No alcohol, no smoking , pineal meditation - Groundings 24 January, 2020
Taking care..
"I don't smoke, I don't drink [alcohol]" the woman, a security guard said. The conversation was about self care. "I look after my family and be with my family.. I want to go home now to my children.. but I don't know when I will finish work as they ask me to 'hold on' .. "
Friday afternoon and the bank which has caused a lot of problems for many Guyanese recently provides a cool shade for the Groundings activity.
Another citizen, a civil engineer said ' no alcohol never touch my mouth, no cigarette ever touch my mouth'. His face was serious, he looked stressed as he talked to us about corruption, about being asked to bribe police, and others to get through his business. He talked for awhile, things on his mind. He did not take any books.
The student said that he learned pineal meditation from his mother. 'It keeps me focussed'. He took about four books.. "yeah, you can ask me four questions.. ". He ran to one side when two guys passed. .. "I don't want to be near those people.. , ".. irony being that the guys had passed him without looking at him, while he took time to show his homophobia. 'So how you know I aint one of dem..".. I asked him.. '. I aint know, you aint showing it .. ;' he said
Price of free books..
Some people laughed when we said the only price of the free book was to answer a question. In other groundings, it would be to read a quotation or poem and discuss what it meant.
Sherlina wrote what people said they are doing to make Guyana better.
"Staying alive' a young woman said was her greatest accomplishment.
A high school student laughed and said 'I learned to do the checkmate today in chess'.. he learned chess over the Christmas and was keen on it.
'My father died of prostate cancer, I eat healthy.. ' a 72 year old man said.. 'A man tell me yall got books so I come to see, I like to read.." He took the last set of books from us.
The young man who uses pineal meditation as part of his wellness and who jumped aside to avoid two men who he thought were gay said he will also vote APNU to stay well.. "..they did everything they said they will do,..I hope you aint want me to vote PPP..."
He said he had something else to tell me but didn't want to.
Some other students said they parted fights in school.. one boy said 'Somebody had warn me because the guy had a scissors and if I didn't move.. he would ah juk me''
They looked forward to working - masonry and plumbing as a way of looking after themselves. One boy took a book for his 9 year old sister.
A man who worked as a driver in town said he trying with the minimum wage. His truck was parked on the opposite side of the road. He liked to read. "I work as a miner... I like mining.. it got good money".. I asked about mining destroying the environment..
"Nah man, it got plenty big mountains.. you can't destroy them no matter what you do.. "
He agree about the mercury ban.. "Yeah, I see nuff man with their hands bun up and so"
One student said 'I don't tek on stress',
Two young women said they did not know how to answer the question on self care... they know they should eat healthy and exercise.
They took one of the mango seedlings.
Mango seedlings...
In 2019, I noticed that there were mango seedlings under the two trees. I didn't notice them before. I had this idea of sharing them out at groundings.. planting trees when others were cutting them down for development and construction.
The man laughed when he saw the seedlings.. 'Only today, I was to get one for my daughter to take to school to show the parts of the plant.. but near me, I could not find any.. " He was curious about what we were doing..and took some time to accept that we were not looking for money.. 'yeah.. you can't be focussed on making money all the time"
He asked.."why do so many good things start, but never finish off.. there are so many things which technology could make easier.. " He was asking about an app where citizens could report problems and which the agencies could reply to show they were fixed... an idea which had been formed in 2017, thinking of ways to fix things like corruption. He mused about incubation spaces for ideas and collaboration on different things.. some started and stopped but not always sustained.
He took the seedling , to show his daughter.. 'I will find somewhere to plant it.. "
Some people said they had no yard space.. one woman said 'mango tree.. nah , dat does grow big and wild and den you get problem.." One boy wanted to take a seedling.. 'but I travelling in bus..and I aint want fetch it.. "
The last seedling was kind of shaky, one root. The woman who took the seedling smiled and said.." don't worry, I will fix it up.. , the soil is for the base.. , the atmosphere is important'
"You know .. I have coconut plants coming up like this, and I always want to know what to do with them.. who to give to.. " I thought about the two ixora that sprung up in the concrete cracks. And the flamboyant trees. And the palms that popped up in the fertile compost made up of other palm seeds at the base of the palm tree.
Trying to imagine that a lot of people, have seedlings and plants.. and maybe others, keen to use them to grow them. Imagining Guyana..with places where there might be places for people to share seedlings and get things grown.. . with places where people could talk, share ideas..make things better.
Comments
Post a Comment