A STRONG family works together and plays together as well. They search for opportunities to spend quality and quantity time together as a family, but also with friends, improving their chances of sharing quality experiences and bettering their lives.

Studies have shown that eating meals together, talking about the events of the day, sharing joys and defeats, doing household chores together and spending some evenings having your favourite snacks, while watching a ‘good’ movie or having shared activities with friends are some examples of spending quality time.

MASHRAMANI

For the Sampson family – Clive Sampson and Mrs. Vanessa Sampson, the owners of the Impeccable Banquet Hall, Brickdam and Shantel’s Exotic Creation, Second Street, Alberttown, they told the Pepperpot Magazine that along with their two young sons aged 13 and 11 years, Mashramani is one occasion that they have been using to spend such quality time.

“For 15 years we have been coming to this same spot to celebrate Mashramani. We spent two years building a relationship right here before we actually got married some 13 years ago,” said Clive proudly remarked.

Clive went on to say that he feels that Mashramani is about our culture; it’s about celebrating our culture. “We try to blend our culture because as you see I am Afro-Guyanese and my wife is Indo-Guyanese and so we both enjoy ourselves together as one – whether it is Mashramani, Phagwah or any other cultural celebration. We also have kids who have to enjoy both worlds and so we make it an important part of our socialising and we enjoy it too,” he said.

He feels that doing things a child or spouse wants to do, also send a strong message of love. I am a re-migrant after 40 years in the United States and while out there, he said that he enjoyed the celebrations there too. He said that now that he is home here in Guyana he makes it his duty to really have fun celebrating Mashramani.

PREPARING THE MASHRAMANI MEALS
Clive said that since about three o’clock on the morning of Mashramani he got up to begin to prepare all the Mashramani meals with his son.

He said that they see even the meals that they prepare as being a part of what it is to celebrate Mashramani and so while preparing a large variety of meals, they also keep in mind not just their family, but their friends and even passersby with whom they are willing to share their meals. There was evidence of this even as the Guyana Chronicle interviewed the family.

He added that it is a day that they really enjoy; they set up a tent since the evening before – doing it as a family, securing the space that has become their own – after 15 years; they then return home to make all the preparations for Mashramani Day so that they could come out as a family. “We are usually out here all day, until way into the afternoon – even when the last float and revellers pass by, we still remain out here having fun, he said.

RAISING THE BAR FOR MASHRAMANI
Clive told the Pepperpot Magazine: “I honestly believe that we need to have a little bit more understanding about what some of the floats are all about. Some of the floats have

little or nothing to explain what they are all about.” He, therefore, recommends that an accompanying literature or brief, with concise explanations are placed on a strategic part/s of the floats indicating what they are all about. For the steel pan, the music is so very high… you are talking about music, it is going over everybody’s head – it ought to be lower.”

While he commended the organisers for their efforts in bringing the people out on the road so that Mashramani could be a success, he felt that standards in some areas need to be lifted, especially in terms of the material presentation of some of the floats.
Vanessa Sampson also echoed the sentiments that as a family they really look forward to Mashramani. As the owners of two businesses, she said that they strive to set the standards and raise the bar very high, emphasising to their staff that they should treat people how they like to be treated; having neutral respect for each other.

GUYANA IS THE NEW FRONTIER
Clive said that since he returned home he has been telling his friends abroad that Guyana is the new frontier, “and honestly in my heart, I believe that we are the frontier, but we have to come together to make it a reality. I am really serious about this; we have to reach each other at a comprised level; we have to have that unity.”

LEAVING A LEGACY
“The whole idea with this Mashramani is that it is a celebration we really enjoy, that we want to leave a legacy for our children. We have been bringing out our children, as babies in their pampers, as babies and we are still doing it.

“I want to teach them to appreciate other people; to appreciate other people’s culture; not to shun other people but to respect them; children who would learn to build and not break their country,” the Sampsons said. (mercilinburke2017@gmail.com)