Pages

Tuesday, September 13, 2005

The highs and Lows under the sea level ...

So here we go again, I am adding some more interesting thoughts into my blog about my little everyday peculiar observations before it will be just another day... I think last time I wrote was 12 blackouts, and many hours of no running water ago ... I think around that time when I went to the guyanese favorite hangout site to the ..seawall... Well I went with two local new friends who contacted me on the internet when they saw me on the HI5 friendship network that I am going to guyana, they are two younger university black girls from a village on the west banks..but extremly nice and very well mannered, they decided to hang or "lime" in guyanese with me on sunday night. so talking on msn with them was one thing, and understanding them in real life is quite another... I found their english rather creole, but I could guess a lot of the time what was going on just from the facial expressions ..yeah ...because I am so so talented .....for example the raised eyebrows and furiously rolling eyes coupled with articulate yells like " Boldi yam car hit man fasta road commme...." well actually it was funny how concerned they were for a big guy like me....and probably did save my precious life a few times from speeding road romeo's.... I find it exciting that cars can zoom by 180km/h as well as bikers do ....passing with life risking manouvers while 5 policeman standing on the curb cutting their nails...... wheeeel police here is not like how we learned to percieve them in canada ......forexample I couldn't believe when my taxi was passing one police illegaly from the wrong side while oncoming traffic caming at yea constantly and creating a 4 lane highway from a original 2 lane...... we were so crammed in the lane that I had the brief pleasure to throw a good afternoon sir to the police at 150km/h..... so i asked the taxi driver how come police didnt stop us...he just said why? I didn't drink.....this time..... so i kept my smile while nervously quietly slipped my seat belt on.... So my guyanese friends enjoy walking all around the seawall meeting pretty much the whole town...they met up with a friend who just happened to walk with a bunch of hamsters in a cage that was equipped with cool slick slides and spinning stuff including a giant workout wheel. To the hamsters delight they even got a blacklight installed so it was rather a hamster party cage along the already noisy seawall. The idea about this is that the seawall is the biggest show off avenue also so anything cool you got at home you will want to bring it down like just like the party hamster cage... it is really a great attention grabber and you will be stopped quite frequently... like in my friends case I counted that most people wanted to know what kind of rats are those, or why are you walking your rabbits, and even a few guinea pig came up and cute mouse attempts was heard but I think hamsters must be a new idea that needs to be introduced.... which is why my friends friend trying to breed them and he decided too many people are trying touch them in the cage so finaly he said enough of that it will totally traumatize them and then they won't breed. so as we were walking away of course the bottom of the cage decided to hold no longer so the whole family of cute but tottaly freighten faced hamsters did the fear factor gravity ride.... nevermind being tramatized mentally but falling on stomach first will hurt their breeding abilities, i think. The most I loved about this is just standing still being calm and quiet with a bit of devilish smile amongst a mad busy crowd of sewall dwellers jumping, running mad, doing hamster excercises and yelling aaargh rats raaats everywhere... Well thankfully my friends were protecting me from a wide variety of dangers from aggresive beggars like who would stand front of the bar and tell you I know you are going in there so you must have money...hmmm and also dangers from cars that tend to hit me from the wrong side as they drive on the left here. hmmm well what the hell am I saying they drive all over and everywhere here and if you leave your driveway door open they will take a shortcut through your house too... That reminds me another oddity here that as far as I remember in Canada if you wanted to rent the party bus you have to pay a huge amount to rent it where you get this minibus with 3000watt speakers and you get to drive around town with a shofeur and shake the grounds around you .... well the odd thing is the whole public transit here is like a fleet of party buses, this place could be a good science project for the hearing impaired and driving..... so the public transit is bunch of minibuses with colorful paintings and each bus or car has a name, as you ought to name your cars here like fearless or cool thunder.... so as the public buses names too besides a small number there is a huge name painted...so the other day I was waiting for bus fourty and finally bus love master arrived with it's own 3000watt speakers blasting anything away no wonder nobody needs hair cuts here. But when I got off at next corner I was somewhat still shaking as I was walking almost like i had some groove.. heeee finally I looked like a local, blended well .... Next day after work my shofeur suggested to go to this amerindian exhibit at Umana Yana a huge amerindian thached roof building as this is for the interior natives exhibit building. Inside they were selling some native art and I found this amerindian wooden face carving of a chief I decided I need a friend here as I still feel lonely sometime... you know talk to someone like Tom Hanks the actor did to the voleyball when he was stranded on a tropical island, and he named his volley ball Willson..... I named my friend chief umana yana and it guards my doorway now but my shofeur also told me to might as well try a bottle of pierruvee an amerindian traditional drink. well i was thursty so some fruit juice sounded good. Well it tasted rather woody and more coffe like to me so with lots of ice it was rather pleasant .. so I sat down to make a list of things to do that day, and as I got really deeply involved .... I almost didn't notice that chief umana yana was smiling at me.. heeee talking about freaky..I figured naaaaaa, it's just a wood carved face but then it winked at me........that's it... I put it in the corner, bad chief........... then it laughed..... after arguing with my statue I went to sleep, figuring I took too serious the movie that Tom Hanks talks to a volleyball...... then I realized the drink brougth the spirits out...huuuyyye now I kind of remember shofeur did mention to drink it slow.... whhheeeel the rest of the night wasnt as productive as I planned as I just layed on the bed calmed while chief umana yana sang his his tribal songs or the tv was on I cant remember last thing I remember the chief wanted to have a toast. next day I asked woodro my shofeur what the hell was that... he finally told me there is some sort of poison in it that brings out the native powers to communicate with the spirits...wonderful, but defenetaly more social than coca cola. Guess what is the new fashion craze in town....naaa you wont know anyways so I tell you.....it's gold tooth.. even some teachers complained how many new students came back from summer holidays with a shiny bright big gold tooth...it must be sexy because girls fiddle with it just like with nails.....and their smile is worth a pot of gold now... maybe I should get one too? what do you think? naaa canada is so behind guyana... Today saturday the 10th... yesterday was a lot of fun... david one of the vso was leaving home after his 2 years of service.. so he got his steel drum band friends to come down to the seawall and we had our own private little party with other vso's and friends. Somwhere in the process I got drunk and faintly remember joining the steel drummer boys band..so now i have to go practices on sundays...however i do remember trying out the drums and some people thought I was very promising, I could do twinkle twinkle little star... who would have thought my hidden talent was bangin on garbage bins...naaa it was cool. well saturday was kind of bummer for me and I have to jott down as one of the best examples how things are emotiannly can turn up and down here... So original plan for saturday was to go to free sofwtare convention that is organized by Eric who is the guy I work with....but I told Erick I will try my best to make it but at the same time I figured I rather go to that village called moroca bei for some jungle festivities, and besides this american dude offered to help me out as to go with them as he is already hitching a ride with the american embassy ... but the plan changed about 200 times and kept changing as more and more details got shed light on... like the boat ride would be 12 hours there and renting a speed boat is 45000guyanases coins.. but let's fast forward to saturday morning after I was still emotionally happy again as I decided I am not doing original plan as impossible to make it to software convention because I am still planning to go to moroca bei but the american dude wasn't calling me when he was supposed to and let me know what time we are leaving... started to realize it might just not happen.... I figured these guys are not guyanaese they would be on time calling me ...well I woke up early as he was suppose to call me at 8am... . so i get this phone card that I just bought last night as i can't call cell phones or outside of georgetown without a phone card. so this is my only chance now to get a hold of him...I start skretching the back of the card to get my 9 digit pin number.. but as I am skretching I see my hopes fade away too as the numbers fade with it... wheeeel incredible... i was so dumbfounded ....now I can't call the american dude.. so I was feeling down once again.... the phone rings... yeeeees (emotionally up) but it turns out it was just one of the vso's who wanted to know if i am going to the "Y " software convention at 10:30 today.. so I said I probably would even though I told everyone I won't be here but now nothing else to do, besides Eric the guy I work with he is one of the organizer and he didn't want me to miss out meeting other IT professionals, but I told him naaaa I won't be here... so then i get ready and shower etc.. taxi arrives go to YWCA.. I arrive but everything is eerie quiet.. starting to feel like I am at the twilight zone ... so I call vso back and I get oh sorry it's at the YMCA not YWCA... at 10:30am.... fine... it's pouring rain out and I am not walking I can't make it to the software convention. Then all of a sudden I see the american dude walking by who was suppose to call me this morning and I am (emotionaly happy again) so he tells me yea he is getting picked up at 11:45am and I better hurry go home pack so I can get back to go with them...wooohoooo... so I call vso back tell I am going on this trip so forget it I can't make it to software convention which would have been boring anyways at the YMCA this morning... so quickly hail a taxi and off I go back home to pack ... 11:25 I call a taxi as they are only a block away from me and fast usually ...but not this time... so I arrive at the YWCA at 11:50am... it's pouring rain hard to see anyone.....or no one is here... well I realized so they left me here.. didn't wait.. so then again I am ( emotionally unhappy) as I stand in the rain dumbfounded with my huge backpack on looking miserable..I was so close .... 5minutes close....... then this car pulls up ... so I get my hopes up maybe they came back...? then Eric gets out... wheeel then again I am just as dumbfounded as before since Eric was suppose to be doing software convetion at the YMCA earlier... so he says hey... thanks for coming early to help set up for the software convention... I am like huh.. twilight zone part two for me... so turns out the convention is at 1pm at the YWCA after all the newspaper must have misprinted it... so then again look at the bright side of things at least I made it on time for the software convention....

No comments:

Post a Comment