Life in Guyana is challenging, interesting, frustrating and hard

Feb 10, 2024 Letters

---

Dear Editor,

Kaieteur News – I moved to America when I was a teenager many, many years ago. If I was still a teenager today, I would go to America. I wouldn’t want to live in Guyana despite it’s the fastest growing economy in the world.

If I was a teenager living in this country and scrabbling to secure food and other basic necessities, I would by any means necessary get out of this country.

If it cost me my life to get to America, I would migrate. If it means taking the journey through the daunting and dangerous Darien Gap.

The trek across the Darien Gap, a stretch of remote, roadless, mountainous rainforest connecting South and Central America, is one of the most popular and perilous walks on earth. Going through the Darien Gap, migrants encounter masked robbers and rapists. Exhaustion, snakebites, broken ankles. Murder and hunger).

To get to America, I would have to get through Central America and Mexico and cross the Rio Grande the river that separates Mexico and America that dangerous river that many migrants drowned in, I would still migrate.

If I was a teenager today, the way I would look at my life in Guyana is if I stay in Guyana, I’m dying a slow death. Migrating is a fifty fifty chance of a better life/dying. If I don’t die on my way to America and If I make it to America, I would have more opportunities.

I can remain in Guyana and die or I can die trying to get to America to a better life. Simply put, I can get busy trying to get to America or get busy dying in Guyana.

Why would I risk it all to get to America.

Currently I’m living in Guyana, and it’s definitely a developing country. The infrastructure is broken, and corruption is the daily bread and butter.

Why did I move here? Because I could, because I wanted to, because it’s where I was born, because (despite all its warts) it’s a stunningly beautiful country with amazingly warm and welcoming people.

How is life here? Challenging, frustrating, interesting, and hard. Sometimes it’s annoying too. But then there’s the good things. You’re family… to everyone (unless they are a government employee or a police, then you’re just a source of bribe money).

Dealing with places like the police stations, Banks, GRA, GWI and GPL is frustrating on a level you cannot imagine. They regularly lose your paperwork, demand silly things, play games with you and generally do anything they can to delay and obstruct theprocess.

This is a Guyana thing…. I never encountered this stupidity in America.

Day to day life though… it’s generally the same. You sleep, you wake up, you go to your job, you go shopping in a shopping mall, you go home and watch TV with your family and eat dinner. The routine is very… similar.

Challenges? Broken infrastructure. You can’t depend on the police or the courts for justice. He who passed “something” wins. Money decides who gets treated fairly and justly in Guyana. This is how justice goes in Guyana.

The electrical grid is stressed beyond breaking and I have to deal with rolling blackouts every month. Internet is either slow or expensive… both actually.

People don’t give two hoots about their jobs. It’s slap slap bodge bodge, PAY ME. The building and road contractors are the worst.

The result is new-built houses that are falling down before the paint is dry… roads that are potholling before they finish paving to the end of the street.

The drivers are the worst in the world. Speeding and reckless driving is encouraged by minimum fines. The political leaders think they are the brightest and smartest people in the world. They are lacking empathy and sympathy for ordinary people.

Sounds all negative right? Well it’s not. The food here is freaking amazing. Fresh fruits and vegetables but not cheap but the taste is amazing. Meat is excellent too. The locals are all incredible people too. They treat you like family. You’ve got a problem with something? There’s six people helping out and not expecting anything in return.

It’s been the toughest, most challenging and frustrating thing I’ve done to move to a developing country, but I love every minute of it and don’t regret a single bit of it.

Despite the risk of trying to get to America, braving unforgiving terrain, extortion and violence, to get closer to a better life and more opportunities, I would be willing to risk it all.

I would have one goal: to make it to America. I would keep trying to get to America, no matter how much harder that dream becomes to realize.

Name withheld

---

• Darien Gap, Letters, Life in Guyana, migrate

---