South Road

Sand Creek sitting in the valley, Sand Creek you make me so happy to see the old and young, blue mountains around, what a pretty, pretty site, its my home town.

There is a song out there, written by Basil Rodriques if Im not mistaken, it could of been Winston Pugsley, the headmaster of Sand Creek at the time.  It goes like this; Rainy Season has come again, alot of people do not like the rain, mosquito, mis'o, kabaro, mareiw, kibaro all around.  Lightening and thunder, muddy savannahs,  But we plant our peppers, plant our cassava....
So I cant remember all the lyrics, but my point is this... I LOVE THE RAINY SEASON.  Because this is when life happens, when love happens (or sex) and friendships are forged on the road admist mud, rain, sweat, rum, iron and rope.  So yes, there are more mosquiotes and Kabaoro, but its a sign of life-the rain creates an opportunity for growth, for renewal.  It dampens the dust of the dry season that would punish any travelers eyes on the south road.  The negative side is break downs and stick up increases as the muddy earth suck onto the jeeps wheels and pull it to a stop.  The water gets everywhere causing electrical problems, contaminated oil, weakened bearings and such.  But think about the positive things that come out of these...every south traveler has a story about the road, has many stories of the road...I want to begin with my mum and uncle Malek.
Im young, I think eight or nine, traveling back from Lethem in the land rover 40-39 late at night, and of course all the adults had been drinking in front of uncle Don and Aunty Shirley's before we left....  This is through white rock, for those of you who know and we get a puncture.  Mundane enough for a break down, but we have no spare and its swarming with mosquitoes, we have only ration and alcohol.  So the adults began to drink (as a bug repllent you see).  I curl up in the punctured tyre slapping away at mosquitoes.  Then I hear uncle Malek and my mum start to sing.  I start to dance.  My repellent you see, the faster I move, the less chance I get bitten.  They sing old country and western songs, El Paso, by Marty Robbins, Clementine, Kenny Rogers, Dolly Parton and Country Road by John Denver, substituting South Rupununi for west virginia. 
To this day when I hear that song, I rememeber that night, dancing under white rock mountain with my mum and uncle Malek singing every country song they knew.  Boling an egg in a half of a beer can and when it rained the fire fizzled out...they sang louder under the tarpulin and I danced.  I dont think I can dance like that again.  No one came that night for us.  When the rain abated, i curled in my mums lap, dressed my dad's camel trophy T-shirt and fell asleep.