We then walked to the end of Foreshaw Street to catch a bus to the market so that we could get the boat to the West Bank- the district the other side of the Demerara River. Erin invited us to her home so that we could do some more camp planning together. She also offered her Mum to cook us a traditional Guyanese meal. We could not refuse this offer. The bus was so busy that at one point 5 people were sharing 1 bench seat. Miriam had to sit in the front squished in next to the driver and another passenger.
After asking a friendly police man to direct us to the port we finally found it the other side of a very large shed with some interesting market stalls inside. We were helped down the very wobbly steps onto the little boat. After struggling a little to get our life jackets on we were ready to go.
The little boat went fairly fast and it was lovely to be on the water because of the breeze. It was also really interesting to see the port from the water. There were lots of really big fishing and cargo boats. The journey did not take long and soon we were on the West Bank.
We had to walk through another shed market to find Erin. She was not there when we arrived so we had a little look around and reapplied our sun cream. There were all sorts of things being sold, including lovely smelling street food, brightly coloured clothes and pesticides in rather dubious looking containers.
Soon Erin arrived and she took Miriam, Jess and Clare in her car back to her house. Deborah, Amelia and Bec got what they thought was a taxi but turned out to be a share car- they only realised this when other people started piling into the car on their journey. Erin's house is really lovely and bright yellow! We all found this quite exciting, much to Erin's confusion. She introduced us to her family, who are all so friendly and so much like Erin. We ate plantain chips, cassava chips and mango sour and polari whilst we sat and planned some of the camp activities a little bit more. Erin is really good at crafty things and so had some really good ideas. We also drank iced tea, which was very refreshing.
After the serious business of planning Erin suggested that we watched a film. We all though this was a great idea and so we sat on her big comfy sofas and watched Monsters University. It was very funny! Soon our lunch was ready. Erin's Mum and sisters had made us fried chicken with plantain and cook up (a rice dish with black eyed beans, spices and coconut milk). It was lovely meal and we felt thoroughly stuffed after it. 
Erin then showed us around her "small" chicken farm, which we all think is actually quite large. Deborah also made friends with a very cute 10 week old puppy. The West bank is very different from Georgetown because it is more rural. It was lovely to see sugar cane fields and rice fields stretching out into the distance and coconut trees everywhere.
Soon it was time for us to go and we caught a bus back to the Georgetown market. This took us over the Harbour Bridge which was very cool because it is actually just a series of pontoons lashed together.
Now we are back at 253 Foreshaw and we are sat in the garden reading and enjoying some matai- an Indian delicacy that tastes like doughnuts but has the texture of a breadstick. We have had a very cultural day!
We are having omelettes for tea because we have all eaten so much today that something light and quick is needed by all.
LOGL
Team Guyana
xxxxxx
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