The Sweet Side of Guyana

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The food, the music, the beautiful landscape…. everything about Guyana is memorable and unique, especially the beekeepers! I have had the wonderful honor and privilege to complete my third trip to Guyana in February 2020, working with the beekeepers there to continue to monitor the health status of their bees and to support them, as they continue to develop their industry. My Farmer-to-Farmer volunteer team-mate, Nathan Weber and I traveled to many of the regions of Guyana (by bus, boat, and plane) to inspect hives, collect honeybee samples and to encourage and train beekeepers along the way. The landscape is breathtaking but what I found the most precious is the friendships created among those we worked alongside. 



This 3-week assignment was a bit longer than typical because of all the travel and logistics involved to accomplish the goal of a true nation-wide honeybee survey. During these hot, hard-working days we encountered complications, rain, a few bee stings, and many different personalities all squished together on a mini-bus; but the attitudes remained kind, resilient, and fun! We learned to form a cohesive team to accomplish the task of collecting samples, with each team member having an important function so that everything was accomplished quickly and safely.


In addition to the work accomplished, Nate and I had the rare treat of seeing stingless-bee honey extracting and of tasting local delicacies as we were often richly rewarded by the beekeeper hosts with home-cooked meals or the top sliced off of a coconut for refreshment. On our down-time, the friends we made would share their time and culture with us by taking us to the tastiest fish stop or to watch a movie at the sea wall. I am excited to see that the future of beekeeping in Guyana has great potential and is in the capable hands of the hard-working beekeepers who love the humble little insect, the honeybee.

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