Guyana Chronicles

Jade was happy even if it was just for a fleeting moment. She was trying hard not to get swept up in troublesome concerns like her wayward emotions or allowing herself to feel happy. She knew that felicity was transient, it never lasted. Nor did she feel it was something she had a right to. In her experience the world was rough and uncaring, filled with random brutalities. She felt happiness would never be hers to possess, so she poured herself into the Juno inspired labors of helping others. Easing the pain, the sorrow and the disparity between people she witnessed around her.

But in this moment, with her body pressed against Ellen's, she felt happy. She wanted to give into the rush of passion and lay down her weary defenses. She didn't though, for she knew these moments never lasted.

As Jade silently wrestled with her inner Psyche she focused her enjoyment on the softness of Ellen's mouth against hers. Fighting back old unwelcome memories and their accompanying rage Jade became aware of the clutching grip of her wet fingers on Ellen's shoulders.

Jade paused and sighed with her forehead pressed to Ellen's, then breathing her in like the subtle musky dew from an opening morning flower, Jade focused on the profound beauty that Ellen possessed and yet so casually displayed. Though it was still nearly dark, she could see Ellen perfectly well, the exemplary image of Ellen that Jade had already formed in her head. The two of them relaxed with Ellen's hands set upon Jade's breasts, knowing they could both feel the same thing, the pounding of Jade's heart.

"We probably have to go soon." Ellen softly spoke as the first rays of light came through an open window.

"We should, at least we are dressed for coffee." Jade paused briefly before adding with an attempted smirk, "or maybe not." They both laughed.

The two newly christened lovers were together in the dark of the early morning; down in the large room on the first floor of the missionary house sitting upon the cushions they had taken advantage of the evening before in the shower. Ellen was leaning back on the creaky but serviceable sofa and had Jade nestled in her lap as they shared lingering kisses and relished the careful exploration of roaming hands.

Earlier Jade had woken with a start, finding Ellen's face close to hers in the dark. She could not see Ellen's dimensions but she knew the roguish redhead was there. Ellen's touch on her shoulder was soothing, a nice addition to the erotic dream Jade was woken from. Jade's vivid fantasy had been full of fucking, sucking and sweaty body parts. She longed for Ellen to touch her moist folds but the sleeping area of the team was not the place for such stolen pleasures.

There were whispers in the dark and soon the two of them were on foot. Sneaking in the shadows of the dorm room, then hand laced in hand the two lovers carefully made their way to the stairs. Cautiously they stepped on the creaking boards, clad in just their underwear, panties and tank tops. Then finding their way down to the first floor and the sofa where they groped each other in pleasure, coaxing wetness from the other with their fingers until the first intruding signs of light broke the scanty veil of their hiding place.

They cuddled there listening to the callings of roosters, foul creatures hailing the nemesis sun, as they held onto each other for a moment longer. Jade savored the sensations of Ellen's body against hers. The way they fit together like a comforter over a sheet, clinging to one another. Ellen's skin was incredibly soft like smooth subtle velvet and her voice was hypnotic to the point where every syllable spoke now caused Jade's clit to twitch. But they could not tarry any longer.

"Fuck." Jade moaned quietly and with remorse slowly slid off of Ellen's lap.

Then hand laced in hand the two lovers ventured back up the stairs to face the responsibilities and labors of the day that would soon be upon them. Fleeting moments Jade thought to herself as she fought back the hated thought that she wrestled with, before long Ellen would be gone, getting on a malicious plane and returning to her home.

***********************

Jade was staring out the van window watching the ditches pass by as they rolled at an amble down a bumpy dirt road. The team was heading back from the worksite for the day and all were crowded into the long van that was used for their transportation.

Jade never rode in the front, traveling in vehicles made her nervous, being in moving things was always a necessary evil to her that she could not avoid. She knew how to drive but had never owned a license and the kamikaze running with the bulls' manner in which Guyanese men drove their metal boxes made her feel highly anxious. At least the road was empty, mostly.

Around Jade and behind her were the voices of team members, different conversations of which none Jade was tracking with for her mind as focused on the passing ditches. Ellen was sitting next to Jade on the first bench seat, thigh to thigh, their bodies speckle plastered in caliche like some Pollock painting. The jocose Ellen was in the mix of conversations sharing stories about different Reggae artists with the rest of the team.

The plan for that night was to attend a concert being held in one of the large community parks in Georgetown. Everyone was extremely excited about going to a live concert and happy they only worked a half day piling stubborn heavy caliche into a house foundation. But before heading back to the missionary house there was one stop Jade wanted to make.

Jade turned to silently watch Ellen for a moment admiring the slender grace of her throat that was dabbled in drying clay before returning her mind to thinking about the ditches.

The open ditches were everywhere along the roadsides in Guyana and served as their sewer system. There was even one that ran in front of the missionary house they stayed in. The smell of the open trenches and the stagnant sludge could be quite putrid especially considering the effect of the heat the equatorial country constantly bathed in. All of which was made worse by the flooding.

The coastal area of Guyana was one huge leveled floodplain and deluges were so common that outside of the city, which was protected by a sea wall, many of the more well-off rural folks built their houses on pillars. But not everyone could afford to put their houses up on pillars, so when the floods would come and fill the refuse ditches the dirty disease laden waters would run right into the substandard houses of the poor. The world was a rough and uncaring place.

"Miss Jade, Miss Jade, we're here." The shallow asthmatic voice of the driver croaked and lifted Jade out of the pit of her distracted thoughts.

His name was Robert and was the trusted driver for the team. He was a portly man of Hindu descent with pockmarked skin who always wore shabby sandals. He openly prided himself that he was selected to be their driver and responsible to keep them safe on the roads. He even leant a hand on the worksite when he had time. Jade was paying him well for his services which was a boon for his growing family. He was a competent driver that Mr. Harrison recommended to Jade and he seemed to know everyone in Georgetown.

The van pulled to a slowing stop along the roadside ditch beyond of which there were viny looking bushes lining the long open trench. Jade sitting closest to the sliding door pulled it open and stepped out, always the last in and the first out. She then turned and looked at every member of the team making sure she had their attention before speaking.

"Okay everyone listen up for a moment, I need your attention." Jade raised her voice over everyone else as she clapped a few times.

Jade then spoke slowly in her serious and direct manner, "Your cameras stay here in the van, that is not a request, it's an order. One of my rules with this benevolent dictatorship of mine. You all are amazingly kind and giving souls, but this is going to be hard to see."

She then continued in a solemn tone that betrayed the evidence of her emotions, "And I want you to experience exactly how Ruth lives with her family, what her life and the life of her children are like. Then you will understand. And later in our meeting we will talk about this so you can process what you have experienced."

Jade then grabbed her bulky first aid kit kept in a canvas bag and slung it over her shoulder and nodded to Ellen as she stepped back making room for everyone to get out while asking Robert to stay with the van because everyone's packs were being left there.

This moment of the work trip was important to Jade and it was pivotal that she got it right, for everyone. The team members had met Ruth briefly before at the worksite when Robert drove her and her family out there one day. Jade had scheduled Robert's time that day so he could take Ruth into town to the market so she could shop for a few things she desperately needed. It was otherwise a long arduous walk from Ruth's home to town, especially with her young children.

For Jade it was important that the team members see the reality of life here in Guyana their work efforts were attempting to change. It was equally important that they met Ruth and got to know her as a person. The team members had got used to Jade's preaching by now, including the mantra that 'everyone has value and you cannot flinch in the face of extreme poverty; empathy is meaningless without actions.'

As everyone climbed out of the van Jade made her way to a set of wooden planks that served as a bridge across the open odorous ditch. She could see beyond and hiding in the hedge were the curious timid eyes of Ruth's children peering back at her. She quickly crossed the bowing planks with a confidence that displayed she did not worry about their sturdiness; she then kneeled down near the hedge, flashing a smile to the children as she took off her sunglasses and hooked them in her blue top.

Jade held her hands in front of her, palms up, and before she could utter many words the young children ran off back to their house, barefoot in the rough red dirt, clothed in ill-fitting ripped garments. Seeing the macilent Ruth at the door of her home, as the children ran to cling to their mother, Jade stood and moved to greet her. Ruth was wearing a top given to her by Jade, one of her college tee shirts with North Carolina printed in blue. There were tears in both women's eyes as they hugged tightly.

As the two women held hands Jade inquired as to Ruth's health and that of her children wanting to make sure they were alright. Then as the team members crossed the plank bridge and came to join them, Jade took the time to introduce each member of the team to Ruth and her children.

Actions speak when words fail to, and the impact of the lesson Jade was teaching could be seen on the faces of the team members. Where Ruth lived was not a house, it was a hovel. The walls were a jumbled collection of rocks, rusted holey sheet metal and grimy plastic. The door was a threadbare cloth that let some light into their home. Inside it was dark dank and small, just one room with the sloping dirt ground as a floor. Rivulets of water flowed through Ruth's home coming in underneath one leaning wall and leaving out under another. And the roof was just a leaky decayed gathering of old thatching. There was no electric power, no pipes or a toilet, nothing of comfort.

Jade spent time on her knees in the mud slowly earning the trust of the children so she could get a better look at them in the dim light, checking their eyes, fingers and touching their stomachs. Sitting on the dirt floor in her grimy shorts not far from Jade was Ellen who was singing a silly song for the children 'head, shoulders, knees and toes' as she touched the appropriate part of her body with a laugh in her enchanting voice.

Ellen had the children's shy but rapt attention, she then pulled something out of her pocket and played a hiding game with the object in her hand, peeking between her clasped hands with a show of wild surprise in her eyes as she engaged Ruth's children. The moment of reveal showed two woven thread friendship bracelets green and yellow in color. Gaining the confidence of the younger child first Ellen was able to tie off the bracelet to their wrist and show her own as well, holding her wrist next to the child's. Jade watched from her knees and simpered to the delightful and endearing interaction.

The team members were polite and some of the braver ones found the courage to engage Ruth who was polite but cautious. She was also gracious, thankful to the visitors, expressing her disbelief still that people would travel from America and come here to help her. It was a concept Ruth could not comprehend, why rich folks would bother to come to such a place as Guyana and work. The moment was sublime and darkly beautiful.

As everyone was moving back across the plank bridge to the van, Jade was the last one to leave, saying her heartfelt goodbyes and see-you-soons to Ruth. When she got to the van she picked up a rock from the ground and squeezed it tight in her left hand as she dropped her aid kit on the floor of the van.

Not looking at anyone and not saying a word Jade then stepping around the van and into the middle of the dirty road. She stared out across the flat landscape of Guyana for a breath. Squeezing the rock as tightly as she could, she then threw it with all her might across the way and into an empty field where it landed with a kick of dust. Everyone could hear her scream, but no one saw her tears as she stood there for a long moment shaking and looking out over the leveled flood plain.

While Jade was still lost in the whelming flood of her emotions she felt a presence as Ellen came along beside her and made eye contact with Jade before touching her arm.

"You know you are amazing." Ellen spoke tenderly.

"No, I'm not, I feel so very far from such a thing." Jade wiped her wet cheeks.

"Well, I think so and that is what matters." Ellen stepped closer and helped wipe away the expressed frustration from Jade's face.

They embraced for a moment out there in the middle of that bumpy dirt road in the midst of the vast flood plain of coastal Guyana. They were two souls adrift in the world and now clinging to one another. They came back to the van hand in hand and sat down on the bench seat next to one another, Ellen's hand was on Jade's thigh.

As Robert headed the van back to the missionary house, many of the team members were expressing their thank yous to Jade. Jade always struggled with accepting praise but she sat there and took it with Ellen's hand on her thigh, soft fingertips drawing small circles, as they traveled down the bumpy road.

*****************

On Saturday nights most of the youth and young adults in Georgetown would go down to the sea wall to hang out. It was a fairly short walk from the missionary house to the shoreline. Jade knew the area of the sea wall well; before the volunteer team came she would take her morning runs down along the wall and at other times she would just come sit on the rough wall and watch the ocean tides move. The immense sea fascinated her having never even seen it before she was an adult. She liked the early mornings the best when the light of the rising sun would be dancing on the somnolent waves.

The coastline of Guyana was very level and at low tide the waters would be far out from the sea wall, a mile, maybe more exposing a long empty beach and then at high tide the surf would be splashing up against the rocky wall. It amazed Jade that the ocean moved so much. And it was this same ocean that enthralled her visions on those mornings that would wash over the flood plains of coastal Guyana and threaten the lives of the disadvantaged, who had no choice but to live where they did. Nature was both beautiful and terrible all in the same breath. That was a lesson she learned earlier on from her life growing up on the Colorado plateau; somethings could both beautiful and terrible all at once.

And now it was Saturday night and a different canorous body had come crashing against the sea wall. It was a mass of young wanting flesh. Young people were pretty much the same everywhere. There was a deep drive to socialize and connect, a desire to meet someone, to feel attractive and have a good time. Like the waters of the ocean splashing against the sea wall that night, the endogenous morphine of a thousand young souls was looking to swell and be felt.

Jade was strolling along the top of the rocky sea wall and Ellen was close to her. They had decided it was safer not to hold hands in the chaotic bacchanalian environment, there was no need to draw undue attention themselves.

Jade was wearing her best outfit for Ellen; a long flowing skirt of suede and a stylish tight tank top glittered in rhinestones along with a pair of silver hoop earrings that dangled halfway down along her slender neck, where a bruised bite mark was still showing. The firm lissome lines of Jade's body showed through the clingy material of her outfit. She had her dark hair up in a loose bun and was enjoying against her skin the gentle cooling breeze off the ocean as they walked atop the wall.

Ellen had confessed to feeling underdressed in her blue jeans and tie-dye concert shirt top but Jade did not care for she could hardly take her gaze away from the lure of Ellen's azure eyes reflecting the indulgent moonlight. Jade had to keep chastising herself to focus on their task which was keeping track of the other members of the team. She had purchased a dozen blue chemlight bracelets for the purpose from a toothless street vendor. And now the trick was keeping a count on all the blue bracelets on white skin in the dark.

Just in front of them was Basil who was feeling better, but she was noticeably young and uncertain in the party environment of beer drinking, pot smoking, loud music and the chorus of shouting voices so she seemed to prefer sticking close to Jade and Ellen.

Reggae was playing from speakers in the open trunks of small cars parked on the street next to the wall, the beats were heavy and repetitive echoing off of opposing buildings. There was spicy food and beer to be had from a rainbow of street vendor carts, Jade held a bottle of Guinness dangling in her fingers while Ellen drank from a Red Stripe bottle in her unbandaged hand. Most of the herd-like crowd was milling in the same direction along the wall heading to the community park where the concert was ongoing, having started earlier that day.

A few times they stopped and took account of everybody making sure they had everyone. It was not too difficult for most of the team members though enjoying being out were a bit apprehensive. They were in a strange crowded place and did not really know anyone so the rules were unclear. So they did not stray far from Jade and Ellen.

Many of the volunteers had been concerned about pickpockets or being accosted and voiced their worries earlier that night. Jade did her best to soothe everyone's distress. Guyana was not a place where tourists came, so there was not an established element looking to take advantage of them, the best thing to do was to be cautious, careful and stick together as a group.

Looking back time to time, Jade was aware of a few young men who were closely following them and had their eyes on Ellen's fabulous ass in her tight jeans. She thought them harmless enough, just young guys enjoying a free view on a night that was a party atmosphere. The team did attract a lot of attention when they went out, a dozen white people in Guyana was a unique thing, so Jade turned her attention back to keeping track of the team members, counting them in her head.

As the section of sea wall ended they found themselves near the community park. Voices shouting into microphones could be heard and the unique beating of steel drums. Concerts in Guyana tended to be part music and part political rally, a lot loud music and even more heated shouting. As the team members entered the park they could see that power poles and any other surfaces were plastered with colorful propaganda bulletins from the political party hosting the concert.