Sharing a post from my friend Carolyn Hopkinson Quote ........... I would love for all my friends Guyanese and non Guyanese alike to read this article. I was a Passenger Agent with the airlines during the time of Jonestown and I had many opportunities to meet Jim Jones and many of his people. I would usually be the one meeting the weekly direct flight from New York to Georgetown of which at least a few people would be enroute to Jonestown. I befriended a young man who was only a few years older than me, who at the time would meet this flight and made arrangements for the group to go overland into the jungle. I would look forward to our weekly meeting, I remember telling him that it was the first time I had met an African American , he was cute, nice, funny with smiling eyes and so many dreams. He would tell me that it was the first time that he had spoken with a Guyanese girl since he was living in the jungle and had only just been given this job of meeting new members arriving. We would talk about our different lives with him growing up as an African American in California and me as a Cook Up (mixed girl) in Guyana. He was different from most of the people who arrived on that flight, he seemed to have his life together. I always looked forward to our meetings and I know the feeling was mutual. It was not too long after that, that he starting distancing himself from our weekly hellos and laughter. He would walk away when I approached and eventually after a few weeks when he had no where to turn to, he told me that he was given instruction from above to no longer talk with me again since he was being distracted from what he was there to do. Actually the strict instructions as I soon found out was not only me but he was not allowed to talk with any of the locals as well. It was shortly after that my family and I immigrated to Canada. Sometimes a friend of mine and I were both assigned to meet that New York to G/T flight. We would have a competition to see how many Jonestown people we could pick out on every flight. We got so good at it that there was no competition at all since we were usually both right. At that time neither of us could put our fingers on what was different about them. Now so many years later I realize that they were usually the lost souls on the flights. Ones who had nothing much going on back home but were looking for a new start in life. At the beginning like most people coming into the country their baggage (and there were lots) were searched. It was always conversation at the airport what the officers had found and taken away that day. I was too young and naive at that time to realize what most of that stuff was used for. Shortly after that their baggage was all waved through customs. I remember like it was yesterday a customers officer saying to me, ÿou watch it Carolyn, we aint heard the end of these people, they up to no good. I would always remember the moment when I found out about the Jonestown massacre. I was in Miami and was called over by a front desk clerk I had spoken to only a few hours before. Carolyn, he said...... did you not say you were from Guyana, yes I responded. Did you hear about the hundreds of Guyanese who committed suicide in the jungles of Guyana. From that moment on and in all of my travels I have always have to defend my country. No it was not Guyanese but Americans who did that. The response was usually are you sure, yes I would respond ..... very sure. Unfortunately for no fault of ours, Guyana would be forever placed on the map where is places as small as Swaziland, I would be asked if , is that not the place where everyone drank kool-aid and killed themselves. My response would be always yes Guyana was that place but no it was a group of Americans whom had done that, not the Guyanese. So like most people out there I too would wonder why a group of Americans were given the right to live in the middle of the Guyanese jungle with no limitations. There are days when I think about that young man. What would make someone like him leave the comforts of his home in California to head to the jungles of Guyana? I would then hear his voice, Carolyn for adventure girl for adventure. facebook/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fstabroeknews%2F2013%2Fopinion%2Fletters%2F10%2F30%2Fhumble-attempt-apology-jonestown%2F&h=IAQHCVcECAQH71G3Gh8f8DsIfXi_3hG204q9jB9irBFMUog&enc=AZNqmsUzyfoEbkF-acWXMncmZp7SuMHk7vzxJEOiBXSRuqnZmzNJuhNXIg249hQHh--S0QGjUvmlPUur5gNPEmkO&s=1
Posted on: Wed, 30 Oct 2013 21:30:22 +0000
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