Is nah just to give away de books... Groundings 21 Jan, 2016

The primary school girl with spectacles had three books in her hand including Toni Morrison's Tar Baby . I said, but you will read that? and she looked up at me, through top of the spectacles and said . Yes I like to Read...  and I thought oh lord..

Arrived at 3pm at the corner of Camp and Robb Street with lots of books which I had accumulated for the next groundings from the house as a kind of letting go.

The body pained in different parts as I bent down to layout the cloth and the books. It was crazy and I got distracted. I had forgotten we had agreed one or two books per person and make sure there is interaction.. on some question.

The school children swarmed and were picking up.

I had some of the love quotes.. first student pulled the "“It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences.” by Audre Lorde. She said she was not sure what it meant.

A boy said, it means that we have to accept people for who they are. The girl agreed.


A journalist passed.. he looked amused at the whole thing - he picked up two or three books. He managed to avoid the love quote questions.


Some people passed straight, some passed and turned back.

I was annoyed at myself for not being able to bend down properly and  forgot about reasoning about love and so.  Reasoning requires listening, and people, seemingly quiet people, deserve to be listened to as well.


Corner is cool , nice breeze blowing the covers of the books and the magazines open.


 The first set of books finished quickly, because we did not bother too much. The last set of magazines were picked up by a citizen who also asked me for the bags, the cloth, and a 100.

A man with a beer in his hand asked if we had children's books. Another man passed and asked when next we would be there.

Sherlina reminded us that 'it is nah just to give away de books".

Another box of novels came after, other people stopping. 

We asked questions like 'what would you different this year from last year" . A tall quiet man who had a John Grisham said he hoped to read more. He said that he reads with his children.. diary of a wimpy kid. His mother and wife had a lot of books and that next time we must let him know

Woman I worked with at Guysuco came up and of course we talked about Wales Estate closure. We remembered, 20 years ago, they were always closing Wales.. they never invested properly.. Skeldon, Albion, Blairmont were always bright and shiny, Wales always seemed neglected...  .. people picking up books and gaffing.


A woman said she did not think of anything new that happened, then she said. oh yes, "I was baptised."

Another woman said she hoped to talk to more people. She is normally shy, and had studied psychology.

Difficult to talk with the music carts loud in the background.

Books go. Corner is like the place to lime now.  I recognise a man I had on Facebook but  never met in person. Then a woman who I also knew from Facebook and never spoke to in person.  And we talked about things we would never talk about on Facebook.

Next time I hope that I am not distracted by my body's limitations. We might do something about 'what does it mean to be a Guyanese'.