Well I have been way too neglectful about my blogs. First, I have been back to the states again where I got to spend a beautiful weekend with Julie and Holly, a wonderful time with Jack and Daisy and also of course got to see my perfect grand daughter Sloane. I will say it was incredibly hard to leave all the love I felt. I also have been very busy writing my new course for the fall, Transcultural nursing. I have learned an incredible amount while writing this. I have discovered what should come as no surprise to me, but strangely does that we are incredibly ethnocentric ( being defined as the belief that only our ways are the best ways). As American's it appears we believe our values are the best and it is incredibly hard to make us believe otherwise. While I believe that this is really true of most if not all cultures. Do we all really believe that only our ideas are the best? I think yes, I have observed the Guyanese also believe that their ideas are the best. This does make the melding of cultures more difficult. At any rate learning about other cultures has been very mind expanding. There are so many different ways to look at things. I think what I have have learned is that it is very necessary to respect another's views even if they are not yours. I have listened to all the conflicts going on in America, the only news that I get from the states, and sit here realizing that regardless of our differences we are so incredibly blessed and have so m
uch to be thankful for. I hope all of you realize how incredibly lucky you are to have been born in the U.S. I went to the annual Amerindian cultural celebration today at a village
called Santa Mission. It takes 2 hours maybe less by boat to go into the village. So you can imagine how difficult emergency medical care is to provide. It is,however, a beautiful peaceful
ride down a calm black water creek. The ride was beautiful not
the boat. I am not sure if black water is unique to Guyana but it is very clean, very black with a reddish hue.
The people of the village seem very content. Their day consists of having enough to eat and then supporting the rest of the village. Can you imagine
a place where all you think of is the welfare of others, interesting. They still make most of their money selling homemade wares which are of the finest quality. I definitely
did a little shopping today.
The Ameridian festival continues all month. Next Saturday I will attend the Amerindian Pageant. The a village I visited has a population of about 300. I was not only
impressed by the villagers but inspired by them. Many grown children come back for the celebration because their values are very important to them. I got to see examples of traditional dress and traditional dances. On Sunday I was included in a break-the-fast celebration for the end of Ramadan held by my Muslim neighbors. There was everything you could think of to eat, and no wonder for the last month they have not been allowed to eat or drink anything after sunrise until sunset. As you can see I have great neighbors. I am going to wait to finish this blog until next week end after the Amerindian Pageant....
Last night I went to the Amerindian Heritage Pageant. I did not stay until the end because today I was getting up early to fly to Kaieteur Falls and was seriously afraid I
would
over sleep. The Pageant is put on every other year by the Ministry of Amerindian
Affairs. It is not a beauty pageant, but rather a pageant promoting education and expression. There are 10 regions
in Guyana and there is an Amerindian representative from each region. I
have include a photo of the opening costume
In the opening number they were dressed as different colored birds. That was followed by a talent show, where most of the girls performed monologues on topics such as drug usage or preserving the rain forest. I missed the Evening gown competition and the question and answer session as well as the winner. In Caribbean fashion the show began late and was running late and probably was not over until the wee hours of the morning. The amazing thing is after the show all of the contestants were going home, which for most meant boats rides in the middle of the night
on a pitch black river into the interior of Guyana.
Today
I flew in a very small 5 seat plane, one of the only ways to get to the falls, the other being a 5 day walk through the rain forest. I must have really wanted to see the falls to get into the plane, but it all turned
out ok. Our guide was a member of the Patamona tribe. They were the first to discover the falls and have always lived by them. There are nine Amerindian tribes: Arawaks, Caribs, Warraus, Macusis, Wapisianas, Akawaios, Patamonas, Arecunas and Wai Wai. The village I visited last week was an Arawak village. The Ameridians have remained in many ways very independent of the modern world and take great pride in the fact that they could go into the rain forest and live with out worry. They know which plants are food, which are medicinal etc. The plane ride
home was a little bumpy and the PCV sitting in front of me "tossed her cookies", fortunately I was fine.
My day finished up by my streaming the Bengals/ Pittsburgh game through my computer and being able to listen to the Bengals defeat their mortal foe for the first time in years. It is amazing what I have learned to do while I have been here. Who would know that you could listen to a football game live on your computer for no cost.
Tomorrow I check on the arrival of the books donated by my Alma Mater, University of Maryland to the University of Guyana Nursing Program. I can not say enough how generous and kind they have been. School begins again next week.
Finally if anyone wants to see more photos they are posted on my face book page. Also to all of my Cincinnati friends I will sending one more reminder of Julie's performance this coming Friday Oct., 2 at the Redmour, to the rest of you bear with me because it is too much trouble to filter my general announcements. Till the next time, go tell everyone you love how much you love them.
