I want to say thank you to Portland Timbers owner Merritt Paulson who extended an invitation for Shawn Levy and I to take part in this historic trip. It was an honor to not only represent the club and the city, but all of the Timbers Army, both as fans and also as professionals in our chosen crafts.
We both understood the historic aspect of this trip and that hundreds, if not thousands, of folks who consider themselves Timbers fans would have done nearly anything to have been in our shoes for this journey. We respect you and did everything in our power to honor you.
I am very grateful, and in return, both Shawn and I did our best to keep folks up-to-date of our adventures through the various social media tools at our disposal. Needless to say it was more than we could have ever imagined, starting from the first email confirmation to the time we stepped back off the chartered plane back to PDX. The entire team representing the Portland Timbers accepted us in, and made sure we had all the best every step of the way. In the end I got pretty emotional thanking Coach Porter, Gavin Wilkinson, the entire team who made the trip, and every Timbers staff on the airplane back to Cascadia.
Not only was it an honor to be with the club, but I've been very thankful for the opportunity to have traveled with Shawn Levy. He's a pretty amazing writer and travel partner. My rule of thumb is to always follow a New Yorker in the city.
-Steven Lenhart
Guyana is a tough place. I've traveled Eastern Europe before the Euro, and have spent extended time in Mexico City and surrounding areas on two occasions, but Georgetown, Guyana is different. A certain smell is in the air that isn't pollution but decay. Only a few places seemed safe, and even fewer were safe for eating. Oh, and the water, forget about it. No one can drink the water. Sanitation is a huge concern with open sewers and piles of garbage littering the streets. To me it seemed it's a fight just to deal with life.
I struggled to locate sanctuaries where a person could just go to chill out. Certainly not the "Seawall," a place where you would at least think one could go to ponder life's wonder in a level-headed way. The shoreline did indeed have sturdy benches but although we had walked the hustle of the market for over an hour I did get a potential "this is a dangerous area" vibe about the Seawall. Maybe it was the folks milling around in the hot muggy sun next to open piles of waste, or maybe just the cow/bulls with big horns hanging out in-between missing barbed-wire fences? Pick your poison. It was a truly dark place.
I didn't realize how intense such an adventure could be.
Normally when making decisions about what type of camera gear to lug around I think ahead about what types of shots I want to frame before even coming into situations where subjects exist. With Georgetown, Guyana the only thing I had to go by was the very limited trip reports and images found on sights such as google image search and flickr. Photos of the market clock tower, the Cathedral, and Providence Stadium being the most common.
Add in to the idea that Shawn and I had warnings about theft in the streets by our traveling team security man and the very taxi driver who was about to "drop us off in the safe area" around the market. Despite those concerns we still were determined to explore this ourselves, and explore we did. We walked Georgetown's fringes and depths for six hours, going off the map grid for much of the day despite more safety warnings from passers by on the streets.
As a visual person I've always had great wonder when flipping through National Geographic and seeing exotic locations and how photographers have dealt with such scenes. This time it was me exploring in a potential beehive of a place behind a camera. For me the making of memorable images includes taking in more than just what I see. Although I'm not a writer I do feel meeting, talking and asking questions adds depth to my best images or the best images I desire to make. By breaking through all warnings, Shawn and I were able to experience some pretty amazing moments both on and off camera.
The guy who identified Levy as being from New York because of his walk and me being a little "country," the teenager with whom we yelled back and forth across the street about our Chelsea predictions, the group of kids we saw huddled around a television playing FIFA, the two kids we met on Bent Street who told us the history of Alpha United, and the cab driver who wanted to talk Landon Donovan and had questions about who the best footballer we have ever seen was. Truly amazing. Truly memorable. Truly comforting in the name of a round ball.
But indeed we were here for the game, a game. The big game. A Timbers CONCACAF Champions League match to be exact. A Portland Timbers "Club" I have followed in one form or another since childhood. They had a job to do and I was here to document these important moments for my friends back home.
On match day, once inside the stadium and while messing about with my camera gear, I was greeted by a fellow who introduced himself as a local photographer. We chatted and I mentioned my lenses fogging up after only a few shots from the humidity. He advised me to keep my lenses out so they were acclimated to the air and within 10 minutes the fogging would no longer be an issue.
His side-kick for the night was a Guyanese fellow who now lives in New York City and hadn't been back for 25 years, until this current visit of two weeks. We talked about the struggles of the people and he lamented the total lack of infrastructure. He then pointed out the standing water in the aisles of the stadium, the stadium that's "supposed to be the prized national stadium of the country". Despite my Timbers evangelism, before we parted ways, he said NYCFC is who he will be following starting next year. I wished him well.
As we all know the Timbers put in a most excellent performance against a motivated and feisty Alpha United FC team. The match ended 4-1 Timbers, with a free kick strike by Alpha United being the best of the bunch. I left the stadium feeling content and proud, but I returned to the Pacific Northwest different. Ask me about it.
The return group match in Portland should make for another memorable night for both clubs. Trust me.
