Well its still hot in Guyana! And have I mentioned how humid it is? Today the temp was about 100 with 100% humidity. Ick!
Here is another quick update from my trip:
Tuesday 8/12- visited 4 mosques and the place where the Queenstown mosque use to be (learned when I arrived that they had torn it down to build another one). Also visited a Hindu temple and we was there when they had the noon ceremony – the unveiling of the god Krishna. At night went out for a nice dinner at the Le Meridien Pegasus Hotel.
Wednesday 8/13- visited Austins bookstore (purchased a bunch of very fun books like ‘The First West Indies Cricket Tour’- to the USA and Canada, a Harry Potter book- I try to get copies from different countries, ‘Whats Cooking in Guyana’ – for Michelle, etc). Then we visited the Zoo. They had some interesting animals, but the animals did not have that much space to move around, so it was too sad. Then we visited two mosques. The internet and cable has been off and on the last few days driving me crazy and limiting my grading for the classes I am teaching. We also got to go up on the roof of the hotel. A few of the workers let us go up (where guest are not allowed) and the 6th floor has a great view of the river and the mosque down the street.
Thursday 8/14-up at 6am to be ready to leave at 8am so that we could go to Berbice and catch the boat to cross the river. It was a long day and even hotter in Berbice! We went to New Amsterdam (the city) to visit the mosque. I was able to go inside the mosque and I was even able to go up into the minaret! From the minaret one has an incredible view of the dome and the street. It really was an honor to be able to go up and probably one of the highlights of my trip. After that we stopped at a few other mosques and a Hindu temple on the way back to Georgetown. Then we stopped for supper at Leela’s house. Her mom cooked for us. They are such a great family. Then we stopped at our taxi drivers house and his wife cooked for us. Another very nice family. A long day with a lot of fun, friends and food!