Thoughts of a minibus traveller

"Lower the camera let me see.. no, you have to wait until the bananas come out.. then use the remaining flower" the man told. The man, vegan, has inspired me with his resilience, and his creativity in cooking. Hot day. I see a splash of purple from the side of my eye. The backyard is almost wild. I don't know when the first banana suckers were planted. I like the sucker leaves though. I have only touched the suckers when needing the leaves to form the base of the bedi, the ritual space, when doing pujas. Sometimes bananas have come up. I never watched though as the flowers turn to bananas, didn't realise that the beautiful purple/red oval shaped thing would turn into the bunch of fruit of a different colour. The man told me had made his version of the 'vegan fish and chips '.  He used a blossom that was 'destined for a compost heap'. He cleaned the flower, peeled off the petals and pulled out the remaining filaments which did not birth into...

Teaching children "I didn't expect to have the conversation with my children until they were older" a woman shared. A boy told her 7 year old daughter that 'brown people are ugly'. The teacher brushed it off. "I teach them self-love, they like the colour of their skin.. their hair.. they want their hair locked like their father's'.   Another woman said she taught the children around her, to do as she was taught, to respect everyone. Her family is mixed. "The bus driver tells me that he is not passing [where I work].. but you know, I let it go..I will not treat others that way" Another mother said 'I told my family my son will grow with locks and then take them off' explaining that he first decided to take them off when walking in a white neighbourhood in the USA and a family stared at him. He cut off his locks "to see what I look like without locks' and then decided to grow them. Another woman said ""I ...

Image from Meshach Pierre "I like the rain.. the other morning in the fog, man.. I enjoyed running in the fog" one man shared. He has not needed therapy or mental health medications the last few months. My sleep has been affected. Short term memory is also a problem, with impotence and other physical ailments. I think I am doing well despite Elections 2020 and Covid-19. I explained though that the Elections and Covid-19 are like the sun, always there, even if you stand in a shade you can still feel heat.  Meshach Pierre and Rae Wiltshire agreed to do a zoom conversation on mental health. We h ad written a blog when all this started in March. Other people joined us to talk.  We talked longer than we intended. We talked about the how the elections has put a strain on personal relationships - family. Of having to avoid people or having conversations with people who are deeply committed to their political parties. "My depression comes when I realise that peo...

Image by truthseeker08 from Pixabay "Healing for child survivors of domestic violence" was the theme of the fourth conversation held on Thursday 9 July, 2020. In previous conversations ,  people talked about the trauma endured by children, and the scarcity of resources to address this trauma. This conversation was led my Marsha Hinds-Layne and Romola Lucas. They shared their personal experiences and recommendations.  The moderator was Carlotta Boodie-Walcott. People joined from Guyana, Trinidad & Tobago, Dominica, Barbados, USA, UK.   These notes reflect some of the points raised in the discussion. "Don't stay because of the children" There is a subtle pressure to 'preserve' the family at all costs in the Caribbean, and that pressure is put on women who are dealing with abusive partners. Children feel guilty when they feel responsible for their mother staying in the abuse. One survivor said her son told her "Mommy, I want to ...

Cussing "Our differences are beautiful" the woman whose first contribution in the Groundings reflected her anger, pain and disappointment at people who she felt betrayed Walter Rodney. She cussed without apology. Another woman said 'pardon my french' the third or fourth time as she cussed as she vented about racism in Guyana, and the bad governance in Guyana Sherlina and I organised another  online  Groundings., inviting people to talk about :- How do we think about race - our own and other's? How,where did we get our ideas of race (what were our childhood/race lessons?) How can we be actively anti-racist ? Cussing was not expected.  But that is the thing about difficult conversations, space has to be given for the arc of releasing pain to moving to a different place where the pain is not felt the same way. Walter Rodney's global reach was realised again - young woman from Trinidad joining to listen to Guyana and young Sudanese born man ...