Writing about the wash out sorrel in Guyana 2024

Wash out 

"He stap write.. dem get wash out" the older man shouted , his normal tone of voice is loud and he might have a hearing problem. 

Nice evening breeze in the hot dry season. We are waiting to go into a religious function - the host, the man and me.

I can't say anything really about how we get wash out, respect for old people, and respect for the host who had said he hadn't seen any of my letters in the papers. 

I look at the cigarette pack in the man's shirt pocket. The older man is an outlier, more physically active than me, and devout believer of Jagdeo and the PPP and Sanatan Dharma, cigarette smoke seems to preserve him.

The warning against cigarettes and the gruesome image of diseased body parts facing outwards, not softened by the cloth.

  Yep, replying could be dangerous to my health , as I might create negative energies and so on and we going into a religious function.

The man's devotion to the PPP is sincere, the man doesn't seem to have any big house or big car and his phone is not a fancy one.

Another day when I was feeling wash out, another PPP man explains he is in the PPP because he can get things done for his community. He does not have big car or big house either.

Man explains though that he does not talk to the Ministers who have allegations of child sexual abuse against them. Even though he and them wear the same shirt and so on and worship the same local deities.  

I did not plan to talk to him about his devotion to the PPP because I feeling wash out , but conversation come up. And I am the host this time.

And even though I feeling wash out  of me wants to say eh.. what the hell, you don't talk to the leaders of your political party who are praised and so on, and to write about how sick it is that people pushing leaders and advocating for leaders who they themselves don't want anything to do with.

Another man who is not PPP also tells me he aint see me writing anything. I said well, yes I find that when I feel to write, is like the same thing again and again.  Another man who is a devout Jagan supporter tells me that the last letter I wrote was a good one. He was the only person who told me anything about the letter.

I get a spark, see something, read something and so. There are things to write about like the Guyana Prize for Literature and the blackout and so - no solar or generator there in this Guyana Prize and the shameful lack of organisation of the festival and promised events not delivered - much  like some of the political promises and manifestos.

Or about the educated young PPP man working in the construction boon who did not know that free health and free education were in the Constitution and not gifts as manifesto promises. 

And who thinks that if teachers don't like their salaries they should lef de wuk. 

And realising that many of the people who defend their deities in the political parties do not know their Constitutional rights.

And things to write about how blackout coming more now and the place hot hot bad. 

And to write about the woman who say she don't want to write because still afraid but who still wants to talk about things that she wants to write about like corruption and bad governance and so.

But when you feeling wash out, you have to take a rest, try find other things to write about.

Sorrel

So market,  looking for things I have not had in awhile while also thinking that I don't want to do too much work because I feeling wash out.

 A woman has sorrel, the clear plastic bag is clouded up with the condensation.
 

I pick up the pack, come home, throw in a pot, realise that this is not the red one, this is deep pink and the sepals have a different shape.

But I spend money, boil with the spice and so, and the colour is not the deep red/purple, but washed out looking pink. 

And as I strain and squeeze out the juice, I realise that the sorrel had the seeds still. I would not have bothered to pick out seeds if I had known.

Go to the internet to find out if sorrel seeds are okay to drink and internet say yeah, is okay, no poison or laxative or other side effects.

And maybe some magic because I decide to  write about washed out sorrel rather than other stuff which as the old PPP man with the cigarette pack warning facing  in my direction had said .. wash us out.