Mangos Mangos Everwhere!

Like apples (Granny Smith, Delicious, Macintosh, Fuji, etc) there are many, many different kinds of mangos. 

Karanambu has over 20 mango trees right on the compound. Diane’s father planted them, two by two, like a Noah’s Ark of Mangos. Some don’t even have names, only numbers. 

Whenever you ask Diane, “Which is the best mango”?  She will frequently answer, “It all depends on what you want to do with it? Are you going to cook with it, or make juice or eat it just so?”

 

It also depends on the time of year.  The trees bear at different times, so the search for the perfect mango can be a daily adventure!

We are coming to the end of the season now.  Hardly one in sight…but a few weeks ago, there were endless mangos

And not only the humans enjoy the mangos, the tyras and aqouiti were feasting under the trees.  The parrots, yellow headed, orange winged and amazons noisily feasting in the treetops.  Oreopendulas, even the king fishers joined in the feast

Our mangos were late this year, so when we still had plenty; we were getting visitors coming to “collect” their share.

The whole compound smelled of fermenting mangos.  Under the trees the ground was covered with half eaten, rotting fermenting mangos. Hard to believe it was a challenge to use them all up.

We miss them already…but some of the trees are starting to put out new leaves so the blossoms should not be far behind.

HAPPY 80th BIRTHDAY Diane

On our way back to Karanambu, after our leave, we stayed in Georgetown to celebrate the 80^th Birthday of our dear, dear friend and colleague, Diane McTurk. 

The excitement had been building all week, as the plans took shape. We all agreed that a full surprise would be too much for "D". So we told her half the guest list, which was over 100!! The hosts of the evening were the Chairmen of the Karanambu Trust and the Karanambu Lodge, Mr. Paul Stephenson, and Major General (retired) Joseph Singh 

The venue would be the Umana Yana in Georgetown, which is a huge conical thatched roof building that can hold 200-300 people. We spent all day blowing hundreds of orange and green balloons, stringing fairy lights and arranging potted palms from the National Parks Department.

The Masters of Ceremony, none other than yours truly!

The Honorable Prime Minister and his wife, Mrs. Hinds 

joined our guest of honor in the front row

 

as friends and family in celebration of Diane’s Birthday made speeches of thanks and reflection.

Sydney Allicock, Chairman
North Rupununi District Development Board (NRDDB)

Diane took the opportunity to thank everyone “very much indeed for the tremendous outpouring of emotion…I am not at all sure I agree with you or even know of whom you were referring, but never mind that now.”  She continued on to express her deepest desire to focus on the preservation of the pristine Wetlands of the Rupununi and the unique biodiversity, to which she has dedicated her entire life.

The guest list was very impressive, from the honorable Prime Minister, The Diplomatic Corps, Friends and Family.    
The entire event was donated.   

Major General and Mrs. Singh arranged for an
AMAZING birthday cake! 

DDL supplied us with RUM to make our famous

Karanambu Rum Punch and Cara Lodge catered the event!   

We supplied the decorations, but had tremendous help putting them up AND taking them down

 Ilze (VP Shedd Aquarium - Chicago), Andrea, Teri (GM Wilderness Explorers - Guyana),
Robin (Solar Engineer - Peace Corps - Karanambu), and Salvador

IT WAS INDEED A DAY TO REMEMBER!
Special thanks to all of those who made it so memorable!

To see the slideshow shown at the party for Diane of pictures throughout the years,

click here:

"DIANE'S BIRTHDAY SLIDESHOW!"

It has been almost a year!!

It is just so hard to believe that so much time has gone by! We have had over 2000 guests since we arrived at Karanambu. Being so isolated makes the logistics of catering to guests very difficult, frustrating and time consuming.  The days just flew by! Our last few days spent organizing fuel and supplies wore us down. We were feeling cranky and tired.

We've learned a lot, shared a lot...laughed and cried a lot. But "rainy season" is here, so it is time for us to go on leave!

The river came up fast, over 20 feet.  It is high high high and we will have to go by boat to the airstrip, because the land rover can't get through. Driving through the trees in the boat made us realize again how amazing Karanambu is.

But, it is time to pack...again! And then excitement begins to build and we look so forward to hugging and kissing children and Grandchildren; family and friends who we have missed so much! 

But first we have to say our good-byes. Looking into the eyes of those who have been around us each day, trying to commit to memory those new faces we have come to rely upon

Those we have laughed with and learned from as we worked so hard together!!  Everybody was walking around with a long face and kept asking "you comin back though right?"

We all walked together down to the river to say goodbye

The path was shorter, as the water was already up over the landing, almost reaching to the new boat house!

Neighbors from Sumuni were arriving with a boat full of

bicycles just as we were leaving,

Good-byes....even for now...are just not easy.

Water was SO high! This is the spot where we made the bricks!! We moved our bricks up to the compound just in time.

It was just last week that Salvador walked these paths with three guests!  It is now under 6 feet of water!  AMAZING!

From the paths to the ponds, the transformation is so hard to believe and in so short a time. It helps to explain the unique bio-diversity of Karanambu.

Simply Magical!

It seemed like even the water lilies stayed open longer to say goodbye.

We sat quietly in the boat, in total amazement at the changes that had taken place in a matter of days! Slowly we felt the excitement and commitment to this unique place return and energize us.

This is the road that the Land Rover was driving just a few days ago! It won't drive through here for another 3 months!

And after 45 minutes there was the Land Rover waiting to carry us the rest of the way to the airstrip.

And to the plane!

WE ARE ON OUR WAY!!

See you in July! 

When we return to Karanambu!

KITES, KITES EVERYWHERE

Wikipedia: the Origin of Kite Flying in Guyana

In Guyana, kites are flown at Easter and is an activity participated in by all ethnic and religious groups. Kites are generally not flown at any other time of year. Kites start appearing in the sky in the weeks leading up to Easter and school children are taken to parks for the activity. It all culminates in a massive airborne celebration on Easter Monday especially in Georgetown, the capital, and other coastal areas. The history of the practice is not entirely clear but given that Easter is a Christian festival, it is said that the flying kite is symbolic of the Risen Lord. Moore describes the phenomenon in the 19th century as follows:

A very popular Creole pastime was the flying of kites. Easter Monday, a public holiday, was the great kite-flying day on the sea wall in Georgetown and on open lands in villages. Young and old alike, male and female, appeared to be seized by kite-flying mania. Easter 1885 serves as a good example. “The appearance of the sky all over Georgetown, but especially towards the Sea Wall, was very striking, the air being thick with kites of all shapes and sizes, covered with gaily coloured paper, all riding bravely on the strong wind"

(His quotation is from a letter to The Creole newspaper of December 29, 1858). 

It’s tradition. As a small boy the two weeks leading up to Easter were full of plans and excitement. When school closed the Friday before Easter week it was full speed ahead. What kind of kite. Of course it had to be a singing engine.  (The engine was the bumped up part on the top with a brown paper flap inside that sung in the breeze) How big. Not too big as it would pull too much, but big enough that you could “dip” it easily. One year brown paper kites were the craze, but mostly because The President had banned the import of the fancy “Barbados” coloured paper. So we made flaps from exercise book paper and frills from the outside of toilet rolls. I got into trouble for unwrapping all the toilet paper in the pantry. Then there were the legends of the razor blade kites. You could tie a razor blade to the tail of the kite and dip it to cut the string of the other kites. I got into trouble for “borrowing” my father’s razor blades. There were also “box” kites but we looked down on those. No tail and no engine, but they could go up high. Of course if you were very young and poor you had to settle for a pointer and exercise book kite. The pointers are the spines of the coconut leaf. You also needed to borrow a spool of your mother’s sewing thread. This could be negotiated as to which was a bad colour and you could promise to bring it back when you “have had ya fill of flying kite”

This year we were in Georgetown for Easter. Regent Street still had plenty handmade kites.There were plenty of cheap plastic Chinese kites but only the small boys and girls were buying those 

My grandson and I went searching for the right one. 

I knew he would want a blue one.

We picked out the colour for the flaps,

but they did not have any frills for the outside tips.

  We got the tail ready-made cut from a roll.

So we did not have to cut up strips of cloth and push them through a rope to make the tail.

You always want a long one as you can always shorten a heavy tail, but harder to tie on extra cloth to one that is 

too light. Then you need your “balla”. This is what holds 

the string and has to be big enough to hold onto or your 

kite will get away.

We bought our kite on Good Friday as Georgetown is quiet on this holiday. By Saturday we started to see a few kites going up. Children find it hard to wait. There were a few more on Sunday. But the real day is Easter Monday which is a holiday in Guyana.

Whether you are Christian, Hindu, Muslim or whatever…you fly kites. You head to the seawall and the breeze just lifts the kites effortlessly. These days there are Bands blasting music and plenty food and drink selling all the way heading up the coast out of town.

My grandson and I went out by the mouth of the river on 

the old Groye. I showed him how to send messages up to 

the kite. You take a scrap of paper and put a slit and hook it onto the string. It zooms up to the kite when the breeze catches it.

We sent up quite a few with messages written on them. Of course the kite got away,but it fell in the river and we were able to get it back, wet but not torn.

It would fly another day.

 

It is a tradition that started as a Christian reminder of Jesus rising from the dead on the third day. It is so wonderful to see how everybody just celebrates. What a wonderful tradition.