Adventures in the West Indies Mission: Christmas in Guyana

The main activity in Guyana is cleaning your house or business and yard in preparation for Christmas. If you have enough money you can remodel and paint. Some people started in October getting ready for Christmas. I have heard that people move all their furniture to one side of the room and cover it with sheets. Then they clean everything. On Christmas they take off the sheets and rearrange the furniture. They like to hang new curtains. They do decorate their houses and many people put up Christmas trees. They prepare pepper pot, meat cooked in cassava syrup, and black cake, a fruit cake with liquor in it. Then of course their favorites, roti, a tortilla type bread only thicker and greasier, cook up rice (rice cooked in coconut milk with vegetables in it), chicken curry, egg balls (a boiled egg with mashed cassava around it and fried), and fried chicken. At the branch Christmas party they served fried rice, macaroni and cheese, and potato salad - heavy on the carbs.

Driving in Georgetown is even crazier than normal. There are so many people in the streets shopping. It is the rainy season now, so many trees, bushes, and plants are blooming. There are so many different colors, red, pink, peach, orange, yellow, white, purple. They are beautiful.

Here are some pictures of the market place in Vreed en Hoop. It was pretty slow going driving through the crowds.

At the branch Christmas parties they have talent shows. The people get excited about it and have a great time.