The children had a great day…the staff were understandably exhausted by the end of it all but I think we all agreed that it was worth it. Another party was held at the palms, for patients with stroke….a little less manic than the children’s party but still had plenty of food, party games and of course the traditional Guyanese Christmas whining!
The Christmas feeling for me personally was a little slow to develop this year but come Christmas Eve even scrooge couldn’t help notice a slightly different atmosphere around the place! Town was manic on Christmas Eve with people buying last minute gifts and items to spruce up their houses. Can you believe that it is possible to select, set up a purchase agreement and have delivered a suite on Christmas eve! It’s crazy….I found myself in the food market at 11.30 Christmas eve night and it was as busy as I ever saw it…apparently shopping and preparations went on well into the early hours, even the ‘last minute, typically male shopper’ has no excuses here for not getting that desired Christmas item! Christmas for us was fairly quite….Wayne and I had a Christmas lunch at my house, he had a steak and I had some pretend meat out of a can (it was actually quite nice!) with roast potatoes and vegetables. Later in the afternoon we had some friends over for drinks before heading over to Wayne’s house to visit with his family.
Unfortunately the rain didn’t give up and joined in all day, so much so that long boots (wellies to you and me but no one knows what you are talking about if you say that here) were needed to get into the yard of Wayne’s house….needless to say any attempt at a Christmas outfit was slightly ruined!
(the view from my window and flooded roads...)
We opened some gifts with the family before heading over to Abi and Jason’s house, two of the few VSO’s still in town…the rest were either at home or sunning themselves on beaches in the Caribbean (alright for some!). Anyway all in all it was a nice day, though I couldn’t help but think what I would be doing at the same time next year….it really is true that Christmas is all about (your own) family and friends when it comes down to it… Guyanese really do believe that they have the best Christmas known to mankind! It’s OK but…
Anyway boxing day was spent sleeping and sulking in general about the rain…in the evening we went to the Main street lime, a traditional gathering of people on one of Georgetowns streets, with live music, sellers and general crowds (no fireworks though thankfully!)
...come the 27th it was my birthday. Michelle had brought me a lovely gift of a voucher for one of the nice restaurants in town so Wayne and I had a nice lunch.
I then headed home and caught up with a few people on skype, which was really nice. In the evening a few people came round and shared some birthday drinks, Wayne also surprised me with a homemade chocolate cake which he had baked himself (it took him all afternoon but hey I have (nearly) already forgotten that!) – I unfortunately was unaware of the 20 minutes that Wayne and another friend spent running up and down the stairs outside my house trying to light, re-light and keep alight the candles…when he eventually did come through the door he looked like he had been working out!
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