First Person Singular

The distinct bittersweet fragrance accented with smoky notes, select spices, crisp bay leaves and blazing hot peppers will waft through the homes of Guyanese, as we prepare to celebrate Christmas with our most famous national dish.

He migrated to the United States of America as a happy, athletic child, who enjoyed running, climbing fruit trees, playing games with his friends outside, and having great fun as a growing boy in Guyana.

It was the other significant find that pushed Guyana to the top of breaking news in the first year of the pandemic.

Inside Jamaica’s territorial sea, the nondescript 150-metre long container ship known as the MV “Asiatic Wind” made a sharp 90-degree turn and suddenly went dark for some 12 hours on June 3, last year.

The surging seas have since returned to conceal, yet again, the old pine coffins and the broken skeletal remains laid bare in the sunshine along the rank, soggy foreshore that was formerly a colonial cemetery on the Number 71, Berbice estate.

A simple “X” marks the end of her lengthy will, still filed in the National Archives at Kew, but the wealthy woman of colour described as the “Queen of Demerara” was most determined that her children and grandchildren would get a proper education in Britain.

Only a few minutes’ walk from the seaside community of Cromarty in the Scottish Highlands, a 17-year-old mixed-race student was stabbed during a brawl outside the local school.

Alness, Ankerville, Belladrum, Borlum, Brahan, Cromarty, Culcairn, Dingwall, Dunrobin, Edderton, Fearn,     Foulis, Fyrish, Glastullich, Golspie, Inverness, Kilcoy, Kilmorack,  Kiltearn, Kingillie, Kintail, Limlair, Lochaber, Nigg, Novar, Rosehall, Ross, Tain, Tarlogie.

Even in the harsh fluorescent light of the living room, the solid slab stands out with its sharp Mesoamerican motifs, carefully cut into the dense purpleheart hardwood, which has deepened over time into a strong, rich burgundy.

As dusk descends over the little orchard, the first bats emerge in the bluish grey haze, silently slipping out from the shining thickets of fruit trees that have finished bearing for the season.

Earlier this year, my family and I, fully masked, went on a rare outing, before strict lockdown, briefly visiting the home of a couple who are our friends, for a late lunch.

Statues of seated lions guard the gates of the modest Colonial-style house with the small portico.

At 83, the visionary American physicist, Dr Martin Hoffert still zooms around in an ELF, a three-wheeled solar and pedal vehicle that is a striking hybrid between a bicycle and a car, produced in North Carolina by Organic Transit, which later went bankrupt.

In 1998, an oil industry insider leaked details of a secret scheme to spend millions to undermine a key global environmental accord and to convince Americans that the science behind climate change was shaky.

On the calm morning of the last day, the “Gran Rio R” vessel, ironically, sailed right past its Crown Point destination at the south-western corner of Tobago, since the nine-member foreign crew were required to first register with the immigration authorities further away at the Port of Scarborough.

When the waters off Tobago develop visible lines and turn dark and cloudy, experienced sea folks know from one look that the weather has been bad, more than a 100-miles away, in South America.

Screaming seagulls study snorkelers, beyond the low wall of pale pink boulders that protect the private beach lined with coconut trees and bright orange deck chairs.

Since the 30-day supply of Core Five dietary supplements is sold out at a cut price of US$124 online, I am offered an alternative selection that will help me “take control” of my “unique female health needs.”

Early on the second day of the New Year in 2015, the Chief Cook of The Bahamas-flagged carrier “Bulk Jupiter,” was ready to start preparing breakfast for the 18 other crew members, when the rough weather and waters worsened.

Abandoned for more than 50 years, and surrounded by Guyanese jungle, the manganese mine had become home to vast colonies of breeding bats and putrid piles of guano.