Sunday 22 April 2007

Feed the Poor Charity Cruise or The Guyanese letting their hair down big time!



Having been on a boat for so long we couldn’t decide whether to go on the day cruise we had booked for charity on Sunday. We weren’t expecting a cruise liner as it showed on the picture, but a little better than the Bartica ferry would have been appreciated.

We did go and arrived at 9am as the boat arrived. It took two hours to unload the lorries, all 8 of them. Moving backwards and forwards to adjust the weight of the ship, they left one at a time over some makeshift planks. We got on at 11am, left at 11-30am and by 11-45am we realised we had made a big mistake!. It was to be 6 hours of boozing, singing, rapping and dirty dancing.

We should have known when the crowds were controlled getting on the boat by policemen with semi automatics. It was the Guyanese enjoying themselves at their best. It was good natured and everyone was well behaved but it got livelier as the drink took hold. The standard measure being sold was a full bottle, whether it was beer or rum!

We went to a place where we could get off, called Fort Island, in the Essequibo River. It was a Dutch fort about 2 hundred years old. Later as we passed through the place where the lorries had been earlier where all the dirty dancing was going on, I felt a woman’s backside writhing against mine. Quite pleasant but when she turned round and saw it was me, she screamed the boat down!!!!