Articles tagged with guyana
There was an important lesson for me to take away; if you win, you will find that you have a lot of supporters. If I had been reprimanded by the Minister and ordered to withdraw the letter, then I do not know how many of my supporters would have stood on the same side of the street when they saw me coming. Winners have many fathers and losers none.
Living thoughtfully is living responsibly. Leaving a legacy is not about showing others. It is about justifying to yourself that you returned something for what you consumed during your life. What was that return? Was it a good return on the investment that all those who encountered you, made in you?
That was an important lesson for me to take away; if you win, you will find that you have a lot of supporters. If I had been reprimanded by the Minister and ordered to withdraw the letter, then I don’t know how many of my supporters would have stood on the same side of the street when they saw me coming. Winners have many fathers and losers none.
The language of the Guyanese is called Creolese. It is an English Patois and as distinct with its own flavor as French Patois is from French. Creolese has the taste of Cookup, the sound of the Steel band and the aroma of the rain forest. It is a language of the people and reflects their culture. I used to speak it so fluently that new locals I met wouldn’t believe that I was not a native.
The lessons I learnt in Guyana had also to do with handling conflict and negotiating. Learnt not from case studies or in workshops, but in real life with real consequences. That makes for immensely powerful learning, because your career and in some cases, even your life depends on learning fast, right, and well. There is no alternative to sincerity. When you are saying what you genuinely believe, it convinces more than anything else and takes little effort. As they say, what comes from the heart speaks to the heart and has great power. Reputation is worth its weight in gold. And anyone who sacrifices that for short term gain, is well… let’s just say, far from intelligent.
The language of the Guyanese is called Creolese. It is an English Patois and as distinct with its own flavor as French Patois is from French. Creolese has the taste of Cookup, the sound of the Steel Band. and the aroma of the rain forest. It is a language of the people and reflects their culture. I used to speak it so fluently that new locals I met wouldn’t believe that I was not a native.
I’ve lived in many places and with many people; but the way Guyana and the Guyanese entered and stayed in my life is different from all else. To this day, I remember those days as if I were there just last week. It has now been thirty years since I left Kwakwani, but I can still hear the sound of the tug-boat’s horn as the captain alerted us to say he had seen us on the other bank and was coming over to ferry us across the Berbice. Guyana changed my life. When my family left at the end of one year, I had the option of leaving with them or staying on. I stayed on. For another four years. I applied for a job in a mining town two-hundred miles from Georgetown, called Kwakwani which became my home. I got my first house after my father left. My own house where I lived alone. I got my first car, a bright yellow Land Rover pickup truck that had seen a lot of life. And with me, it saw still more.
Lying in the hammock waiting for sleep to come, I would listen to the sounds of the forest and try to identify each one. The Amazonian rainforest is a rather silent place in the night, unlike Indian forests. The animals are less vocal and the forest itself muffles sound thanks to its density – you don’t hear much except insects. If you are near the river there are not many mosquitos but you do get vampire bats and so you need to cover up unless you wish to be bitten by one of them. That doesn’t turn you into a vampire or anything so romantic, but the wound can bleed for a long time as there is heparin in the bat’s saliva which prevents blood from clotting. In addition, I am sure vampire bites are not exactly what any doctor would order so it is better to stay off their menu.
Two lessons from this incident; the importance of building a good case and the importance of putting it in a way that makes sense to the listener from his perspective. ‘What’s in it for me?’ is a tune that everyone listens to. It’s about speaking the truth but doing it in a way that makes sense to the listener in ways that are important to him.
Negative people look for things to complain about and find them. Positive people look for things to be grateful for and find them. Make your choice I’m sure you’ve heard this before that every day we wake up, we have a choice. We can choose to see the day as positive or negative. And guess […]
I know only one way to live and that is to live passionately. When you live passionately, you are alive, happy and have no stress. You can work hours that leave others exhausted. You don’t need holidays because your whole life is a holiday and you actually get paid to do what you would have […]