An interesting trip that I will always remember well. I went to Guyana for the global pilot survey of the third round of the Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys, together with a couple of friends from the office (MN, ND). In Linden Town, we trained interviewers - joining us was LS, Guyana MICS Coordinator, and occasionally DA from the UNICEF Country Office.
Guyana somehow sounded like a place in Africa (the Guinea connotations), but here I was, for the first time in South America.
For two weeks we stayed in Linden - in a "hotel". Downstairs was a bakery/restaurant, and upstairs where we slept, the smell in the rooms was just unbearable. Nextdoor was a Chinese or Korean restaurant - for some reason (!) there were dozens of dogs in the backyard of the restaurant, barking all night and driving MN crazy. It was hot, humid, rainy- now I understood what "tropical rain" meant.
Nevertheless, it was a great experience, I met great people. Interviewers were very nice, so were some of the professionals we worked with. Food: Not really. Now I knew that Caribbean cuisine did not really agree with me.
I know I will remain fascinated by the Guyanese culture: A blend of many cultures - Indian, Indigenous, and others. Yet another country that some other culture was always prepared to invade, and did so. Particularly interesting was attitudes and behaviours concerning sex, marriage, parenthood. Get this: An interviewer had three children, was in a visiting union. I asked her if there were plans to "get married", to explain that this would have been the case in the culture where I come from, and she said that her older son was actually asking her to marry the father, but that she wanted to be sure that the marriage would work, before she committed to it. She wanted to be sure - after three births. And all the time, she was assuring me that all her children were from the same father.
Then, I and a couple of other facilitators were taken out of the training venue, when they were covering the topic sexual behavior. They were embarassed to have males around as they discussed sex. This, in a country where sex starts early on, multiple partners are common, so are consensual and visiting unions. Culture is funny. And profoundly interesting.
During the third week, I met SR, an old mate of mine from the LSE, circa 1988-89. He is from Belize, but was working there at CARICOM, at the time. We went out one night. There we were: A Cypriot and a Belizean, who met in England years ago, out in Georgetown, Guyana, at a Chinese restaurant. What was that term? Globalization?
This guy was selling underwear - on the street. Women were coming out of their houses and buying knickers and bra from him. In doing so, they would be discussing sizes, styles. He was selling underwear as if he was selling potatoes.
Watching anthropometric measurements at one of the quarters of Linden Town. Note the architecture, very common in Guyana: "Houses on legs".
One of the kids who were brought to our training venue for interviewers to practice anthropometric measurements. Beautiful people.
"Green" was shouting in one's face. Now I knew what "tropical" meant.
On the way from Linden Town to Georgetown: One of the many man-made lakes, where people go to swim. No, Guyana does no have beaches with golden sand - it is all rocky (and probably cold), so residents come to these man-made lakes to swim.
We stopped on the way from Linden Town to Georgetown one day, to have a few minutes rest, and found this place to buy some drinks. Note the name: "Pretty Woman". The fascination with beauty was everywhere.
Linden Town, main street. This was taken from the balcony of where we stayed.
For two weeks we stayed in Linden - in a "hotel". Downstairs was a bakery/restaurant, and upstairs where we slept, the smell in the rooms was just unbearable. Nextdoor was a Chinese or Korean restaurant - for some reason (!) there were dozens of dogs in the backyard of the restaurant, barking all night and driving MN crazy. It was hot, humid, rainy- now I understood what "tropical rain" meant.
Nevertheless, it was a great experience, I met great people. Interviewers were very nice, so were some of the professionals we worked with. Food: Not really. Now I knew that Caribbean cuisine did not really agree with me.
I know I will remain fascinated by the Guyanese culture: A blend of many cultures - Indian, Indigenous, and others. Yet another country that some other culture was always prepared to invade, and did so. Particularly interesting was attitudes and behaviours concerning sex, marriage, parenthood. Get this: An interviewer had three children, was in a visiting union. I asked her if there were plans to "get married", to explain that this would have been the case in the culture where I come from, and she said that her older son was actually asking her to marry the father, but that she wanted to be sure that the marriage would work, before she committed to it. She wanted to be sure - after three births. And all the time, she was assuring me that all her children were from the same father.
Then, I and a couple of other facilitators were taken out of the training venue, when they were covering the topic sexual behavior. They were embarassed to have males around as they discussed sex. This, in a country where sex starts early on, multiple partners are common, so are consensual and visiting unions. Culture is funny. And profoundly interesting.
During the third week, I met SR, an old mate of mine from the LSE, circa 1988-89. He is from Belize, but was working there at CARICOM, at the time. We went out one night. There we were: A Cypriot and a Belizean, who met in England years ago, out in Georgetown, Guyana, at a Chinese restaurant. What was that term? Globalization?
This guy was selling underwear - on the street. Women were coming out of their houses and buying knickers and bra from him. In doing so, they would be discussing sizes, styles. He was selling underwear as if he was selling potatoes.
Watching anthropometric measurements at one of the quarters of Linden Town. Note the architecture, very common in Guyana: "Houses on legs".
One of the kids who were brought to our training venue for interviewers to practice anthropometric measurements. Beautiful people.
"Green" was shouting in one's face. Now I knew what "tropical" meant.
On the way from Linden Town to Georgetown: One of the many man-made lakes, where people go to swim. No, Guyana does no have beaches with golden sand - it is all rocky (and probably cold), so residents come to these man-made lakes to swim.
We stopped on the way from Linden Town to Georgetown one day, to have a few minutes rest, and found this place to buy some drinks. Note the name: "Pretty Woman". The fascination with beauty was everywhere.
Linden Town, main street. This was taken from the balcony of where we stayed.