Coil: Trash talk on the Corentyne

by Vidyaratha Kissoon 
The car man says that he fell in love with Moses the first time he heard him speak at an AFC rally way back. He worked hard for the AFC in the 2011 elections. He asks me if it is okay to smoke and hangs the cigarette out of the window.

Another car passes with a young driver. Car man hails him up and the other driver shakes his hand out as well. Car man laughs and says.. that is meh young cousin. Car man is black, the young cousin is coolie. Car man says “he used to haul ganja fuh me and then I find out we is family. He is a good guy”.

I ask about the ganja trade. Car man said that was in the old days. He never did cocaine though because it never came to him. Now he is all for peace and love.
He is smoking tobacco, not ganja in the car.

This is the first trip to Corentyne  since the last one before the elections.  The car man the last time talked about ecstasy. I am getting nervous these days about the number of people who I am meeting who seem to be involved in the ‘drugs’ trade.  I know people mostly think I am a doctor not a drugs man.

Car man says  that he had to educate himself because his clients were doctors and lawyers and professors and so. Intelligent people. I have a feeling that he would not have been shocked if I asked for a joint.  He is moving at the speed limit (the legal one, not the 100 km/h which most people use)

Car man says nobody can’t tell him about race. He has relatives all races. He has an Indian wife now and he love her and she love him.  His wife calls and wants to know where he is. She calls about two or three times while we are on the road.

Car man said that he did not have his Indian music now. He likes oldies. He hums Suhani Raat. He said that he is into customer service . He has all kinds of music. Some of the young Indian passengers, he says, prefer Kartel and things like that. They do not appreciate the oldies.

I say.. but how a black man like you know Suhani Raat. He laughs and says “I am a black man. I am a coolie man. I am a buck man. I am a white man. I am human’ .  This sounds just like some of the AFC people I know on Facebook.

He asks me if I ever hear Chinese music. He puts on some. He knows the lyrics like how I know some coolie lyrics without knowing what they mean. We pick up a Chinese man . The car man looks happy. The Chinese man sits down quietly in the car. Car man and me gaffing, then car man says hear this one and raises the volume. The Chinese man leans forward and laughs and says, ‘You have Chinese music?”. Car man laughs and says, yes my brother.
Come on Mr Granger, give another post to AFC outside of the accord. This man should be Minister Ally’s junior minister!

We talk about clean up. Car man says that Guyanese are nasty people. Some places are clean, some are not. He keeps his litter in the car. He says ‘no one throws anything from my car’.

A young man who does not smoke or drink and works as a security guard  talks about why he left one of his jobs. He used to work in a store. He and the owner got into problems over trash. He used to supervise the dumping of the day’s trash in the river. One day the river was low. He thought the trash would wash away. But instead, the river washed the trash higher up the shore . The store owner wanted him to pick up the trash which was supposed to have been washed away.  I did not ask the young man whether or not he voted or whether there was anywhere else to throw the trash.

A businessman who asks me what I think about the new administration puts his trash in the river. I ask him about it – isn’t there anywhere else? He does not answer. I thought he would tell me because  we had chatted about politics.

The businessman who enjoys his business asks me what I think about the administration. I said I did not vote but I am glad the PPP gone. This is a big risk I think in Berbice where the voters turned out for the PPP/C. The man says yes, they were getting too much power in their head. We talk about sugar.  The man said that the Skeldon Sugar Factory was being sabotaged, that it works well when they fixed it. I say whaaah? Why would they sabotage themselves? He said because they do not want to pay the day pay incentive when they meet their production targets.

The business man  says that this government has to watch as well before power gets to their heads.
Another resident who is concerned about the litter said that there is nothing which could be done about the litter because the laws do not exist up there to penalise the people who litter.  (The towns apparently have different by-laws from Georgetown ).  The resident says that he watches as the river side is used for parties, for prayers and to dump rubbish. He does not believe that the new Government can do much unless they change the local government laws.

The cook at the riverside cook shop asks me if I want to try fry boulanger with smoke manari fish.  I say yes. I wonder if manari is a fish from the river. A fisherman eating said that all kinds of fish come from the river.  He does not believe that the government will touch the back tracking because it ‘deh’.
I ask about safety. The man said yeah.. a couple years ago they had a big accident, everybody dead, they had on life jacket, some bodies wash up far away.  (There were reports that some persons did not have on life jackets)   Another man hearing me ask say that no man, river low, you can cross over and take a walk in Nickerie. The fisherman says .. yeah man, Go.. you can’t dead in water unless that is fuh you.

I join a car to come to Georgetown.  Young coolie man driving. Kartel and other dance hall mix playing loud. I ask him to lower down the volume because I is a old man. He lower it and raise it up again. I think of the car man with Suhani Raat.

I want to ask the driver what he think about the Government and so. He speeds up on the 19 road and raises the volume. I want to ask for coolie music.

I  think of the fisherman and wonder where I am supposed to dead. But it was not on 19 road listening to Kartel while speeding down in a car with people who might have voted for PPP.

The last car man is quiet and polite. Nice music. Again. No stickers though. We lime at the bridge waiting for it to open. Chips man snips the top off the chips bag. The top of my bag falls and blows away. I say , man how you gun mess up yuh house suh. Chips man laughs and says it is not my house.

Car man goes and throws his litter in a rubbish bin. Other men in the line just throwing their rubbish anywhere.
Bridge opens and the car man this time knows the road good and I feel the wheels moving.  I give up worrying.
Fisherman in my head talking that you can’t dead where you not supposed to dead. I close my head.
Car man has the music at a nice level for singing.

And deja vu, Sam Smith ‘Stay with me’ remix playing like the last time
Me and the girls next to me singing the chorus “Oh, won’t you stay with me? ‘Cause you’re all I need
This ain’t love, it’s clear to see But darling, stay with me” “

I raise my head to peep the speedometer. The car man reaching  120km/h at some points, but never at 80 unless it is absolutely necessary.
Car man says, in the nice reassuring kind of “I brought you down safely” voice ,“don’t worry, it will be fixed soon.”

The water  may be fixed soon.. but maybe not the businessman throwing litter in the river who does not want power drunk politicians or the otherwise decent young man who does not see anything wrong with the river as a dump site or the speeding drivers who play nice soft music and do not litter.
(Flickriver photo Sorenriise)