My First Week in Guyana

Hello,

My name is Kophie Mathis, and I am a U.S. Air Force paralegal here in Guyana to assist with the New Horizons project. I wanted to do a little blog about my first week here.
It was Sunday morning, and I only had a couple hours of sleep. I had a plane to catch and I was heading for a wonderful country called Guyana in South America. Having traveled around the U.S.A. for TDY’s (Temporary Duty) and various deployments under my belt, I felt confident, yet anxious at the same time.

My travel to Guyana consisted of various flights, starting from Tucson, Arizona, which is where I live. Once I landed and went through customs in Guyana, I was greeted by a contracted driver, who drove me to my prearranged hotel. I threw my bag in the trunk and proceeded to the car door. Being new to Guyana, I naturally went to the driver’s side, but I soon found out that the passenger and driver sides are reversed. After a brisk scurry through bleak roads in the middle of the night, I arrived at my hotel and slept until the following morning.


My first trip off hotel grounds was to a store call Office Max, with a young Air Force officer. While walking, the officer obviously drew a lot of attention being a much lighter skin tone than the locals and starring became common place. There were a couple of street venders selling home-made food items. The food here is very fresh with little or no preservatives added. It’s quite normal for a chicken to be slaughtered a couple of hours before dinner. A common food item is Megemgie, which is a soup made with fish, cassava, coconut, plantains, dumplings and other various combination's. The food is also rich with local spices which give it a unique taste.




Walking down a narrow two-lane road with no side-walks can be perilous. There were numerous occasions where a car would blaze past only foot or two away. Driving is also a major difference between Guyana and the United States. To an average American, the driving would seem like a chaotic jumble on the roadways, with continuous honking of horns. With narrow roads full of pot-holes and cars parked on both sides, a two lane road can easily become a congested dead end. Passing on the opposite side of the road is typical and a head on collision adverted at the last second is also a common occurrence. Aggressive driving is really the only way to drive here.

Once we arrived at the store called Office Max, I soon realized that it was actually a small store on a corner of an intersection. We went inside and began looking at the selection. On the first floor, there were basic beverage and food items; there was also a small shoe section and an electronics section with TV’s, video games and copied software. The second floor contained various items from office supplies to household goods and the third floor contained ripped copies of movies and music of every kind. The third floor actually reminded me of a deployed location in the Middle East where you could purchase fake name brand watches and ripped CD’s for cheap prices, they even have three movies on one DVD. The store is like a small Wal-Mart, but with a much narrower selection and cramped aisles. Security is in abundance, watching your every move to deter would-be thieves. After we shopped, we headed back home and concluded our eye-opening experience to a local store.


Guyana is a beautiful country with a unique customs and wildlife. I will be blogging in the future about the cool experiences here in Guyana and hope you will check out my future blogs.


Kophie.