Guyana

In this normally highly mobile world, my travels to Guyana while staying at home have introduced me to many Guyanese outside their homeland and many non-Guyanese inside Guyana. I know the experience would be different if I could physically visit, but I’m happy with the resources I found to get me as close as possible to this interesting, diverse, and beautiful country.

My experience with Guyana started with Reader’s Digest Condensed Books. These were best-selling books, both fiction and non-fiction, edited for length and also for content that might be uncomfortable for some audiences. I was delighted as a ten-year-old to be allowed to read books that might not normally be age appropriate. I bought these books for 25 cents each at the Pink Cottage, a thrift store run by volunteers of Feather River Hospital. This is how I met E. R. Braithwaite, Guyanese born and teaching in London. Braithwaite’s book To Sir, With Love fits into one of my favorite genres – teachers succeeding against the odds of social circumstances. The book is better than the movie, and both are highly rated and probably available at your local library.

Other resources about Guyanese people outside of Guyana are:

· Cricket and Parc-Ex: Immigrants and Sports in a Vibrant Canadian Neighbourhood: Although most of the cricket players in this documentary on Kanopy are from elsewhere in the former British empire, the man who repairs the bat is from Guyana. He inspired me to go looking for more ways to experience cricket in Guyana. Almost seven hours of cricket commentary of a game between Guyana and the Windward Islands here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJocJYLCCC8 and the highlights of a game between Guyana and Trinidad & Tobego here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPYSWBdoEjo took me deep into a sport that I know little about but I'm ready to try. Anyone up for a game?

· Parts Unknown: Anthony Bourdain spends only two of the last five minutes of his Queens episode discussing the bird racers of Guyana who now live in Queens, but it was enough to send me looking for more information: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zk_-hx2shU

· The 1943 version of Batman includes Guyanese actor William Austin as the iconic Alfred. It’s more than three and a half hours, so you would have to be a serious fan of Alfred, or Batman, to watch it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6Zo_BaxTsk

· Tonight I’m going to rewatch Black Panther (it’s on DisneyPlus) just to appreciate Leticia Wright, another Guyanese outside of Guyana.

In addition, some of my favorite musicians from Guyana who are well known outside their country include:

· Sol Raye: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cvdku-sV20s

· Eddy Grant: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtPk5IUbdH0

· Natural Black: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGn5yeCesMc

Resources on non-Guyanese people visiting or living in Guyana are also plentiful. The most widely known and painful story is that of cult leader Jim Jones and the massacre of his followers. There are two Jim Jones documentaries on YouTube, one on Hulu, and he is covered in the “Cult Leaders” episode of Inside the Criminal Mind on Netflix. I chose to read Undaunted: Surviving Jonestown, Summoning Courage, and Fighting Back by Jackie Speier. The story of Jonestown impacts politics to this day as Speier’s experience as a survivor informs her representation in the United States Congress.

More pleasant and focused on Guyana are the fishing stories of two more non-Guyanese visitors:

· Gordon Ramsey filmed an episode of Uncharted in Guyana. He fishes then cooks for the local leaders. My favorite part is watching him and his guide hunt fish with a bow and arrow. I first watched Uncharted on DisneyPlus where Ramsey’s bad language is bleeped out. (What is Gordon Ramsey doing on Disney!?!) It is also available on YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gINwYFm9ZtE

· River Monsters has a four-minute section on fishing in Guyana where Jeremy Wade catches a significantly bigger fish than Ramsey did: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MvM6t6pXPw

Above and beyond meeting the Guyanese expatriates and tourists noted above, traveling to Guyana in person would be a completely new experience . Here are the fifteen best places to visit in Guyana according to The Crazy Tourist: https://www.thecrazytourist.com/15-best-places-visit-guyana/

If you go, your local travel advisor can make the trip the best that it can be. As always, I support my favorite travel advisor, Kaitlin Darnell at Laura's Travel in Redlands. May the travel industry survive and thrive. May we all survive, thrive, recognize our mutual humanity, learn to deal with our conflicts, and allow peace and health to flourish in Guyana and throughout the world.

Photo credit: Dan Sloan https://www.flickr.com/photos/dantoujours/23356454020/