, and the uncertainties and anxieties.. the first chocolate cake for 2011 worked out good; a taxi driver tell me he sorry that the end of the journey meant the end of the gaff; a man has a complex crowdsourcing mashup film project he thinks I should work on in 2012; a small sewa project concludes, interesting stats reveal themselves on this blog and I am starting to learn that detachment does not mean apathy , that it is not necessary to be consumed with horror or anger at every story until it no longer matters.
So, today , after a week of bad and good things, and with the anxieties and hopes about the unknown future.. I lit a candle, did the yoga to celebrate the ease of the back pain, breathed deep to release the tensions and then thought about what to write in this blog.
Comments
Post a Comment