As I get older, I have come to realize, time and again, that we are often oblivious to things of great value in the culture we inhabit, and I have to admit that I didn’t come to this position on my own. I have been led there by comments along those lines by several persons in my immediate circle, principal among them being my friend Ian McDonald, who has often reminded me, as I gripe about one thing or another, that we (a) we have to keep trying and (b) that we should not forget the many blessings we have before us in the Guyana landscape despite all the detritus. In the group admonishing me is my wife, Annette, with her dedicated commitment to Guyana’s environment, so much so that visiting Grand Cayman for the first time, she immediately launched into how much she missed this wonderful Guyana forest landscape that was so important to her life.
I did have a bit of a jump start on all this in my youth, when I worked for B. G. Airways as a Flight Clerk, operating out of Atkinson Field (now Timehri) and seeing a range of our interior for the first time via the DC-3 aircraft serving the interior. Apart from the obvious Kaieteur and Orinduik vistas I was introduced to, I remember being particularly struck by the astonishing sprawl of our Rupununi Savannah – I would stare through the airplane window at it on the South Savannah trips in awe at what we had there compared to the coastland. Looking back on it afterwards, living in Toronto, it occurred to me that in all those years with the airline, I did not recall anyone speaking about a similar fascination with the area; it could have been there, but it was not a conversation topic I remember. In a way, that same absence is there in the conversations I meet up with today, and Ian’s comment, as I reflect on it, suggests that the awareness I’m referring to is still missing in some way in me; so that, along with almost everyone else, I, too, need reminding.
