Last night Harry and I went for a walk down into the village to buy some peanuts to snack on. We came back with a little more than peanuts…
We cut across the sports ground where we bumped into some students from the primary school. Of course, they promptly scurried up a tree and dropped down enough ginnip (it’s a delicious fruit) to fill my bag. Going well so far.
Then we reached Johnny Moses’ house, where we bought a few pounds of peanuts. We were then told to take a seat, and moments later Mr Moses appeared with a big plate of more peanuts for us to eat, a big bunch of bananas for us and two coconuts to drink. We sat and chatted (and ate) for a while, before thanking them profusely, being given two more coconuts to take away, and then leaving towards the Caetan shop.
We planned to thank the Caetans for the food they sent to the school for us the day before, and buy a couple of cold drinks for the long walk back. Instead (despite our repeated requests to let us pay for something) we were given two big 2L bottles of cold drinks and a pack of biscuits, promises that they’d keep sending food to the school for us, and an invite to lunch on Saturday.
Needless to say, that night we had a small feast of bread (which we actually paid for), bananas, biscuits, orange soda, coconut water, ginnip and tasso (dried beef, given to us on a previous visit to the Caetans).
This is actually quite a normal thing for the villages in Guyana: the majority of residents in Sand Creek don’t have much, but they are keen to share what little they have. Their attitude towards sharing and helping others is genuinely heart-warming.
(We didn’t eat all of the peanuts or ginnips… they were for my lesson on ratios!)
