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CONVERSATIONS WITH WILLS starting at end of February (didn’t mark exact date)
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–said opposition reaction to us hasn’t crystallized yet. Either for or against us. Since it is election year we should play it safe.
–One of the problems we have with people is the natural fear of strangers that people have. He said you have to work ten thousand times harder to convicne them that you are genuine.
–The opposition attack on us would bring to the fore the basic misturst people have for strangers.
–he said he thought [Desmond] Hoyte and [Vincent] Teekah would attack us again because we did not respond to his letter. When we asked why there hadn’t been some other official response from the government (like a positive article) he said that id didn’t make sense responding to Hoyte but deal with him as an abberation.
–he said he thought that Tim Stoen would never come back to this country but he thought
Grace Stoen might.
–we asked him if any articles in US(like appeared in [Santa Rosa] Press-Democrat, [Ukiah Daily] Journal, etc.) would influence Judge [Aubrey] Bishop if he were sent the articles. He said yes, they would. Then after that he tried to cover up and say that Bishop would be highly annoyed at the impertinence, but it was obvious that his initial yes was just that.
–he said the Western press was a twisted medium. Then he went off on some tangent about Americans getting concessions in different parts of the world in turn for their making concessions on Berlin issue. (I’m not to [too] clear what he was talking about.)
–When we asked how we could get more publicity he said that we had strong influence party-wise, and we should use our strong contacts in the party and display so much good that they couldn’t help but publicize them.
–he said one of the reasons why people in the Temple were so solid and why the group was so solid is that most of the people in the Temple had “been to the abyss and come back.”
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WILLS 7/3/78
(saw about school situation coming up)
–first tried to call a woman named Moore who worked in curriculum in Education and just transferred. She had cold feet and wouldnt talk.
–he told us he would get ahold of Teekah, Granum (man who he plays cards with and who has seen us around), and someone else to f[i]nd out what was going on.
–he told us that he had received three phone calls from Hubert Jack that day saying that he hadn’t been left out in the cold, and he’d be hearing something soon. He said he also received a phone call from [Attorney General Mohamed]Shahabudeen. Apparantly the Cubans went to Burnham and told him that they had treated Wills, and Burnham was embarassed because it had looked like he had left Wills out in the cold. That s why Jack called. I asked him if Burnhan was upset with us because we had contacted the Cubans to help him and he said no.
–he said in regards to Teekah that he is one of the people who believes we are a state within a state. He said the reason he was sending people at the time is because he has to speak in Parliament for the budget debate and he wanted to cover himself in case anyone asked about the Jonestown school. This way he could always say he was looking into it.
–he said he thought Teekah should be made to feel as if he runs education in Jonestown.
–said they would be looking at our curriculum, teaching aids, and personnel.
–said any payments thwat would normally go to teachers should go to the Party.
–Said our strongest case was the psychological climitazation our kids have to go through. He said a persons body can adjust to the temperature change, but psychologically and cultural-y it is not that easy.
–He said we should get across first and foremost that we want our children to be Guyanese and socialists.
–When we asked him about the Hoyte/Green competition he said that Burnham thrives on thier rivalry. He said he considers (he being Burnham) neither one of them to be socialists. and actually has no preference between [t]he two.
–he said he had been offered three different court cases to work on, every one of them in the thousands of dollars, and he refused a-l three. He said he didnt want to get into that right now. (I think he still has illusions he wihl be placed back in the government soon.)
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WILLS 8/3/78 conversation regarding Jennifer Small (radio antilles)
_He first started off by telling us that he had good news, that the orders had come down for us to integrate our school system into the Guyana school system. He said the report was that we had a good system. I asked if that meant our system “intact” and he said yes, intact.
–in regards to Jennifer Small (Radio Antilles), Pat Smal l (her mom) and family: there [their] dad’s name is Leon Small who is an alcholic. He has three times lost government jobs and three times gotten them back. He said it now looks as if he has kicked the habit, and he now lives on West Coast Berbice. (He prefaced his remarks by saying that”we’re now into security areas. OK”)
–he said the family is matriarchal (obviously). He said the mothers is a very strong woman who will do anything for her family, legally or illegally. She has prostituted to get ahead and has sold her daughters all over town to do the same.
–Inthe process he said she destroyed her daughter Marilyn (who is by far the quietest and most passive of the sisters, almost mousy) by prostituting her.
–Wills said he helped family several years ago by putting up money to help them get a boutique started, and he was paid back in full in stocks.
–He said they arecontinually on the fringe of the diplomatic corps, and they make sure they are invited to all the parties.
–he said the mther has used their daughters” “to advance horizontally through diplomatic society”
–Jennifer met Ron Sanders formerly known as Roy Singh, who was former manager of GBS [Guyana Broadcasting System], along with Shirley Field-Ridley. Jennifer went with him for a long time (this is when she had her radio show on GBS) but moved to Canada when he married Shridith Ramphall’s daughter (Ramphall is former foreign minister and represents the Caribbean community – I dont know his exact title but he moved up) /
–While in Canada Jennifer was caught shoplifting and aked Wills for help. She wanted to staythere. (Shes living here now so I guess that shows he failed there, but apparantly she didnt spend any time in jail.)
–Ron Sanders is now with Radio Anitlles, and this is Jennifer’s connection there. He guesses that he gave her a job. (We have found subsequently that she is not the official rep in Guyana for Radio Anti-les.)
–He said they will use us to advance themselves. He said that she has been a former party leader (PNC chapter head on the East coast somewhere) and they are very down with [Cheddi] Jagan but it is more for themselves than out of loyalty. He said they could go either way.
–He said that we could manipulate her either way – to work for us, or against us.
–He said that Goerge Luna, Prensa Latina rep and Jennifer’s old boyfriend, is working with Cuban intelligence.
–He said that we are now a going thing in town and they will try to use us for themselves. By going thing he said that people are talking about us, and we are well enough known that people are taking sides eithe[r] for or against.
–He said Radio Antilles is very embarassing to Guyana, and it has lied, conned, and exaggerate in their reports about Guyana.
–He said they will go to Jonestown (Jennifer and family) and say they love everybody and integrate themselves and be very nice and then come back and figure out how they can best use us. He said there [their] politics are PNC and they say socialist, but they will go wherever – they are opportunists.
–He said the mother has tried to se-l Jennifer to Burnham, [Deputy Prime Minister Ptolemy] Reid, Hoyte, himself, all the government ministers (I think he may have taken her up on it and thats why he was a little cautious when he asked us what we knew about them.)
–He said the question was wether we coudd get meaningful propaganda from Jennifer or not, and he said he doubted if we could at this time. He said that it was possible that she would do a nice story about the Temple. He said that she is in with [Carl] Blackmon at Chronicle because she fucks him.
–He said she will use Antilles as a lever of what she could do here. If they dont want her to do a story she will say she will go to Antilles, which will look bad for GBS and the Chronicle.
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WILLS (notes on Jennifer Small (cont’d)
–I asked him if he thought there was any way we could discourage them. He said to tell Jennifer thathe was our adviser on legal and information matters – our analyst – and to submit anything she was doing to him. He said that he will then discourage her. He said that he is very close to the family, and is like Jennifer’s godfather.
–He said she is very beorgeois, likes to drink and smoke, and play around. He said (in answer to Sharons question) that she might not find the cottages beorgeois enough, and that she would be looking to get laid by one of our men, and if she didnt get fucked, might give us a worse story than if she did.
–He said that to him this means that she is flat broke and she wants to use it as a gimmick for her to get a job. He thinks they are “desperate for money–”
–he said Radio Antilles is CIA backed, the owner is Stifling Hubert, a West German.
–He said the mother (Pat Small) is a strong feminist, and very strong woman. He said she likes to name drop.
–he said they leak information to the Venezuelans (they’re good friends with the ambassador), the Soviets, and the Cubans. He said this is why they are considered a security matter.
–Getting back to the school situation he said that Teekah wnated to hang tough with us but he can’t, because he can’t carry the opinion of the officials upstairs or downstairs. He said that now “he’s going to have to figure out how to tell Hoyte that the PM said to integrate the school system.” (He would not tell us who gave the orders at first, and this was a half-hour after he said that. I don’t think he realizes he slipped and let that out.)
–He said Teekah is in love with his power as a minister. Said if he saw a little boy in the middle of the street and told him to get out of the street, and the little boy didn’t do it, he would be the kind to call the cops on him.
–He said we should be expecting PPP attention in the near future, they probably will be attacking us. H
–He said we’ve already gotten attention from the United Force (right-wing third party) and Fielden Singh (who is supposed to be one of the ones monitoring our radio.), and now its the PPP turn, because its election year, or at least a referendum, an appeal to the people.
–He said the PPP is asking for a unified government, but rea-ly are trying to get some power. He said they decide what to do with PT based on both options.
–He said on the argument of national unity they have an asset the PNC does not have, and thatis Janet Jagan. He said she is white, American, Jew, socialist, who was criticized for years that her brand of socialism was not relevant. Now, because we are here in Guyana, she will say that if you have accepted PT then you have to accept me also. He said that she is the politician in the PPP. He said Cheddi Jagan was an idealist, and she is the politician. He said that she is in the Ehtel [Ethel] and Julius Rosenberg family,on the Rosenberg side.
–he said as long as they are pushing national unity, we are safe from attack, because we are strong factors in national unity. But if they move to a PPP vs. PNC approach, then it will be dangerous.
–He said when that happens they will attack us as being American stooges, plants, CIA, etc. Try to turn public opinion against us.
–He said that right now is the PPP period of stressing national unit[y], and we must not conduct ourselves in any way that the PPP could interpret to be remotely embarassing to the PNC.
–He said that he thought it would be hard for the PPP to carry out a really successful attack on us because of our strong support from the AmerIndians. He mentioned Patty [Cartmell] and Rheaveana [Rheaviana Beam], and the good job they were doing. He said the AmerIndian vote is tradioionally sympathetic to the black vote.
[Vibert] MINGO 27/2/78
–he said that in regards to Joan [Pursley] and Bobbys [Stroud] application to solicit funds he said we should stress in our letter the medical services we provide for Guyanese people. He said also mark it with copy to him, so [Guyana Police Commissioner Lloyd] Barker knows he is getting one.
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MINGO 27/2/78 (contd)
–he siad that one of the requirements of getting the license is that you have to publish twice a year now [saying] how much money you have made in that period, and also send a summary to Barker himself.
–Mingo said he would approve the letter even if Barker didnt.
–he said that people had mentioned we collect moeny, one of them specifically being [Robert] Corbin (protoge of Reid’s) who saw us collecting in Linden. Also a local minister mentioned it.
–When we told him about Barkers reactions to us and some of the things he said he told us he would have a talk with Barker and explain to him the official government position towards us. (The next time we saw Mingo 9/3/78 Barker came out of his office as we were waiting to go in. He was extremely nice, making a very pointed effort to say hello and smile, and even turned around as he was going out the door and came back and shook our hands and said hello again – a much different attitude than I have seen before, so I think that Mingo did talk to him.)
–he said that the general feeling among the ministers is that they appreciate very much a movement like ours that is doing so much to assist Guyana in terms of production and motivation.
–he said jokingly about Hoyte, who had his obvious prejudices.
–he said the PM has never expressed anything adverse against the People Temple.
–He said it was not true that the opposition asked for an investigation of Peoples Temple.
–He said he would talk to Dr. Reid about the problems we were having (in regards to the “hands-off” press thing). He said that he knew of no such policy, and had heard nothing of the sort. (What bothered me about this is why he would offer to talk to Dr. Reid for us when in the past he has been reluctant to do that even when we have asked. The problems we presented were not nearly as serious as some of the others we have talked to him about, so why is he saying this now? I wondered if he knows somet[h]ing we don’t.)
MINGO 9/3/78
–in regards to the cultural presentation he said it was a good idea. He said that even though many people know about us, we should have alot of publicity.
–he said he didnt think it should be free, that we should charge a minimal fund such as .50 or a dollar. He said some people like HOyte will try to find something sinister in putting on a free show, wondering why we would be doint this.
–he seemed a little taken aback by the fact that we were spending 3000 to rent the cultural center.
–he seemed to appreciate the donations we were making and also the donation to the PNC.
–he said he had not talked to Reid or Bishop yet.
–when we asked him about Jim coming down he said he would check that out for us. He said he didn’t understand why Jim was confined anyway. He agreed that we should have definite assurances before Jim comes, and promised to get back to us by Saturday (two days.) He said this was important. (In my opinion the way he reacted to this was with more seriousness than I have seen him react to most things we ask him. Not in a negative sense at all just very seriously.) He stressed that this was absolutely confidential.
–When asked about the rumor that some people said people were afer his and Reids job he said that “I dont think you should take that rumor seriously.” He said there were rumors about everything.
–When we asked him if Hoyte was next in line for the PM’s job he said that Hoyte does not have the temperament for the PM job. he siad “Nobody would want as Prime Minister a man who doesn’t have civility.” He said that Green and Jack were closer to the PM than Hoyte, and he thought Jack to be the closest. He said the reason that Hoyte sits in t-a #3 spot is that Hoyte was an elected official and Green and Jack were appointed.
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MINGO 9/3/78 (cont’d)
–he said he would talk to Shirley Field-Ridly to get us an appointment.
–he said that Radio Antilles was pro-[i]mperialist, and that we should be very careful and cautious with them. He said it is not impossible it is CIA. It is owned by West Germany.
–he got a phone call while we were there and one of the things he said was “Comrade, do you know I’m in charge of intellignece in this country?”
–he said “I know the official attitude towards you is one of wanting you and that you are a beneficial organization. I have not gotten any sign or even inclination that there is any feeling against Peoples Temple.” His reference when he says official is Reid and Burnham.
–He said he knows reactionary elements are strongly against us by the way customs treats us.
–he said he had not heard anything about our educational department.
LUCKHOO
–felt if we sued paper over there we should get an English attorney. He said he would nto [not] be able to do it.
–in regards to Bedford trucks he suggested that we go to the Britich High Commission and complain and they would act on it. If we wanted to sue Bedford we would have to do it in England.
–we asked why would the PM see us in the U.S. but not here, and he said he just felt that over there it would be different, because here he is always busy. He said not to mention a thing about it to anybody. When I asked him if the PM had given him some hint that this might be possible he said no.
–he sia d in regards to the paternity testing we should check with the ministry of health.
–he said laws were the same for selling wether a person was a vendor or in a company. You have to be licensed, and follow the price restrictions.
Ron VanDyke 9/3/78 (Senior Press Official)
–black, 29 years old, educated England & America, intense, very intelligent, very straight-forward, seemed friendly.
–He said that he had been wanting to talk with us because he had been sent the article on the twins [likely a reference to Monyelle and Marchelle Jones, two Guyanese children born Febrary 14 and adopted by Jonestown residents] from the Embassy in Washington D.C. with a not aksing why this hadnt been published In Guyana before. when we told him that we didn’t like some of the things the article said – such as primitive conditions – and that we hadnt asked for it, he said that he had “no objection to its content.”
–when we asked him who we should submit any press releases to, he said that they should all come through him. His position is more or less the official government censor. He said that any stories they put in the paper must be flexed, and should stress and tell about the workers life, nothing sensationalistic. He said the last thing they want is the image of the government monitoring the press.
–In regards to Hoytes letter he said he knew nothing about it beforehe saw it in the paper. He said that coming from a senior minister he must have discussed it with somebody, probably cabinet, and that it would reflect the attitude of the government. He also said that Hoyte had a very short temper, and that we shouldnt worry about it (which doesnt jibe with what he said about the government.)
–We asked why a release such as the one about Peter Fernandes hadnt been published, and he called the Chronicle immediately, and asked them if they had received any stuff from us. He then said that he wanted everything we had ever submitted brought to him, with reasons why it hadnt been published if it hadnt. He siad that “surely you must have talked to your editor.” He seemed a little perturbed that they hadnt even given us a reason why they wouldnt publish something, he said it was a courtesey. He said he would tell us why. l
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RON VANDYKE (cont’d)
–he said he would get an official position document from Minister Field-Ridley, Hoyte (because he’s minister in regional development) and the Chief Information [O]fficer., stating their feelings about Peoples Temple.
–he said that he did not know that much about us, had heard about us, but wasnt too familiar with our programs.
–he said that while he was in Poland someone asked him how many Americans werein Guyana and he said just those at the embassy, and the person told him he was wrong and then mentioned that we were there.
–he said he spends most of his time travelling indifferent countries.
–he said one of the problems faced was sociological. He said the North West has always been basically aleinated from Georgetown, almost as if it was a separate country. He said the North West is a different way of life altogether, with different customs, traditions, etc. And the government is trying to integrate all of Guyana, and the North West because of its inaccessibility is hard to accomplish this wiht.
–he mentioned that he had tried to come to Jonestown but couldnt get in because the road was impassable. He said he saw our people selling stuff in Kaituma and it impressed him because we were being productive. He also said that he knew our people who were selling were asking questions about him.
–he said that he thought the idea of press people going up to Jonestown was a good one. He had heard about it and wondered what was happening. He said that he keeps tabs on the media in Georgetown and what is happening.
–he is good friends with George Luna, the Prensa Latina rep. He said he also knew the
Cuban ambassador well.
–he said he would come to our open house. He also said he would like to talk to us out of his office in an informal setting.
–we asked him for dinner and he said he worked late and then went home and cooked for himself – stressing his independence I thought. He said openly that he had some feelings against Americans because “Americans took my wife away from me.” His candor was kind of refreshing, after playing so much diplomatic bullshit games with people like Wills and gang.
–he said he tboght [thought?] was Sharon was a very well-rounded person, he told me that I thought too much, like a politician. He mentioned it later, both times he mentioned it was when I asked him questions. The first was when I asked him what was the Official lpolicy statement exactly, I dont remember the second. I thought it was a clever way of not answering the question.
–he said that he had met socialists who were more socialist in the U.S. than people in Guyana. He wouldnt say who because he said it brought back unpleasant memories, but he said they were more committed.
–he said he would come to Jonestown and visit.
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ERIC CLARKE 7/3[?]/78
– his retainer was due this past January, and it is $2400. He said we had been paying it semi-annualy.
–in regards to suing paper. He said the procedure would be to file in England. He said they do have associates there. In Guyana it would be more difficult because you would have to “prove publications”, by proving that someone read the article in the paper and it was slanderous. Because there are so fewer people in Guyana, the damages wouldnt be nearly as great, as they are measured according to the number of people that have read the slanderous information. He said in Engladn our damages would be much greater. He said his firm here would work in conjunction with people there, and all depositions would have to be filed with him here in Guyana. If it came to trial then we would have to send one of our people to England. Even if we did take it to court in Guyana and won the judgement, there would be a problem getting the judgement recorded in England and then collecting from the paper. He said in Guyana you have a year to sue, in England he wasn’t sure but felt it was 6-9 mos. If someone did have to fly to England for the suit they could not recover travel money as part of the suit. He said it would be much easier to get a settlement in England also because the papers dont like to go to court. Thye will fight to the very end, until it gets to the point of going to the judge, and then will settle out of court. The papers dont like the publicity and bad PR involved. He said Amin’s former foreign minister won damages from every paper in England when they printed stories that she had had sex in the airport.
–he will be in London for 10 days starting next week. We can speak to his secretary about any developments and she can notify him.
–He said we have bean incorporated into the Laws of Guyana. He said it was done in the best possible way because it was passed by Parliament. He said [Eugene] Chaikin had come to him earlier about changing the name from Peoples Temple of Disciples of Christ to jsut plain Peoples Temple. Also Chaikin wanted to make the Peoples Temple here a separate entity completely (from stateside??) He said he drew up the papers but has not gotten them back yet.
–In the case of Brindlye Benn he said that we could sue, but we would never get any money out of him, because he has none. He said if we wanted we could vindicate our character in court, and get an injunction against him to ever print anything about us again. He said this sort of thing is done. (My opinion: I think we could get a cour injunction but while the procedures are going on Benn would probably attack us every week, just adding fuel to the rumors already going around town.)
–He said he read the [Calif. Lt. Gov. Mervyn] Dymally article and he saw nothing init at all to call for the reaction of Hoyte. He said he doesnt see why he worked up the ire that he did, and though Hoytes letter was “uncalled for.”
–He said one reason Hoyte may have been upset was because he didnt get the opportunity to meet with Dymally (I wonder if he even knows to this date if Dymally didnt come.)
–He said that [Judge Cecil] Kennard said that we were the best cooperative development Guyana has ever had. He said this last september or october.
–He said in regards to the Hoyte article he wondered if it was the entire cabinet acting because it came a day after a cabinet session. He said that bothered him and he wondered if cabinet was changing position towards us .
–he said he would try to arrange an appointment for us with Hoyte and try to find out his feelings towards us. He said last time he asked Hoyte to meet with our people he met with them that same afternoon.
MC COY 8/3/78
–he said nothing in the letter about Mary Rodgers indicated any hostility towards the church. He said it asked for her to call collect.
–he said the mails were travellingvery slow. It took him one month to get a letter from his son and 9 days to get an official state dept letter.
–the letter said in part that her mother “cant get any mail from me. I have sent registered letters and they have come back to me.”
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MC COY (contd)
–He said the replacemens for him and [John] Blacken were: Douglas Ellis [Ellice] to replace McCoy, and Richard Dwyer to replace Blacken. Ellis is supposed to have a good reputation and is coming from Luxembourg. Dwyer was hand picked by Burke, and has been working int he state department. (Note: Wills has always told us that the #2 man in American embassys is usually CIA. He said MC Coy was the exception here. However, when McCoy leaves, it most likely will be Dwyer again. When you consider that Burke’s last assingment before he came here was Thailand – he was ambassador when they had the right wing coup with US support – I wonder what this new combination will be like.)
–He mentioned there was a man named Malcolm Jensen who is with USAID, who has been here for a couple of months, who is a HAM operator and who has talked to our people before. He came from LaPaz. (I wonder if McCoy is giving us the name of our official monitor?!)
–He said that Radio Antilles was the best radio station in the Caribgbean. He said the name of the Antilles rep here was carlton James. He said they have alot of news both from BBC and VOA (voice of america), especially BBC. He said they report the news just like it is, very factually. Said it was the most powerful station in the Caribbean.
–He said in the rumors he had heard whenever he traced them back he never found one coming from an American.
–He said when he is asked about us he tells people what we are doing here. He says he tells people that no allegations have been proven against us, that we are decent, law-abiding citizens who are trying to help develop Guyana. He tells pople that none of the charges against us have any substantiation.
–he said that Chief Justice [Harold] Bollers was very, very praiseworthy. He said that “he filled my ears with praises” about the Temple, talked about the slide show he had seen and party he had been to. McCoy said we should keep that kind of thing up.
–he talked about [Tim] Stoen, and how about ex-members of any organization are very strong in their opinions. He gave an example of people being converted from one religion to another how zealous they usually are with their new religion.
–When we told him that Stoen had suggested radical activities he said “What does a church have to do with radical activities? Why would he suggest something like that?” His implication was that we must have been political in the first place for him to suggest that, but we just told him that we didn’t know why he did that, we wondered ourselves.
–he told a story of how he had seen a young american kid spit on the flag in israel, and then got thrown in jail fordrugs. the kid called McCoy for help, and McCoy said he felt like telling the kid where to get off, but he couldnt.
–he said he was only going to Wash DC for two weeks, he wouldnt be leaving Guyana until August. Blacken will be leaving next week.
JENNIFER SMALL, RADIO ANTILLES 8//3/78
–house is very, very bourgeois, decorated very expensively. The mother, Patiricia Small, is an interior decorator (and is a very creative woman, there’s no way around that.)
– at first the mother wasnt home, jsut Jennifer, Andrea (youngest at 15), and Marilyn.
–when asked what she did for Antilles she said everything, that she did documentaries, she was a disc jockey, she did whatever.
–she used to have her own radio program on GBS, something about women.
–she said she wanted to do a documentary on us, andwrite in the Chronicle. She said she was going to ask Carl Blackmon to give her the Comment column for a week to anser the rumors that have been circulating about the Temple.When I asked if she thought she could get the column for a week she said sure.
–I remember her taking notes when she asked me aobut my background (I made no mention of drugs at all), when she asked what we wanted to do here, and thats all I remember. At the end of the night she had a very few notes, at the a most a half of a steno page full. Some of the other questions she asked included: Are people free to leave if they want to? How did we get the moeny to do this, how do we support ourselves?
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JENNIFER SMALL (ccontd)
–she wanted to know if anybody could visit Jonestown, if we had a man with a gun posted at the gate, what the racial balance of our group was (they thought we were primarly white)
–she criticized our radio show, saying that she thought we could fit more into it, and she didnt like the informal format.
–the rumors that they had heard:that Jim Jones named the town after himself. that we had come and gotten what was due the Guyanese people (thye said this was the general feeling among the people),that we are out for ourselves and dont want to integrate into society, that we dont let people visit Jonestown, that we had to flee the United States.
–they said that they had heard on the radio a former official in the government say something about “who are the se people in Peoples Temple? who knows about them? who are they to drive around town with a foregn license plate – what would happen if we went to America and drove around with our plates.?
–they suggested that we give to other charities besides the Uncle Eddy home. the mom siad that the Uncle Eddy home gets all the donations, that the Bellfield Home for Delinquent girls never got any, nor did the Mahaica Hospital for Lepers, or the Chisre Home for Retarded Cylidren. She said that they should get some donatins also -everybody was always giving to Uncle Eddys. She is a social worker at Bellfield Home.
–the mom is incredibly agressive -she literally makes Sharon look passive in comparison. I detected a look of resentment on Jennifers face when the mom came in, like she was upset she was doing all the talking. The mom won out, and dominated the conversation for the entire night.
–the mom claimed to be so close to Fred Wills that he was almostlike a relative, and also that she knew the Prime Minister and Vila [Viola] Burnham. She showed us some pictures of herself with the Prime Minister.
–she used to be the chapter head of a PNC group
–she was very, very strong in her support for Burnham, you could almost say she was literally raving aboiut him.
–she said that Guyana had to learn how to develop its own resources, and that she loved her country. She said it was a developing country and it would be hard now, but would get better if people would work and produce what they have. She gave an example of how when English white potatoes were coming into the country, the people cooked eddoes and cassava. Now that the potatoes arent coming in, they are complaining about not having them, and not cooking the cassava and eddoes.
–they put on a fashion show for us, about 45 minutes worth of showing off all the dresses the mom has made, including one that had 18 karat gold thread and the material alone cost $750.
–when I asked Jennifer about Carl Blackmons feelings towards the Temple, she misunderstood and said something like he was a very nice . I didnt push it.
–they said they would be coming to our open house and the talentshow. they thought the talent show was a good idea to help dispel rumors and for people to get to know us better.
–thye told jokes for over an hour, mostly riddles, some dirty jokes.
–We did express absolute support for the Prime Minister in our conversation and told how active we were in the party.
–Jennifer metnioned early in the night that George Luna (prensa latina rep) was her old boyfriend.
–the mother made the racist remark that East Indians were able to pick up on things better than africans. She said that africans just “sort of let life go by.”
phone conversation with Dr. Baird 9/3/78
–wanted to know if the Public Health Inspector had come back in to Jonestown yet. I told him I didn’t know and would get back to him.
–was a little upset with Sharon, said she got too excited.
–In regards to Larry [Schacht]: the normal period fo training is one year, with the interns ob & gyn, surgery, and medicine. He said he knew that Larry’s training would have
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be split up into blocks of time. (I assume he was thinking of 4 month blocks.)
– he said that those block periods could be shortened if Larry proved to the people who were the teachers that he knew what he was doing. He said once he gets their stamp of approval he can move on.
–The Dr. in charge of this course of training is Dr. Chin. Larry has an appointment with Chin on April 1 at 9:00 am.
–he said there was a doctor tha tis supposed to be placed at pakiri hospital (I guess thats in Matthes Ridge.) He said that if Larry had to come in to Georgtown for long periods of time they would try to work something out where that doctor would come to Jonestown on a regular basis.
–he also suggested the possibility of Larry taking his internship at Pakiri, in which case he could just go bakc and forth.
–he said he understood the problems with Larry coming in to georgetown. He said he had been under the impression that Larry had done some internship, but was surprised when he found out he had done none.
–he said that the radiation unit in Georgetown was now working, and that they were no longer referring patients to surinam. he said to have Dr. Searwar and Larry send in a medical report and he would arrange the appointment for Lenora.
–he said that he was at the Moravian church both times we were there, and he enjoyed it very much.
–he said that he had been sent the article that was in the Washington Star , and he did not sound that enthused about it. I explained that we did not ask for that to be published, and didnt know it was coming out. He mentioned how it talked about “the jungles of South America.”
–he was very friendly, and seemed willing to work on something. He said any arrangement would have to be approved by [Health Minister Hamilton] Green, and he said several times “if the arrangement meets with your approval.” which means to me that he is still open to negotiation.
–he said he would be coming to the cultural show.