Unexpected hugs and lemons - Black Friday Groundings and love

A sixth form student from Bishops' was politely listening to me talk about listening when a felt one of those hugs from behind , nice and warm and I turned around expecting to see a woman who I had not seen a long time.

It was a mad man (or man madder than me) who said something about he glad to see me and I showed him the newspaper origami heart with the quote and he said nice nice and took it and asked me if I had money. He laughed and left.

Love.

It had been  awhile since I had done the groundings. In addition to the Free Books, there were free condoms and poetry and I was sharing out newspaper hearts with quotes about love for people to discuss and talk.

The Ecotrust group from the University of Guyana was there - first time a formal group in their Tee Shirts attended groundings. They were engaging people about loving the environment .

I had my plastic bag of hearts made from newspaper and scrap paper.  A woman I know felt sorry for me and stopped and took one but could not stop to gaff.
Others did - a woman talked about Guyanese needing to love their neighbour to reduce the violence; a taxi driver took the heart with the quote  fronn bell hooks

"All too often women believe it is a sign of commitment, an expression of love, to endure unkindness or cruelty, to forgive and forget. In actuality, when we love rightly we know that the healthy, loving response to cruelty and abuse is putting ourselves out of harm's way.”

He said his uncle and aunt always fighting.

Other people stopped. Some persons , adults, schooled in the last three decades, cannot read but glad to talk. One boy was glad to read. He had his rabbit with him.

A man said he loved .. he talked raw.. he is a black man and he said he had to tell Edghill to stop talking about division and to talk about love. He had helped a coolie man who had been attacked by black men after an election . He had seen the man after and he said he pretended that he did not know the man because he did not want the man to feel obliged to him. He said that was how he love Guyana.


Other people looked at some of the national songs and said they looked familiar. A girl said that littering was a problem and East Bank transportation when she had to pay double the fare during peak periods. She didn't think she could change any of that. Some persons read the love quotes and laughed and said 'true true'.

A man came with some lemons to sell.. fresh ones. He took the box with a lot of condoms and books. Others passed.. as always some looked at us like if we mad, some smiled politely and said they busy, some stopped and read a bit.

Some persons turned back after passing. Some asked for the newspaper hearts and kept the poems and songs.  The last heart was taken by a toddler. I heard one or two persons say they had not read poetry for a long time.