Sunlight on Sweet Black Water
The sea breeze gently rolls over the seawall as I take my steps and I look across the Atlantic Ocean measuring up the distance, the brownish Amazon treated splashing waves retreated into the distance. However this will not prevent the locals to gather later on for some chat or gaffing or share a romantic moment. Then just I had to question the romantic flavor when the winds gently carried some dog’s misfortune smell making it unbearable but hey this is way too common along these city roads as only the strong survive around here. I pause for a minute then I decide to bike on along the sea walls that was probably original built by the Dutch as I have some distance to put behind me so I can get to our gathering fancy La Meridian Hotel swimming pool retreat where some of my fate mates also joined the club... later as the sun blush pink on the horizon, I make it home but excited to go play with puppy who has grown since but ever so cute still and by now he got really attached to me. Partly given that puppy fits through my door security grills so I get visits that are inevitable at most times. Puppy comes dancing molding through the bars to hang around us every afternoon and even drinks some beer with us from a baby tea cup with me so after a while he managed to become one of the troops when friends were over. I decided I will take him with me to Canada as soon as I get an open eyed profile puppy passport photo. Believe it or not but the passport photo place has a sign here that customers responsibility to keep their eyes open otherwise charged accordingly. So when I usually get home around 6pm and just like that the phone ringing would begin as my newly assembled crew of friends making plans for the long hot nights ….well heck sometimes they just show up at my door without a warning. Sometimes I feel like Jerry Seinfeld how his quirky friends just dropped by all the time and using his apartment as a gathering social ring circus.
Well the nights might start out at one place but usually moves from place to place... This usually involves nicely folded pre treated boozed up friends in a taxi or someone’s car, then party last until we lost enough partners that no more party troopers or perhaps even our driver gets lost in translation.
This weekend Christmas music squeeze the street noise out of the stores as the poor black Santa has to sweat fully dressed in winter red robes equipped with fake white hair and cozy hot beard as his glowing black cheeks sparkle with sweat in the no air-conditioned store entrance, even the plastic blowup snowman decided to melt in the December heat. Ok Just a few more thoughts, so I was watching on TV these Guyanese commercials for cute Christmas toys and I took some moment when all the Caucasian dolls and Barbie’s are really white and blonde .... Next screen was a little black girls playing with all these newest blonde Caucasian dolls quite happily so I was wondering what type of image it creates at early age about what a pretty girl should look like... So I asked a Guyanese girl and she said well...the thing is there were no black dolls made before but even now when she bought one for her little niece a black Barbie kind of doll ....she just didn't like it... I mean most of the toys don't resemble them at all but maybe television has something got to do with it...most TV programming is pirated from US satellites….
Yesterday on a hot nauseating day when nothing goes right, I left work for some peace and quiet and that’s when you just get opposite effect as I was arrested by a tall giant police man for biking on sidewalk, which quite hard as sidewalk are so rear and few in this city everyone forced to walk on dangerous roads, I guess I was at a busy part of town so I tried to shortcut from one corner to the other as cars conduct honking chorus angry while traffic halts. Then this odd tall army looking black man riches out like inspector gadget and grabs me off the bike and calmly tells me that it is an offense riding bicycle here and follow him now to the police station to register for a court date, at first I thought it was a joke, so I expressed amusement but his eyes went under his eyebrows deep so I realized he is not just some crazy but possibly corrupt maybe as I am white and not letting me go until some bribe money funnels into his pocket. Coincidentally this woman comes up yelling at Mr. law enforcement that this guy just assaulted her and trying to get his attention to follow this up now but to my shock he blocked my getaway routes and conveyed to the lady to have to wait until he deals with this perpetrator, aka “me” and kept repeating about some 15000$ penalty, ok now this was freaking me out how is my cycle offence outweighs her assault case. But she kept coming back to my luck and intensifying the irritation level for both of us even as I was sneaky trying to waste time by wanting to see all his ID’s asking questions while showing tremendous potential that I will be a really good boy and never do such terrible things in the future ….like bike on sidewalk …ever again wishing he would just disappear and take care some assault victim… eventually woman won him over so no money was squeezed out of me just a warning with a straight index finger straight up and then left but sure made me feel I committed worse crime then an assault. I tell you priorities here are something else.
December 22nd - for Christmas Holidays seven of us eco adventurous fate mates decided to brave the deep Amazonian jungles close to Brazil border some 350 km from Georgetown. The road was not really finished but neither was for any great explores, only paved first one third after that humanitarian aid money ran out so after the bus still didn't slow down and let me tell you sometimes the bus seat felt like ready to eject into space. The bus left about 11pm and trip takes about 8 to 10 hours from turtle speeds to 140km/h. The bus was 3rd worldly over packed incredible full of people and luggage, boxes, even stuffed between seats like this folded wheelchair that made it beside me of course rattled and skid around, then slide by innocent travelers by surprise….. But I was more concerned about the many ready to plunge suicidal luggage above our heads. So we shake it all the way to Iwokrama ECO research field station which is in a protected piece of the Amazon tropical rain forest sponsored by major eco support money. It was clean modern and beautiful, and for a big change it was jungle quiet at once with some birds and monkeys only echo some hello to us. First day we walked around learned about the trees and some species around our area but later on we got on the motor boats to track the great essequibo river. Next day early afternoon we climbed Turtle mountain where we hoped to see some wild life and unpredictably the first animal we saw climbing the mountain was a turtle... now I wonder how long will it take for the turtle to climb a mountain...definitely not worth waiting for so later on as we didn't see any wild monkeys my group of vso comrades and a medical student made up for my camera by hanging off of a long swinging vine that that throw you out above a steep slope proved to be a whack load of monkeying around fun. On the summit thanks to a sharp cliff we had a spectacular view of the Amazonian forests and rivers and mountains. I saw vast lands of forests and rivers and rolling hills through the distance. Also a faint white curtain of rain was approaching our observation point so we decided to head back down on the mountain which proved more challenging on slippery leaves and moist clay like soil, and that's when we all stopped as we heard something very unusual and scary.... the sound grew from a near deep distance and eerily echoed amongst the trees. At first I thought whirlwind approaching from the storm but our guide reassured us that this was our first time hearing the great Howler monkeys. It was the most interesting perfect horror movie noise like hunting lions roaring…… some scary sound I ever heard. The guide told us;
Howler monkeys are named and known for the loud, guttural howls that they routinely use at the beginning and end of the day. They are the loudest animal in the New World and while their howl is not a piercing sound, it can travel for three miles through dense forest. Black howler monkeys are inhabitants of Latin American rainforests, ranging through eastern Bolivia, southern Brazil and Paraguay, and northern Argentina. They are the largest monkey in Latin American rainforests; they grow to be about two to four feet tall and weigh from eight to twenty-two pounds. They have big necks and lower jaws, where their super-sized vocal cords are housed. Male howler monkeys use their big voices to defend their turf. Howls by one troop are answered by other males within earshot. Every-one starts and ends the day by checking out where their nearest competitors are. In this way, they protect the food in their territory. It's an important job because their diet is made up mostly of leaves—not a particularly nutritious food. Finding young, nutritious leaves is a priority. Fruit and flowers are also valued so it's crucial that the troop stakes its claim on these treasures when they are found. Despite the volume of their howl, it's disorienting to try to find a troop of loud howler monkeys in the wild. They hang out in the treetops where younger, greener leaves are abundant. However, if you do find yourself in the rainforest and it seems that an unusually large amount of fruit is falling from above or a fine spray of urine rains down on your head, you will know you are close!
Well we figured the fine spray is the rain catching up rather than any monkey business so we marched on heading back to the bottom of the mountain then to our field station. Next day 5:30am early morning we boated out to see some wild life but not much other than a few bright colored macaws with lot’s of attitude as they turned around and each let out a long poop you would not want to be under of…..so we decided to switch to night hunt so our guide “Gary” took the boat out again for some black Cayman crocodile hunt.....
Caiman is a Spanish term for "alligator" or any crocodilian > crocodilus means "a crocodile" (Latin)
> "Spectacled" refers to the intra-orbital (between the eyes) bridge of bone that lends a bespectacled appearance….
Our boat rips into the sweet black waters as the jungle night swallows us up and there is a faint click! as “G” switch on his spotlight, and a white beam lances over my shoulder and punches a hole in the black gullet. It nods right, left, we are looking for the eyes.
Such encounters are rare, but running afoul of a black caiman isn't the only reason I'm hesitant about patrolling so close to shore. Between the gnarled roots of mangroves and rotting Huarmo trunks, lurks perhaps the most dangerous of the laguna's dwellers - El Boa, the anaconda. Then our guide silently points towards the shore in the water "Caiman." Near its lower gates, locked in silent vigil, are the red eyes of an ogre. The caiman's sit atop a bony ridge just behind his powerful jaws seen in the glare of artificial light they appear as pulsing red orbs, the eyes of the Devil. The caiman reappears a few meters from my left elbow, then dissolves into the inky depths. Besides the gray piranha that inhabit the river by the thousands, he's the next best reason to erect a "no swimming" sign. We were only fortunate to get close to only one black caiman and after some adrenaline rush we loop around in a rumbling fishtail, and we dive back along the narrow tributary towards station. The canoe careens around another bend and as I catch sight of light and we are back to our station then as we walk up from the boat Sarah had the opportunity to grab on to the rail and also a beautiful hairy tarantula spider that was resting on top of rail. Thanks to quickness of the large poisonous beast she just barely missed it, but we still had a good photo shot from underneath the rail. I mean some of us like spider hunting so I organized every night around midnight a creepy crawler spider hunt in the jungle.. I have to say only 3 guys was in our group including me the other two were from England teaching sign language here for deaf community as they are also hearing-impaired and the rest where girls, one of them admitted to severe arachnophobia. So my little jungle tours were not that admired as I had thought it would be so the exploration was conducted by myself for the first 3-4 days, so I was pretty comfy tracking the paths in the darkness but, really I can’t believe those girls as it was incredible I was in many legs spider haven, my headlight equipped with spread blue light LED’s made amazing sparkles as it bounced back from the spiders eyes…it was like twinkling little green diamond sparkle and it grew bigger with the size of the spider, but at night with this perfect pursue light you could see 100’s of them in different shapes and sizes. I even brought a 2 way radio with me so I can leave it in my room in case I get lost in the jungle….but my luck ….the only 2 guys in my house was deaf…One of them Steve at first seemed game for the idea but later admitted he didn’t know what to say when radio vibrated. Oh well you know soon enough you will find partners in crime and before long I met a young adventurous couple from Quebec moved into the last house in our row. They braved the night with me and we scored! We found the ugliest mother loving beast hugging an entire tree width up… it looked like more of an alien movie star than a everyday accepted spider but hey maybe we just discovered a new species. So once one braved to come with me the next night almost all the girls came with us on our jungle night creepy crawler hunt…. Well nothing like exploring the unknown world after a few banks beers, the spine-chilling night comes alive as we noisy white people dare to stalk the forest or vice versa …well as I said after couple of smooth Banks Guyana beers it’s the same experience anyways. My favorite part of our trip came the next day as Gerry took us to an Amerindian hidden village somewhere on the upper Essequibo River. First we examined some unimpressive rocks that’s suppose to bear 6000 year old carvings, but come on…. it fades after such a long time, but it took on a new meaning as we barged on the villagers living space and seeing it really didn’t change much since the last 6000 years, I mean the rock probably changed more. The villagers seemed rather elusive like we just brought some new plague on them but shy and friendly at the same time. Then our attention got captured as this cute baby animal that seemed like a cross between a raccoon and an ant eater, but still adorable …we were told it’s a Hibidi…and as cute as it was when climbed into the hammock where a little girl was hiding from us….well one of our snooping girl could not stay back and not pad the cute little furry creature, and that’s when I heard the crunching sound of a bite… She jumped back but it was already lesson learned for all of us…yes…and next generations too as I got some of that on video yeeeaahhh. maybe we hoped to find the lost city of El Dorado but we sure found something lost in time……. The village seemed like frozen in fairy land with large sized pretty bell flowers and large dense palms and cultivated gardens, very basic shelters thatch roofed compartments and all seemed peaceful. Next day we attempted to see the jungle from monkey birdie tree top point of view so we headed in a back of a truck to the tree canopy walks which is bunch of suspension bridges connecting a few really tall trees. Only a five of these around the world exist and not for people who scared of height either as it’s 30meters high. Despite the cool views we didn’t really see any wild life as they were not interested to entertain white folks. The next day we tempted to find turtle eggs on Turtle Island, and turned out to be quite easy as our guide showed how to know where to dig. We boated around hours in the December heat not realizing the sun here has retina wrecking roasting 90 degree angle and dehydrating us, Garry wanted to take us for a swim to cool off so we brought our swim clothes except we didn’t expect our destination was a large area filled with bare sand dunes in the middle of the river….. ok girls panicked ….where do they change….? Then my next dim-witted thinking was that I don’t need suns cream therefore now I remember December 28th as sunstroke day, there is a first for everything.
We had shaken our kidneys back to Georgetown so we can celebrate New Years Eve there or as locals call it old year’s night. I was sad to find out as I got home my puppy dog was feeling very sick but no vet was available for 3 days…..We went to a club called Palm Court that was quite pleasant as it is an outside garden court with a plastic roof only above our heads, good thing as it rained a lot, complete with the noisy band stage. It had rowdy Caribbean atmosphere filled with soka music but later on things got beer goggle blurry anyways. So around three am I went home with two girls who were celebrating with us so they dropped me off, but then decided to walk to each others house as it wasn’t suppose to be far from mine. Well I walked with them as it wasn’t raining anymore, but once we got to one of the girls house we decided on not walking anymore, but no more taxi money… so she took her friends motorbike and I had this great idea that I want to try a type of Guyanese funny transportation method where I see the guys put the girls sitting across front somehow and this way they can fit three or more people. Well it worked smooth for the first two blocks then thanks to Guyana road and safety works a fat pothole was lurking on our way hiding deep and deceiving filled with rain water. My precision maneuver was switched to manual and my first wheel popped off sending us flying then kissing violently the dirt on the road..…. once I regained consciousness we looked at each other both bleeding from our heads and giggle then this man approached us so I am thinking he must want to call ambulance but instead the all too common Guyanese phrase slipped out of his tongue - “hey man do you have 20dollars for me” I just gave him the blood shot eye look……The caring in this country I tell yea….something else… well once we wiped some blood off we wished happy new year to each other, again then chuckle….but I had this lurking thought as this is just a beginning of my new year, what’s next. Then next came soon as morning my puppy left me to go to puppy haven, which made me emotional, shed some tears too which is rare for me but some Demerara rum helped loosen me up but still felt like leaving this harsh world for the first time. Then people calmed me told me at least it can’t get any worse…so I felt better then few days later it got worse as I felt sick dizzy and shaking and ended up in hospital, where a doctor knocking on my head as it is not a good idea to fall sick here, they don’t have a heart machine and the cardiac shocker they have don’t work either. Apparently I was dehydrated, high blood pressure, and anxiety, but no one knew why but all of us had something by now from rabid dog bite to skin problems. My heart showed abnormalities but that turned out because they gave me wrong medication that tend to delay my heart, malpractices seem ordinary here. Another practice that made me want to run for my dear life was that some nurses punch a hole in your IV bag so it drains faster, never mind contamination. And you thought alligators were scary… My new vso friends were great they came to visit me even though I was ok the doc made sure I won’t look it as I was sedated heavily and wasn’t in a chattering state of mind and one Guyanese girl didn’t even allow me to eat hospital food so she brought me fried chicken everyday. Since then I feel better and off of medication but restricted partying and on reduced alcohol diet….
After the holidays back at my work everyone was cheerful asked how my holidays went then changed subject when they saw left side of my face, haha. Well to sum up quickly at work I started teaching new class and building website design at Adult School by now I finished networking the entire school and everyone got some intra/internet connectivity. Right now I am also working on a backup system for the financial computers so I still train employees therefore they can keep it up once I leave. At the YWCA the lab computers were finished for the girls and an internet café was built with net to phones that should provide sustainable funding and development for the organization. Thanks for reading my stories…..I hope everyone still want to keep in contact with me.
January 29th Boldi
Dear Boldizsar Fachet,
In spite of the obstacles facing them people in every corner of the developing world are building better futures for their communities. Our volunteers work side-by-side with these committed citizens to make this positive change happen. Lasting change requires not just a financial investment, but also a human investment. That’s why CUSO-VSO shares skills and perspectives, that make such a positive contribution towards a better life.
Thank you for all you have done to support international development as a volunteer and as a global citizen. Please consider making a special gift towards our holiday appeal this year. As a returned volunteer, you know the value of the work you did across the world. We recognize you have already given much to our programs through your time and by sharing your skills, so if you are not in a position to give financially to help meet demand for more international volunteers please help by sending this email to your networks and friends encouraging them to consider supporting our work.
CUSO-VSO is experiencing many additional demands from around the world for skilled professionals who can make a lasting difference in the lives of so many striving to overcome poverty.
