Thoughts of a minibus traveller

Team Stem Guyana working on their project for the Robot Olympics By Vidyaratha Kissoon It is a rainy Saturday afternoon. The Cliff Anderson Sports Hall is mostly closed. It is quiet – a change from the last time I visited for a steel band competition. There are some young people in one of the rooms. They are laughing and talking. Some of them are building a robot. Some are working on the programming for the robot. The young people are working on their robot for the “ Global Robot Olympics ”. It is not often that robotics would meet basketball. Karen Abrams, a former national basketball player is the motivation behind the the group’s participation in the Robot Olympics. She managed to bridge the robotics and the basketball space . The group found a secure space to prepare. I know claustrophobia would have set in for me in the enclosed room. Fortunately, the young people are not bothered. I remembered visiting a Robotics research institute in Bonn Germany. The build...

Composite Image showing extracts from three different exhibitions in Georgetown, Guyana during 17th to 22 April, 2017 by Vidyaratha Kissoon “You are not a regular Guyanese Indian, you must be from India..” the man said. He was smiling. We were in the art gallery in Castellani House. He thought I was one of the artists in the exhibition. We started talking about art in Guyana. The man lived overseas for most of his life. We were surrounded by the exhibition ‘Ganga Ship 1917 : The long journey”. The artists are descendants of the indentured immigrants from India. “No, no, I have been here for generations.. “ I told the man, feeling a slight despair as I am constantly told I look foreign. “Ah.. well maybe your family did not intermarry… maybe there was no mixing“ the man said. He told me he was mixed with East Indian, Black and Amerindian. Bernadette Persaud has a painting in the exhibition called Shiva, Kali and Che. Che .. Cuban, mixed up in Guyana. She has another in...

Roti finish cooking and fire turn off . The tawa is hot though and I think of the all the heat being wasted. I slice up some tomatoes and put on the hot tawa. Sometimes I cut up  some sweet peppers and add them. The hot tawa is not really a stove top grill, but it seems to work. The tomato tastes different when it is done this way, from say when it is steamed or fried up. Today I decided to throw some frozen married man pok' on the tawa. The steam was fragrant. I  don't think I have every smelled the married man pok' like this in the kitchen.  I hope the taste remains with the tomato. Mental health management requires small opportunities to be creative and try new things. Nothing fancy.

by Vidyaratha Kissoon “How de change wuking.. you like de change?”.. the woman selling in the market asked me in a harsh tone. She had never talked politics with me before. We talked about mandir and festivals and pandits. Never politics. She never told me anything about business in the market and work. “I know you voted for the Coalition’ another woman told me . I didn’t vote for the Coalition or anybody for that matter. But it doesn’t matter now. Almost half way into the period in between elections, and there is a frightening headline in the newspaper“ Challenges in the business climate… Guyana currently has no investment projects to offer – Gaskin” . Frightening because headlines are prominent , many people do not read beyond them, and it seems like the Minister of Business is echoing the sentiments of the women who did not vote for him. President Granger keeps talking nice things about what people could do and so – and it seems his storyt...

Dear bananas I am glad you are sweet and nice. I have been eating a lot of you because I have read in one of those articles of dubious origins that say that you can do marvellous things . Things like help to reduce stress and anxiety, and to reduce cravings for sweet and help with relaxation. Relaxation and sleep. I think it must be working in a way , in that I am not having the cravings as I used to. I walked into the ice cream place, looked at the ice cream and walked out.. instead of buying a hundred scoops of it. I decided to do the bit of work rather than writing to beg off from it. I can't find your companion passion fruit to eat.. not much in the market, and those that are there are dodgy looking. The thing is banana.. I wonder if I have eaten too much of you, that has me feeling sleepy, even while I am walking and if I am overdosing on the tryptophan.. but then again, I am not eating so much of you and the drowsiness is probably due to other things. I know I h...

The National Coordinating Coalition is a group of NGOs who have organised to deal with common issues of sustainability and advocacy on common issues related to HIV/AIDS and other concerns. The NCC is implementing a project which includes an advocacy component. They have developed a comprehensive advocacy plan. I facilitated a learning session on Lobbying and Engagement of Policy Makers .  The participants indicated satisfaction with the session I  am sharing the resources used in the training. Please feel free to use and adapt. These resources would be most suitable to Guyana. There are other countries which have strict lobbying laws and regulations. Methodology The session should be  designed so as to be interactive and participatory.  The agenda should be flexible to accommodate the needs of the participants. The agenda I used was designed to answer the following questions :- What is lobbying? How does lobbying fit into advocacy objectives? What are...

by Vidyaratha Kissoon “..what going on with dem man there , dem killing out the poor women, I am so angry about it” the woman asked from the United States. I was in trouble for my own anger on another matter and anger is exhausting. News broke that Ganesh Dhanraj had allegedly killed Dhanwantie Ram in Parika . Sunildatt[sp] Balack was charged for murdering his wife Lilawantie Balack. He had directed police to the place where he buried her and planted bora around the grave. Oma Devi Nathoo lived with Sunildat Balack after the murder. She spoke out about the abuse s he started to deal with ‘after one month’. The violence continues and it seems not much can be done. Family remains one of the dangerous violent institutions. In 2008, the then Government launched a Domestic Violence Policy. The document had been prepared by NGOs for the Ministry at the time, based on the experiences of the NGOs and the knowledge they had accumulated at the time. ...

Dear Cherry juice Thanks for being there for me. I didn't want to make you but when I realised that the lady who I buy oranges from was selling cherries, I thought what the hell. You are not easy to make.. blending then straining and then the pulp is messy.. I mean with a lime it is much easier to do.  But I am glad I made you today because I realised that I could accomplish something which was difficult and which I did not want to do and enjoy the results. Cherry juice, it has been a strange week again. A man I love asked me 'are you ok?" and the proceeded to tell explain why he was shunning me. A previous conversation had scared him.. he said that I had asked him to stay away from me when I was not well and he would be doing that. When I first met him, I had explained about the mental health and why I stayed far from people. But that is what I thought I said and I realise that communication is a messy thing especially when it is not face to face. I have grow...

Image from http://devdutt.com/books/shikhandi-and-other-tales-they-dont-tell-you.html The warrior Arjuna who turns into  the strong woman-dancer Brihanalla to stay in hiding, Krishna who dresses in Radha's clothes to show his love for her, the men who birthed children.. Devdutt Pattanaik has compiled thirty or so stories from Indian traditions which show that there was understanding that gender was not exclusively male or exclusively female and possibly fluid. "Queerness" questions the idea of 'male' and 'female' and Pattanaik uses the story to show that Queerness was familiar in Indian mythology. There are those who are neither male nor female, those who are both male and female and those who move between the two at different times. Each story is told , often in a playful way, and Pattanaik then inserts some notes to discuss the story. The book is light reading on a part of humanity which is oppressed in many parts of the world.

by Vidyaratha Kissoon The articulate Pandit at the Navratri service said he wanted to talk about depression and Navratri. He had been introduced as very knowledgeable. I was curious to hear if the Pandit had any alternative ways of invoking Hindu theology to help manage a mental health issue. The Pandit’s prescription seemed to be to pray to the Divine Mother in her various forms. The Pandit seemed to understand depression as a kind of sadness or unhappiness which could easily go away if people learned to be happy. Many persons share this view. The Pandit did not talk about seeking medical attention. I thought of another brilliant Pandit, another time, who was conducting amazing satsanghs during a period of personal crisis. He had told me that he had resorted to self-medicating as he had no access to help at the time. He has since managed to recover from that period. His healing was made possible through a mix of medications and spiritual experie...