Monday, Sept 18 - Heritage Fest

September is Amerindian Heritage Month here in Guyana and to celebrate this each year people travel from all over the country to Annai for a week long celebration called Heritage Fest. Annai is about 90 miles north of us (a 2-12 hour drive depending on the roads) and is also home to fellow World Teach Volunteers Heather and Jessica. Things still haven't really gotten stated yet at school here so Jessie Sue and I, along with the Project Trust girls, decided to take a personal day to go witness the festivities. Friday was the last day of the festival and was promised to be the most exciting and event filled day. With some help from Shirley, a friendly shopkeeper, we secured a ride to leave at 8:30 Friday morning. At 10:30 on Friday our ride showed up and by 11:00 all fifteen of us were packed into the pickup and ready to depart. Three people sat up front and twelve of us managed to position ourselves and bags for the 3 hour journey to come. I stood with my head poked through the canopy and hung on for dear life each time we bounced over the many large potholes along the road. I was actually more comfortable than most and I was also able to see the amazing countryside as we passed through it. On a few occasions we drove through clouds of yellow and green butterflies that swirled around in our wake... gorgeous.

We arrived in Annai at the festival grounds around 2:00 hot and dusty, but in good spirits. I immediately found myself a cold beer and some grilled meat on a stick. We all meandered around for a bit seeing the sites and getting an idea of how many people were there, and what sort of activities were taking place. We quickly realized that there were not nearly as many sports and competitions as we were led to believe. In fact, it seemed as though there was only one main sport taking place: getting completely stumbling drunk. We met up with our volunteers and went home to have a bucket shower and get some food, in preparation for the night. When we got back there was some singing and dancing taking place in the main pavilion so we sat down to enjoy the spectacle. Ten minutes later the generator failed and the lights for the entire area went out. Now, with nothing left to do I decided to compete in the local sport as best I could. With the help of some friends we tracked down some of the local drink for me to sample. It is called Piwari and is made by chewing on Cassava root and spitting it back into a jar to let it ferment for some undetermined length of time. The stuff is thick and grainy and very sour, but, surprisingly, not that bad. I probably drank more than my share, made friends with the locals, danced, and woke up in the morning where I had passed out on a bench in the center of the pavilion. Not only did I have a crushing headache but I looked down to realize that my sandals had been stolen sometime during the night. I left the grounds to many salutations from the locals and made the 45 minute walk of shame, barefoot, along a gravel road to the Annai teachers' house.

For the trip home we managed to solicit a ride with the Red Cross volunteers from Lethem and even managed to get a seat inside the cab this time. I tried to sleep off my hangover for most of the time, but also managed to snap a few pictures. Then, around dusk when I was beginning to feel better Wayne spotted an Anteater! We reversed jumped out and followed the strange beast on foot for a few minuted through the savannah.



A pretty good weekend in all, I would say.