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| A Baby Bush Cow- Tapir wandered into my yard!! They are endangered! |
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| Smallest plan I've ever been on! |
Please forgive me but I am just coming to.
My room is strewn with clothes, thermometer
strips, and milk soiled towels.
My arms
and legs are speckled with red dots from the ravenous Cabora flies of the
Irmatan river that separates Guyana and Brazil.
It wasn’t even Cabora season when we went down there.
Looking in the mirror I realize the sun
has bleached my hair due to hiking for miles through different Amerindian
villages in mountainous savannah and lush rain forests.
Within only a month’s time, a whirlwind of
awe, wonder, fever, fatigue, inspiration, and sadness came barreling through my
first floor flat in Guyana and carried me to places I could not have ever
imagined going to.
Maybe it’s the
malaria meds, but I’ve still got this slightly dizzy crazed feeling going
on.
Oh and of course pictures, but they
really only capture a minute amount of beauty that I was able to see with my
own eyes.
Don’t you wish you could take
pictures sometimes, simply by blinking your eyes?
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| Traditional Amerindian house on the Amakaruru river |
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| Swimming at the ladning |
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| View of Venezuela from Guyana |
I started off with a trip to Region 1 to the village of
Wauna.
I boarded the smallest plane I
had ever flown in and prayed, practically willed the propellers to carry me
safely to my destination.
Within an
hour’s travel over bright green tree tops, we landed just over a flock of
Scarlet Ibis.
I thought to myself,
“Welcome to Jurassic Park.”
Wuana is
located in the Northwest portion of Guyana, very close to Venezuela.
It is a small village, but it has a lot of
character.
I was fortunate enough to
help do some filming and training in bakery that was just opened by the local
women’s group of the village.
My friend,
another PC volunteer, helped to ensure the bakery would be completed.
It was a very charming building with bright
colors and wafting aromas of fresh baked goods.
Although the bakery had just opened, the women had a hard time keeping
their delicious items on the shelf.
It
was very inspiring to meet the women who had worked so hard to make their dream
of a bakery a reality.
The volunteer in
Wauna was quite the host.
We took a day
long trek into the rain forest, complete with a boat ride on a dugout canoe
deep into the jungle to the Amakaruru river, the one that separates Guyana and
Venezuela.
You would almost expect to
see jaguars and monkeys hiding amongst the leaves.
We didn’t see any but I am certain they were
there.
We also climbed to the top of
this small mountain where we could see for miles and miles.
It was absolutely gorgeous.
The next day we went to the village of two
other volunteers where we ate some delicious food and swam at the landing with
many adorable children.
Our final stop
on the last day of the visit was to the infamous jumping tree.
It is a large tree that has branches that
hang at least 20 ft above the water.
As
much as I wanted to be able to, I just couldn’t climb up and jump.
It looked like fun, just not my kind of
fun.
I was sad to leave Wauna but I was
so happy I had the opportunity to go and visit.
It really was what I had pictured Guyana to be in my mind; quaint
villages nestled deep within lush rainforests.
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| Bamboo Landing |
I returned back to my site, but not for long.
My good friend Tara told me she had booked
her ticket and would be here in a week’s time.
I didn’t know where exactly to take her.
There are many interesting places to travel to, but we could only really
pick one.
Luckily I was able to get a
hold of a really remote volunteer in a village called Kato, very far Southwest
in Guyana near the Brazilian boarder.
After already having a great experience in a remote site, I knew it
would be an adventure going out to Kato.
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| Making home made bricks out of clay mud |
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| Football Field |
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| Village of Kato |
Our expectations were beyond blown out of the
water.
Kato was absolutely beautiful and
entirely different from any location I have ever been in Guyana.
The terrain was mountainous savannah and it
was much cooler than my site on the coast.
The people made their houses out of mud bricks, wood, and thatched
roofs.
We went on some very long hikes
to areas with waterfalls and vast rivers.
We also went to sit and chat with several friends of the volunteer, in
which it is traditional to drink a bowl of Casseri (sp?).
Casseri is made from cassava and it is boiled
and chewed and fermented into a drink.
It
kind of tastes a bit like yogurt.
I
learned that people chewed the cassava in their mouths for the drink about half
way through my second bowl.
I wished I
had learned that much later on, but sometimes you have to just go with things.
It was actually pretty good, especially if you didn’t think too hard about its
creation process.
The only problem is
that it is really filling and people tend to give you larger bowls if they want
you to stick around for a while.
We had
some pretty big bowls!
Everyone was
extremely friendly and welcoming. One night when we were traveling back from
another village far away, we all busted out into song and sang for most of the
way home under the stars.
It was just
one of those moments where you couldn’t help but grin.
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| Pet Bird |
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| Guyana Savannah out in Kato |
Both Tara and I were so sad to leave in the end and sort of
hoped the weather would be too bad for our plane to fly out to get us.
Unfortunately, it came and dropped us off in
Mahdia a large mining town.
We had a 5
hour layover there and both Tara and I had become ill.
We must have been a sight lying on the
airport (warehouse really) floor bundled up in jackets, long pants, and socks
because of fever chills.
This was in a
very humid, tropical area mind you.
I
really just wanted to get home at that point but even as we landed back in
Georgetown, we still had a two hour car ride to endure.
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| Mash round 2! |
Before we left for Kato, I found out my cat had kittens in
my clean clothes closet.
I wasn’t too
happy about their location so I moved them into a box and we left mama and
babies snuggled together.
When we came
back, mama cat was nowhere to be found and the week old kittens were
mewing.
Thus began the saga of the dead
mama cat and trying to care for her infant kittens.
My fever also shot up to 103 so I was trying
to feed kittens, help tutor a student, and still try to be a good host.
I was feeling very downtrodden at this
unfortunate welcome back to site.
Luckily, my fever broke and Tara and I were
able to go celebrate Mashramani in Georgetown. Mash is kind of like Mardi Gras
with floats and people in costumes.
We
had a great time but Mash also meant that Tara was leaving.
We said goodbye and I went back to my site to
care for the remaining kittens.
I tried
very hard with them, but in the end none of them survived.
I was sad about them, Tara leaving, and the
stone cold sober shock from adventure high.
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| Tara and I |
So here I find myself sitting in the aftermath of a
tremendous whirlwind wondering what exactly just happened. I still have all of my limbs, my head is
still on as straight as it was before, and I’m trying to process all that I have
seen and done. These past few weeks have
been amazing, some ups and downs, but amazing nonetheless. Now who wants to come and visit next? ;-)
-KB
Watch this jungle boat ride!
