Tragedy in Bartica

I've been rather slow in my posting, but this one is long overdue.

Last Sunday evening, there was another shooting in Guyana - this time in Bartica, a mining town on the Essequibo River (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7251141.stm). The town's police station was attacked, killing three police officers and nine other individuals found inbetween the docks and the station.

Being the second attack in a matter of weeks, tensions remain in the country, but I feel like there was less of a march in protest after this latest shooting. I didn't have access to the local cable channels last week so I am thankful that I didn't see any of the images and I made a choice not to read the newspapers. I feel the pain and fear without having the images in my mind.

This attack especially shook me because during the Christmas holidays, my family and I took a side trip to Bartica on our way to Parrot Island. We walked on that dock. We walked on that first street parallel to the river. We walked by the police station and even spoke with a police officer.

One of my supervisors made a comment that I would probably want to end my time in the country sooner because of recent events, but as much as the violence shakes me to my core, I'll stay. It will be harder to leave the people that I have grown to love in this beautiful country with the recent events and I will stay with them as long as I can. And I will come back. I'll have to start reading the newspapers after I leave to keep up to date on events in the country - thankfully I will have had the experience of people explaining the news to me and know how to read inbetween the lines...