Five Minutes With Ms. B

Ms. Brenda :)

Allow me to introduce Ms. Brenda.  She's our cleaning woman at ChildLinK.  She's our oldest employee, not only by age, but also employment.  She's worked here from the beginning, ten years back, from Christian Children's Fund, to EveryChild-Guyana, to ChildLinK.  "I get old now", she says.  She's our friend.  She's our story teller.

Monday in the office.

Last Tuesday, the 4th of the 9th month, (her words) Ms. B celebrated her 61st birthday.  The staff pooled together and bought her some good smelly bath thingies.  Ms. Brenda is never with out a smile, or a story, and usually she's with both.  I knew I needed to learn more about the lady that keeps our quarters tidy, and I knew you needed to know, too.  So I asked for a little chat, and this is what I heard...

Ms. B doin' her thang.

Growing up in New Amsterdam, about two hours down Guyana's east coast, Ms. Brenda was one of three kids.  I don't know too much about her family yet, but cake baking is in her blood. And today, when she's not making our place sparkle on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, she's baking yummy cakes and pastries at home and sellin' in the streets on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  Today, in light of potluck Mondays (which I'm trying to introduce, slowly), she brought a fruit cake.  I tried asking her what her most popular item was, and where exactly she sold, so that I could maybe run into her one day, and she simply said, "If they want, they buy!  They choice.  I make orders, too."  I told her I never thought not eating gluten was unfortunate, until I met her.

Kitchen is so clean!  Thanks!

When she was 21, Ms. B came to Georgetown and "got shine!" (saw the glamor of the city life)  She soon married and had two daughters, one of whom is in the States.  A grandmother of three, her husband passed in 1988 and she never re-married.  I asked her how they met and how he died, and she just smiled.  Maybe it was too personal, for as new as I am.  Finally she just said, "He got sick, an' die".

Another clean room!

I wondered what it was like for her to move to Georgetown, after living in a smaller town.  "Georgetown busy.  Any community, different walks of life.  People good, people bad."  What advice could she give me about being new in Georgetown, myself?  "Don't walk too late.  Never know minds of people.  Be wise.  Be careful."

My tailor made skirt and her tailor made blouse.  Two kids on a couch.

Spoken like a true, wise woman.  I'm grateful to have crossed paths with Ms. B.