A young Guyanese doctor who migrated from Cuba to Guyana in 2019, and who has made Guyana his adopted home, has written a captivating 77-page nonfiction book detailing the 2020 elections five month deadlock which finally resolved into a PPP/C victory.
Five months of Agony is a beautifully and intricately woven tale of love, politics, frustration, hope, and ultimate victory seen through the eyes of a foreigner who had only recently set foot on Guyanese soil. In this book, the young Dr. Elber Oreste Borrego Almaguer provides great insight into one of the most crucial periods of Guyana’s history.
Through all this, he narrates how his personal life was affected and paints a beautiful picture of the country of Guyana and its people. His narrative beautifully reunites several distinct groups of people in Guyana while gently pointing out areas for improvement in an effort to show that love and unity always wins.
This book captures most poignantly a time in Guyana’s history when most Guyanese, and even people around the world, viewed the country’s future with trepidation. Many persons were anxious about what lay ahead after the 2020 General Elections and the subsequent prolonged process to determine which political party would govern the country.
To Dr. Elber Borrego Almaguer, the author of this book, those chaotic months of uncertainty mirrored his personal life and all the challenges facing him, including an imminent divorce!
A Cuban Guyanese, Dr. Borrego fell in love with this country even before he set foot here thanks to the love and patriotism of a Guyanese girl that had stolen his heart in Cuba! Our good Doctor was so smitten by his Guyanese love that he gave his all to make her happy while they both studied medicine in his homeland where, like her own country, life was no bed of roses.
He tells us, quite candidly, about the hardships Cubans have faced over the years under an oppressive administration. Yet still, he was ill prepared for the roller coaster ride that he had unknowingly embarked on when he landed on these shores.
However, Dr. Borrego heeded that ancient proverb that exhorts one to make lemonade if given lemons! The result is the book you’re holding in your hands. Herein you will find the story of his life back in Cuba, then here in Guyana…captured after months of love, misunderstandings, disappointments, and anguish.
A down to earth, caring, and sincere person, Dr. Borrego weaves an interesting tale of his love and all the highs associated with same, and then the subsequent lows as he fought to find his way in a strange land where political turmoil threatened to erode its peace and tranquility.
There was the unprecedented elections, the likes of which he had never seen, his personal battle to gain financial independence and to save his marriage that was swiftly headed for the rocks.
“Five Months of Agony,” is a gripping story of love, loss, financial struggles, then ultimate triumph set in a beautiful oil-rich country that veered precariously close to self-destruction.
