One Big Weekend

The other weekend I was in town at the same time that GuyExpo was going on. This is one event that is talked about all year round as one of the biggest events in Guyana. It is an exposition showcasing all that the country has to offer from local manufactured products, artists, foods (both for commercial production and plenty of snack booths to buy food), rum and beer, electronics, a health fair, native Amerindian tent, children’s games and rides, and more. The mornings are closed to the public for companies to network and place orders (I’m assuming what Costco is like before it opens to the public, where businesses can do their shopping and eat hotdogs without having to listen to screaming children). Then in the afternoon GuyExpo opens for the public with busloads of school children on fieldtrips and anyone else in Georgetown to come and stroll the fairgrounds listening to live broadcasts of local radio stations, and fill their pockets with tons of free handouts from all the booths. Then at night is really just a big party. A stage is set up for local artists to play, the beer and rum flow, plenty of food, adding up to one of Guyana’s biggest “Limes” of the year. It was really nice to be in town for this to see what everyone talks about all year round.

But that’s not all! On that Sunday was the Muslim holiday of Eid-Ul-Adha (which is also a national holiday since Guyana recognizes all Christian/Hindu/Muslim holidays as public holidays; and since each Sunday is already recognized as a national holiday, whenever a holiday falls on a Sunday, Monday is also declared a national holiday). I went and visited my friend on the Essequibo Coast as her host family is Muslim to see what the community does to celebrate; since there aren’t any Muslims (not that I know of) in my community, it’s almost entirely a Christian community.

In the morning we went to the Masjid (Arabic for Mosque I found out) to see them slaughter all their bulls. From what I was told, the holiday commemorates Abraham’s sacrifice of his son Ishmael. Members of the (Muslim) community get together to purchase a bull to sacrifice in honor of this holiday and then share out all the beef to the rest of the community. I asked why they don’t use a ram as in the story and was told that in Guyana it is common to use a bull, one gets more meat for the price of the animal, but other places around the world may use rams or other animals. At this Masjid we saw probably two dozen bulls being slaughtered. It was so impressive to see how quickly all the men worked with the animals. From a live bull to being skinned, quartered, and then cut into smaller pieces took well under a half hour for each animal. When asked if I eat beef, I said of course and the man I was speaking with came back moments later with a bag full of beef for me.

Later we went back to my friend’s house to cook our “steaks” as a late brunch. I have had fresh chicken before, where it was killed, plucked, cut, and cooked immediately, but never beef. All the beef I’ve ever eaten has spent days in refrigerators before I’ve ever consumed it. Never have I eaten beef that came from a living cow/bull less than an hour before eating! Needless to say it was amazing. The pieces we got in our bag were great; we separated the large pieces of beef from the little bit of fat, gristle, and bones, rubbed the meat with different spices we had on hand and put it straight on a tawa (think flat iron) to cook to a nice medium rare. It was really nice to have a steak cooked this way as all the meat I have in Guyana (though absolutely delicious) is finely chopped up with the bones and pressure cooked well above done, before being mixed into various veggie stews or rice. A nice piece of “organic/free-range” beef (and a cold beer) really hit the spot. Though there wasn’t much else to the holiday it was nice to spend the morning at the Masjid as I definitely wouldn’t have had that opportunity to find out what the holiday is about where I live.

But wait, there’s more! Though most people celebrated Yom Kippur the Friday night/Saturday, at the Hebrew Cultural Center in Georgetown, the Israelites celebrated starting Sunday night/Monday to coincide with the exact phase of the moon over Guyana. So since I was in town I was able to visit the HCC on Monday to celebrate Yom Kippur with them. They celebrate in a very similar way as in the states except that most people sleep over starting the night before and stay there until the sun sets the following day, there are no tickets, and there isn’t a fashion show to see who’s wearing what to services. They still fasted and had a similar type service (reading the Torah and various other prayers) although there was no special High Holiday book used with a regimented service; it was more like an expanded Shabbat service with more discussion and sharing. At the concluding announcements they mentioned needing volunteers to help set up for the following holiday “the Festival of Booths” (Sukkot) but alas I would be back in site and not able to return to spend the holiday with them. The big question remains: If I fasted twice (one to coincide with Israel and one with Guyana) do I have to fast next year?