Ocean view from Parika

Driving in Guyana is so crazy. I still have yet to see a stop sign. This same picture was in the newspaper the next morning. Luckily the driver got out safely.

Cows, goats, chickens and horses seem to roam these streets daily. You actually have to be careful you don’t hit one sometimes. here they are eating the garbage and old fruits from the market.

I believe this is the house my father grew up in on Hatfield Street. It is so old now and the camera made the picture actually look better than in real life.

At the dock to Leguan i saw this boat half way in the water…

This parrot was sitting outside someone’s back door. Very tame. he squawked when he saw me but never ran away. i got a good close up.

As a child my father (and my aunt) went to school there in Guyana. this is there old school.

This is them in their old desk.

Dad’s desk.

The water looks beautiful in this picture but its brown (very brown). btw thats me and my camera. nevertheless Guyana is beautiful.

i’ve had a hell of a journey. let me give you the short version. went to calgary (-13 degrees celsius) expected to stay 2 nights. stayed 3. bad wind storm = no skiing. saw Lake Louise. caught a cold from a little girl. stepped on real ice. ate swiss chalet. got a ride back to BC. ground was solid ice (very scary). missed christmas eve with my father. got home just in time to pack for Guyana (its odd unpacking snow pants and begin packing tank tops and shorts). left had christmas day with my mom. drove to my dad’s. left the next morning for Vancouver airport. then to Atlanta (which took 2 hours longer than it should have), sat in the airport for 1 hour. arrived in fort lauderdale 1 hour late. had an all nighter with my cousin (learned how to play poker), same morning (6AM to be exact) packed my bag for Guyana. went to miami airport. waited 2 hours for plane to Port of Spain (Trinadad). attempted to sleep on plane. Arrived in Port of Spain got through customs, immigration and another random line up, plus grabbed my bag 3 hours later. took my bag and checked in for our next plane (to Guyana). gave bags in. drank rum. ate fried chicken. layed on a bench outside airport for 2 hours got bored. went through customs, duty free and waited for Guyana plane for another 6 hours (attempted to sleep on backpack). arrived in guyana (over 32 degrees celsius) at 1AM. sigh…..and….i miss my pillow

I took the bus the other day to go to Vancouver. sitting on a bus with 50 other people can certainly do something to a person. i soon found myself watching people. There was a man in his 20’s reading a novel. directly across from him a chinese man in his 40’s or 50’s was reading a book but instead of english it was in chinese. and instead of reading it front to back he was reading it back to front. bored out of my mind i pulled out my cell phone and timed how long it took the english front to back reader to read 2 pages. and how long it took the chinese back to front reader to read 2 pages. even though the amount of variables in my experiment were numerious i clocked then anyways. chinese man took 1 minute and 35 seconds. where as the english man took 30 seconds. meaning the english man was either a faster reader or english is simply faster to read or…..that i should not ride buses for that long.

Drving along 16th avenue tonight i caught a glimpse of the sunset and i was reminded of how lucky i am to live in this country. suddenly i noticed at least 40 birds all flying around in one section. 40 turn to 50 then to 100. 100 soon turned to at least a 1000 birds. flying in no particular direction. some sitting in the trees watching. other chasing each other just as children would chase eachother.i passed 2 sets of lights finally before i arrived at the third light the birds had thinned out. i’ve never seen so many birds before and watching their silhouettes in the sky was beautiful and rather remarkable. they looked like a gigantic family. with the children (as i mentioned before) the grandparents in the trees watching and the parents attempting to chase after the children. it was amusing. i decided to take a drive to see the lights. as i listened to sappy music and watched house after house of christmas lights i started to cry. why? i have no idea….still it was a beautiful night.

christmas in my family has always been eventful. kids are running. at times fights can break. bellys are kept full. in the end christmas is beautiful.

it snowed a heck of alot here today. driving in it was exciting. i’m typing here listening to my father on his guitar and my sister on the piano. its bittersweet. there was so many people at this house today. 43 to be exact. oh the memories. dishes galore. no fighting over presents this year at least. hugs, laughter, nipple earrings. even though i’m full to the brim i’m still hungry for something or maybe someone. its crisp may take a walk with a hot chocolate tonight…