My country

- Why on earth have you come to Guyana, the locals ask us with a shocking look.

The answer is always the same. My granddad was from Georgetown, so I’m here to check up my roots.

Mission almost completed. I tried to call the two Pinheiro's in the phone book. And I visited a Michelle Ming. Sadly I didn't find any relatives. But at least I got to see the town where my granddad grew up.


Georgetown has a bad reputation for crime. The local papers weren’t a joy to read. A few days ago a man got shot over 1000 guyanese dollars, which is about 33 norwegian kroner or 3 pounds.

So the first day we hardly dared to go out. When we first did, we always came back before the sun went down and followed our own safety rules. Let’s put it like this: Lisa hasn’t many parts of her body left that hasn’t been used as a secret wallet.

Georgetown is very unlike society in England and Norway. Some people are wealthy but most people are relatively poor. Others are worse off. They live in the slums or on the street, where garbage is lying around. Some of the houses we wouldn’t even use as playing cottage in our garden.

But in so many ways Guyana is a wonderful country. Green and wild, with many, many waters. The people are friendly and are always looking to help.


June (photo with Daniel) and Yvonne (with Lisa) have been great to us. Thanks to them we have experienced a lot.


Nellie Singh is another helpful lady. She runs the Rima Guesthouse with her family, a place we highly recommend. Okey, the water in the shower is freezing cold, but the food is first class. By the way, so is the guesthouse!!

Unfortunately we haven’t got enough pictures to document this lovely country, since you would have to be crazy to walk in the streets with your camera on you. The only way to get some decent pictures in Georgetown is to take them from the taxi window. Well, we have done our best:

St. George's Cathedral - the tallest wooden cathedral in the world.

The browner part of the Atlantic Ocean isn't that tempting to have a swim in.

Stabroek Market - always full of life, reggae music and people yelling ''shopping, baby?''


People ask us why we come to Guyana. After experiencing the country, we now say ''Why not?’’