Mount Roraima, The Rupununi, Rainbows and Rum
on Fiona Craven (Guyana), 22/Mar/2012 23:12, 34 days ago
My recent absence from the blog has been because of a trip away from the civilisation ofGeorgetown, into the depths of the Guyanese jungle. 3 weeks ago, myself and some Canadian friends from town departedGeorgetownfor Lethem, onto Boa Vista inBrazil, and across to Santa Elena inVenezuela. From there we embarked upon an amazing, difficult, fun and beautiful climb ofMountRoraima. This incredible mountain boardersGuyana,VenezuelaandBraziland can only be hiked from the Venezuelan side. It is a place that inspired Arthur Conan Doyle’s ‘The Lost World’ (and more recently the moviesJurassicParkand Up). And as we pulled ourselves up this picturesque mountain, I had plenty of time to think. This year of volunteering has taught me that development work is like mountain climbing. You’ve got to have your eye on the end point, but there are also times when all you can do is keep your head down and hope that you are going in the right direction. It’s a team effort to get to the top, and you shouldn’t, and wouldn’t want to do it in isolation. And your best intentions can easily be hampered by factors outside of your control: climate change, personality differences, physical and emotional factors. But this is as far as my analogy went. Because as I huffed and puffed my way up the incredibly steep climb, I kept telling myself the view from the top, and the sense of achievement would make it all worth while. But when we got to the top, there was nothing but deep mist! I’m lucky enough to be able to look back on my year here and see through the mist and know that progress has been made. But perhaps in other cases of development, all you get is mist at the end andyou have to believe that your work was worth it.And fromMountRoramiawe moved on, covered in bug bites, walking like wounded soldiers, dying with the flu, back toGuyana. The Rupununi is the Southern most Region inGuyana(Region 9) and one of the most remote. It was my third time visiting this place that has truly captured my heart. We camped out in our hammocks by the river and cooked freshly caught fish and drunk the local Kari. By day we spotted giant river otters, and by night we went spotting for caiman and tree boas....The final part of my trip was to carry out school screenings with my local colleagues, and provide education about disability in the Amerindian communities we visited. As always, I was overwhelmed by the dedication of my young colleagues and was inspired by many of the health care workers who serve their rural communities amidst huge adversity. And on 19/03/12 at 9.24pm, I helped the local midwife deliver a beautiful baby girl. Her Amerindian mother remained silent throughout the birth, while I whispered words of encouragement as the mosquitoes hovered around: one form of life searching for blood to survive, while we welcomed another form of life into the world.Mount Roraima, The Rupunui, Rainbows and Rum– you’ve been quite a cocktail.