Monday, September 26, 2011

Heritage Festival at St Cuthbert's Mission

I am writing this post from the air conditioned luxury of the Peace Corps office in Georgetown. I decided to treat myself this morning to a few hours of air conditioning, mostly because the sunburn on my arms, neck, and face is fresh and still painfully pink. I was stopped on my way here by a Guyanese man who told me that he liked how my face and my hair were 2 different shades of red. Wasn't really sure how to respond to that one :)  I can't really complain about this sunburn though since, #1 it was my own fault for not wearing sunscreen, and #2 it happened during an amazing weekend celebrating Amerindian Heritage month in the village of St. Cuthbert's Mission.

Here in Guyana September is Amerindian Heritage month so there are tons of festivals and events going on all over the country that showcase the culture and the heritage of Guyana's native people, the Amerindians. St Cuthbert's Mission is a village of about 1,500 people that is located about 2 hours from Georgetown in the interior. Several of the Guy 23 volunteers did their training there so a bunch of us decided to go this past weekend to attend their heritage festival. It was probably one of the best weekends I've had so far here in Guyana.

Our journey started from Georgetown, where I met up with my friends Emily and Ashley, who came in from the Essequibo coast early Saturday morning. We caught a bus from town around 8 am, which was going to take us up the main road the runs along the coast. It was about a 40 minute ride from town to a place called the Suesdyke junction, where the road splits and you can either continue along the coast or take the other main highway in Guyana, which goes into the interior. At this point we switched from bus to pickup truck, since the road into the mission is all sand and dirt and most cars and buses get stuck. We then had a 45 minute ride into the Mission, bouncing along in the back of a pickup truck, hoping that none of the potholes or sharp turns would get us tossed out. The driver of the pickup truck, Bongo, was a host dad to one of the other volunteers, so we trusted him to get us there safely. Along the way we stopped at a small pineapple farm and bought freshly picked pine to snack on for the rest of the ride.

Once we got into the Mission, which is spread out over several miles of open savannah, dense jungle, and blackwater creeks, we dropped our bags off at Bongo's house, and made our way to the town center, where all the festivities were taking place. There was a stage set up for performances and booths selling locally made crafts and food. We walked around and watching some adorable school children sing songs and read poems, and of course, spent way too much money on the beautifully made Amerindian crafts. The Amerindians in Guyana are famous for their straw basket weaving and feather headpieces and jewelry. Warning, all my Christmas gives for people were bought last weekend, and almost all of them involve colored straw or feathers :)

All of the food choices were local Amerindian dishes, such as labba pepperpot and cassava bread. This is what I had and it was absolutely delicious. Pepperpot is a dish that is kind of like a stew, meat is cooked in broth and spices and peppers for a very long time until it gets really tender and the broth soaks up all the flavor. Cassava bread is a hard flat bread that is used to soak up the broth. Labba is wild bush meat and very popular in Amerindian communities. A labba is an animal that is native to Guyana and it resembles, get ready for it, a large rodent. Sounds gross, I know, and I don't think I could actually look at a live labba and then eat one, but it really does taste quite good. And of course, you need something to wash down all that wild bush meat with. Amerindians make their own liquor, which is called Piwari or bush rum. It is made from fermented cassava, which is a root vegetable similar to a potato, and lots of sugar. It is sweet and delicious but STRONG! Depending on what batch you get, it can get you pretty high (Guyanese use the term high to mean drunk, this was very confusing at first lol).

Now, you all probably have guessed by now that Guyana is balls hot all the time. Every single day. But where I live, along the coast of the Atlantic, I get a breeze that at least makes the heat bearable sometimes. Once you get into the interior, that breeze disappears. On Saturday, sitting in the shade in St Cuthbert's, I was sweating just by lifting the bottle of Piwari to my lips. I don't think I've ever been that hot before, ever. We decided that it was probably a good point to go find a place to cool down so we walked about a mile further into the village to this amazingly peaceful and beautiful blackwater creek. The water was cool and shaded from the trees and we were able to swim and relax away from the heat and dusty sand of the village center. It was amazing. After our swim, we headed back to the center of the village to do some more craft shopping and pass the rest of the afternoon relaxing on a random veranda, drinking Piwari and eating pepperpot.

As the sun began to set and round 2 of the festivities began to get under way, myself and my friends and fellow volunteers Kristin, Meghan, and Mark decided to go to a different black water creek near Kristin's host family's house where we were all staying, to bath for the night. Using rainwater or bathing in creeks is a very common method of washing clothes, dishes, and bathing in most of Guyana. So the 4 of us were all sitting in the creek, trying to get as clean as possible with most of our clothes on and no real soap, when all of sudden we look up and a flock of macaw parrots fly over our heads, right as the sun is setting. It was such a cool moment, sitting in a blackwater creek, in the middle of the jungle as the sun is setting, and seeing a flock of colorful parrots fly by. It felt like a very Peace Corps moment :)

After that, we made our way back to the town center, for a dinner of barbequed chicken and plantain chips and, of course, more Piwari. We hung around the food and craft area for a while until around 9 pm, when we were told that we should head over to the primary school where apparently their was an all night dance party going on. At that point, most of us had had just enough Piwari to be totally into the idea of an all night dance party. We headed over to the primary school, which was packed, and preceded to take over the dance floor. The DJ was playing mostly Guyanese music, rap, soca, dancehall, and reggae but at around 1 am he decided to make a switch. All of a sudden, Elvis was playing and a whole bunch of other music that made me think I was in the movie Grease. It was such a fun time and we kept on dancing until around 2 am. Some volunteers had to get a ride out of the Mission at 3 am in order to get back to Georgetown to make the flights back to their sites so we headed back to our respective host family houses to pack and get at least an hour or 2 of sleep.

We woke up with the sun and had a quick cup of instant coffee before piling into a bus that was headed back to Georgetown. I got home around noon on Sunday and was completely exhausted and bright pink from sunburn but incredibly happy and content with life. It was an amazingly fun and crazy weekend. And, of course, I have pictures for everybody at the link below. Enjoy!!! :)

St Cuthbert's pics:

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