Eddie Doyle, 4 May 2010 18:42 hours
Lethem, Guyana Lethem cowboy/girl weekend As said in the last letter, I would give Easter a mention. Easter is one of the biggest culture periods in the Lethem calendar…….which isn’t exactly filled at other times. Starting on Good Friday and continuing until Easter Monday it’s the rodeo!!! Bringing the local Vacqueros (I think the spelling is right”cowboy”) up against each other to show their skills in bull and horse riding, wild cow milking and many other off the wall pastimes/sports that people have invented for want of something else to do (a bit like baseball and cricket). Anyway we were there on 2 of the days and had a great time watching the competitions and enjoying the festivities and the general good feeling of the place. I unfortunately missed the Miss Rupununi pageant!!! We also had a full house, filling both of our guest rooms and managing 2 others in the little dining room. All in all we were 8 people at the most which was a bit hard to handle, so it was actually quite nice when we got the place back to ourselves.
Move forward a week and we get an invitation to go across the border to the nearby town Bonfim. Our invitation was for a Friday night to drink beer and watch the night RODEO!! The first thing to strike you in Bonfim is that they have street lights there...... next is that they drive on the right side of the road (and correct side, if you have lived in Sweden most of your life), third is the organization behind the event and finally you realize the Brazilian bulls are “Bad Ass Bulls” and would rip the riders to pieces given a chance……they came close, with one rider very pleased to see the family jewels still in place!!
Lethem as we have started to understand is developing at a rapid pace (South American rapid pace). The bridge to Brazil opened 2 -3 years ago, replacing the now defunct ferry (which was probably the sister of the ferry at Kurupukari) and has meant a lot of Brazilians coming over for tax free shopping of clothes, shoes, etc.. Guyanese for their part go over to the opposite side to buy a lot of stuff not available here, or just too expensive here. It is also a lot closer to Boa Vista (Brazil) the nearest city 2 hours away than to Georgetown which is 12 hours away, although Georgetown does have the attraction of the ocean, if the rains allow the trip.
We have already had a lot of rain in April although the main rain period is meant to be between May and July. Under this period the water levels on the savannah can rise by quite a few meters, making the rivers impassable and turning the roads into smaller rivers as we have already started to see. It also means a temperature drop that has so far meant very pleasant days and nights………..not quite the same as the Irish rain period (365 days long) where one is half frozen most of the time………and in the pub or the church the rest of the time!!
Anyone who has kept up with my blog the last couple of years or knows me from earlier will know that my little adrenalin devil thrives on letting it rip on a motorbike. Imagine my joy when told by my program officer Timothy that the organization would be supplying me with a little 125cc off-road to do my work……and supplying Behi with a bike for her work!!! So far we have received one bike which has made a huge difference going out to the village where Behi works……5 mins on the bike as against 45 mins walking. (I will work in the same village but there are still a few issues to be sorted out on the work front). Tomorrow is a National holiday so we will take our transport over the border to check out Bonfim by day ……..and do some shopping in Brazil, which will probably mean buying some yogurt!!!
Until next month. Take Care
PS. On a sad note, my camera has given up and I am not sure if it can be fixed, which is a real bummer. Thankfully Behi has a good one though. I also forgot to mention Bertolina our neighbour who got married a few weeks ago. Look at the new photos.
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