Boldi's Journey in Tropical Jungle Guyana - Album

http://findboldi.blogspot.com/

2010-09-14T12:14:00.000-06:00

I am getting back into blogging about my new life and personal observation in the middle east...
on a new blog site http://findboldi.blogspot.com/
The Guyana www.boldi.blogspot.com was very popular with my peculiar scrutiny so I was asked to create a new one for this job/adventure for my family and friends and whoever interested. This will be quite different from the CUSO VSO experience since I am actually getting paid to live there and more protection from my company. At the same time the current world state of affairs adds a danger element to this one as I never been to a country where there is active war going on so not sure how I feel about the Americans pulling out of Iraq and not helping that someone is threatening to burn the Qur'an. I am starting my training for my November departure and the home base will be in Al Khobar , Dammam but every second month there will be trips to Erbil, Sulamaniya and Abu Dhabi and Dubai. On my days off most likely I will be in Europe spending some quality family time it's been four years again that I have seen them so I am very excited for that too. Expect my real first overseas blogs to come around November December but I might post some interesting material in the mean time....

CUSO-VSO event/RV reunion and potluck dinner

2010-08-25T09:28:00.003-06:00

Been a while planning to go to Saudi UAE and Iraq. Just to let everyone know there is an invitation by Umeeda Switlo as the Public Engagement Officer for the CUSO-VSO in the West. Did you know that there are over 800 known Returned Volunteers in Alberta?

I am pleased to be coming to Calgary on September 22 and Edmonton on September 23 for a Meet CUSO-VSO event/RV reunion and potluck dinner. I would love for you to join me.
Calgary: Wednesday September 22 Venue: TBA
5-6pm: Meet CUSO-VSO (for the public and RVs interested in learning about he current application process and sharing their volunteer experience- please invite anyone you think may be interested)
6-8pm: Returned Volunteer Potluck Dinner and Reunion: Please join us for a potluck dinner to meet other RVs and learn about the work CUSO-VSO is now doing. Please bring something to share for the dinner.

Does anyone have any 10 year Eldorado Demerara Rum left? I am coming =)

Guyana minister: Rum may be fun, but don't glorify
(AP) – 3 days ago GEORGETOWN, Guyana — Guyana's top health official is urging popular singers to stop soaking their lyrics in rum.Health Minister Leslie Ramsammy says recent radio hits such as "Bring De Rum" and "Rum Till I Die" are undermining efforts to reduce alcohol abuse in Guyana.The health ministry is conducting surveys to evaluate alcohol's influence on popular culture, including chutney, a style of dance music laced with Caribbean and East Indian rhythms.Ramsammy said Saturday that he was not suggesting a ban on rum-drinking songs but called for artists to focus more on positive messages.

2009-12-11T12:29:00.001-07:00

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.

Welcome to my Blog

2008-12-08T14:49:00.005-07:00

If at first you don't succeed, destroy all evidence that you tried. I find It is impossible to make anything foolproof because fools are so ingenious.

me and a baby lion

2008-05-27T13:39:00.003-06:00

Comrads who are still in Africa not doing well

2008-05-27T12:35:00.006-06:00

Kristin Anderson Project Facilitator c'Dabra Foundation : human values ... tools of goodness 076 472 6415 Dear all my Canadians I know I always start these emails by apologizing for sending a group email, but I am sorry. This time I really need your help. This isn't a forwarded, fake email, Im quite serious. I don't know if many of you have been watching the news and have seen the situation that is going on here in South Africa. Foreigners, alot refugees are being killed and chased out of their homes by South Africans. The attacks started about two weeks ago in Johhanesburg and has since spread all over the country. As of yesterday 10, 000 people in Cape Town (where I live) were displaced from their homes. Im not sure how many were killed. One of the pictures on the front pages of the news paper was a man knealing begging for his life while he was light on fire, he died. Things are really bad. You can go to the site www.mg.co.za and search xenophobia for some of the stories. Or simply google it. I tried to attach the stories but hotmail wouldn't let me. About six blocks from my house is the police station. now, hundreds and hundreds of people sleep outside hoping that the police will protect them from the angry mobs ready to kill them. They are comparing this to Rwanda..the army has been deployed to calm things down. Canada has issued travel advisories!I have been working with refugees since I came to South Africa. There is no harder life, then a refugee's life. Most have barely escaped their country barely with their lives, a lot have watched their families die, their homes destroyed..Tortured in ways that no Canadian could ever imagine. One woman I worked with was held captive in the jungle congo for three years chained, and repeatly raped..luckily she was bought by a peace keeper and was able to flee to South Africa, where she now is in fear for her life. These people have no home to go to. They did not do anything wrong at all, in fact a lot are fighting for basic freedoms we take for granted in Canada. We forget exactly how lucky we are to be Canadian. If someone attacks me here, the Canadian government will protect me, pay for things fly me home etc. We take for granted that we don't have to worry about a lot of terrible things. For the most part we are safe. We are incredibly lucky.The South African government has not been very quick to respond to this situation. For the most part it has been local churches and citizens that have been trying to find people and children a safe place to sleep...no less eat...It is so bad that people want to go home to face the war father then stay here...it is unimaginable. Please for a moment, think about what you would do, if you country was at war, devastated, you were being hunted and your entire family was killed....One lady shouted at a meeting I was at once.."we go home if we could" I am writing my thesis on the human rights abuses of home affairs and refugees. I donated all my extra cloths, and food...and at the beginning of the month ill give as much money as I can.. I am going out to protest tomorrow... Treatment Action Campaign. there's their web page. Go to the refugee crisis . They have all the info on how to donate. They are the ones doing all the work, especially in Cape Town and they are a really good reliable organization. Quite Famous actually, so Im sure you have heard of it , they normally work with victims of HIV and aids. Red Cross is also good so if you like donate there... Anyway, Again, please please help!!You have no idea how bad the situation is for some people. I just came from a rally..and people were crying and screaming to be sent back to their homes, their war torn homes..like Somali, DRC, Cong-Brazaville, Zimbabwae, Angola, Sudan, etc.Anyway for those of you that have or are going to chose to help, I am eternally grateful! Ill stop harassing you all now!

http://www.tac.org.za/helpnow

Thanks Kristin Anderson

I live in Oakland for a while.

2008-03-06T00:14:00.005-07:00

European Winter Road Trip

2007-02-02T16:25:00.001-07:00

Because my European Road trip was December and January I can't go to Africa yet but I will keep you posted . Here are some Pictures for friends and family. I am starting a another Blog for my other travels ...

Humanitarian Aid workers of Alberta

2006-10-23T19:26:00.000-06:00

Contact me for gatherings for international development in Alberta. I will be in Ireland and Hungary for December but anyone going South Africa contact me as I will be going in February. thanks Boldi

Here is an invitation from a volunteer, Alana, who is going overseas soon. She is planning a fantastic event in Edmonton (see below). We've sent info to Edmonton-based RVs and are now sending it to Alberta-based RVs, in case you can get involved.

If you are able to support her or get involved in any way, please feel free to contact her directly.

with warm regards,

Heidi

PS - Here is a link to the brochure for the event: http://www.vsocanada.ca/attachments/FallClassic06[2].pdf

Heidi Lasi

VSO Canada

806 - 151 Slater Street

Ottawa, ON K1P 5H3

(613) 234-1364, ext. 238

www.vsocan.org

Humanitarian Volunteers Reunited in Ottawa (Party On)

2006-09-26T15:44:00.000-06:00

Adopted love

2006-09-10T14:30:00.000-06:00

Hello Since my sweet puppy died in guyana that I loved I knew that I want to have another one when I come back. So I will introduce to you my little jack russel puppy called Tiki. I named her Tiki because when she runs around fast it sounds like tikitikitikitikitiki...........haha

La Mashramani Carnivale

2006-02-26T09:30:00.000-07:00

Happy Mashramani to all my friends! The carnival is really neat I will bring my documentary video and whoever interested

Sunlight on Sweet Black Water

2006-01-31T21:41:00.000-07:00

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 22^nd - 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 3^rd 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 28^th 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 29^th Boldi

Primacy of the eye in the lost Eldorado…

2005-11-08T12:44:00.002-07:00

Primacy of the eye in the lost Eldorado…

The winter sun rises above the horizon slowly as the temperature drops down to +32c …. The days are half hour shorter now then summer time and after my scheduled weekly burn at the public pool I shed some more skin in GTown! Maybe one day I won’t forget my sun lotion.

A lot has happened since I wrote last time, I wrote small notes that are haunted by passionate discovery and tender emotions, but I will only mention a few that I still remember.

One sunny Friday I went for fast food at KFC chicken and I had ordered a nice glass of draft beer with my menu .......sounds uneventful but really you do can have fun at a fast food restaurant here. Ten of us came down on a friday night for what I thought was just a regular quick meal before we go out. Little I knew we are already out and staying for the night so we sat outside as most fast food outlets have more like a cafe like atmosphere patio built around it, well except for the usual cheap plastic yellow seats... next thing we ordered 6 jugs of cold draft beer, yippi and to note this is the only place I see people put ice cubes into their glass of beer..... so next I realize they already set up two gigantic speakers outside that just happens to be taller than the restaurant…

Well have you seen slow dancing at Fast food restaurant?...hmmm well I just did... as the speakers blast away the foam from my beer I sit and enjoy as there is no way to talk anyways so near to the speakers.

OK let me see what were some of the highlight of the last few weeks…. oh yea... during one twisted night I partied with Miss Guyana before she left to her Miss World Pageant to China. Well it turns out to be she was dating one of my good friends brother here so naturally I was invited, I even got an interview with her for my video camera. Well you certainly end up here at some strange parties as there is plenty going around, like this last one I ended up at an American party at someone’s beautiful Villa ... That starry hot night I was mingling on the back patio and I ran into my American co-worker who I build internet café at the YWCA with. We ended up chatting as the music filled the clean white villa with soft music. Then this spanish lady dances up to us with a bright twinkle in her eyes as the alcohol content probably reached its upper limit in her pupils..... she went to the point offering some wild entertainment for us tonight because she loves to entertain the US Marines... so I politely tell her that look I was Canadian last time I checked and definitely not the US marine but I swear gold fish got longer memory as 2 minutes later just keeps asking about when do we sail out... So I decided to sail out to the patio bar where I figured maybe would meet other people, but then there I was confronted by her again. A bit later I was rescued by another sexy red dressed girl and let's just call her Andrea. She got more class tucked in and decided to rescue me from the cocktail mix Latina breath. That lasted until the latina confronting me as to “so what's this now? so do you like Andrea now?” Then she changed tactics as loudly offering a 3 way fun for us... wheeeeel talking about uncomfortable situations. Nevertheless she managed to get carried away enough and got nicely kicked out by the Yankees. To make things more bizarre for me after the party night I run into Andrea next day as she turn out to be living right beside my work and invited me to the state house fair that the leading political party puts on yearly. So I navigate through the crowds with her and her friends, and I see some important political figures and body guards takes a good look at me… I should be used to getting stared at by now, but still sometimes makes you feel maybe you are being watched…The next day while I sit at a café across my work Andrea comes in and as she chats with me she gets a phone call from a very important political figure about who was the tall white men with her the other night. Well I wasn’t happy over my new found fame as it dawned on me she probably has some sort of relationship with one high political figure so I scaled down our friendship so my life insurance doesn’t go up..

The other day I realized certain things you learn only when you are in the most need...like how to use the toilet system here...

During those days when you really have to run to the bathroom like at work, and soon you find out afterwards the water company decided to take away your water privileges... so how do you flush now?.... first you panic as you don't want to leave things behind... and that's when I stumbled upon the wonders of bucketing system. The 3 big different colored buckets outside one for filling up your tank... one for reserve and one for washing your hands with a measure cup... The kitchen maid actually gave me a crash course on the how to ...

Couple weekends ago our little group decided to crave some adventure getaway to one of the places called shanklands. It is truly a tropical paradise up on the Essequibo river which spans across 37 kilometers by the time it reaches the ocean and makes it the largest river in Guyana. When you look across of it many parts seems much smaller but that’s visual deception as it’s not the other side you see but one of the 365 islands that are in the river. So we packed up our necessaries which made our backpacks considerably heavier as those damn liqueur bottles are just heavy here. As there are no roads to most places here but plenty of river ways naturally you catch jet boats… They are very fast but the only scary thing is that a lot of them built from wood and no top but on the way there we got lucky and got the comfier bigger boat.

Shankland was beautiful and some of the pictures will be uploaded soon for that, but just imagine a gentle rolling hills looking down to the might river with sandy beaches and dense forest all around the compounds. As the night descended on us the incredible jungle sounds were calling me to the jungle… so I invited a few less intoxicated friends to check out the nearest forest around us. As we found a path into the deep moist but never sleeping darkness the amphibians greeted us with loud singing and the reptiles and birds all orchestrating a wonderfull concert for the Canadians. So we picked a quaint clearing where a little creek was making its way to a less dense field and the moon gave characteristics to the whole visual experience so it became our spot to sit and enjoy what the nightlife has to offer… the amazing thing was that after midnight I could see my breath just like during winter in Canada but here it was plus 24Celsius. I guess the only explanation to this is that the dew point is incredible high here. A little background Dew points indicate the amount moisture in the air. The higher the dew points, the higher the moisture content of the air at a given temperature. Dew point temperature is defined as the temperature to which the air would have to cool (at constant pressure and constant water vapor content) in order to reach saturation. A state of saturation exists when the air is holding the maximum amount of water vapor possible at the existing temperature and pressure. This is when you see water on your car windows, grass and feels quite bit cooler than it is.

Well I recorded some of the sounds with my camera and our pleasure ended as I wiggled my feet above the creek and I saw something twinkle as it slowly moved towards my feet in the faint blue moonlight. By the time I realized it was a cayman crocodile I almost become a part of the scene from the movie Crocodile Dundee… except I had no huge knife to put through its brain and I doubt a beer bottle would do the same trick so I jumped back as far as I could, turned our lights on and quickly headed back to our exploration snoring base camp. Heading back with a slight hangover the next day coupled with a less fortunate looking wooden jet boat didn’t make us happy. To make things worse it started raining and the rain started like pellets flying at our bodies hard feeling it will pierce my skin at any given moment as the captain of the boat chubakka switched to light speed and riding rather rough on the white waves. The next day naturally we all just slept hopefully recharging for another working week.

Guyana has a large hindu population as they were brought in by the English during 18th century to work on the sugar cane fields from a one of the province right after the slavery was abolished. My Landlord’s family is one of those families who don’t really speak hindi anymore but full fledged indo Guyanese. One Sunday I decided to go with them to this hindu function outside of Gtown into a small temple. I have to say I felt time traveling as my world got transferred from the west Indies into somewhere more of ancient India as here the migrants brought some of the old culture that lives on still here hidden in the jungle. I was able to enter the temple behind the altar as I didn’t eat any meats for the last 9 days and I got the white mark on my forehead as the symbol… well except for me not by religious choice but I could not afford the expensive meat until next allowance cheque. I took some interesting images with the smoke filled crowded small church churn out the beats of the religious drums and instruments. One of the best most interesting part was eating from the giant leaf that gives an extra taste to the different sorts of wonderful curry meats and rice dish/leaf and of course you eat with your hands.

Recently one of the largest hindu celebration ended called the Diwali, I was looking forward to it as my landlady told me so much of how they will decorate the house with full of lights. Every Year On the dark nights of Diwali the sound of firecrackers announces the celebration of the favourite festival of Indians. Homes are decorated, sweets are distributed by everyone and thousands of lamps lit to create a world of fantasy. Of all the festivals celebrated in Diwali is by far the most glamorous and important. Enthusiastically enjoyed by people of every religion, its magical and radiant touch creates an atmosphere of joy and festivity. If I would not known about the festive loudness already it would have seemed war just broke out. I woke up from my afternoon nap with a loud bang that made my Venetian window glass fall out. So naturally it was time to get up and went to join the industrious kids to help put out the hundreds of little terracotta cups field with oil and a fuse to light. It’s quite dangerous transporting 50 cups of explosives on a tray but hey this is my Diwali. Some reason like with everything here but this time the weather did not seem to cooperate as much as the gods started whispering loud and blew our candles out and only on my side of the street…. Getting angry at the winds my pyromaniac instinct kicked in and took a torch and tried other means to light the night up. I took to the night to see what the street has to offer for visual pleasure and soon my eyes were filled with the many wonders of the festive lights… There was a row of cars and trucks decorated with thousands of brilliant lights of the Indian culture has to offer and the parade has began. Music and dances shook the ground while the fire crackers and fireworks complement the many activities of the night.

One of the thing that struck me the so many swastikas painted on the grounds and on different things… For those of you who are unfamiliar with the swastika. It is an ancient symbol of peace and good luck, used extensively in the Indian subcontinent and throughout Asia (Japan, KoreaChina) for thousands years to this present day. The swastika can be found in many older cultures all over the world. From the Navajo native Americans, to the Goths, to runic Danish stones. All of which predates Nazism by hundreds and in other cultures by thousands of years. The symbol of the swastika is a part of the Hindu/Buddhist and

Culture.

In my picture section I will post some of the wonders of these festivities.

Also in my picture section you will also see some images of the Toucan Guest house where VSO took us for a weekend and the house was built by a Portuguese man who loves Guyana and rather interesting architecture incorporated filled with historical Guyanese artifacts from all around the world.

By the way everyone seems to learn new languages while away around the world so I decided to sign up for Spanish classes at the Venezuelan embassy that should make Jorge happy. I think I will stop here for now as most of you were waiting for some updates for a quite a while now.

Fading in Guyana? Read the NEWS

2005-09-28T13:20:00.000-06:00

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

news:

today news: Motorist runs into man on donkey

A Corentyne, Berbice man is hospitalised after he and his donkey weres struck down by a motor car on the Alness Public Road, Corentyne yesterday.

Reports said about 14:30 hrs, Paul Madramottoo, of Alness, Corentyne, was riding on his donkey coming out of a yard side when he and the animal were by motor car.

The driver claimed that when he was about 20 feet away he saw Madramotto on his donkey and applied his brakes, but couldn’t avoid hitting them.

The injured man was conveyed to the hospital and is in a critical condition there..The driver is reportedly in Police custody.

Weather : 35C high 28C low

HIGH TIDE

01:39 hrs at 2.36m 13:44 hrs at 2.56m

LOW TIDE

07:40 hrs at 1.17m 19:53 hrs at 0.87m

RAINFALL

25.9mm

High Tide Advisory

Heavy rainfall and gusting winds struck the city just before noon yesterday, flooding yards and streets, and sending businessmen scurrying to their stores to see what they could do to save their goods from the water. On many streets floating islands of garbage could be seen, evidence that we are still not disposing of our waste as we should. The heavy winds came from the west, driving rain into homes and other buildings from an unexpected angle.

THE Guyana Police Force Public Relations Department has released a list of measures to be taken by citizens to protect themselves and their families and help reduce crime in their communities.

Listed below are the first set of precautionary measures that should be adopted: * Fit locks and bolt on the outside and inside of your doors and remember to use them. The fitting of additional security locks top and bottom is essential for all round protection.

* Fasten your windows when you leave your homes. Simple latches are no problem to a thief. Window locks are an essential deterrent to the opportunist. Unprotected louvered windows are an open invitation to a thief, so don’t make it easy for them – fit bars.

* Keep garages and sheds locked. A thief would find a ladder and tools useful to break into your house. If you cannot keep a ladder in a shed or in a garage, padlock it to something.

* Beware of strange callers; everyone should have a chain fixed to the front door or a wide angle door viewer. You should fasten it before opening the door so that the identity of the caller can be checked.

* Never leave keys hidden in bins, plant pots, on ledges, under door mats, inside unlocked mail boxes or in other obvious places. The thief knows where to find it. It is better to make individual set of keys for selected family members.

* When you are out, leave certain lights and the radio on. That may help deter the thief from breaking into your home.

* If you don’t have street lights, how about getting together with your neighbours and erecting poles with light bulbs to be located in certain yards and sharing the monthly bill.

* Nothing can beat good neighbourliness. When you are out ask your neighbours to ‘keep an eye out’. Trust a neighbour with a key and be a concerned neighbour yourself.

* Naturally, safeguarding your home against theft is the best protection. But if someone did break in and steal something, could you describe your property to the police fully and accurately? You would be able to do so if you were to place your initials on articles or keep a note of their serial number(s). Valuable jewellery or antiques can be photographed.

Look out for more safety measures in tomorrow’s issue of the Guyana Chronicle.

fear and boating thru the jungle

2005-09-21T14:03:00.000-06:00

Well another week and now I am over a month and a week here and since my last update 10 liters of sweat later it’s time for another update…so I compiled one I got a few more requests to post some pictures with my stories…well I promise you will see more pictures soon.

Well at the Adult Education Association things are heating up as I found out why they were upset over changing my schedule so fast. Well before I arrived my schedule was set up for me which changed as soon as I stepped my foot on Guyana soil… Well I assessed the needs for the school hardware wise and the parts have been ordered to start rebuilding labs and departments…but last week I found out I am suppose to teach adult business people about pc hardware design, troubleshooting courses etc..

Then again I found out nobody was followed up therefore it was cancelled well ..pheeeew that was close…..so thank god I can move on and do the original building job…but normally as I go in on Monday to order parts there was a commotion outside at the lab as my demanding students banging on the door as they arrived to class….so once again….take a deep breath…..everything will be ok…. When principal came and sort things out by saying the classes start next monday…well well…fine I will just develop multiple personalities so me and myself and boldi don’t interfere with each other next week…”just now” no problem, but anyways for now it’s more appealing to just hunt for spiders at home …

oh yea did I tell you

Few days ago the score was two spiders...well one in bathroom and one by my bed...I unleashed the furry of the “Be Gone” spray can treatment for all of you animal activists

The main reason I did that is because what if they are poisonous? Never know here and I wish they would have a visitor guide of picture gallery of friendly spider book vs angry mean poisonous ones... anyways shoe check in effect.

And that’s when I discovered pinky the bug eye gecko that lives under my kitchen/living room sofa. He is rather young just yet and likes to lick his eyeballs…I tried a portrait picture but he looked away so next time when he is less grumpy…but now I have to walk carefully in the dark as my room mate hunts for those blood sucker flying enemies.

By the way that brand new quality bike that I bought and on the frame “tough” written all over it, well now I don’t know is that because of though luck…or.. it is just tough to keep it from falling apart… either way, first my tire could not keep up with me now my pedal molded under my weight until it broke off finally so just the metal stick was reminiscence of a tough bike……at first I didn’t think it was safe to use it as it might hurt me during some speedy pedaling action and what if my feet slips off etc… but as it turned out it was even more dangerous just walking with it as it just kept stabbing at my sweaty leg which eventually draw blood and really peaked the interests of the many starved homeless dogs in the area… so then I decided to take it to this repair shop whom will really get to know me as time pass on…anyways typical thing just happened as I walked out admiring my beautiful new pedals…I lift the bike up to turn it around and the seat got ripped off……grrrrrrr….. strange feeling but I felt like grabbing a big piece of carton paper then cut out a new piece of bike ….tougher perhaps……

Last Saturday we made it to santa mission my first amerindian jungle village visit. They had a sort of open house where we can see where they live and put on performances for the public. Of course the most interesting to me was the various dancing part, but the food was great too. They say here if you eat labba a “rabbit like creature” and drink the from the black water you will always come back to Guyana… so I did both….

I just wish they wouldn’t have used some of the modern technology like speakers because the village dj kind of ruined the pristine jungle village scenery by blasting loud old dance song titles like I am Mr Vein and Jump higher… then when some singing and speaking was it was severely distorted to the point it was just torture of people and equipment… Other than that it was great getting away from the dirty city and seeing the brown/black waters of the jungle which is clean just the vegetation brew it like a tea so it seems like you swim in black tea. I saw a Toucan bird hanging out on a tree…Toucans are one of the noisiest jungle birds, with a croak like a frog that can be heard for half a mile! The colorful beak of the Toucan is very light! It is made mostly of keratin (like your fingernails), supported with thin rods of bone.

I was happy about that… they are elusive creatures and national bird of Guyana and the Amazon. The Amerindian children are very cute and smart, the girls were dressed in traditional clothing, well grass skirts and flowers, I took some nice photos of them. One of the Indian elders came to entertain us at the end as they are friendly but now we know and it was a successful party because as he tried to pose for us to take a photo so he sat on the ground doing some weird posing and then he just kind of stayed that way passing out from the festive drinking of high wine…..check it out in the boldi’s pictures section..

So I am watching TV and yeeea I figured out why do I see local new york news and commercials for companies that don’t even exist here …..well because the channels here

just rip everything off of satellite almost real time...its amazing that a national tv channel can do that, but my concern is more to do with my channels change positions time to time.. channel 5 can resurface on channel 28 some days… talking about real channel surfing here….

Some local interest for you as I guess the public mini buses operate here much like any other 3rd world countries system.. well they are kind of like independent businesses.. The driver or Dj as he both drives and sets the tune for the ride.. so there is a driver and the conductor or the money collector person who also operates the slide door and as they cruise along the conductor asks the people standing on the side of road as there are no bus stops, if they wish to join in…but all this happens quite fast. if there is a positive gesture then bus screeching halts , while either causing an accident behind it or perhaps hitting the waiting people on side of the road or if lucky then just a regular uneventful stop. Now when you want to get off ……people just have to yell “corner” and it will stop at next corner…. unless its a longer street then pretty much anywhere…..conductor gets out with a whack load of cash hanging in hands look like harmonica and opens door, quickly collects fare if have not already done so..... well it works…

One of our vso's from kenya and she tends to complain about the heat here.... I thought Africa wasn’t much colder but makes me think what would my fellow Canadian comrades have to say then... but they haven’t complained yet so I think the reason is they are just getting Dee thaw.

The highs and Lows under the sea level ...

2005-09-13T09:30:00.000-06:00

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....

life in newtown kitty

2005-09-05T09:56:00.000-06:00

So far you all know I moved in to my West Indies stone house and after my territorial fight with other inhabitants like insect creatures over now I can feel at home....... not as bad as i thought it would be so I guess I am settling in...

I want to talk about a bit the people and procedures. The most famous phrase I hear is "Just NOW" ... that could mean anything from 2 seconds to 2 days... so when I ask someone to do something for me ... and I ask when? ... “just now”, is the common answer.. So the other day I started using the term and I love it.... now I don’t have to worry everyone knows I will take my time.. Who says shopping is fun, well let me tell you ... I didn’t bring towel as it takes up too much room. Very annoying when after each shower you have to get air dry front of my fan, however it's so hot normally not a problem but mornings persuaded me the other day to gather all my courage and attempted to buy a towel... very intricate business you know.... roamed the towns many boutique before I could find one store that actually sells towels. As you enter or try to enter first you have to check your bags.. then you get a number and you get directed to 4th floor where there are some towel but your entrance lady, yes it's a big store... so on 4th they show me the towels and she ask politely which one I would like... well seeing there is only one kind I politely choose that one... then they take it away, and wont see it for a while... I finally get a ripped piece of paper stating I have something in the process then at the desk I get another piece of paper stating the quantity of item which signed by clerk... then I proceed to cashier where I dig out my papers while getting anxious as I still haven’t seen my towel... but then I get a new rip paper and on all of others get a cool wet stamp... then proceed back to customer service to get my towel where I get another stamp stating i received 1 piece of towel... awesome...i can wipe my sweat with my new towel off…so now I can go downstairs where i can check my bags out with my first piece of rip slip which by now disfigured from all the crumpled wet stamped papers in my pocket ... so i had to prove that is my number... and yea, surprise ...voila I got another final stamp that i left the store main gates with a piece of towel..., yeeeehaaa I have a towel!!! then from the exhaustion of towel shopping I just went home to sleep... anyways the happiness lasted about until next shower as I tried out my possession but it sheds like a dead animal.. and as I got a red towel... it leaves red frays and particles all over my body... and to make it perfect for a horror movie it bleeds red color so both my shower and me looks like a slaughter house.... kind of scene from movie scream... anyways.. Air drying is not so bad after all...

One quiet early evening I sat down to watch the 6 o clock news... its worth to watch but not for the news so much... no no... comedy channel is nothing compare to some real life performance here.. see the news is a bit amateur due to shortage of funds... coupled frequent failures or just plain not know how to do things.... like during any broadcast usually a movie appears totally out of the blue.. then u see eject franticly flashing on your screen... or you get to see repeats of the news a few time like first time it happened to me .. my TV went out.. so i kicked it a bit around and a few minutes later came back... but i see the news guy face close up and complaining about a black out... so they have to repeat news... or when there is another murder and you see the police chief on TV explaining how they working really hard on this case and at the end he throws in casually but if any anonymous caller would like to call the police and tell them" what the hell is going on" ... very blunt but I still love those ejects flashes...or start play signs it's almost like they do it on purpose... Friday night I was invited to one of ours birthday night, so I went but not knowing the address i had to yell for a few blocks which is normal around here as no doorbells installed. Mostly you have to yell INSIDE or UPSTAIRS according to the position.

We did organize little parties in each others house so we get to know where everyone lives and the 2 deaf boys who were with us used it to teach us sign language...

I managed to see Sheriff street ...which never sleeps and yes how could you with that noise... oh yea and Sunday night I experienced the favorite Guyanese past time... just sit on the seawall and hang out ..or in Guyanese gaffing... or liming..... It weird... thousands people just on this wall along the ocean wall... you can drink everywhere, vendors and food is set up little tents or carts... and very social... it's like a meeting place for all Guyanese... Just a note… last time I mentioned I went out club Latino and people already recognize me... next day at KFC the counter girls knew i was at Latino.. hmmmm... small town... well that all folks for now .. i have to go...

Jungleboy: Guyana Chronicles (Lantern swing in the Sunset )

2005-08-27T12:26:00.000-06:00

Lantern’s swing in the Sunset

The sun looses its deep colors along the edge of the ocean and I still sit on one of the patio of Celina’s restaurant. I sip from the cold wet beer bottle that is wrapped in paper as the condensation soaks through it and then the atmosphere really grabbed me. The restaurant composed from series of neat patios in dark mahogany color including several mushroom looking 2 stories patios where Bars underneath and tables above with lanterns along the splashing ocean shore… I was sitting in the distance on the edge and inside one of the mushroom roof few young Brazilian and Guyanese girls learned Latino dancing and it was a perfect relaxed sight. My senses felt the light Caribbean ocean wind moved the sound of waves mixing under Latino beats under blushed sunset... lanterns gain glow power and cast faint shadows on the structures and the outlines of the dancers. I was just relaxed having great time with my Banks/Carib beer... Wishing I had my video camera but then I realize I can’t take everything with me home...

Back to reality on Wednesday we finally met with all the NGO's and other organizations that we will work for... also another press conference followed VSO new recruits... and the problems we are trying to tackle in their community... We all said a little about why were are here.... and we discussed topics with our work, brief topics of course.

The press was busy writing and recording for the papers and managed to completely mix everyone up as I got jot down as an oncologist nurse...

We had a good laugh next day reading it.... We also got to tour our work areas and Jill turned out she will work similar places as we both will work at the Adult education center AEA and YWCA...

She will counsel troubled girls at the Y and I will be more with AEA where I will build their IT infrastructure, teach. Even though it’s an adult school there will be troubled kids too who were disadvantaged, drop outs... Should be an interesting challenge...

First tour through the Y I was shocked by the poor conditions... .. I walked by an open door where the smell stopped me and I looked inside and possible daycare appeared where masses of kids almost naked were sleeping on top of each other maybe because shortage of room and on a piece of rug... that was a sad daycare.... The AEA has some character right away the look and feel of wooden crackling old colonial school from the 1800’s for effect included with maids and servants for employee. The kitchen maid was old but so fast carrying some tea out for the new guest. As you chat and joke I noticed you can’t just use sarcastic humor here at a personal level as they take it as your opinion... .. some of us already had a few uneasy moment because of that... but at least they laughed at my suggestion of a big screen projector for some of the wooden shack classes but generally they like to joke a lot. Guess what, I got my new tropical Indo Guyanese home... which is much smaller then anticipated as the previous landlady called in at the last minute that she gave away my place to someone who pays more for it.. not very business like... after a few weeks... so I had to move in to a small place but it does seem clean no rats spiders so far as it’s downstairs not upstairs like it suppose to... The first night I had to fight off my first room mate a giant Brazilian cockroach. Here between the roof and wall at least 2 inch gap is standard and that’s where it managed to peek in and crawled around. So I thought just hit it with a towel... pfffff its like 10cm and speedy like a Porsche boxter..... so better converted to a serious weapon like frying pan... haaaaa still way to fast for me... but it just went through the many gaps.... no need for insulation as no air condition installed. the hazard of being downstairs only gets more interesting if flooding starts again then I will be in trouble you know Georgetown is under sea level so that is why it has so many canals thorough it... Another new gift I surprised myself a new bike.... how exciting... great it is much faster then walking and trying to cram on the minibus system... but safety is questionable…both bike and being on the roads. We were told make sure before sitting on that it is together so I laughed at the sarcastic joke…that turned out to be not a joke. Everything age fast here apparently because of humidity metal rust in months...

As the night descended on us we roamed the warm streets toward home and tried out one of many little Rum shops that looks like a double garage converted into mini bar and dance area including pool tables... hehehe it was funny but neat how no noise bylaw to interrupt social life... later that night I got a taste of the bigger clubs like el latino dance bar which was seriously packed... could not move.... so we just hanged out the outside bars that was almost better anyways...

The Rum is great here and the cheapest best one called Eldorado Demerara Caribbean rum, prices are generally expensive for other alcohol but not for those….So our group of white’s drank the night away and started to really enjoy being in Guyana.

Jungle Book Chapter 1

2005-08-23T07:17:00.000-06:00

....I have arrived beginning of August finally with more or less success as I got some food poisoning in Calgary the morning before my flight... Tell ya that was no fun flying high both on a plane and on all sorts of drugs... Then finally arrive and I found out that that my back pack decided to take separate tour somewhere around the Caribbean... Georgetown fall far from my expectations as a quaint nice quiet small town feel .. naaaa the chaotic 21st century raceing with 19 century vehicles people galloping on the side of the roads making it busy and crazy with noise and yelling honking cavalcade... minibuses that swallow people up in a hurry pretending to be minirocket reaching 130km/h and scraping the O2 barrier inches between cars and people sharing the same road with other cars trucks horse carriages , donkeys, and cows... Cows tend to get high on chewing sugar canes but sometimes they decide to bolt across the road and heeeee.... hang on in your packed capsule buses... oh and people catch a ride on anything... you see huge trucks carrying loose wood and people just barely hanging on over the top.... I was curious are they brave or just don't know any better that any major bump could spray the wood all over and its passengers. well the weather need no introduction as we scrape 1 degree above the equator so it's hot hot hot... and yes very humid... average is 34c during day and 29c at night... so nobody can guarantee cold beer over here... First nights are especially hard to sleep ...drenched in your own sweat, the fan buzzing a loud tune while fighting with my bulging mosquito net and yet this city is noisy.... When I say noisy some noise rather unique as I woke up tired a few times because noises from a playground like kids on rusty swings going back and fourth....... then next sudden awakening at 4 in the morning still going on, now I thought strange how kids enjoy this so much... Next morning I was reassured my accusations were unfounded as those are actually frogs that making that grinding noise.... weird... some strange birds add to the loud concert and not all sounding pleasant but ... I still find it interesting gets to you... - The sun comes up in a hurry and we find ourselves meeting the foreign minister and a rush press conference for TV and newspapers... We joked how already famous we are.. I still had no word from my adventurous backpack so I had only what I came in... Got some advancement to go out buy some necessities unfortunately most clothing’s are cheap looking but expensive import which are seem to have an obsession with brand names.... well fake of course as they appear on things that obviously not... Like I see a nice decent jungle hat but it has to have a Nike sewn over it... so price just went up .... so yea spent a lot on shorts and a sandal and daily needs .... I was considering maybe buying a motorbike but now reconsidering for a pedal one less likely to get it stolen and no real distances here... so as I beat the market path with a help of a friend the eager women trying to sell you anything began wow you .. - hey baby, sweet man look here.... which is normal here and not even considered harassing... one sexy mama flew out of a dense textile jungle of her clothing’s and unexpectedly grabbed my hand trying to drag me down to show her cheap sandals and enticing me with sensual words but after all the dust settle I politely squeezed out a simple no that’s not what I looked for the others bubbled out laughter to each other..... moving on to a cute little black boy who had nicer sandals and burst into laughter when I was taking my socks off ... now I wasn't sure he was saying he is taking his socks off....and that was hilarious or it was my glowing white feet..... on that note people here have absolutely no problem calling people names... sometimes rather mean as they describe everyone by odd traits when they call you.. This guy had a missing limb and the sellers were quick to get his attention yelling hey one legged maaan ..... or if you are tall they quickly make names like hey tower come down here.... they have no problem calling you white boy come here... or white meat for girls .... As I move on to different parts of the Starbroak Market music seems to compete at every corner SOKA music which they blast from bicycle ridden boxes kind of like ice-cream ones... but 2000 watt amplifiers .. sometimes they race who can out loud the other... fun fun deaf deaf.... but I have to say it is interesting to see all that.... Same day I got my own first mosquito net because we are living for the first 2 weeks in a old colonial guest house included maids... with full meal everyday... very nice... Everyday you find something new like the gecko in the toilette well not inside but on the wall.. which I guess is good it eats malaria mosquitoes too... Detailed description of next day was calling around if any word on where abouts of my adventurous backpack .... but no word on the runaway yet so I had to keep trying... the next day west Indies airway or air Canada was no help so I went to airport where whole bunch of runaway tired bags were in a line up waiting desperately for their masters... like 14 of them... finally I found one guy who willingly decided to help despite the apathy of the others and identified a suspect... through a computer in Trinidad... and told me my bad belongings on the way to Barbados.. then who knows where else before it catches a flight this way. Certainly I got kind of jealous as my bag hops the Caribbean islands without me .... but i was happy to hear it’s moving and well... The afternoon we were rounded up and arrived at the foreign ministry and next to our surprise the whole media was there to showcase us in the 6pm CNN or NCN news and newspaper the next day... It was exciting and funny as I shook hands with them, all of the sudden I felt maybe this is important what we do here... - As the sun lost some of it’s strength some of us explored the town and made it to this city park area where I saw my first beautiful Mermaid!.... well according to the legend the boat people mistook manatees for them which is a sea cow... That just tells glasses were not widespread those time as these animals were huge... It was neat to see how they live in the canals the hippos of Georgetown.. the city is full of ditches and canals as we walked we jumped across a few ditches as this town is under sea level. It has a sea wall for protection and it only has 6 hours a day to let the storm etc water out to ocean. So after jumping so many wide ditches our training just got to the point that in those canals and ditches lurking different types of anacondas and Caymans which are the south American crocodiles... wheeee no more fun jumping ...... no white meat bait. There actually was one day when one long snake tried to make it from one ditch to other side and got run over... not surprised as slow moving things get run over often nothing to slow people down as the handicap traffic lights stand mute and beaten guts hanging, none working... . so the anaconda just stretched across so I renamed it the Guyanese speed bump... I found out later this incident gets reported to the snake man who comes and collects these fine pan caked specimens. - The weekend we were rounded up for a VSO conference to a mini resort in the coastal jungle... we were all excited to leave the noisy city and finally see some of the jungle... it was only a second level tropical rainforest but still it was much taller than east coast Mexico... and it goes to all the way to 4 levels ... there was a creek with typical black water that is colored by the pigments from certain leaves vegetation in the forest so it's kind of like swimming in black tea or coke or when light hits it right… Banks Beer..... it's clean you can drink it .. but rather didn't try... Next best experience was the jungle sounds... variety of birds and reptiles give it a pulsing living blanket and monkeys come and go but rush hour is late night and early morning as it was only a crossing point for them during their daily commute to work shop or feeding spot.... Amazing as the darkness descended on us the moon shine like the silver coin laying enough light to see sparkling leaves... The wave of sounds intensifies in the surrounding forest so I laid down on creek shore and just immersed into the jungle concert... I always have great ideas so out of a joke I whistled one of my better jungle bird noise and a few seconds later from distance the whatever same animal answered back... we had such a good laugh about my mating call... some time later Eldorado rum kicked in as we all partied through the jungle night... then we faded give back the party scene to the bats and mosquitoes... The days were flying and we packed up again to stay with some local vso volunteers who took us around a bit more got us familiar with our new life... Well my roomy was more interested to show Brazilian women but that night was empty everywhere as a huge reggae concert was on ... Heavy schedule invited us to meet the British high commission as they are our primary savior if anyone needs it.. plus they are the ones updating the travel advisors and asked our input into it... nice building but the air-condition brought back some Calgary summer hmmmmmmmm ... Next day I decided to make it to the ocean shore to see where the breeze comes from and wow first time so beautiful then I directly look down from the wall and WOW again so much rotten garbage that gets washed on shore from the huge rivers.. the Demerara river is 7 kilometer wide and a floating bridge managed to tie east bank with west bank.. but the longest, widest is the mighty Essequibo river that is 34km wide at it's delta.. Which is still nothing comparing to the Amazon which is 74km. One quite Caribbean restaurant on the ocean shore where you can forget where you are for long moments ... Typical thatched roof with round build 2 story wood towers bridges connecting patio sections... I will post images soon when i can upload it from my laptop somehow... possibly i can burn it then from here at the vso office...but not yet.. well everyone write me what’s going on... with you.... i will try to update more often.... i have to go now but i hope it was a good update

Thanks guys for all the good wishes,

2005-08-10T17:25:00.000-06:00

Thanks it's nice to know to have so many nice friends..... and by the way email me your postal address if you want me to send you a postcard from Guyana!! Saturday and friday night good bye party! Well down to last 3 days.... and I still have to do things since I managed to procrastinate enough Here is some of the nice good bye wishes I got so far, some really funny / both hungarian/eng... I will add more later.....

Good luck Boldi, have a nice trip and a pleasant working 'vacation'!

Will be looking forward to reading about your adventures, on your website.

Take care !!!

Gus

---------------------------- Hey Big guy, I'm still in Toronto, but I just wanted to wish you all the best. Take care. Z Boldiiiiiiiii, I do not have a phone anymore as I went rafting a few weekends ago and got water all over it and have not had a chance to go get a new one so needless to say I do not have your number anymore so when you get this please call me at work or at home tonigh. Make sure you do as I would like to see you before you leave..............YA and don't say "ya, right as if I will" cause I WILL. Talk to you soon and I love your link and your picture.... you look very hot. If you come back and I am not married and we have a baby WHICH WILL BE A BOY I hope he has your eyes and hair color.............. much love xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox K ----------------==- Hi there world traveler! What a brave move on your part! It is unfortunate that you will not be here in Sept. as we have some wonderful things you could be reporting on. We will miss you on TV. I will not be able to promise you anything without talking to the directors first. We have a meeting in a couple of weeks, and if that is OK then I shall e-mail our decision to you. Please take care of yourself and enjoy your trip and experience. All the best, Klementina ----------------- Good luck Boldi!! I will keep an eye on your blog. infact I will add a link to it on my blog. Makes it easier for me to read. All the best! Rebecca -------------- Kedves Boldi! Sok szerencset kivanok az utadhoz. A Joisten vezereljen e igyekezetedben.. Vigyaz magadra. Udv. Dori neni > ------- Hát szeretnék nagyon jó utat kívánni neked. Amint láttam a képeken, tiszta ?serd?. Nagyon hangulatos lesz. Fél évre én is szívesen mennék. Kapsz védooltásokat? Te is faházban leszel, vagy koházban leszel? Vicces lesz kicsi csoki gyerekeket tanítani IT-s dolgokra, amikor még nem is láttak számítógépet. Majd futhatsz a jaguárok elol, meg a kígyók elol. Cousin András ---------------------

one week to go.....

2005-08-07T21:05:00.000-06:00

Now the stress kicked in... almost done most what I had to do.. I am quitting my job... putting my phone on hold...so yea can't call me. Also I will use my gmail email account so please write me there. It's boldi.fachet@gmail.com I will use less my shaw email as it's not as functional. I contacted Guyana Georgetown...... interesting they at least know I am coming, woohooo. ------------------ Hi Boldi You can call me Myke Yes I do remember Adam Lippit - very nice young man I had a meeting with AEA yesterday and they are so excited to have you They have 1001 questions and so decided to set up a link with you and Mrs. Monchoir and Mr. Gomes the AEA officers, they have been included in this mail Please feel free drop them a line ref. what they have on their mind and also what you have on your mind Hey let's get the ball rolling! Welcome to Guyana and to VSO !!!!! Looking forward to your arrival Myke -------------- You may remember a previous email from Nadia Larouche that referred to travel documents. Nadia had been informed by our travel agent that we should get a letter from the High Commission of Guyana indicating that you are travelling to Guyana as you have to stay first to Trinadad and Tobago. I believe this advice was given as travellers going to Trinidad and Tobago only are required to have a return or onward ticket. I have spoken over the phone and in person with the staff at the High Commission of Guyana and they felt that this was a very unnessary and odd request. They assured me that as long as you have your valid passport and your ticket to Guyana you will not have an issue. I have also verified the Travel Report section of the Foreign Affairs website and there is no note of such a document, so I believe our travel agent was confussing the requirements with those of travellers going to only Trinidad and Tobago. I will send you a cover note from VSO Canada that will outline your reason for going to Guyana, but I imagine this will even be unnessary. For your medical certificates I received today them signed by Doctor Wise by Fed-Ex and we will send them to you today by courrier. I will send you each a seperate email this afternoon with your tracking numbers. You will need to take your copies of the tests with you along with the medical certificate. It's fine if they are just copies.

Still getting ready to leave...... so much to do

2005-07-07T13:19:00.000-06:00

Well, still in Calgary, and it is taking a long time just to get organized and get everything ready, paperwork... medical done, vaccination done.....dental half way.... haven't bought much yet....just a really nice video cam with digital camera built into it... however reading the crime stats , I may not be able to use it as much I thought since quite possible to get mugged for it.... so yea that is vorrisome...haven't lost enouh weight to run fast enough..... I was looking forward making a documentary also, bummer... well I am still in the midst of stuff so in the next entry hopefully I'll be cheerfull....