Happy Boxing Day!
A question was asked as to what Peace Corps Volunteers do for Christmas. Some of them go home for holidays, and some stay in their communities and celebrate with their Guyanese friends. Volunteers on the coast of Guyana will normally eat chow mien, as it is a celebratory meal for the people on the coast. Volunteers more in the interior will have “cook up”, which is basically a stew with a mish mash of ingredients, from coconut milk, meat, black-eyed peas, and other items. I think there is a big dinner on the 25th and people spend time with family. Today, for Boxing Day, a lot of people are going to the “Big Lime”, which is a big party in the main plaza with food and handicraft vendors. “Lime” here means to “hang out”.
There was a question about the US Center for Disease Control and its role in the country. Basically, an initiative was started called the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (Emergency Plan/PEFPAR) (http://www.pepfar.gov/). Guyana was listed as one of the 2 most important countries in the Caribbean to combat HIV/AIDS, which is why the CDC has a large presence here. To answer the question, the US is an important neighbor for Guyana, especially with a large percentage of the Guyanese population living in the US. Therefore, it is important for both countries to work on this initiative for regional health concerns. Also, this involvement is part of the US’s humanitarian work in developing countries. To learn more about US government development work internationally, you can go to www.usaid.gov. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is an independent agency that provides economic, development and humanitarian assistance around the world in support of the foreign policy goals of the United States.
December 21st:
Morning at the ranch starts with horseback riding for half the group and a guided walking tour for the others. We got a great interpretation from the ranch managers’ sons who were raised on the ranch and know it like the back of their hands. They are also work as guides for bird watchers, offer week-long adventure tours in the bush and do conservation work with international universities, zoos, non profits and scientists.
After breakfast was a meeting with various toshas (the Amerindian word for “community leader”), health workers, teachers, womens’ group leaders and general community members. We again discussed some of the issues that these people encounter being far from the capital city, near the border with a much larger, much more powerful country and part of the indigenous population. We learned about some of the challenges they face in terms of economic and environmental hardships.
After lunch we went to the corral to watch some ranching activities. There was a round up going on and the cattle were being checked, as well as the calves branded and tattooed. We watched that for a while which was an interesting comparison to Alberta, Canada. Few boots (actually, some had no shoes at all), kids riding calves, not sheep and in sand instead of soil.
We then took a tour of the tannery and went for a swim in the river. Only thing is we heard stories of stingrays in the river, which made us a bit nervous! After cooling off, we went for an easy hike up a mountain for sunset and a view of the border with Brazil and the start of the Amazon rainforest to our south.
Right before dinner, one of the manager’s son’s came up and told us that someone had seen a jaguar on the road, dragging a calf. So we all jumped in the back of the truck and headed out to see. We found its prey on the road and one of the men from the ranch was able to follow the footprints for about 150 meters into the bush. The jaguar must have been frightened by the car and left its prey, so they decided to leave it for the jaguar to come back for after we were gone. In the morning it was gone, so the jaguar had its meal for the day!
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