Pomeroon Chip: Windsor Castle

Place names in Guyana. Palimpsests acting as a continual reminder of a colonial past but often in stark contrast to a landscape that insists on asserting its own identity. Time to creolise another nursery rhyme? 'Windsor castle ah fall dun, ah fall dun, ah fall dun, Windsor Castle ah fall dun, my fair lady.' No. Stop it. The Queen will not be amused.

Pomeroon Chip: 'Saaf' London

I find reminders of 'Saaf' London in the strangest of places. The back of this man's t-shirt reads Catford, Sidcup, Croydon, Charlton and Sutton. It's the closest I'm ever going to get to Thamesmead while in Guyana. No one, but no one, would be mad enough to wear a T-shirt proclaiming 'Thamesmead'. [i.e., The remote London suburb in which a Clockwork Orange was filmed. Need I say more? Lol]

Pomeroon Chip: Rain

7.17am. It's raining. I love that sound; the piti, piti, piti on the zinc roof. And the way the wind's lashing tongue forces a change of tune. Piti, pit, pit, pat, tup, tup, and then crashing downpour. Flang, a loose sheet of zinc lifts and falls. Leaves tumble in the air like acrobats with no sense of direction. A flock of scarlet ibis, fly against the palette of green in a rush for shelter. The river, rushes too. Downstream to the Atlantic. A Kiskadee sings 'look at me, look at me' and with a flash of its glorious yellow darts off into another tree. This is the Guyana I love.

Pomeroon Chip: The Trespassing Medusa

Medusa continued to trespass on school grounds despite being expelled by the Headmaster, Prof. Hugh Mann, for the most repugnant habit of biting fellow students.

Pomeroon Chip: The Ferry 'fore day marrin.

5.15am Parika (aboard the ferry to Supernaam). Caught in the moments between night and dayclean, the moon shines through a break in the clouds like an eye in the negative. The Essequibo river in gentle waves catches the light of the ferry; looks the colour of tea, well-steeped, with a dash of carnation milk. The horizon, a thin strip of ever lightening black, swords through the palette of purple and blue above, and tan below. A resting flock of white egrets appear from a distance to be a tree in full blossom. The cool air tickles; is a gentle interlude, a buffer betwixt the burning heat that will dominate the day.

Pomeroon Chip: Quinch

A Quinch...desiccated coconut filling (dyed red) in a cassava bread casing. The lady I bought this dessert from proudly announced they were made in Victoria Village: the history of which astonishes me. Just one year after full emancipation in 1838 eighty-three freed Africans managed to pool together 30,000 guilders. This money was used to purchase a plantation called Northbrook and evolved into a village that was later renamed Victoria (connoting their victory but also a reference to Queen Victoria under whose reign they had been freed). This village (the first of many villages to be set up by freed Africans) became one of the leading exporters of coconut and cassava produce.

Pomeroon Chip: Mr Piranha

Ah so you know that river I told you about? The one I go bathing in? Yar well say hello to Mr Piranha. A guest caught him in under 5 minutes of fishing. Note to self: stick to rainwater showers.