Don and Anita Weiers spent four weeks as volunteers in Guyana, South America, under the auspices of C.E.S.O. - Canadian Executive Service Organization. The mandate of this international organization is to provide volunteer advisers who are eager to transfer their skills and knowledge on a one-on-one basis to organizations or businesses all over the world. Canada has been involved in providing development assistance to Guyana since 1959 through various agencies. Presently, C.E.S.O. volunteers work with small companies in handicrafts, tourism, agri-processing, furniture making, fisheries, etc.

We were assigned to a small factory in the AmerIndian village of Orealla on the Courantyne River, which forms the boundary between Guyana and Suriname. My task was to empower the seven women who presently work at a factory to be self-sustaining by mid-July, at which time the factory will be turned over to them for complete operation, from purchasing and processing to bookkeeping and marketing. Presently, they are doing all the day-to-day operations in the fruit cheese factory. They use nine different local fruits (mango, guava, pineapple, tangerine, cherry, carambola, orange, lemon, cashew pear) to provide a juice, which is then boiled in copper pots over gas burners with sugar and pectin 'til 108 degrees Centigrade and is then poured into molds. When cool, the cheese is sliced into cubes, vacuum sealed and packaged in locally made baskets. It is then sent to Georgetown, where it is sold in shops and stores to homecoming Guyanese for souvenirs and gifts or as a cure for "sweet tooth."

Don's task was to build a small cement block engine room to house the generator plant, to repair and renovate some of the existing factory and to build walkways and drainage ditches. Since the factory hours were only from 8:30 to 1:30, many hours were spent helping out in the community. Don showed the loggers how to do their own maintenance on power saws and helped out several other individuals with boat motors or power generators.

I helped at the women's group, teaching them how to knit, crochet, braid rugs, weave rugs and make soap. They, in turn, taught me how to weave fans and make bowls of tibisiri straw. We were invited to the school to tell about Canada and our own experiences of life.

We arrived in Georgetown on April 21st and were met there by the C.E.S.O. area representative, Ruth Lee. Our clients arrived on Sunday and took us around to almost every government agency and organization where we learned firsthand the bureaucratic style of government. While in Georgetown, we toured the zoo and botanical gardens and walked the sea wall for exercise. Finally it was time to leave the city for our village, which was a five-hour drive by van along the one and only highway to the town of Corriverton, where we boarded the wide boat for a further five-hour ride fifty miles up river to the village of Orealla, which was to be our home for three weeks.

We shared a small two-room house with our clients, a Belgian couple, who have been the managers at the factory for the past year. Our time in the village was a wonderful experience and a peaceful time. Though we were without electricity, running water, telephone or t.v., we suffered no hardships. We bathed in the warm tidal waters of the river and washed our clothes by hand in the river as well. The food was plentiful and interesting, with fresh fruits at our fingertips. The people were very generous and friendly. They spoke English, so we quickly became friends and adapted to their way of life. We enjoyed our experience so much and came away enriched by having shared a few weeks of our lives with the people of Guyana.