Happy Emancipation Day!!!

Today we have had a day off and so we were all very excited because we could have a bit of a lie in. Unfortunately we all seem to be accustomed to waking up at 6.00 am and so lying in was a little bit challenging! The rain also kept us up, but thankfully, no flooding today.

After a lazy morning of washing, reading and writing our diaries, we had pancakes with the lemons we bought earlier in the week. They were so good- Clare is an absolute expert in the art of making pancakes!!!

At about 1 o' clock Erin came to pick us up and take us to the Emancipation Day celebrations in the National Park in Georgetown. Emancipation Day is a celebration that happens in many former British colonies in observance of the emancipation of African slaves. It was a hive activity and their was so much to look at. We all loved the traditional African dress that many of the visitors were wearing. It
was amazing when whole families matched.

We wondered around the market stalls around the arena before we went in search of somewhere nice to sit in the stands so that we were ready for the parade and performances. We sat for quite some time before anything actually happened but we enjoyed chatting to Erin and another young leader, Saudia,  who came to join us. We also ate some rather interesting Guyanese food, including something wrapped in a banana leaf and some very sweet cake made with cassava.

Finally the show started and we really got into the mood. The music was great and we enjoyed watching all of the traditional dances, There was some rather random majorette dancing too. After the show finished we went back round the stalls and Deborah and Bec bought some really lovely earrings. Half of the group then had a very bizarre encounter with the President of Guyana as he was just casually walking alongside us for a while. We all realised that he was someone important when he got into a very official looking car and drove off with a police escort!

When we got back to 253 Foreshaw Street we sat and chatted to Saudia and Erin in the garden for a while. After they left we all decided that we were very hungry and eating would be a very good plan. Bec and Amelia did pasta in record time- less than 15 minutes- and it was a really tasty meal. Tonight we are going to play cards and get an early night. We have more camp planning tomorrow and we need to go to the market to pick up craft supplies etc.

LOGL

Team Guyana
xxxxxx