Welcome to Kwakwani Pt. 2

Well, I spent a week in Kwakwani. It was an experience.

The first day, Friday, David came over in the morning and we walked around town for about 3 hours. He showed me all around the school, the hospital, the general stores and the saloons. The saloons was kind of a joke but there are actually a few bars. It is a mining town after all. David told me The Double Deuce, a bar in the middle of town, is the nicest and most frequented one. Apparently the family that owns it is the richest family in town as well. (For the uninitiated, The Double Deuce is the name of the bar in the Patrick Swayze film Roadhouse. Coincidentally or possibly providentially, it is the last movie I watched on American soil. Chismet, much?)

After the walk, it was about 2 in the afternoon. We went to The Sycamore, a bar built next to a Sycamore tree, and had a few Banks beers. The music was Guyanese, ear splittingly loud and drowning out conversation, the sun was hot and the drinks were cold. A perfect South American afternoon.

After that I went home and whiled away the afternoon decorating and cleaning my new house. If I had to describe the décor it would be…Christian. Very Christian. As I was cleaning I realized the row houses where the miners live is fairly close to my house. I could hear the music blasting from their houses invading mine at a mildly intolerable level. Paying it no mind, I thought it would turn off at a reasonable hour and continued setting up my house.

About 10pm, I realized the music wasn’t going off. And by Sunday, I couldn’t hear it anymore.

The rest of the week passed uneventfully. On Monday, David and I went into the schools and hospital. He introduced me around to all the important people I might need to know. David also informed me that his counterpart, at the health center, was not interested in having another volunteer. They were getting two new staff members and there wouldn’t be enough work for me. Really, and I was a little surprised, she was doing me a favor. And it is nice of her, not wanting to waste my time.

After Monday, I just walked around most days trying to get a feel for Kwakwani. It is a very small town. At a quick pace you can walk around the main town area in about 20 minutes. It takes another 20 minutes to walk down to the waterfront where I talked with a few guys about fishing. Apparently there are some big fish in there, if I catch one I’ll let you all know. Kwakwani also has a basketball court which I’m pretty happy about. So beers and basketball are in my immediate future. Kwakwani is a pretty cool place, I think I’m going to like it. Who wouldn’t like a small mining town of less than 1000 people in the middle of the South American jungle?