The land of many waters. A nation rich in many cultures, situated within South America. Smack bang in between Venezuela, Suriname and Brasil. Beautiful, beautiful Guyana. I have proudly represented my Guyanese heritage throughout my life. But unfortunately had never been able to tell the tale of my experience in the country until now.
I know you’ve seen me say South America, but time for mini lessons: 1 – Guyana is proudly a Caribbean country. It is the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) headquarters. 2 – Guyana is the only English-speaking country in South America.
Prayers Answered x10
I had always begged, pleaded and prayed all my life to get the opportunity to travel to Guyana with my great grandma. My prayers were finally answered this year. I finally had the opportunity to travel with my grandma and my great grandma, as she reached her 94th year. This was likely going to be my great grandmas last trip back home and I really couldn’t miss it. With my grandma in the mix, this added an extra layer of magic.
This was an experience of a lifetime. 3 generations holidaying together. Plus, my grandma hadn’t been back home since before I was born. To me, that was so shocking, I couldn’t imagine how or why she had left it so long. But I guess with a massive family in the UK I can marginally understand why.
I am grateful to God that I got the chance to: One, have both generations in my life but to also be able to travel with them. It was so lovely being able to see the joy and hear the tales of the land where my grandmothers were born. I got to see them with family I had never met before. To hear the surprise of how things had changed over the years and nostalgia. To visit an old childhood home and see where my grandma had experienced her near tragic accidents as a child.
The Confusion & New Priviledge
There had always been a bit of confusion on how we’d make Guyana work as a wheelchair user. This was due to transportation and accommodation. For years, I had searched around for wheelchair accessible taxis to fit my ordinary non-folding chair. Unfortunately, I was never able to find one.
I now have the privilege of having a folding electric wheelchair that can fit in all cars. It didn’t cross my mind at the time to ask whilst in Georgetown (GT). However, upon leaving Guyana, I asked a taxi driver I had used if they knew of any wheelchair accessible taxis. They asked around and came back to me with Unique Cabs. I unfortunately haven’t been able to fact-check that myself.
Being in Guyana, I was able to see that there was some access built in. With ramps on roads and accessible bathroom stalls. What always baffled me though, was the fact that the accessible stalls were always too small for my wheelchair. I had to leave it just outside and walk into the stall. This wasn’t the best when I was still flared from the flight.
The Guyana Agenda
Guyana was a short trip before I travelled elsewhere, but we tried to fit in as much as we could without it impacting our physical health. I booked accommodation in a pretty central area; what I wasn’t expecting was that it is built for giants. I couldn’t reach anything in my chair and could just about reach them standing at the grand height of 5ft nothing. The owner did tell me that there was a small step and he believed my chair should be able to go up it… that was not the case so having a ramp would have been super helpful.
Our 1st morning, we were sore and swore to not leave the house until we were well rested. That was a short-lived declaration after my aunt called to see if we were awake and wanted to go jewellery hunting. When I was 16, my great grandma gave me her gorgeous Guyanese gold ring that I had been eyeing on her finger all throughout my childhood. Devastatingly in 2022, after a dinner at Buster Mantis in London, I lost my favourite ring. So, I wanted to see if I could get it remade. We went to a couple malls to check this out, unfortunately it wasn’t a price I was prepared to pay just yet but one day.
New Experiences
It was nice being in Guyana, with my family roaming the streets. Only my grandma has experience of me being out on the roads, especially abroad. So they were always telling me to watch out with cars ect. I always find it very amusing, rolling to me comes just as naturally as walking does for someone mobile.
To visit my grandma’s childhood home, we had to cross Guyana’s largest floating bridge – a 6,074-foot long floating toll bridge called the Demerara Harbour Bridge. It was such a cool and unusual experience. I had never been on a bridge that has hills and slopes and spans such a great distance.
Sick In Guyana
Right after this trip, sickness hit me. I had already maxed out all my antihistamines and was finding it hard to breathe but the next day I was worse for wear. I couldn’t leave the house I was so ill/ had very bad hayfever. I was supposed to do my souvenir shop but I couldn’t manage. It was my last full day and my family had organised a dinner at a Grand Costal Hotel so I decided to rest until then. It was about an hour away due to heavy traffic and during every second of it I had wished I had stayed at the apartment until I got a taste of the incredible food.
Food Glorious Food
One of my favourite things about Guyana, as to be expected, was the food and fresh coconuts! I have always loved the Guyanese dishes I had been introduced to in England. Bar Pepperpot… Not my thing. I was so happy to eat Guyanese food on the soil but so sad that I didn’t get to explore more of it’s culinary offers.
Every chance I got, I was eating an egg ball lol, I need to learn to make those and cassava chips with a mango sour. I had a delicious duck curry but I can’t lie Trinidad is beating GT with all the additions of channa, pumpkin talkari and mango chutney. I also tried chicken foot for the first time in chicken foot soup – soup delicious, foot never again lol.
Do you wanna know my favourite dish? It was my great-grandad’s niece’s metemgee with some fried fish. It didn’t look pretty but Oh My Golly Gosh. It was spectacular. I took some leftovers home and had it for breakfast until the day I left. Another dish I need to learn how to make. I have always asked family members to teach me to how to make different dishes but they all say yes but never give me a date… sad times.
I only know how to make a cookup, saltfish (been years lol and to be fair I more so do it the Jamaican way), Roti and I used to know how to make float bakes but it doesn’t always work out. IF there was one meal I had to eat for the rest of my life it’d be Guyanese bakes and saltfish.
Carnival in Guyana
A key feature of travelling to Guyana was that I also got to experience Mashramani with my friends and grandma. Mashramani (aka Mash) is an annual festival that commemorates the declaration of Guyana becoming a republic in 1970. It is a day full of celebrations, parades akin to Carnival. Streets pack out with people, loud Soca music blasting from trucks and much more. It is a time to celebrate the unity and rich heritage of all Guyanese people.
Days before Mash, my cousin informed me that we were staying in the perfect location for the parade, as it passed the top of our road. But what we were not warned about was the fact that we’d be awoken multiple times by blaring sounds all before 5am.
Being shocked out of my sleep in a foreign space was a scary experience. For some reason, my first thought was that I was kidnapped and about to see my last day on earth. I blame the delusion on the fact that I was barely conscious haha. It was giving a Criminal Minds scene with the music lol.
At around 1pm, we rushed out of the house thinking that we had missed the floats passing. It turns out we were right on time and saw the 1st one passing… but we didn’t find out this piece of information for 2 hours when we were already sitting in the National Park waiting for the rest of the bands to meet judging point. Realising how early we were, and that nothing was happening, we got ourselves back on the road to watch the bands along the parade.
Best or Worst Decision?
Walking against a crowd is a nightmare. As soon as they saw me, they did nothing but stare. Ignoring our polite requests for them to make some space. When they did move it was the tiniest of movement, barely even noticeable. It was like they wanted to feel the heaviness of my wheels across their delicate toes. I can acknowledge during parades it can be hard to move but it seemed like their lack of movement was purely out of not wanting to lose their spots.
As a wheelchair user travelling the Caribbean, I often feel like I stick out quite a bit. People act like they’ve never seen a wheelchair user in their lives everywhere in the world but there is something particularly different in the Caribbean countries I have been to. Maybe it is because we speak the same language but the comments are always so unnecessary – questions as to why I am in a chair, prayers or both when I’m just trying to go about my day and enjoy. But what got me in Guyana were the stares during Mashramani. But hopefully with more visibility of disabled people these stares will one day reduce. I’ll let you know the next time ha.
Go Back to Ya Roots
When I created this blog, I intended to help electric wheelchair users who don’t have the same privileges as manual wheelchair users or transportation privileges as folding wheelchair users. I need to remember my roots!
As this was a short family trip I didn’t get a taste of Guyana’s large queer community but trust and believe I will be back babyyyy!
