Out to Lethem

After settling in to our site for one month, beginning to feel comfortable, we had to leave Aishalton for a few days. As Peace Corps Volunteers, we receive our monthly stipend deposited into a bank account. So, we travel 5-6 hours to Lethem, where there is a bank. After being on standby (bags packed, waiting for a ride) for about 3 days, we finally found a ride to Lethem with the Jesuits. We rode in style in the cab of a 4x4 truck, arriving just before sunset so we could contact one of our friends to see where we could stay.

It was the end of the dry season, so travel was easy – bumpy, but easy. In Lethem, we ran around for 3 days, picking up our pay, establishing an address with the Post Office, and buying supplies. By the fourth day, we were ready to head home, so we sat in front of the store near the road to Aishalton, hoping to find transportation. We sat with our bags and boxes of goods on a concrete wall with our thumbs in the air (only metaphorically).

No ride. We faced defeat at the end of the day, lugging all our stuff back to the place we were staying and tried again the next day, and the next, and then finally, the fourth day. We were so happy to the see white truck with the blue tarp over the back that rides around Aishalton. Down the road it comes, so we ask for a ride and are granted our wish. Yes! I was beginning to get homesick.

“Oh, but we are full.” But we know this; all the rides going out to Aishalton are full: supplies for stores, schools, hospitals, and churches.

So, we send our things on another truck and load into this one.

Thank goodness I’m a lady. I’m granted a lovely seat in the cab of the truck, along with the driver’s elderly Aunt, Auntie Amelita. In the front seat is the driver and one of Aishalton’s police. So, I didn’t leave Chris behind, well, I kind of did. I left him in the back of the truck, with two other men and a truck bed full of supplies. Sitting high on top of frozen chicken, bicycle parts, industrial-sized bags of onions and garlic, hanging on for dear life.

So, the 7 of us take off for Aishalton. We blasted our Akon music and took off. I should also mention in the week we were in Lethem, the rains started. Rainy season! Yay, for cool(er) weather and a full rain tank (we now have running water – no more pulling from the well!). However, boo for trying to cross the Savannah in the mud. It’s a bit slower, dodging deep puddles in the dirt road, tossing poor Chris and the others around in the back. We reach our nemesis – the Rupununi River. So far all I had seen of it was a small creek. However, we approached cautiously and were disenchanted to see it is now a full-fledged, raging river.  The options are to camp out and hope it goes down, or to pay a pretty penny to take a ‘barge’ across.

In a rush to get home, we pay for the barge. The barge is a pontoon, made by tying empty metal oil containers together and putting some boards on top. The owners live on the opposite side of the creek from the side we begin on, so the Amerindians swim across to get them. I wonder when the little boats are coming that will putter the pontoon and us to the other side.

So, we get the owners and we start to align the boards to drive the truck onto the pontoon. Our driver puts it in 4 wheel drive, drives onto the pontoon and…. Almost over the edge. Like, almost right back into the creek. Thankfully, he does stop in time. Still no boats to push us across. Oh, I realize, all the men push it across. So, I play my key role as a lady and sit at the front of the pontoon to even out the weight of the back of the truck as the men push us across the creek.

Once across the creek, we take a break we watch as two cowboys and a number of dogs herd cattle into the water and swim across. Then we continue our trip home, bump after bump, puddle after puddle. So, I’m starting to feel a sense of accomplishment for crossing the Rupununi in the rainy season when I’m reminded we’re only two days in, and when we have to come out in July, well, we may not be able to. But, we’ll cross that bridge (river) when we get to it.