Two romance, poems and pepper plants - Groundings 7 August, 2022

 

Two romance 

 "Choose two nice romance fuh meh nah, my daughter ask me to get two " the woman asked. 

She had her phone in one hand, a children's book in the other. She didn't read but her children did. 

We looked at a few which were there and might have been romance, she took three. 

Another young woman wanted 'love stories'. There was a Mills and Boon. She had not heard of Mills and Boon. She knew of Harlequin 

She took the Mills and Boons and a few others which looked like 'morbid love".

The strange rain pattern the last two months delayed the return of face to face street groundings - masked and santised - in Georgetown. There were books, and a desire to resume random connections with strangers. 

The Almond Tree Coop said yes, we could use their Flea Market which was indoors.

I packed cloth. While there was a nice floor, I did not think we could put things on the ground as we normally do. I turned the boxes over, spread the cloth. 

Now thinking, like I was doing some kind of altar. 

Figuring out how to place the signs. On the road we hold them and say 'Free books'. 

Can't do that indoors.

Recognising that there could be a way to position this cardboard box altar with free books so that people could walk around instead of just standing in front.

Woman who was selling clothes  asked if I wanted help. I was grateful, said yes definitely.

People come, look through, pick up , put down. 

One woman said 'Two of my favourite words' (free books) and she explained that she loved reading and the idea of sharing out the books. 

Another young woman said she was glad to be reading again, life had intervened and she had stopped reading for awhile.

A man asked if we had anything on art 'I am in the art field'. We didn't, but he took a Geography text book. 'These are some good authors .. ' a woman said , 'I will leave a few for others' - we had this collection of Henry James, Graham Greene, Joyce Carol Oates, Kafka, Dorris Lessing. 

A young woman asked for a nice novel. She picked up Emma by Jane Austen and opened and flipped through , and took it. Another young woman had said 'Gawd no.. I have started it but can't get far.."

A man from Cuba looked through all the books. He liked reading (in English as well). He selected one. He explained how he liked going to the Havana Book Fair.

"Some of these books look political" a woman said. 

I had forgotten to bring the Walter Rodney Groundings to ask if people knew about Rodney and to pay the price of the book in having a discussion about how they feel about life in Guyana.

Poems 

"This is creative" a woman said as she took the poem on the newspaper heart. 

The price of the books today was to read the poems, aloud if they felt like it. The woman explained that she writes poetry, but for herself, She has never shared them. She said 'I wish I could do a haiku right now' .

Others had not read poems since school. 'I feel old' a young woman who recently graduated from  University said as she tried to remember when last she had read a poem. 

"I like stories". I know the feeling, the reason for doing the poems thing is that I like stories too. 

So people read. One woman asked for another one. We didn't talk about the meaning of the poems as people were moving around. Sometimes we do.

The man from Cuba got to read from  Mahadai Das and Martin Carter. 'These are from Guyana' I said and he seemed glad he had read them. I could not discuss with him though because I have no clue what Return me to the Fire by Mahadai Das is about, even with its beautiful imagery

'You sure you want me to read.. what if I stutter' a woman asked. I was cautious, this reading aloud thing. Not everyone could read. Some people who read aloud were humiliated when they stumbled in the primary school, beaten even. I said no problems .. read and enjoy.

She read Dreams by Langston Hughes without stumbling. 

Others read, looked at them, kept the newspaper hearts. "It is a heart, I will give my husband' one woman said .. "we read poems all the time"

One person returned the heart for others to take.

Pepper plants 

Sunita brought some seedlings of peppers to share, part of her birthday celebrations. We had shared seedlings at the last groundings before the pandemic.  

Sunita explained that the seedlings were 'bell peppers' and 'wiri wiri' but they got mixed up so people would only know until they grow and bear. 

Discovery. Like reading in a way.

They were on an egg tray. So she had to cut out each cup - like cutting up a birthday cake and sharing it out randomly.

Earlier in the day, a young woman and I talked about having black thumbs and admiring those who could plant.  

The thing with saying to someone to take a free seedling , is that it could be 'try a thing and see..., you have nothing to lose'. Much like reading a book you didn't think you would like.

I have a feeling now that we will need to have this plant/seedling thing to share at the Groundings with the books.