Sep 09, 2025
Dem Boys Seh, Features / Columnists

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Kaieteur News – Every September is the same story. Guyana does turn into a fashion show when school open. Yuh could swear is Milan Fashion Week. Lil pickney pon the road, shirt white like angel wing, skirt pleat sharp like cutlass, hair grease till it could fry egg. And shoes? Oh lawd, the shoes!

Dem shoes does blind yuh. Shiny shiny, brand new sneakers, some looking like it come straight outta Foot Locker in Miami. Even if mummy and daddy had to pawn the fan, sell two chicken, or tek a lil credit from the neighbour shop, that child going to school wid new shoes. That is national tradition.

But leh me tell yuh, is only a half-day miracle. By lunch time, dem same shiny shoes looking like dem march through backdam. The sneakers that did white like toothpaste now brown like cane mud. And is not de children fault. Guyana’s duty roads and schoolyards alone could destroy a brand-new pair in five minutes. Hole, dust, and them lil roadside trench water splash does baptize them shoes quick quick.

Still, parents proud. They don’t mind. First day picture must tek, even if the uniform starch so hard the child can’t bend he elbow. Facebook does flood with “My baby first day!” while the child looking like he in police parade drill.

By second day, reality set in. The shine gone, lace tear, and mama already shouting, “Keep yuh shoes clean, man!” But the cycle done start. Every year is the same scene: Guyanese parents determined to prove that even if booklist long like Bible, dem children going out respectable.

So when dem foreigner seh how impressed they be with Guyanese school pickney, they right. We does start bright. But dem boys seh by afternoon, is not about shine shoes anymore — is about strong sole.

Talk half. Leff half

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