Thursday, August 21, 2008

Meet the President: 8.16.08

Elizabeth and I met the president, Bharrat Jagdeo, on Saturday evening at Naya Zamana 14: "Dancing Beyond Boundaries." This was a performance by the Guyana Hindu Dharmic Sabha Dance Company that was performed at the National Cultural Centre and featured many styles of Indian dance both traditional and nontraditional and included, folk, classical, village, Bollywood, modern, plus much more. It was a beautiful event and please excuse my sorry excuse for a dress (I blame it on light packing!), as the attendees, predominantly Indian Guyanese, were wearing their best. There were amazingly colorful and beautiful saris and other traditional Indian-style dress on display. In the photo above, of us with the  president, in the background, over my shoulder, is the Prime Minister. He is wearing a garland similar to the president. I was more excited than definitely everyone else at the event. I was also the only paparazzi present. Until, our brilliant Guyanese friend, Priya, mentioned casually that Elizabeth & I should just walk up to the president and ask to be in a photo with him. This would be unheard of in the States. So, we did...

1 comment:

Blackford said...

Gina, Hello I'm sure you weren't expecting a comment on your blog from me, but my wife is traveling to Little Rock for work next month(she works for the Dept. of Ed) and it got me thinking about old friends from LR. I googled you and came across your blog. It looks like you're living quite an amazing life at the moment and I'm definitively jealous. In case you're interested, I'm married now and my wife Stacey and I live in Washington DC where I'm a 6th grade ESL teacher and she's working for the gov't as I said. Not sure if you ever heard or not, but I was in the Peace Corps a few years back in Kyrgyzstan. We met while serving in the PC and have been in DC ever since we finished our time there. Drop me a line at tomblackford@gmail.com if you'd like. I'd love to hear what you've been up to for the past 10 years. Amazing that it's been that long since we've been in touch!