A very Hopeful country...

As Scott notified you all in our last posting, the national elections for a new president were held last week. It was a tense time, as there has been violence in the past during election time. Elections were held on Monday, but the announcement of the final results was delayed until Friday. All week people were warning us to be careful and to stay indoors as much as possible, but we didn't notice anything major. When it was finally announced that the same political party that has been in office for the last ten years had won, there were some peaceful protests, mostly in the capitol, but everything now is pretty much back to normal.

As the title of this posting suggests, many people here are very hopeful that a new president will bring about positive changes for the country. We find that a lot of people here tend to have a very hopeful attitude in general, as is reflected in some of the town names in the nearby area. First of all there is Hope, Hopetown, Hopewell, Good Hope, Mary's Hope, Present Hope, Pleasing Hope and, not to be outdone by the others...Better Hope. Some of the other settlement names that don't include the word hope, but still reflect a very positive view are  Land of Plenty, New Found Out, Overwinning, Good Intent, Free and Easy, Now or Never,  Success, Good Success, Better Success, and again outdoing the others this town settled for the name The Best. Personally, I think the most fitting name for this country is a nearby village named Heatburn, but that's just my personal opinion.

Some of you may be aware that Guyana was under British rule until the 1960's when the local people gained independence. You can still see evidence of the British presence here, since many of the homes are British style architecture that was left behind. Here are a few examples...

Most aspire to live in the new concrete homes that are being built. Some of them are quite beautiful as you can see..

Others (like us) live in simple small flat concrete houses...

Or modest wooden structures like these....

  







Some still live a in the simplest of wooden houses....

Some who live in these simple wooden houses live with no electricity and/or no running water. Many cook outside or underneath the house (for those on stilts) on a stove like this...





This stove is made from a mixture of clay and cow dung. That's right-cow poo to cook your food on! Actually I've tried some of the food cooked this way and some of it is pretty good.




The funny thing is, you would think the nice new houses would be together in the same neighborhoods, but usually you see a nice new concrete house in amongst the smallest of shacks or vice versa, since most people here got their tracts of land divided out to them or their families when Independence was gained. Most people don't sell their property, they just build new or add on to existing buildings and stay put, no matter what their neighbors do.

 I hope this posting has given you some idea of what we see in the area on a day to day basis as we go out into these hopeful villages to share what we think is....well...a "Better Hope" for the Deaf!