National Park and the manatees

This Monday, I started off my week with an early morning trek into town. I spent some time at the sea wall, one of the barriers used to keep the Atlantic ocean out from the streets of Georgetown. It was such a beautiful day, I decided to take a walk along the wall and do some journaling by the water. Here's some pics of the walk to the seawall...

I then walked over to the Red House (now called the Cheddi Jagan Research Centre), a historical landmark, which was once the home of Guyana’s past president and Howard University alum, Dr. Cheddi Jagan. The Red House is a 3 story home with 2 floors dedicated to Dr. Jagan’s writings, works, and legacy. He lived here with his family in the early-1960’s when he served as Guyana’s premier. I was truly inspired after reading his story. Guyana was truly blessed with a leader who loved his country and its people. He fought for Guyana’s independence from Brittish colonial rule at times when Brittish powers were strengthened by U.S. support. Guyana finally won it’s independence in 1966 with the rise of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), led by Dr. Jagan and his wife, Janet. After leading a life fighting for the rights and freedom of his people, he passed away in 1997. At the Red House, I discovered a letter from the US government apologizing for their involvement in the fight to prevent Guyana from gaining independence. This letter arrived at the Guyanese government in 2000, 3 years after Dr. Jagan’s death.

All that reading had me all worn out, so I walked over to the Pegasus hotel and spent the rest of the day at the pool with cold rum punch in my hand ;0)

After my day of Dee time, I picked up Tariq from school today and we went limin’ (hee hee…) at the park. There was a cute little monument there for the chirrens; the inscription read: “Every child has the right to – life, a name and nationality, a family, healthcare, education, play…”

Beautiful!!! This is one of the many reasons why I love this country!!!

Guess what else they have at the park?!?!? A pond full of……MANATEES!!!! I've been waiting to see these big old cuddly water beasts for the longest, and today was my lucky day!!! Tariq did his bestest to try to get one to raise it’s head out of the water for me. We had a few failed attempts, but I finally caught some footage of manatee nostril. They looked like hungry hungry hippos!!! As payment, we were attacked by a swarm of mosquitoes. Tariq got a mosquito bite on his eye and bites all over his legs, and one mosquito even bit me through my jeans! Terrible!!