Finding a Little Bit of Home Away From Home

I am not sure how many of you like to travel or have lived in many different places, but I find that in new places I always try to connect things back to what I know. It is the same for when you learn a new language; you look for cognates or similar sounding words and pretty soon you can say a few phrases.

When I look at where I am, part of me thinks I am just in another part of the U.S. When I was in the capital city Georgetown, I was reminded of the vendors selling their goods in Chinatown NYC. As I ride in cars around West Demerara ( a little more rural/country) I can almost picture some of the same houses in New Orleans. Someone once told me that New Orleans is the closest city to a third world country you can find in the U.S. I absolutely LOVE New Orleans and mean no disrespect, but I have found a lot of truth to that statement.

As I mentioned above, I love NOLA and was really missing the Mardi Gras festivities this year (Yes, I do have Mardi Gras beads in my room). So I was very excited to hear that Mashramani (Mash), a holiday to celebrate Guyana as a Republic, is celebrated with dancing, bright colors, glitter, a parade, and floats! ( To learn more about Mash click here!) I went with my host mom and had a pretty good time. We even managed to walk in the middle of the parade trying to meet up with people. While I missed eating King Cake and dodging beads flying at my head, I did enjoy eating lots of Guyanese food, listening to some bumping music, and seriously contemplated how some of the performers moved their bodies the way they did.

Parade at Mash, people get all dressed up and dance to soca music

As for other home away from home events, our group managed to have a "Happy Hour." Imagine about 20 something foreigners descending on an unsuspecting fried chicken fast food restaurant. It was a great way to hang out after a long week of training and the fried chicken was pretty good.
Another night, some of us went out for some good old fashioned Karaoke. This also consisted of a disproportionate amount of foreigners invading a local place. The locals actually took their Karaoke very seriously and sang a lot of Celine Dion and some very heartfelt love songs. I personally enjoyed some of the videos that were played along with the songs. They featured Americans who seemed very emotional and who were sporting some very funky attire. If those videos were all you had to go on, I would be giving Americans some really weird looks too.
To round out the weekend, a bunch of us went to a fellow trainee's house and had a Thanksgiving like feast. We ate a TON and sat around sharing stories and laughing until we had to make our way home. It really reminded me of having potlucks at friend's houses or the "family dinners" I would have with roommates and of course my actual family.

It is amazing that even in such unfamiliar territory, I am still looking for the familiar "homes" I have lived in. It might be the easiest way to accept change, find all of the similarities you can hold on to and then take baby steps towards the big, scary differences. And believe me, the differences can be scary. Just look at was in my dinner the other night:

Cook-Up Rice  Recipe to Follow!

Yes, that honeycomb looking meat is cow intestine.


:-)

-KB