Thoughts of a minibus traveller

I look at the small video image of me on the laptop screen and I jump.  I see that I am sitting slumped in the chair with my hands on my head. I hear the voices from adults in my young days... "take your hand down from your head and sit up".. I watch myself in the little video screen follow the instructions in my head. I am distracted for a few seconds from the voice being spoken by the screen with the red band around it The young people agreed to participate in a Zoom conversation on prevention of domestic violence.  I agreed to facilitate online.  In face to face sessions, I would be alert to safety issues for the participants, in case anyone felt the need to disclose their personal experiences with violence. Building a safe environment usually involves some meeting, introductions, facial contact and cues, setting guidelines for the room. I check all the 'teaching' tips and so to get ready. I would plan to speak for about 40 to 50% of the time, ensure t...

Conversation on Facebook with a man I have never met. . Conversations starts with the virus and end up foods we don't normally eat.  He has eaten scorpion and insects and so.. I thinking how to compete. Yard and my hair in need of weeding.  Cracks in the concrete and this year, the pretty weed with the red stems and small leaves and yellow flowers growing.  Pursulane is good for you . There is a local name. I thought the name was karmi bhaj i but karmi bhaji is the one which grows in the trench. I imagine all the animals and so which have walked over the spread. The people say to wash it good.  I pick some, different ages, some with the flowers.  I can't grow anything so is nice to pick things up from the yard to eat. It has a nice smell. There is a  black dust that keeps coming off of the shoots and I get paranoid about dirt. But the black dust particles are the seeds. I eat some raw, clenching my body waiting in case I get some reaction. Ni...

Life Ignoring the news and just glancing at headlines and one day the generated email newsletter from one of the news organisations only has stories about crime.  And the crime stories are hidden between the elections court stories and the updates about Covid. Seven persons have died from Covid complications as far as we know.  So I go through Stabroek News online, from 1 March 2020 to 18 April 2020 and count in this kind of strange way of noting death instead of celebrating life.  12 road deaths, 21 murders, two reported suicides. March being the month of Covid in Guyana.  There might be some marginal errors in my counting. 12 road deaths In a time of lock down, and curfew, people have died on the roads. Since the beginning of March, 12 people have died on Guyana's roads.  Others have been injured in accidents.  All road deaths are preventable.   21 murders A man killed his daughter. Four men killed women who they were supp...

'Aye, come in , is nah churchroad you going'.. the bus driver asks me, red mask hanging around his neck like an accessory.   First time I had traveled with him , I had asked about loud music and turning it down and he had turned it down and turned it up back at me while looking at me with a half smile. Always speeding and dodging and weaving.  And always stopping, no matter how loud the music - and even if I tap my head and tap my heart and my ears to say that I aint able with music, he always insists.. man come in , The last time he said "De police remove de box dem, music arite man, come in, come in' We don't talk much else. Saturday morning, music not so bad.   I say 'you bus look full' . he said.. nah man , look is two to a seat. Public health guidelines had said half the passengers in a bus and no conductor.  Some bus drivers wearing masks. Some bus conductors wearing masks. So I jump in . My face masked sitting two to a seat behind a...

People say stay home so going hunting for plantain chips and nuts and other kinds of crunchies is not an option. Anxiety about essentials and moving quickly through the market and on the road mean forgetting that I will need the plantain chips and nuts and so at some point. The woman who used to sell the golden, thin, crunchy plantain chips has not opened her stall on the days I have visited the market since Elections and then Covid. And I look at other plantain chips and they don't look as crisp and as thin as those which piled up in the cut out bottle on her stall, and also accompanied by nice conversation. And in the anxiety and so when buying and being out to rush back home, so easy to forget to look for plantain chips and nuts. So the crunchies come though. And no pacing can work to ease them. No amount of deep breathing. The tree with the not so nice mangoes is bearing.  Nice when green for achar and mango choka, bland/sweet, soft and stringy when ripe. But gratit...

Flower A fern hanging basket used to be in the plant pot until a man asked for it and took it home. He likes plants and planting so it was good that he took it. I thought the pot was empty until I noticed that another fern was growing in between a kind of plant which I thought was one of the palm seeds which might have landed from the old palm tree.  I noticed the flower where I never expected the flower to be at a time when I am thinking about dealing with the unexpectedness of the virus and of waiting for elections results And I realise there are one or two other flowers popping up. Paying more attention around as it is easy to miss these things when thinking of the unseen unexpected virus, and the expectation of a dysfucnction Easy to miss these things as the mind starts to shut down and dark clouds gather and make seeing light more difficult. But not impossible Shutdown, moving I stare at the 7 pages of notes from the conversation with the amazing woman . I h...

Screen shot from PAHO Re-imagined COVID-19 EMERGENCY MEASURES  for Guyana These emergency measures are made pursuant to the paragraphs (1) and (2)(b) of the Direction by the President, given under the Public Health Ordinance, Cap. 145, and published in the Gazette, Legal Supplement B, 16th March 2020. The measures shall take effect from the 3rd April, 2020 and last for one month unless earlier terminated, extended or amended by notice of the Minister of Public Health after an assessment of the prevailing public health conditions.  Look, I know some of yall don't what this Government in power and some of yall who vote for Granger don't want to believe that this virus thing is real. But put a wet cloth over your mouth and nose and then try to breathe and then see if you like it, that is how this virus kills. And yall know we aint got test and ventilator and dem thing and so on for everybody. I understand that some of yall done decide if is so you gotta dea...