And a Little Traveling Music, Please

Mabaruma on the Northwest Coast

Psychiatry afforded me the opportunity to see a part of the country that I had never seen.  It was a short one hour air flight but would take more than a day to get there by boat.  (Ah yes, thank God for planes!) Usually two psychiatric residents go to run the monthly clinic at the hospital.  This time I went instead of one of the residents; this meant that Dr. Jackie had to do the work of two while I played tourist.   

Here are a few stories and some pictures.

This is the "downtown" market area
on the Kaituma River

It is hilly and the air was fresh.

Mabaruma is in Region 1 - Barima-Waini  (formerly Northwest Region) and is the regional capital.   It is a small, friendly town in a heavily forested area and I do mean forested.   Five feet off the road you really couldn't get through.

Jackie and I stayed at Broome's Guest House.  (It did seem that almost everything was named Broome, as they were one of the first families to develop the town.)   We were greeted by one of the daughters and shown our room before we had another breakfast for the day.   We were certainly well fed and could even request what we wanted for meals.  (I requested potato fries instead of the usual plantain ones.)  They went out of their way to make us feel like we were at home.

Our lodging.... and I loved the colours!

The dining room.  It seemed that there
were always interesting people from everywhere
to chat with at every meal;

A view/ from my balcony.

Somebody had to Work

Main Hospital Reception Desk and Emergency

The main entrance to the Mabaruma Hospital

No, Jackie is not the file clerk;
 it is her consultation room.

After breakfast we headed to the Hospital where Jackie would spend most of the day seeing people.  Some walk a huge distance every month to be at the clinic.   I sometimes feel overwhelmed by the difficulties of having a mental illness in Guyana (or anywhere). This day Dr. Jackie saw a young man who was doing extremely well and was looking at moving to Georgetown to go start university.  Jackie told me this later because I quickly disappeared on a minibus to go downtown.

Downtown Mabaruma

It was a quick trip "downhill" to the market area.   I started to walk around and see the sights and I soon got to chatting with the shopkeepers about their products and customers and lives.   They were interested in the strange white guy as it seemed that most visitors just look, and walk by them ..... and as typical of all Guyanese, they have relatives in New York or Toronto.   Many didn't mind having their pictures taken though they had no way of ever seeing them. One store owner had a cousin in Toronto and was going to send me her email and I would send the picture on to her Canadian family -- but I doubt it.  So here is a picture of her and her mother (?) in case the relative is a reader of my blog 😁

 


Blogger and Pictures - YUCK!

I can't get the pictures to stay where I want them... and I utter small ejaculations that the priests with whom I live have not heard in the Presbytery before.  So almost all the pictures are online at:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/1xgzB6XGLKki4akk6

This may be too many pictures even for my most ardent followers.  I will post "Faces of Mabaruma" and my "Artsy Collection on FaceBook soon.

Now I feel better...

Some Thoughts on Mabaruma

Mabaruma is next to Venezuela and is one of the places that has taken the brunt of the economic catastrophe that has happened there.  (I will leave my political opinions aside about the causes of the disaster there.)   There are homeless Venezuelans throughout the town and the hostels are overflowing and there is no work...  And in some ways the Venezuelans are like Americans.   They are a proud people who were once at the top of the economic heap and they still act like it.   They project to the Guyanese (mostly Amerindian) that though now penniless they are still better.   Even I could see the hostilities that are being built up ..... and which usually come to a head on the weekend when people drink too much and some violence and property damage occurs.   At the local levels, we are all quick to identify who is "not us" ..... as with Americans and Mexicans, Canadians and our refugees, even at the small town level,  as in my home of Ayr in Ontario, we are quick to see who is not an "Ayr-head".   It is such a deeply entrenched feeling that no wonder we think God must have intended it when we were created.   

I met many people who have lived their whole lives in Mabaruma,  They were never sick enough to be sent to Georgetown for treatment nor were they the smartest who could go to school there.  I know I have lived in small communities before, like West Pubnico, Nova Scotia where most families had been there for generations; however, most of them have traveled throughout the province or Canada or even farther.  For many in Mabaruma, their whole known world is Mabaruma.  I cannot even imagine who they really are or even who I would be if that town was my whole life.  I was about to slip into arrogance and say that I was the one who is better off ..... but I am not sure.  I think the people of Mabaruma are just like people everywhere.    They try to: make a living, take care of their family, yell at the teenagers, get tired, angry, laugh and cry ..... and play.  Some even gamble; I lost a couple of hundred Guyana dollars in a game of cards.  Actually, I gave it to one of the guys to play for me as I really did't have a clue what they were doing.   My player lost quickly!

Fourth, political correctness in speech was unknown... and yet there seemed to be less hostility to one another.   One guy at the card game was called "Monkey".   As soon as I heard that, I was waiting for the fight... It never came.  And there were similar names that would have caused a big reaction in Canada, though maybe not in Trump's America.  WE are certainly more careful with our speech, but I am not sure we are more accepting of another...

Enough...  Thanks for reading.

John