15 Weeks to Go

We’ve been thinking a lot about leaving Guyana since we only have 15 weeks left here. As with most things in Peace Corps, we have very mixed emotions about leaving this beautiful country that has become our home. We decided to make a list of things we will miss very much about Guyana and also note the things we can say we won’t be missing at all. This is by no means a complete list, we are sure there are things we forgot about but here is what we have for now anyway. Here goes:

Things we will miss:

• Easy and cheap access to fresh tropical fruits: mango, pine, papaya, passion fruit and weird stuff you have probably never heard of (awaro, five finger, ginip, star apple, dounce) etc.

• Living on the river, admiring the beauty as we cross it everyday
• The beautiful, expansive skies: brilliant, fiery sunsets and sunrises and nights with millions of glittering stars

• Greeting everyone with a friendly, “Good morning/afternoon/night”
• Always being able to predict the weather. Let me guess: hot and muggy! Correct again!
• Loud Caribbean music blasting from mobile carts on the roads
• Food: plantain chips, cookup, roti, pepper pot, dahl puri
• The sounds of the jungle morning, noon and night: birds, frogs, bugs, roosters
• Evening thunder and rain storms

• Knowing our neighbors, shop keepers and a general a sense of community
• Getting everywhere by public transportation; mini buses, cars, and the freedom of not relying on anyone else to get anywhere because we can walk most everywhere!
• The flora of the jungle
• The fauna of our urban jungle: cows, sheep, chickens, dogs and cats that run (seemingly) wild all around the streets and yards of the entire country
• The “just now” attitude, island time, taking it easy, nah takin’ worries and time to relax and chill
• Having most of our “adult” responsibilities (bills, rent, medical care, etc) taken care of by Peace Corps and not having to worry about those things, peace of mind, job security
• Guyanese hospitality
• Random events that make us smile and laugh: seeing a 6’6 black man driving a supped up car with a Celine Dion CD blaring from the stereo or almost stepping on a mamma sheep as she gives birth to twins in the side of the busy market road
• Having luxurious free time to read (Tim has read over 150 books) and watch movies/TV
• Cheap and delicious Guyanese rum
• Getting DVDs of movies just released in theaters in the USA for $100 Guyana dollars (50₵)
• Dark, super-sweet, local Guyanese sugar
• The smell of sun dried laundry
• Being able to make our own work schedules and, at times, when work is slow, being allowed to show up, “show my face” then leave work to take care of personal business
• Our coworkers, neighbors and friends who all know and love us and watch our backs

Things we won’t miss and are glad don’t always exist in California:

• Mosquitoes
• Cold showers
• Men sipping, being called white gyal or bai/whitey/Barbie/baby/sweetie/sexy
• Animals (and animal dung) on the public roadways and in our yard
• Homesickness
• Incessant, unavoidable heat
• Our grammar degenerating into a poor version of Creolese (“I wan fuh go ah the market”, “watch at this ting” “me nah know” “how baby today? He goin a’right?”)
• Long, hot and uncomfortable mini bus rides
• The “just now” attitude, showing up late or not at all, little to no accountability
• Turtle slow internet connection
• Being judged and told we are going to hell because I (Chelsea) am not baptized and we are not Christian then almost forcibly dragged to church services to save our souls, being told by total strangers that I (Chelsea) am a sinner for wearing pants when the Bible says women should not wear pants…
• Only having three choices of bland Caribbean beer (Banks, Carib, Stag)
• Not having an oven
• Hand washing all our clothes
• Being asked very personal questions by strangers when we first meet them (are you married, do you have kids?, why not? how old are you? would you like a Guyanese boy/girlfriend?)
• The smell of garbage/dead things rotting in the trenches
• Humidity
• Being the victim of the Guyanese habit of stating the obvious (when Chelsea is bloated: “you gettin’ thick, you must be getting a baby”, when she is out in the weather without an umbrella: “white gyal you takin’ too much sun/rain”, when she is exercising: “you takin a walk”. Why yes, I am thank you!).
• People assuming that we are rich/privileged/religious/ New Yorkers because we are white
• Having no anonymity at all: leaving our site to go across the entire country and still being identified by strangers then having people in our own site tell us how they have heard of our exploits (probably from said strangers) in the far-off town upon our return
• Having to bring our own toilet paper and hand sanitizer everywhere we go because there is never any guarantee that there will be a well-stocked bathroom