Part 2: Fish and Farine to the Extreme

Dillon returned my wide eyed smile, and I quickly warmed up to him after that. He's one of Brian's sons who's home visiting between jobs. I first met him at his birthday party a month or so back. I was already happy to see Vaughn, his younger brother; he has this simply content and cheerful way about him, big smile and easy to gaff. The other men sort of avoided eye contact, seemingly afraid to acknowledge our predicament. It was still raining, but they all started to "set up camp," which really meant "draw up a tarp." It was neat how they did it – one guy climbed one of the tall poles and tied a rope real high, then another guy climbed up the shorter pole on the other end of the posts and lay the rope in a groove at the top and let the rope fall slack. They draped the tarp over the rope and then pulled the rope taut and tied it off. Then they pulled the sides over the edges of the poles for a tent like structure. They encouraged me to tie up my hammock and relax, so for something to do, I did.

Dillon and them took off to catch some dinner, and then Toshao and Davidson and Matthew took off, too, leaving me with Uncle Lewis (I finally asked his name again, Lewis Thomas, father of one the girls who just graduated, Alicia) under the tarp as it kept raining. I was wet and debating whether or not to change; I knew we were going out that night, and wasn’t sure how dry I’d be then… but I wanted to lay in my hammock but “couldn’t” with all my wet clothes... This was something I would let go of two days down the line, but for the time being, was reluctant. But where to change? There was no other cover around except for the tarp, and Uncle was there. Do I go into the woods and get a little wet in my dry clothes? Am I being too rigid and modest to not just change right there? I wasn’t sure. But I told Uncle I was going to change and move to the corner, half concealed behind my hammock. And change I did. Halfway through, he said he was going for a walk. Thank you.

Dillon comes back with one fish and I wonder if and how I should help with the cooking. It was joked that Toshao brought me to cook, and I know the natural role for these trips is that the females keep camp, but I was but one lady and an un-Amerindian one at that. I COULD cook… But I felt nervous about it. But I wanted to help somehow… Dillon sort of took charge and I assisted him. He was looking for all the seasonings, but Toshao “only” brought salt, a bit of casareep and some peppers. That’s all I’m basically accustomed to using, maybe some onions and garlic, too, but that’s it for camping. But Dillon and Vaughn were looking for the oil, the sweet peppers, the tomato paste, the maagi… I didn’t know camping could be so fancy! They had their pot cooking (I cut up the peppers for them) when Tosh came back with a nice set of fish, so they made their own pot, too.

They suggested I set up my mosquito net, so I did, with the help from Dillon, and Matthew gave me some string to help tie up the sticks, though Dillon let me tie my hammock rope – so if I fell it wouldn’t be his fault, ha ha. I'm a liability, I swear. My neighbor/friend/surrogate mother/partner in crime, Lucy, was "frikened" aka frightened to give me fish at first for fear I'd choke on the bones. I went to get the knife I’d brought (I didn’t have a cutlass, which is a big scythe-like sword, but I knew enough to bring a knife) to cut some branches to hold open my net, when Dillon called to me, having already cut some! The boys and I ate standing around, and then with hardly a word, it was time to go. I hopped in the Duncan boat, which was more empty, plus it was the fishing boat. It was Dillon and Vaughn and Charlie and me. The rest were going hunting. And off we went.

We first went to catch bait, up to the rocks where the boys deftly jumped from the boat onto the rocks, bow and arrow in hand along with head lights. They find one fish and Dillon hands the bow and arrow to Vaughn, who's closer, telling him, “It’s right there – no excuse, no excuse.” Ha. I follow along, trying not to get my capris wet. They see and point out a sting ray (!) and we see some caiman, as well. Time to get to the boat for some real fishing, and this requires jumping down from a boulder into the boat. Vaughn does so easily enough and I squat and try to start sliding down when I realize that Dillon was moving the boat for me to get easier access. Vaughn tells him to hold up and offers his hand as assistance. What gentlemen. Then, we take off on the creek. It’s exciting to be out there, in the night, hunting for food. The boys gaff as we go, and we come to stop in a cove. “You does fish, Miss Sarah?” Dillon asks me. Sure! So, they bait me one of their lines.

I HAVE fished here in the Rupununi before, but they haven’t seen it, and were quick to try to do it all for me. I figured I’d throw out the line, though. There’s no poles, it’s just the line with the bait and weights at the end and you gotta do a slingshot maneuver and throw it out there. I feel like Xena as I whip the line around and WHAP! I hit the side of the boat. Vaughn claims I almost hit him square in the face, but I doubt. With an embarrassed chuckle, I try again and Vaughn leans far away from me this time. I loop the line on a branch above. Sigh. Vaughn throws for me. We sit and wait patiently, gaffing about fishing and they ask questions about all sorts of things. I found out the sick Auntie was their mom, Catherine, and that’s why she and Brian hadn’t come. The boys were worried about how she was. Having got the scoop on Arsima and Bernard the other night, I asked them about how their mom and dad met, and Vaughn refers me to Dillon (the older one should know, right?). He doesn’t know, either. Boys. I tell them about my dad who loves to fish, and we get to know each other a bit better.

Vaughn gets this huge tiger fish. I feel nibbles, but no big jerks. One time, I think I actually had something, but because I didn’t act fast enough, it got off. We pulled the lines in from time to time, re-baiting and re-throwing. Once again, I hit the side of the boat and then the branches above. I figured they already assumed me incompetent so at least I wasn’t losing status in their eyes. I had only upwards to climb. They were good-humoured about it all, and each time I tried, Vaughn would tell me to warn him before I threw so he could get out of the way. We only got that one tiger fish, and we headed back to camp. The other boat beat us, and I fell into my hammock, did a quick switch into a big cottony t-shirt that I thought would be warm and conked out.

The boys mostly noiselessly woke up and immediately took off on boat. I was too tired and in need of quiet time to check into it. Only Uncle was left back and I took the opportunity to go bathe and do wash. I grab my soap, my change of clothes and the few dirty clothes I’d acquired, then retraced Matthew and mine’s steps the day before to the rocks. I went as far up as I could, seeing a big boulder I thought I could bathe behind. I was walking much more cautiously than the day before, and this time I had things in hand. I got all the way to behind my boulder and decided how I was going to do this (never bathed nude in a river before), when I started sliding down the rock into the water. I fell. Half-clothed. The green camisole I was gonna wear was wet. And I had two big lumps swelling on my left shin. I looked around, seeing no one, but still red-faced, and began to bathe anyway. It was uneventful after that, but I walked back to camp undergarmentless because of the wet issue. I get back and Anthony gives me these instructions – we’ll be out for the day, walk with your plate and spoon… and whatever else you might need; I guess he wasn’t exactly sure what else I’d need – hell, I didn’t know either.

I had just enough time to get some undies on, grab my mosquito spray and knife and put my plate and spoon into the Duncan’s bucket when we left. We go to the Lawrence camp as they are beating out. We use their fire to cook our breakfast – the tiger fish from the night before. Dillon burns some sugar in oil first, which was new to me. He says you can do that when you don’t have casareep. Who knew? We clean up and then – start walking into the jungle. Wait, we’re going on foot?? I thought we’d be in boat! I would have worn my Tevas if I’d known, not just my slippers (flip flops)! Yeah, definitely not gonna carry my knife, Lord knows I’d accidentally stab myself in the butt if I carried it. Of course, I don’t share all of this, I just think it and nod along, then jump in the middle of the line hurriedly, not wanting to get lost, as we take off and a fast pace. It’s muddy and my slippers keep sticking, until I just pull them off and walk with them. And that is how I came to be half running through the jungle, barefoot and braless.