Getting a feel for the place

Sorry about the lack of pictures at the moment but I'm having problems uploading pictures...I am using a wifi hotspot from the Sports Bar across the street and it comes and goes a bit. We've now been here a week and our in country orientation has been intensive, varied and fascinating. On Saturday the walk around Georgetown shops and streets showed us that beneath the hustle and bustle of a capital city with some wealth on display there were serious difficulties...lack of choice in the shops... many hustlers on the streets, traffic lights which have come within the last year, one set of store escalators in the entire city, garbage everywhere, high unemployment . Yet despite this in the crowded areas the people are friendly, polite for the most part and you walk around in a relaxed way.
The country is mourning the deaths of 13 adults ( including 3 policemen) killed by gunmen on Sunday night It was an attack on the police station in Bartica, regarded as one of the safest, most relaxed places in Guyana. This is the second similiar attack in a month in Guyana (the other attack took place East of Georgetown at the end of January; it is very probable that the same criminal gang carried out these attacks, but in no way were foreign nationals the target. Signs are that they will be caught soon, but many commentators know that this is a symptm of a deeper malaise of a country still in the process of creating a stable civil society not divided along political/racial lines.
Nevertheless Bartica will be our home for the next 2 years and all the VSO staff and volunteers are envious of us living in a quiet harmonious town.