There is nothing better than a Guyanese Christmas

Dec 24, 2017 Features / Columnists, My Column

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Another Christmas and another round of enjoyment to the extreme. That is what Christmas does. There was a time when I was totally wrapped up in the season. As a boy, Christmas meant varnish, polish, new blinds that smelled, food galore, and a huge array of homemade beverages.
There was the sound of hammering and furniture dragging, because in some cases the objects were too heavy to lift. Of course the smells from the kitchen were what really made the difference. In no other country will a Guyanese experience these things. Such is the situation that many spend thousands of dollars just to come home to be a part of the season. One of my sisters who lives in New Jersey called me last week. These days with all the smart phones, one can chat with relatives, no matter how far away, and see them in real time. My sister already had up her Christmas tree.
At the time I was preparing garlic pork and I said as much to her. Then she lapsed into nostalgia. She said that where she lives Christmas is boring. I reminded her of the decorations in the streets where she lives, the gaily decorated homes and the music blaring from the stores. She said that those things cannot compare to what happens in Guyana.
Indeed, she said that she can get all the things that one gets in Guyana, but the feeling is never the same. And of course, there is the loneliness. For starters, there is snow on the ground; the place is cold and people simply avoid venturing out in the cold if they do not have to. I would not be surprised if she turns up at my home on Boxing Day.
Two other sisters, one from Ottawa and another from Staten Island are coming. They were last here on Christmas Day two years ago. They always talk about the rum and coke that seems to be unending; they talk about the children running around in the streets. Those are the things they miss. This is the season that takes us back to our childhood days.
I remember the time when the government appealed to parents to avoid buying toy guns for their sons. As a boy I had a cap gun complete with holster. I was a cowboy and we shot at each other. Later, when I became an adult, play became reality. Boys no longer wanted cap guns, they wanted the real thing.
The Desmond Hoyte government recognized the problem. Today, nowhere in the country are stores selling toy guns; at least I don’t think so. A few years ago I did see some toy guns that looked real in the hands of Abdul Kadir. These guns looked so real that the media supported the view that Kadir was a terrorist.
I knew that the guns were fake, because I found the store from which he bought them, but that did not matter to the investigators. What mattered was that the local police descended on the home and conducted frantic searches, but found nothing threatening.
Christmas in Guyana is walking down Regent Street and looking at the stores. At one time, many years ago, the fashion was to walk down Water Street. That was the business centre. Today it is Regent Street. Yesterday, that Street was so full of traffic that I wondered where all those vehicles came from. I saw the visiting Guyanese.
Strange how one can easily spot a visiting Guyanese. There is something about the way they dress and their complexion. But no matter how long they left, they never seem to lose that accent. Of course, the heat gets to them, so you see them mopping their faces ever so often while the regulars just go about, caring not if as some would say, Christmas fall on Good Friday.
The face of Regent Street has changed. There are now large Chinese businesses offering things much cheaper than the local stores. Many do not have the decorations to which we have grown accustomed but after all, it is about money.
I saw red, literally. Everyone seemed to be wearing red at this time, and more than a few have the hats that one associates with the season. The streets were chockfull of them.
For those who say business is bad, I cannot imagine what business they did in the past. Don’t tell me that people are just walking in and out of the stores without making purchases.
The visitors loved the markets for whatever reason. My disappointment was with the foreign fruits on sale. This is mango season, but mangoes are jostled by apples and grapes. In some stores I saw canned foods going fast, as though there are not enough local products.
Suffice it to say that it was good that the government and the Guyana Public Service Union reached an agreement that put additional money into people’s pockets. The money was more than the traditional five percent that a government once offered, because it knew that people would be happy with anything extra.
Finance Minister Winston Jordan told me that the Jagdeo and Ramotar administration never gave any public service a bonus at Christmas time. He said that this has never been the case in the 23 years that the PPP administration was in office.
Minister Jordan told me that the people got the five percent and the soldiers and police got the one month tax-free pay because the government wanted to pacify them. This year, the public servants got so much more, but Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo expressed disappointment that the public servants never got a bonus.
Christmas is about beer and alcohol. No longer are the jamoon wines, the rice wines, and the like as popular as they were in the past. I saw the crowds at the off licence stores and at the Banks outlets. As fate would have it, tomorrow is Christmas Day, so there is scope for binge drinking. The next day is a holiday, so there is time to recuperate. In fact, people had more than the two days. They had Sunday as well, so for some, Christmas actually began one day earlier. Where I live I am being assailed by the smell of black cake. Who ever invented the recipe did something that makes Guyana unique. I cannot bake, so I will have to visit relatives and friends to get my share.
Fish is cheap, because we are going for beef, pork and chicken. Poor me, I am going to have my glut of fish because I love it.
And I must not forget the less fortunate. I know that many people took cheer to them. There are those in hospital, some because of carelessness. On Friday at the intersection of Quamina and Thomas Streets I had the right of way. A car stopped at the intersection, but a young and stupid motorcyclist continued full speed ahead. I missed him by inches. Perhaps the Man above did not want me to have a miserable holiday in some police station. He also did not want the idiot incapacitated. For that I am happy. So here I am wishing everyone the best that the holidays have to offer and hope that we all live to do the same thing all over again next year.

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