Poem

How do you Like our Beautiful Country?

It’s a difficult question without a doubt
It’s taken eleven months to find out
But now I’m leaving, I can reflect
I’m looking back with rose tinted specs
So forget the mosquitoes, rubbish and fuss
And the awful drivers on the minibus

Botanical Gardens with buttressed trees
Toucan calling in the morning breeze
Falcons hunting from the NCN tower
Kingfisher dives by lily flower
Caciques that squawk, humming birds flit
Cayman – just one foot long, I’ll admit!

Blue sky after a day of rain
Sea wall walks – saw a pelican again
Lily leaf offerings set afloat
Demarara view of a docking boat
Shady elegance along Main Street
Pineapple with ice cream today for a treat

Chatting in the yard with our landlady who
Says, “Find a little something you can do
Bring some teachers that you can train
They’ll come for the lunch at NCERD again
Who knows how things will turn out
When you’ve been here some months and found your way about.”

Special school visits by bus, ferry, bike
To listen to needs and find what they’d like
Working in the office, countless mugs of tea
Studying and working to discover how we
Can do training for inclusion, so we will
Banish despair and make hope possible.

My friends in the choir – you gave me a song
To sing in my heart when the hours were long
You let me sit beside you to struggle with the alto
Of ambitious cantatas, the harmony of calypso
You gave me insight into how you cope
With your Guyanese life, with faith and hope.

Soft lights of Diwali and Christmas dining
Meeting the Minister. music and wining
New Year fireworks as people stand
Mashramani parades and costume band
Muslim kasidas, Phagwah paint sprayed
Will it wash out? No, I’m afraid!

Dear VSO friends, if we’re smiling or we’re mad
You’ve put up with my worries, which can’t be bad
You’ve listened to my woes, you’ve cut my hair
You’ve suffered my cooking and the shortage of beer
So I thank all you people, as in God’s hand
I can now find the beauty in this land.