Our adventure begins and we are still in Georgetown. Elizabeth arrived back in Guyana on the 21st and we had our farewell and said goodbye to all of our Peace Corps friends with a crazy night of 80s music and dancing. Now we are Left behind in Georgetown to take care of our last errands before we set out on Sunday the 26th. Before we can leave Guyana we need to send home all our stuff that won’t fit in our bags so first off to the post office.
Oh the post office… After packing my bags I realized I had a lot more stuff than I had anticipated and had to find a HUGE box to send it all home. I have heard about the Georgetown Post office but have only had one experience that was quite pleasant so I figured everyone else was just in a bad mood when they went. I was wrong… it really is that bad! Elizabeth and I arrived at 8:00am shortly after they opened and the place seemed to be abandoned. I thought this will be a breeze there is no line. We walked up to the counter me with my monster box and Elizabeth with her reasonably sized box. The Post Mistress working there might have been the meanest person I have ever encountered. First she yells,
“You can’t send that box it is way too big! We don’t have bags big enough for a box like that”
I stay calm “ok well how big can the box be”
“I don’t know half that size… Do you even have proof of address?”
“Yes I do”
“Well let me see it then”
“Will that work?” She hands it back to me
“Yes its fine I just wanted to see if you actually had it… what about her,” points to Elizabeth
“I will be sending the package for her… fine” She hands us some forms to fill out
“Move! You can’t full it up here go stand behind that white line…GO!” We move behind the white line which is about two feet away. After we’re done filling out Elizabeth’s form we go back to the window
“WHAT ARE YOU STILL DOING HERE? YOU HAVEN’T FOUND A BOX AS YET!”
“No I thought I had to send the package for her”
“Why did you fill out this part you can’t forward a package you have so say ‘return to sender’… cross it out!... The man isn’t here yet you have to do it all at once… go get a box!” We do as we are told and go to the grocery store next door. The people there are very nice and I find three small boxes that my stuff should fit in just fine, all except a very large Cassava sifter. We go back to the post office and proceed to unpack my box and repack it into the three small boxes. Now we need more forms because we have three boxes.
“Why does she have THREE boxes, we don’t have enough forms for that!” but she still gives us the forms.
As I am unpacking and repacking my boxes a nice man sees that I am upset that my Cassava sifter won’t fit in any of my boxes and comes to help. He has a knife and cuts my big box down and constructs a new box just the right size for my cassava sifter and tapes it all together. This is great except now I need more forms. Now the lady is yelling at the man who is helping me to hurry and she doesn’t have time to wait for him. Keep in mind that the post office is empty except for about 5 other people. He goes up to the window and I finish with taping my boxes up.
And back to the window with the mean lady. Elizabeth has been saving my spot in line and when I get up there the lady says “Who is sending these packages?
“I am”
“Well then YOU need to stand in front of the window not her.” Elizabeth and I switch spots in line
“There is no return address on this box!”
“Ok where on the box would you like it?”
“Anywhere just write it…. We don’t have time for you to write all those addresses… NEXT!”
“Wait it will just take a second…”
“NEXT PERSON! You’re in the way move from there” I quickly put the return addresses on all the boxes and again up to the window
“Open the box!” I open the boxes one by one and pass them through the window. There are two more people behind the window now and one of them sees I have five boxes
“Who is sending all these boxes!”
“I am I’ve been living here for two years and have to send it all home because I’m going to be traveling”
Now as they unpack Elizabeth’s box they see her Peace Corps Certificate of Completion. They pass it around the office for everyone to see. From this point they get slightly nicer… but only slightly. Now I have to go around in the back to where they are unpacking my boxes one by one. This takes a long time because they go through everything. They cut holes in my box, rip my cards open; they even cut a hole in a wooden bird to make sure it wasn’t made out of cocaine. After all that I paid my money and finally two hours later got to leave.
(Elizabeth)
Later that day we received a phone call that our bus ride down to Lethem has been canceled. The rain has been so bad that the roads are now washed out and they don’t know when the buses will be up and running again. (Lethem is that town that you cross the broader to get into Brazil.) All right we say to ourselves small bump in the road no problem we’ll fly. I call the airlines to book a reservation for us. “Sorry no flights till next Sunday” they tell me. Hmmm what to do now?… well it looks like we might be stuck here for a while so we might as well enjoy ourselves.
We head off to a friend’s house for some cosmos and soon the day turns into night and we find ourselves at a Drag Queen beauty pageant. The place is packed and the crowd there is very passionate about their favorite competitors and who they think should win. Lots of screaming, heckling, and cheering from the crowd. I decided to call it a night after a two hour intermission and the crowd is getting restless. Music is blaring and girls literally are climbing on the window grates hanging off and shaking their booties enjoying the music. Definitely a sight I’ve never seen before. Soph stays till the end of the competition, were she witnessed some amazing and dramatic talent pieces, and some splendid dress ware, and an almost riot because the right girl didn’t win.
Yes all of that happened in one day.
The next morning we were driving back from lunch heading to turn in our bus tickets and get a refund. When we passed, Meta a Brazilian airline, Sophie grabs the number I make the call. “Yes we have flights to Brazil leaving as soon as Wednesday and yes there is space,” they tell me. Wohoo we yell to celebrate looks like we won’t be stuck here after all! That’s the randomness of lives right now and I think we’re kinda loving it.
