Thoughts of a minibus traveller

Donald inhaled deeply and looked into the eyes of the lizard on the  coconut fibre mat. He exhaled as the lizard flicked out its red tongue.  The blood flowed to his head in this headstand position. The mat was specially made  and brought to PalaceHouse as a souvenir from one of the "Women's coconut groups'.  He had tripped over and fallen on it when he was looking for his copy of 'The Communist Manifesto' which had been thrown in a store room with the other books from the book shelf on the wall where they were putting the large screen television which was a gift from the Chinese Minister of Trade who had come visiting and noticed that he did not have a big television and had instructed one of their business people to arrange the gift.   His security assured him that the Television did not have any listening devices. He did not trust his security so he and his wife did as many other families did, watched television without saying a word to each o...

Image taken from http://saiporai.com Guilherme Canever and his wife Bibi left Curtiba and travelled the Silk Route. He wrote a book,  a beautiful book , about the journey.  I say the book is beautiful because the layout and graphics - maps, images, and text - are colourful and appealing. Image from http://saiporai.com After reading travel writing like William Dalyrmple's In Xanadu , I am keen to see how 'third world' travellers view the rest of the world. Mark Jacob's What a friend we have in Jesus a bout a Guyanese in Haiti;  and Rahul Bhattacharya's Sly Company of People who care about an Indian in Guyana are two of the recent reads, though Bhattacharya's book might not be considered 'travel writing'. I can read Portuguese with the help of Google Translate.  I am fascinated by Iran and so I choose to read the part about Iran - Christmas morning I started. Guilherme begins each chapter with a summary of travel information - with compar...

Yukio Mishima was  a Japanese writer in the post-war period. He produced many works and then committed sepuku in a protest. Apparently, the sepuku did not go well. I read a good part of this book while standing in line at the bank for about an hour or so. There were many moments to giggle. There is humour here.. only of course the macabre can be seen to be funny. Mishima's character has no name. He is a child during World War II and as he grows, he realises he has homosexual desires..  desires which involve the image of St Sebastian. The story follows him as he speaks from behind the mask. Some of his fantasies are pretty violent.. and absurd. The book is translated. Our protagonist in his room looking at pictures of sculptures.. "That day, the instant I looked upon the picture, my entire being trembled with some pagan joy. My blood soared up; my loins swelled as though in wrath.. Some time passed and then, with miserable feelings I looked around the desk I was fac...

What do you want  this Christmas? What do you wish that people would have this Christmas and after? The Jubilee Centre for Character and Values at the University of Birmingham, UK ran a survey on values. They used this list of values in their analysis. I thought it would be nice if I could give myself and everyone else these values for Christmas - there are probably others like Compassion and so on.. Appreciation of beauty - Noticing and appreciating beauty, excellence and/or skilled performance in all domains of life. Citizenship - Working well as a member of a group or team; being loyal to the group; doing one's share. Creativity - Thinking of novel and productive ways of doing things; includes artistic achievement but is not limited to it. Courage - Not shrinking from threat, challenge, difficulty, or pain; speaking up for what is right even if there is opposition; acting on convictions even if unpopular; includes physical bravery but is not limited to it. Curi...

Purnima. Full moon in the Hindu month. I know there is no correlation between the moods and the moon. The dark clouds hover though. The morning Skype goes well with a bit of struggle. The other commands and quarrels and memories of the things I cannot change become overwhelming again. I know that they say you have to find new ways of looking at things and then it will be good. There is no warning really of when the clouds will come.. no forecast.  Some fitful sleep nights . I keep anticipating the damned itching again and I start holding things with cloth to make sure. A man I know sends a chat and I call and talk to him. It is a bit difficult to carry on the conversation but a way of keeping some contact.I feel nice that I can do that. I lie on the bed and do not want to go out. There is no sleep really and the stomach feels puffy from the bad eating.  There is restlessness which yoga could sometimes help with, but you need an empty stomach to do yoga.  The s...

Day 0. I know.. it is 19 more days to the end of a weird year. Time to get over losses and to also grow. I watch a tree outside which I chopped last week in a kind of frustration  and leaf buds are going on it again. I keep feeling stiffness in the body even with the yoga. It is manageable.  The moon I know is moving around and emotions wander. I actually felt the emotions wandering and I realise that the moon is somewhere nearer. A woman said she is not in a hurry to get the files from her crashed hard drive because she can start over.  Another very creative and smart woman said this year finished and she felt that she was supposed to end one life and start another. Some radical changes forces life readjustments. Loss especially. We have no choice then but to work with the loss. But the gradual decaying.. the aging body, the spirit which has been wearied by gradual losses and losses which have no ending.. that not so easy to deal with. The Bhagvad Gita says ...

What do Hindus/Hinduism/Hindu scriptures think about homosexuality/gay rights/gay marriage' ?  Hindus - professors, students, scholars, swamis, pandits, devotees, skeptics - have replied with different answers based on their rationale. In the Caribbean, religious leaders are often called on to pronounce on 'gay rights' and 'homosexuality' . Caribbean Hindu practice has been influenced by colonialism. There is a desire, where controversial issues arise, to appeal to conservative views so as not to be seen to be so 'morally' different from some forms of Christianity or Islam. Hindus around the world have been talking about human rights and about homosexuality. This blog post is a collection of some of the resources which discuss homosexuality and gay rights. There is a bias in this post to highlight those resources where Hindus affirm equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) persons. Hindu practices and thought are diverse, an...

The woman asked me to come to the Transparency Institute of Guyana Inc   March against Corruption which is taking place as I write this. I thought about it, not because I friken to speak out , but because as people noted, corruption is silent and often cannot be proven because people have ways of asking for things without. It is horrifying in Guyana how the active members of  TIGI have been the subject of cuss outs which nothing to do with any of the content of their advocacy. I was accused of acting in a corrupt way by a colleague in one of my organisations. The accuser is a member of the local TI group and I believe that they would know what they are speaking about.  I was shocked, because there has been no recanting of that allegation, and there was no recourse to also finding a way to deal with that allegation by a member of the group which speaks out against corruption. I then discovered to my horror that another person who frequently speaks out on public...

Sunday morning. December running out. 2013 running out. Fabulous forties fading too fast. I am in love and I love and so on and how I know is because love is... love is laughing at the memories of long conversations and arguments with  the much younger woman.. who now married and whose pictures and comments still make you smile without any pangs love is cussing  the man who sleeps nowhere and everywhere who works when he wants and who comes at all hours to ask for money, salt, matches , whatever ; and then giving him what he wants after you done cuss him love is feeling irritated and overwhelmed at the woman's intense postings and messages about social issues even as you know she is doing that in her own way of dealing with her mental health issues and then feeling bad when she tells people how wonderful she thinks your work is love is watching the wonderful woman who terrifies you and inspires you "like" your stuff on facebook and writing stuff which you think...

Alice Munro won the 2013 Nobel Prize for Literature and that is how I first heard of her. It is funny, as I think through the books I have read, that I have not really read Canadian authors or stories - though of course these days it is difficult to count what is a Canadian author story.  Yep, there were Shyam Selvadurai's books; and Lawrence Hill's The Book of Negroes but what I realise, is that I have not read many 'White' Canadian authors . Alice Munro is not easy. The stories have sharp sweet sentences. Dear Life (Dear as in expensive, precious and probably also dear..) is a collection of fourteen stories . I had this nice vision of Canadians as being hard working mild mannered half English half American people generally, living in a vast cold place. Alice Munro though, weaves stories about people, mostly women,  people who we might pass on the road and whose lives probably would never end up on television or newspapers except in death announcements.  The s...

Touched up picture of the cake with too liquid icing smeared all over This was on my bucket list.. a passion fruit cake. I had another 'passion fruit butter teacake recipe" which was complicated to make but really delicious . It seems that the Australians are the ones who make passion fruit baked goods. This recipe is adapted f rom the Best Recipes website. Ingredients 125 g butter 3⁄4 cup caster sugar 2 eggs (I used 1/2 cup crushed banana with a pinch of baking soda - vegetarian equivalent) 2 cups self-raising flour (or 2 cups plain flour, 2tsp baking powder, 1tsp salt, 1/2 tsp baking soda ) 1⁄2 cup milk (I used 1/2 cup milk soured with vinegar to help the baking soda work its magic) Pulp of 4 passion fruits (or 200 ml - passion fruits are different sizes) Icing 1 tablespoon soft butter 11⁄2 cups icing sugar Pulp of 2 passionfruit (or 1.. I used two and the thing was too liquid) Method Preheat oven to 180°C (350F) Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and ...

I like bhaji (spinach, calalloo, whatever). I have eaten but never made Eddoe Leaf Bhaji . I have been asking around - different people have said different things. You get the leaves, you have to strip the ribs out. However, the market now, you can buy the eddoe leaf chipped up and ready to cook. I have this vision of the thing scratching my throat. So I heard the following :- a) Steam it in water before you chunkay (fry with the onion, etc) it to cook b) Don't worry wid nobody, cook it like regular bhaji, c) Chunkay it, let the water dry out, then throw in the coconut milk. So.. I put some water at the base of the karahee, heated it up to boiling and then threw in the $200 worth I bought. (They pack in the plastic bags). After a bit , the whole thing started 'to spring water' and reduced to a nice green thing. I threw in a colander to drain out the water and I hope the itchy parts. I then proceeded to chunkay with the oil, garlic, onion, etc. Then I thre...

Is a old bus... a cork ball. A hole where de radio supposed to be. De seatbelt only fuh show. An a nice driver. One ah dem ol time ol; men, dress nice and relaxed.. no hurry to go nowher He say morning fus. Black guy. A lady tek out a thousand. He seh.. doan worry, next time yuh gun pay me. I laff and ask he whuh gun happen when de five thousand come out. He seh he aint know, nuff people gun owe he.  I seh, well tell dem to give a beggar man in your name. He laff an seh true true blessings. He tell me a story bout when he was a lil boy, how dey had a gold man in Bartica who used to keep a posey of whisky around.. tings was good. He seh a day he tek shelter from de rain and somebody bring in an ol' man , dirty clothes, old walking stick.. was de same man. he seh some man does drink out deh money.. an nuff beggar man was rich once. We talk about drinking. He seh he know anodda man he had to stop wuk wid, lef his wife wid no money fuh food. But good, de man turn muslim and ...

Today is International Volunteers Day and I see plenty people congratulating and so on. Here are the reasons why I volunteer.. I volunteer because I like to feel nice. I only volunteer when I can feel nice and I do not volunteer when I do not feel nice. If I do not feel nice, then I do not ever volunteer with that organisation, place again. I volunteer because I like to work with poor/less fortunate/needy/disadvantaged people. I think it is nice to give two or three or four hours to help those poor/less fortunate/needy/disadvantaged people and to bring their lives up like mine.  I volunteer because well, it is good to know that there are people who need my help and it feels nice I can help those poor people. Of course not, I do not feel important when people say Thank you Thank you and I do not get angry or upset if people do not say Thank You Thank you. I volunteer because I can meet other nice people like me. And if the people are not nice like me, then I do not...

I jump in de bus in de front seet an' i see an open new testament on de dashboard. A picture of Jesus hanging from de mirror and another one behind de steering wheel. Den I look up over de driver window and I see... married and ready to mingle The Lord is my Protector De music was not gospel. De driver jump in an' seh marnin' I seh.. arite, put on some coolie music nuh. He look at me like if  he in two mind bout de money and de chubble. He put on de coolie music. I tink after what is de point.. dat it not so clear nowadays who playing what music and so on.. but I tired of hearin' bout panty and chi chi man and so on. I ask de man.. I seh man, how u could married and ready to mingle and den ask de lard fuh protection. He laff an seh is not he own. We start de journey. Bus man fiddling wid he blackberry. I seh.. lard.. is how dis blackberry  madness reach till to dis bus driver. De man looking at me and I seh.. man.. dont text and drive, like Oprah seh you ...

Domestic violence prevention advocates have always aimed to ensure that schools are an important place to talk about domestic violence and child abuse. The advocates recognised that the awareness in students would help to break the cycle in the next generation of relationships. In addition, PTAs were also venues to raise awareness , not only to break the silence but to also highlight how domestic violence affected children's lives. The Ministry of Education said that they have a Health and Family Life Education curriculum. Anecdotal evidence has shown  that the implementation of the curriculum is inconsistent. Guyana's National Domestic Violence Policy states that :- The Ministry of Education will work in collaboration with the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security to design public awareness activities targeting students. Such activities shall be geared towards sensitising students about issues of violence and abuse, including domestic vi...

( Youths in Unison was launched at the Roadside Baptist Skills Training Centre , No 68 Village, Corentyne Berbice on 2 December, 2013. I was invited to give a brief address . This is the gist of what I said ) Good afternoon friends. I would like to start with expressing gratitude, as previous speakers have done ,to Roadside Baptist. In May 2001, some of you would have barely been born, I was asked to come to Black Bush to do a domestic violence workshop. I wondered if I had to bring my Bible and if I would have been converted! It was an intense three days with a variety of people at the Yakusari Primary School. I was nervous all the time since I had these big people (Pastor of course has a big voice and I thought this is how God must sound) and I was uncertain of how things would go.  I am grateful to Roadside Baptist for the work they have done, and for providing a then youngish man with great opportunities to learn about this part of Guyana and to be involved...