Every time I meet a foreigner in place in Guyana, I’m curious about (a) what led them to our country and (b) their impressions after being here a while. Although people will understandably seem hesitant on the second point, I recently met two Jamaicans – Kevin Campbell and Andrew Ebanks – who are working in Guyana as flight instructors at the Air Services Flight School, and I couldn’t wait to talk to them about Guyana. I have spent a fair amount of time in Jamaica and was interested in how a Jamaican would see us. I was in for some surprises.
Both of them referred often to the similarities. Said Andrew: “We were both genuinely surprised at how similar it is. It is a perfect mix of city, Kingston, and country, St Elizabeth, where I’m from. One difference is that in Kingston businesses open until 9-10 at night; even in the country they’re open until 8 or 9 and on Sundays; here at 4, many of them are shut. That happened to us: we’d go to buy something late afternoon, the place shut?”
Kevin agreed: “On the way in from the airport I felt like I was in Jamaica. The only difference was seeing those
