Tough Decisions Taken

After the successes from the night of the Award Ceremony, it was clear that tough talks had to be made. We had some serious backing but time was ticking on, throwing us into a vicious circle: flights had to be booked but permissions were still nowhere to be seen. Delaying booking til permissions came in did offer more security but came at a cost of increased flight prices. For a cash-strapped bunch as ourselves, it was a difficult time to play the waiting game

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But the waiting game could only go on for so long. This culminated not long after the Guyanese general elections on 11th May, where a new coalition government between the ANPU and Alliance for Change was formed. We learned that with this reshuffle, there was- for a matter of weeks-no Minister for Amerindian Affairs in office, bringing our ethical approval application to a complete stasis at a time where speed was required more than ever.

Thus, it became clear that permissions would not come in time for the proposed dates of the expedition in August, a real blow when coupled with recent advice from our fixer, Ashley Holland, to not make any arrangements until all approvals had been met. This called for much harder decisions to be made.

To this day, we are still unsure who first brought forward the new idea. Our Aberdeen team, a doctor, a writer and six medical students spread across two universities and two year groups, had always been difficult to fully assemble due to our vastly different schedules and locations. However, four of us had the opportunity to undertake an “alternative project” through Medical Humanities as part of the curriculum from October to December 2015. Could we postpone the expedition until this block? Naturally, it would come at a great cost- slashing our team in half and robbing those slashed of the expedition itself. A meeting was called, and with a very heavy heart indeed, we unanimously agreed that this postponement was the best idea. This state of affairs, we agreed, is better than no expedition at all. Nonetheless, we are now armed with time back on our side to push these applications, gather equipment and prepare for everything this expedition will throw at us.

So, Guyana, you won’t be seeing us budding researchers for another little while yet. But every delay, every hitch and every challenge only makes us hungrier to get this fantastic expedition underway.