My friends in Berbice
on Fiona Craven (Guyana), 06/Apr/2012 22:13, 34 days ago
The goodbyes have started. And after spending last weekend in Berbice (the Region east ofGeorgetownand west ofSuriname) saying goodbye to some remarkable people, I’d like to offer you a hello to some of them.Meet Auntie Mina and her husband Uncle John. Auntie Mina runs the house with an iron fist. Uncle John does whatever Auntie Mina tells him to do, and in his spare time he dances to hip hop and soaks up celebrity gossip fromAmerica. Every time I visit, Auntie gives off to me about something:“you haven’t come visit for 3 months, you’re naughty” “why aren’t you eating more girl, what’s wrong with you”.She comes across as super stern, and to anyone who doesn’t know her she may even be a little scary, but to me she’s my auntie who knows to cook me sweet rice every time I visit, and she always sends me home with a bag full of produce from the garden and containers of her home cooking (“how many pak-choi’s do you want Fee-ola” “I’ll take one please auntie” “John, she’ll take three, put them in the bag”).Auntie Mina and Uncle John had an arranged marriage 40 years ago organised by their mothers. Both Hindu, Uncle later converted to Christianity. Together they always provide me with a wonderful welcome, and after 14 months in the country, I am finally able to understand most of their Creolese. I’ll miss my time spent with them, gaffing with Uncle about who’s dating who inHollywood, while Auntie force feeds me her seven curries and sweet meats.Uncle John enjoying one of the magazines I bring himAuntie Mina's cookingAuntie Mina in her gardenLet me introduce you to Shenny and her family. Shenny is 3 months older than me and is married with 3 sons ranging in age from 12 years to 7 months. They live out on a plot of land, sandwiched between her in laws in a house her husband built them. They’ve no current, but over her gas stove Shenny has taught me to make tasty potato and channa curry and shown me how to roll out dholl puri so that it stays thin but doesn’t tare. I have watched her over the past few months care for her boys and look after her new baby with such love and attention that she’s been a mentor in how to be a good mother.Making dholl puri in Shenny's kitchenBathing baby ChristopherShenny's eldest boy making his kite for EasterAnd now meet Sue and her seven children, the youngest five ranging in ages from 13 years to 4 years. Every few months they have to move house because of the transient nature of renting in Berbice, so Sue is carefully saving up to buy her own house. She works 12 hours a day as a security guard, then comes home when it’s dark and puts the kids to bed and spends the night trying to get jobs done around the house. Tough as this may sound, it’s even harder in a house with no current and no water. But difficult as it may be, Sue laughs more than anyone I know, and when Sue laughs, the whole room wants to laugh too. And get Sue in the right mood with the right tune, and man can she teach a white girl a thing or two about wining! But to her five children I’m not just the white girl that can’t properly wine, I’m Auntie Fiona. And that’s hard to say goodbye to.Sue and her four youngest childrenWining by torchlight with Sue's eldest daughter