Easter

Easter has been fun: Thursday evening we had our neighbours over for a drink after a busy morning doing Parliament and the CJ Centre and City Hall and working in the afternoon. Good Friday we took a long early morning walk in the cool, read and did chores like the washing (hand washing I might add) and had a friend over for supper. Saturday, Mick went to cricket and I, unsuccessfully, tried to finish my work project and Sunday we went to the home of a Guyanese family. Mr Jacobs is a driver for the Ministry of Health and his wife Tracey agreed to show me how to make a proper Guyanese curry, Roti, Philouri with sour and Dahl Puri. Seemed a tall order to me but we managed it all. I just hope that I can remember how to do it all when I get back to Canada and that I can find the same ingredients.

Roti is like a flat bread/tortilla made of flour and cooked on a flat griddle. You can eat it as an accompaniment like bread or as a casing for vegetables, potatoes or salt fish – bit like a pita or sandwich. The trick is in the winding of the small balls of dough around your fingers into little cones and once flattened and cooked then clapping the roti to keep it soft.

You do this when it is hot straight off the griddle. A bit tricky for wimpy me but I did it and quite well I might add – under supervision of Tracey of course. I felt quite proud of myself.

Here you see Philouri which we made from the Dahl Puri - a ground split pea paste - and dropped into hot oil to puff up.

The sour is a sauce which you eat with it, made from green mangoes. Again I didn’t think I could do this but under instruction managed to get a few right although mine tended to be a bit big and they had tails on them ( as you can see). I couldn’t get the knack of squeezing the paste through my thumb and index finger quite clean enough. However I did manage it and they tasted pretty good too.

Easter Monday is kite flying in Guyana. For the weeks leading up to Easter you begin to see kites on sale and kids practising along the streets. Today several roads were closed to traffic and the National Park and the Sea Wall full of families picnicking and liming (hanging out, chatting and visiting).

Dad’s were much in evidence teaching little ones how to fly kites and lots of strings and kites are now hanging on the many overhead wires and in the trees. As well cricket is everywhere with kids making their own stumps from rocks and bits of wood and trying their best to emulate the great Malinga ( a Sri Lankan bowler who made history by getting 4 batters out one after the other and who has a most unusual bowling style). It was very hot though so we had to come back home for the afternoon and went out again in the cool of the evening.