Get ready for a long one

I haven't mentioned this yet, but there is trash everywhere. You see trash on the sides of the roads, in the trenches, and near water sources. There are hardly any trash cans around and if there are, they are mostly found in cities. In the villages there is no trash pick-up system. Instead people burn their trash. Although I haven't seen this, I heard that people dump their trash in poorer areas. Our health trainer has told us that water sources are often contaminated because of the trash disposal. But don't worry, I only drink bottled water and my host family has a filtering tank for all other water uses. In one of our Creolese cultural sessions we learned about the 6 different ethnic groups:
1. African
2. East Indian
3. Chinese
4. Amerindians/Indigenous peoples
5. European
6. Portuguese
We also learned the derogatory names, respectively:
1. Blackman/dog
2. Coolie
3. Chinese
4. Buck
5. Redneck
6. Redneck
If you notice, there is no derogatory name for the Chinese. Our facilitator said you don't mess with the Chinese because they have sharp knives. Someone might try to mock the way they say fried rice because they can't pronounce the Rs or even try to mock the Chinese language, but afterwards, they immediately run away [hahaha], I got a huge kick out of that one.

Wednesday was Phagwah, the Hindu New Year. In the U.S. the Hindu community refers to it as Holi. In celebration we visited Paul's family. They surprised us by dousing us with water, colored powder, and glitter. But there was also a steady flow of alcohol, music, and of course food. We had famezzelli (a noodle dessert), palurri (fried flour) with a spicy, mango sauce, and a chick pea dish. It was hella fun, but I definitely needed a nap afterwards. ;)
Btw, remember how I mentioned names for different ethnicities? There are also names for people of mixed ethnicities. For example, I'm considered a red woman, which happens to be the most desirable type of woman right now. Yeah...I'm hot. :)




Friday was Culture Day. We went to this camp that is often used by large groups for recreational purposes. We learned to play cricket, the national sport. It's hard to explain, but I would compare it to baseball. It was really fun. My team lost 43 to 48, but that's okay because I was the second best hitter on the team. Yeah for me and my athletic abilities! Then we had lunch. I had chow mien, fried chicken, a cassava ball (it's a boiled egg fried in cassava), palurri, chick peas, cook-up rice, and potato salad. For dessert we had red cake, which looks like a cinnamon roll with coconut dyed red in the crevices. And, we had a banana nut cake. Mmmm, Mmmm good. After lunch, we learned about dancing. Claudius kinda showed us how to move our hips, but the main focus was how to behave at a party. Girls shouldn't let guys grab them to dance. You should leave adequate space between your bodies, and you should be careful about letting guys buy you drinks. Also, he mentioned that everyone will get proposed to--girls and guys.. And, he said to be weary of falling in love too quickly. A lot of Guyanese view PCVs as a ticket to the U.S. The final activity of the day was swimming in the river. Now this isn't just any river. They call it black water. The vegetation secretes a substance that turns the water black. But really the water is a blood red. From afar it looks black, but when you're in it, your skin looks red. I've never seen anything like it.