beauty queen, poetry, memory and fyah at St Georges Cathedral

2010 International Candlelight Memorial
The 44 bus driver shouted as he drove past.. "de Cathedral gun bun down wid all dem anti man pun de step.. fyah bun"

SASOD organised the third International Candlelight Memorial event today - 20 May, 2012 .

The steps of St George's Cathedral has been the venue, and God has been good, the rains always set up... but it always ends up being nice and cool at the time.


Namela, Randy and Ryon organised this year's event. Two of the reigning beauty queens participated. The event was opened by a prayer by the Miss Jamzone - I am not accustomed to pageant protocol so was a little dazed at the crown and so on. However, the prayer was earnest.. and given how people think that SASOD is devil and so on, well.. here we had a prayer on the cathedral steps .. while some people like the minibus man think everything should go up in flames.

The event continued.. poetry by a young man, a song by GT&T jingle winner Shawn English, a dance by Christ Church Dance Group, a sax piece played by Ton of PAHO dedicated to his mother - who he said welcomed all the people in her family regardless of their HIV status or sexual orientation. A powerful dance by Jada and Destra on the steps of the cathedral led to tributes.. Desiree Edghill was emotional as she remembered Andre Sobryan she had a special candle with chocolate scent. Another Miss Guyana spoke about HIV before lighting the first candle.

(There were some other Miss Guyana contestants in attendance but they were not on the programme)

The First Lady sent her apologies.

The nice thing of having this kind of public event.. is the kind of diverse audience. Two of Georgetown's persons of minds in other dimensions (apart from me ) stayed through the event. There was a nice sense of gathering and communing at one of Georgetown's prominent landmarks. People participated freely. Mr Peters of Guyana Rainforest Herbs lent his PA system and his vehicle to transport the system.


Candlelight memorial is a nice thing, but since the first time, I know that we do not seem to get the Candle thing right and the whole thing about which containers.. the lovely breeze etc etc. But Namela, Ryon and Randy know their candles well.

I am always nervous about the Cathedral and fire..  But it is good to use the fyah.. the fyah bun which the minibus man talk about.. for memories and affirmations rather than for condemnation.

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