Hanging around town

On Tuesday night, I decided to check out the local trivia league in Georgetown. I can pride myself on having done trivia on multiple continents now. I was on a great trivia team at Cafe Mojo in Windhoek, Namibia, maybe unfairly because we were a team of North American expats and a lot of the questions were about North America, to the annoyance of the other Namibian teams. The trivia team that I am part of in Ottawa is one of the best in the city, and we've even won the trophy before. I am the least useful of that team. In theory, with my three degrees and travelling experience you'd think I would be useful for questions about things like law or geography, but these are the only trivia answers I have ever really contributed to my Ottawa trivia team, Won Direction:

• The Princess Diaries
• Scrunchies
• Peaches (the indie musician)
• Dead (as in, is Simone DeBeauvoir dead, Canadian, both, or neither?)
• South Sudan  

Twice the answer has been "North Korea" and I did not even get that, despite my being Korean.

Anyway, back to Georgetown's Quiz Night. It's held at a club called Altitude, because at four storeys above ground, it is one of the higher buildings around, with a wonderful view of the city. Unfortunately the elevator has been broken for a while, so getting to the bar involves climbing up what looks like the fire escape in the back. The exercise, however, helps build up an appetite for the bar's yummy plaintain chips.

Every week, there is a different trivia host and the money raised for each week goes to a different charity.  This week, the money was going to a documentary film being made about Guyana having one of the highest suicide rates per capita in the world, which is why I thought it was odd that one of the trivia teams decided to call themselves Suicide Squad.  This week's host was the Brazilian ambassador. There were several questions about Brazil, which helped me learn that I don't know as much about Brazil as I thought.

Team Coconuts

One of the rounds was entirely on South America, which is where I learned that I don't know very much about the continent I am on.  Also, there was a rum round which was a great idea and I think the Ottawa Trivia League should consider incorporating this Guyanese tradition.

 *****

The other weekend, we checked out the Indigenous cultural show held at the Sophia Exhibition complex as part of Indigenous Heritage Month.  The show featured dancing and singing from the various Indigenous villages from regions all over Guyana, and one particularly brilliant performance of a poem written by a young girl about domestic violence. There were also midway games where you could win Disney Frozen pillows. There were all sorts of yummy Amerindian dishes to try out, including pepper pot, as well as a craft display of various intricate arts. I bought a handwoven fan, which I feel like is the most useful purchase I have made this trip. I only wish I had brought a better camera.

*****

I feel the need to inform the world that one morning I found the giantest bug ever in my bathroom. Okay, it was probably not the GIANTEST BUG because I was in South America, and all sorts of different critters exist here that I've never seen before. But this guy. Imagine a mega cockroach, but not a cockroach, with creepy long antennas. I was never going to the bathroom again without turning the lights on.

Usually at home, when I am confronted by the scary house centipedes, I usually make my partner deal with them.  I missed my partner now. I summoned up every ounce of courage I had in me and stomped on the gianty bug with my flipflops.  It was gross.  I summoned up my last remaining reserve of courage and threw its carcass into the toilet to flush it down. Unfortunately, sometimes the suction in my toilet isn't very strong and one flush wasn't enough to send him down the pipes.  I had to wait for the tank to refill before I could try flushing Gianty Bug again. As I waited, I watched in horror as Gianty Bug somehow came back to life, with its creepy antennas twitching, despite having been crushed under my heel.  I imagined it crawling out of the toilet and straight up my leg, and prayed that the toilet tank would fill up with water faster.  I'd never flushed a toilet handle so hard and so fast.  Begone, Gianty Bug.

Later on, one of its brothers showed up in my kitchen to wave its long antennas hello at my roommate while she cooked spaghetti. She also screamed. I strode over, pretending like it was nothing at all, struck it down with a broom and then crushed it with the same flipflop. Picking it up was still gross as ever. Its guts had spilled out in a separate direction and I had to clean that up too.

The next night, I found one under my bed.  I smushed it with my shoe. I did not have any courage left to dispose of it, and its corpse still lies there underneath my bed, even as I sleep.

I think I deserve a bravery medal or some kind of hunting trophy.