Christmas Season

Christmas Concert

I went on Sunday with Mrs Boodie and Gavin to see the Rotary Club Demerara Christmas Concert at the Marion Academy. Marion Academy is a Catholic school that from my understanding is the Canadian equivalent of Grade 1-12 (Two of Maria’s children go there – and they are 8 and 16). There is one building for the younger children and another building for the older children with a basketball court, the auditorium and offices in between.

The auditorium had a stage decorated with red curtains and trees with Christmas lights. Refreshments and snacks were available. The concert showcased local talent and an amazing saxophone player from Barbados. My favourite singer was Joyce who sang some lovely throaty jazz songs. The saxophone player, Arturo, made his instrument sing – and besides the alto saxophone, he also played soprano sax and flute. The Christmas carols themselves made me smile because I love Christmas carols, but also because I was sitting in auditorium, not sweating, but pleasantly warm, listening to songs like “Baby it’s cold outside” and “Jingle Bells” with lyrics like “dashing through the snow…”.

Gavin and I went to Celena’s afterwards which may be my new favourite restaurant. The food is good and reasonably priced, I guess – but I love it because it is built right on the sea wall. The ocean breeze flows in, cooling the air... They also make a delicious fruit punch!

Shopping on Regent St

There are stores all around Georgetown, but my understanding is that the place to be for shopping is Regent St. I went with two women from work on Tuesday to shop for curtains. They need them for the living room in their house; I was hoping to pick one up for my bathroom so that I have a “door”.

We parked outside one store and then travelled up and down the street looking at various stores. I have never looked at so many curtains in my life! Prices are listed in both wholesale and retail prices. You definitely have to check your prices too – they can be very different. I have become accustomed to prices that I will pay for things and prices that are acceptable to pay. All the curtains that I saw were too fancy for bathroom doors and nobody else saw anything that they absolutely loved. There were a lot of people out on the street and the later it got the more people around. As well as stores, there are vendors on the street selling on behalf of a store or independently.

When we found our way back to the vehicle, I could have cried. There I was, all nicely diagonally parked in front of a store. There at the back of my vehicle was a car, parallel parked and covering half of my rear end. To make matters worse, there was a motorcycle parked on the other half of my vehicle, completely blocking me in. It’s getting 6 o’clock now, the sky is getting darker and the crowds are getting bigger. Thankfully Marcie stayed with me and promised not to leave me until I got free. A man physically lifted the motorcycle out my way and another man helped get me turn around on the sidewalk and reverse through the little space. Whew. Enough shopping for me.

Christmas Carols at Methodist Church

Mrs Boodie invited me to a carol sing at her church. It’s not actually her church, but the Methodist Church community in Guyana came together for a carol sing which her church took part in. We arrived at 5:30pm only to find it wasn’t scheduled to start until 6pm, which means it started around 6:30pm. I felt immediately welcome. I am obviously a new face and they embraced me. The first woman came over and introduced herself, full of life… “Dawn, as in dawn of the morning” Everyone was all smiles and pleased that I had come to their church. What struck me most was that people in my church at home would never go out of their way like that, but proud of my mom because I know she makes the effort and as the newcomer, I know how wonderful that feels.

I was struck by a conversation that Mrs Boodie had with another woman before the celebration about the new church. It is a simple concrete building with windows made out of fancy concrete blocks and painted with burgundy crosses. The front windows of the church are glass. They discussed whether the rain pours in the concrete window vents (it doesn’t) and the width of the glass windows when open – whether someone could climb in or squeeze a child through…

I’ve never been to a Methodist church before, but I felt like I was taking part in what I have heard about a Southern gospel choir. When it started there were about 25 people, but by the end probably about 40 people were present. We filled that concrete church with joyous sound and I could feel it right to my core. Any doubts that I had been feeling about the beginning of the Christmas season were blown away by the sounds of “Once in Royal David City” echoing around me. The Christmas carols were balanced with lessons read from scripture – one lesson for every congregation in Georgetown. The song volume would bring my packed church to shame. I was familiar with all but one of the songs that we sang from the hymnal and learned a few variations (instead of Glooooooooria, in exclesis deo – Cooooooooome and worship, Christ the King). There was a group of young people that formed an impromptu rhythm section and added energy to old carols. One that I’ll always remember is “God Rest ye Merry Gentlemen” and a powerful verse sung just by the men.

To end the service, we lit candles (bring your own, wide variety of shapes and sizes) and sang Joy to the World as we walked outside in front of the church. We sang more songs, standing outside the front of the church with candles. It was a bit breezy which threatened our little lights and less confidence outside, but it was a beautiful idea. Here I learned some new carols with such lyrics as… “Lord Jesus, cum dung on all a we” (translation: Lord Jesus, come done on all of us)… “Mary had a baby and de baby name is Jesus”… A lovely Christian Christmas evening.