Thanksgiving: Guyana Style Take 2

This year was our second Thanksgiving in Guyana. Both years we have been fortunate enough to celebrate with family and friends. Last year Sara's family was visiting Guyana and this year we had my mom and brother to share the fun. Along with our biological family, we had our Peace Corps Volunteer 'family' and our Guyanese 'family' joining the festivities.

Since we don't have an oven everything was cooked either on a stove top or in our steel drum BBQ. And, like last year, everything was delicious! We had all the traditional American feast items; turkey, stuffing, gravy, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, veggies, wine, and pumpkin pie. Added to that was some extra chicken, Tka's spicy macaroni, Guyanese rum and snacks, Princess's spice cake with cream cheese frosting and Sara's wheat-free rice dish (made with love for my bro).

We decorated the Thanksgiving Tree with post-its of what we are thankful for, cooked, gaffed, ate food and laughed until the wee hours of the morning. We are truly blessed and so endlessly grateful for our family, friends and friends that have become family. Our life is rich and full of love and we give our thanks for our blessings everyday (but especially on a day like Thanksgiving)!

The next morning, Mom and Bup headed off to Barbados to wrap up their vacation before heading back to the USA. I was sad to see them go (and had a very, very scary anxiety dream about them leaving when I took a nap later that day) but I remember all the fun times we shared together in Guyana and in the end, I can only be grateful for the fact that they were able to visit us at all.

Spending time away from our family and then getting the treat of a visit from a few of our beloved ones has made Tim and I realize how important family is to us. We are determined to make family a priority in our life when we get back to America. We plan to live within driving distance of both of our sides of the family and spend more quality time with everyone. I especially look forward to living near my bro, who is so much fun to hang out with. I love how he gets along with Tim and my friends and I feel like we can enjoy each others company on a deeper level than we have done in the past. I look forward to the not-so-distant future where family interactions are a part of daily life, not just a treat on holidays.

My "oven"

The Thanksgiving Tree

PCV Princess, neighbors Lisa and Baby Nathan and I having a fun evening!

Tim and PCV Mark shucking corn for BBQ corn on the cob! Yum!

Family Visit Continued

Mom and Stephan's visit to Guyana continues to be an adventure enjoyed by all. They are getting an authentic Guyanese experience full of wonderful hospitality, more food than they can eat, late nights and early mornings, last minute planning, plans falling through, hand-washed laundry and pirated movies.

On Saturday, we hired a bus to drive us out to Rockstone, an Amerindian village about an hour outside Linden. The village was hosting their annual Fish Festival and I had arranged to hire a boat to take us down the river to see some rapids, experience the thrill of being on a speed boat in the jungle and swim in black water. The boat trip was fun, the day was relaxing and adventurous and we got to eat fish curry and drink paiwari (cassava wine).

The following day we had booked a tour to fly to Kaieteur and Orinduik Falls. I was so excited to show my family the beautiful, remote and untouched parts of Guyana that are so different than my urban community. We endured a harrowing minibus ride to the airport and met up with our tour, only to be told that the weather in the interior was bad and we wouldn't be able to land the plane. I was devastated that our trip was canceled! The tour company tried to reschedule for later in the week but they couldn't charter a plane since all the planes are busy flying elections materials (ballots and boxes, etc) into and out of remote villages for the upcoming presidential election on the 28^th. I think I was more disappointed about the cancellation of our trip than my mom and brother were (either that or they are good at hiding their disappointment). Mom is rescheduling the trip for Tim and I in the new year and getting a refund for their half. When I go, I will have to take the sock monkeys as stand-ins for Mom and Bup (not going to be the same though).

Instead of our epic rainforest trip, we had to improvise so we headed into Georgetown, where we had reserved a room for the night in a hotel with a pool, and would have been content swimming and lounging around all day. But when we arrived, the pool was closed for repairs. Again, I was more frustrated with the situation than my family. Mom and Bup had a great attitude, exactly the kind you need in Guyana where even the best laid plans tend to fall through. I just felt like I should have planned things better for them and was pissed that things weren't working out like I had wanted.

Again, we improvised and explored gritty, ugly, beauty of Georgetown. We took pictures at the seawall, went to the National park and pet the manatees in the pond, went to the zoo (the smallest, most depressing zoo that exists) and had an early dinner at a Brazilian restaurant where we drank and ate delicious fare until we felt like bursting. The night was topped off by watching Guyana Star (think American Idol with one million percent less production value) and giggling in our hotel room.

On Monday we took a whirlwind tour of Georgetown and Mom and Bup got to do some souvenir shopping for CDs, movies, jewelry and crafts. We bought our turkey for Thanksgiving and headed back to Linden. Since then we have just been kicking it in Linden. Tim and I have gone to work in the mornings, allowing Mom and Bup to relax and sleep in (as much as they can with the roosters crowing right outside the window). We have had a continuous flow of visitors and friends who have been generously feeding my family and teaching Mom about Guyanese cooking. To me it seems like an underwhelming thing to do with my family that sacrificed so much to fly down here to visit. But Mom insists that she didn't come to Guyana to be tourist, she came to visit me and Tim and see how we live our lives so that is what she is getting.

Today and tomorrow promise to be a hectic, fun and social time. We have Peace Corps Volunteers coming to visit from all over Guyana for Thanksgiving and we have an epic feast planned. Then Mom and Bup leave the day after Thanksgiving. I am getting a little sad to think of them going. I have loved having them here so much. I am so grateful that they have been able to experience the hardships, beauty, fun, tedium and general roller coaster ride that is my Peace Corps service in Guyana. I know now that when I look back at this experience, I will have people who can relate to the beautiful madness of it all since they have experienced it alongside me. I am so unfathomably thankful!

As far as we got to Kaieteur Falls: the airstrip in G/town...

So, instead, we went to see a manatee

Manatees are cool!

Mom at the seawall, oh the beautiful Atlantic Ocean....and beaches full of trash...

Family Visit!

Coconut water, hydrating and delicious

At the airport! Welcome!

Last Wednesday dawned bright and sunny, humid and hot, a typical day in Guyana in every respect except for the fact that we had our first (and probably only) family visitors! We were so excited to welcome Mom and Stephan for their 10-day visit. Tim and I hired our favorite taxi driver (a rasta man with tons of character, I'd even say as much personality as there are dreadlocks on his head, and that is a lot) to take us to the airport to greet them. We wanted to welcome them in style so we made a welcome sign to hold up at the airport and stopped at the first roadside fruit stand we saw to buy us all fresh coconuts and happily drank the water with
straws.

Since Mom and Steph have arrived, I have loved getting to narrate the experience of Guyana to them and see each and every unique aspect of this wild country in the light of their fresh perspective. The things that had become almost mundane to us (wildly speeding mini buses, scrumptious tropical fruits, Creolese dialect, livestock roaming the streets, trash piles burning on the sides of public roads, unexpected torrential downpours, and much more) became new and exciting again as we watched Mom and Steph witness them for the first time.

Both Mom and Stephan have been champions so far, enduring the not-so-niceties of life in a
developing country with aplomb. Mom has a series of itchy red bites all over her body that are maybe mosquitoes or bed bugs or fleas, but she doesn't complain. They both are rudely awoken every morning by the incessant crowing of the many roosters that live in the yard next
door. They sweat in the heat and yearn for the comfort of a fan orA/C but still join us on our daily routine trips to work and the market and around.

Since Tim and I couldn't totally play hooky from our responsibilities, so far we have just been showing Mom and Steph around Linden, introducing them to our friends and coworkers and living as we do, experiencing our routine. This weekend, however, the fun begins! We have planned a river boat, day-trip-adventure for Saturday and a flight to and guided tour of Kaieteur and Orindiuk Falls on Sunday. We will eat Brazilian BBQ, explore Georgetown and come back to Linden in time to start prepping for Thanksgiving.

Everyone is well and happy and so totally grateful to be sharing this unique, rare and wonderful
adventure together. More stories in the days to come...

-Chelsea