Descriptive Essay On Guyana

In the summer of 2010, I went to my country of origin, Guyana, for the very first time. I have heard many stories about Guyana and what it is like from my family, so I was very excited to finally have the opportunity to experience it for myself.

Brought up in a very modern, first world society, I have adapted to its ways of life. Knowing that Guyana is a third world country, I went there with a very open mind, knowing that I will see and experience things that are very uncommon to my “normal” everyday environment.

As soon as I walked out of the plane, I was welcomed by a smell. A very warm, exotic and natural scent that I still remember to this day. This scent lingered in most of the areas I’ve been to, but in many other places, I was welcomed by a very unpleasant smell of cow manure and rum breweries, which was very prevalent in Guyana.

The most noticeably different thing between Canada and Guyana that impacted me the most was the amount of natural scenery.

Almost everywhere you turn there are palm trees or shrubs or bodies of water seemingly untouched by human hands. It was very overwhelming at first, but then I grew to appreciate such natural beauty. The fresh air circulated everywhere so you hardly ever felt the congestion that we are unconsciously used to here, which was so refreshing. The infrastructure in Guyana is also extremely different than that of Canada. There are no such things as skyscrapers and glass buildings there. All their buildings and housing are very vintage looking, majority made of wood. The houses were also painted in very bright and colorful with colors, your eyes would just naturally get caught staring at the uniqueness of every house. At times, such color seemed to get tacky and annoying but at other times, it leaves you marveling at such diversity of each house as no two look the

same.

I thought the food in Guyana wouldn’t have been a problem for me, as I am used to eating Guyanese cuisine at my home, until my grandfather started offering me things like cow brains and iguana (which they call guana) which was very normal to them. I was immediately very repulsed but with an open-mind I gave it a try, and it turned out to be extremely delicious.

The language spoken in Guyana is mostly English, with a few people speaking Spanish. Their English there could be compared with influences of Patois and Creole – simply just a broken English. Since I am accustomed (or so I thought), to this language at home, I wouldn’t find it a problem, which I was wrong. Even though I understood most of what was being said, I was still baffled by the rawness of the actual Guyanese language. There where words that I’ve never heard before to describe such common things, that I had to keep asking my parents what they mean. For example, in Guyana, the starfruit is called five-finger, a possum is called a manicou etc.

The water was an issue though because the majority of the time the pipe gave out rusty water which my body wasn’t used to, but everyone who lived in Guyana was accustomed to it and didn’t get harmed drinking it which I found extremely remarkable. When you wanted to take a shower, the water was connected to a huge barrel outside of the house that collected rainwater, so that water is the water you would take a shower with. If you are lucky, the water would come out a bit warm due to being heated by the sunlight, but ninety-percent of the time the water would be very cold which was something that I had to get used to. Later through my duration of the stay, I started to appreciate the cold water as it would serve very refreshing after a hot day.

The hospitality in Guyana is something that I would never forget. I was walking down the bustling market with my grandmother, and random strangers whom I have never met before greeted me with a “hello” or “good morning” which I was truly amazed by. Normally in Canada, you could be walking down the street and the most you would get out of a stranger is a smile, but in Guyana, everyone seems so genuinely interested in each other and makes you feel welcome no matter who you are.

In conclusion, my trip to Guyana was a very eye opening experience. I’ve learned many things which in turn opened up my mind and made me aware of the complexity and the diversity of the world. In fact, my trip to Guyana has sparked something within me and inspired me to travel to every corner of the world and enjoy everything it has to offer.