We joined a few folks from the embassy yesterday for a guided city tour – it was a lot of fun to get out and see different things around the city and afterwards we had lunch together at a good spot. We stopped along the sea wall to look out over the ocean with the blue, blue sky.
Our first stop was to the city park where we fed the manatees. They are in ponds in the park because they were injured and rehabilitated; apparently there are 13 of them there and they love to eat the grass we fed them! We also stopped at a couple of museums – I was fascinated with a collection of skeletons at the National Museum, including this one:
I enjoyed seeing all of the old British Colonial architecture around town. Many of them have these wedge-shaped shutters with ledges for holding ice back in the day. The porch at the anthropology museum on the second floor was lovely and breezy due to the shutters and openings below the windows, as well.
Here are a few other photos:
Monday night, John and I went to the Amer-Indian Heritage Dinner in honor of the indigenous people of Guyana. We had traditional food and had some entertainment- it was fun!
The rest of the week was normal – walked early in the day around the neighborhood and spotted a few new birds, did some yoga with YouTube, and worked on administrative stuff. We had a kitchen and pool inspection by the embassy (since the house is designated for representational events). I had a good chat with Lea and Rachel S last Sunday, and Cathy Mc called me later in the week to catch up. I finished Kamala’s book “107 Days.”
I should say the week was normal for me — but it is not normal for John or my Foreign Service friends since the federal government shut down! John is working without pay, as is the majority of his American staff. Friends around the world are in various states of working or furloughed (or fired in July). John had to cancel two fun representational events since he can’t do things like that during a shutdown. Here’s hoping things get back to some semblance of normal soon, and federal workers can get paid for the good and important work they do.