Today is CARICOM Day

And, my sister's birthday! Christina the entire Caribbean is celebrating your special day... The pictures here are one step in the process of making a traditional staple here called pepper sauce. The woman on the right is my landlady and my most reliable person to chat with here, Sybil. This is in her beautiful backyard, which she ever so kindly shares with me and the three other tenants. They are preparing to make the red pepper sauce, which is the hot (spicy) kind. When I asked to have some today on the side of my curry the woman serving asked me if I knew what it was. She was worried a white woman like me couldn't handle the spice. Little did she know that I tried it last night and enjoyed it, of course in small doses, mixed with my food. (Kate knows from India, after our, or should I say her, pepper experience, that I would never try anything too confidently.) In Guyana there is also a green sauce, which I am told is more sweet. Basically this red pepper sauce is pretty much an accompaniment to almost everything you eat here in Guyana. Other exciting foods, or shall I say fruits that I am learning about: bread fruit, star fruit (or 5 finger), golden apple, custard apple, and star apple (all three of which are NOT apples as we know them but totally different), sapodilla, puncks, and most amazing these variations on bananas: there is the delicious sweet fig banana as well as the apple banana (they are both a bit smaller than normal bananas). There are even more rare fruits here that I have yet to understand the name of... more to come on that. There are also lovely fruits growing here that I am more familiar with, but that are plentiful and not exotic on this side of the ocean, such as mangos, coconuts, passion fruit, plantains, and the list goes on. Oranges are unique here in that their peel is actually green. Quite deceptive I might add. And apparently avocados are also on the witness protection plan here, as they are known as 'pears.' There is also a very long, snake-like green bean called bora. I have some in the fridge at home to check out soon. Exotic fruits for us here in Guyana (now that I reside in the tropics) include, broccoli, carrots, and regular old, apples.

Because Guyana is known as the land of six peoples, it is a bit more complicated when you ask others about typical, traditional Guyanese foods. There is pretty much a dish from each people that make up the melting pot that is this country, pepperpot, roti, fired bread fruit and sour, peppersauce, curries, cassava, cookups, to name a few. The six people that make up Guyana include, Amerindians, people of African descent, East Indians, Chinese, Europeans and Portuguese (yes the last two are recognized separately). With this amazing diversity has unfortunately come many hardships, but it is a fascinating place that I am only just barely beginning to come to know. The indigenous Guyanese are the Amerindians, the Arawak and the Carib tribes who lived here before the Europeans settled here in the 17th century. The Amerindians traditionally have lived primarily in the very undeveloped interior. In fact Guyana is one of the least developed countries in the world. The only real cities are on the Atlantic coast, and for a development-sort of reference, I am in the largest, capital city which has absolutely no tall buildings, making the downtown enormously different than say the Financial District, or even Little Rock and its sky-reaching TCBY tower for that matter. (The name of that building may have changed...) Guyana, the name itself, means land of many waters...

I am on week 2 now here in the land of many waters and six peoples, and I am doing well enough. Over the last week There has been a lot of alone time for me. Lovely, great, alone time is good for me, I know this is true. I have been mostly appreciating it, but there are ups and downs, of course, depending on the hour. I miss Taylor, and my pups. I do have many tiny ants that play games with me all day & come out of nowhere to entertain me. I have taken to the 409 bottle, which is the instrument I use for this game. Also quite exciting at night, is when I turn off the light to the main part of the house & retreat to my bedroom- with the bedroom light still on. If I decide randomly to go back into the main part of my apartment after a bit of time, when I turn on the light in there, there is a small city of night life creeping & crawling everywhere from the floor to the walls. Those lizards, to mention one such character, have excellent composure even when the lights take them by surprise. In this situation I am repeatedly proud of my response, seeing as I have no one to call to alert to the guests, I just quickly and without the pomp & circumstance Taylor might have witnessed in New Haven- I promptly turn the light back off & excuse myself for interrupting their time out. It is after all an apartment we are sharing.

Life should get busier this week, as I should be starting my study tomorrow. Keep fingers crossed. I have to figure out some technical things, like printing my surveys & consent forms so that they can be utilized by participants. I have almost completed three novels since arriving in Guyana. Anyone who laughed at my skyscraper of a stack of books which I began constructing when school ended for the summer (it was on my desk in the dining room at home)- well, I should have taken them all & I didn't because of the snickering and doubt many of you conveyed. I blame myself... love from here. happy birthday sister.