Our holiday had essentially started when Catriona’s mum and Holly came to PK since we were able to take some time off to show them around after we’d completed all of our paper work. That meant I was very much in holiday mode already when we broke up for the term and the two weeks that followed did not disappoint. The Easter holidays were filled with good fun, good food and even better company.

The first night in Georgetown we had a 3-course-meal in a nice restaurant, something I have not had since I left home and it was absolutely heavenly. There were vegetables and ice cream included in the meal; how could you possibly want anything else. That night I also got to take an actual, hot shower because we stayed in a hotel for a night. I am not joking when I say that I had happy tears in my eyes; that’s how nice showering with hot water in an actual shower was. The next day it was time for Treena and I to split up, which was quite weird to say the least. We’ve spent the better part of every day together for months on end, so to suddenly not see her for a whole week took some getting used to. I met up with some of the other volunteers and headed up to Bartica, one of the coastland projects. My first impression of Bartica was that it is vastly different to Paramakatoi. There are worlds between the nature of their project and ours. Bartica is a mining town by the river, with streets and shops and a night club and beach cafe and most other things you can think of – whilst we are waiting for running water to get installed in our accommodation in future years, they are currently waiting for a pizza delivery place to open up. That said there are beautiful beaches and creeks right outside the town that allow you to see a very different and quiet side of Bartica. It was definitely a great experience to be there, and combined with getting to visit Goshen, another coastland project across the river from Bartica, it made for a fantastic first few days of my holiday.

On the 23^rd of March Phagwah, the festival of colours, was celebrated in the Hindu communities of Guyana. One of those communities is Leguan, a little island up in Region 2 in which two of our volunteers are based and the place I spent Phagwah. We spent that morning going around people’s houses and playing Phagwah, which meant rubbing paint on people’s faces and throwing water over each other. We got some food and drink at every house which was an added bonus. The whole procedure was good fun and was only topped by the afternoon activities. We got to drive around the island on a canter of the Mandir. They sang Hindu songs and played the drums and other instruments whilst we all continued to spread paint and got splashed with water as we passed other people. It was a fantastic experience and something I will not forget easily.

The second week of the holidays was spent down in Region 9. We had to endure a 2-day bus ride to get to Lethem, where we attended the Rupununi Rodeo. There was bull and horse riding, lots of food and drink and dancing at night and all it all it was pretty fun. I have to admit that even though that rodeo was the big event with masses of people, I preferred the rodeo in Sandcreek, another place in Region 9, which we went to just after Lethem. There was traditional Amerindian food and the whole thing was generally more traditional than the tourist-orientated rodeo in Lethem; there were even bulls escaping through the fence which I found to be quite authentic. The bull riding was open entry, so two of our volunteers tried themselves as bull-riders, and whilst they didn’t win the competition and almost caused me to have a heart attack, they held their own and one of them, Tolly who’s placed in Bartica, even stayed on for a good 3 seconds – well done boys. After the rodeos, we toured Region 9 in a mini-bus. The region is very different to ours. It is mainly savannah and mostly flat, which is in contrast to our rainforest and mountainous area. Nonetheless I thoroughly enjoyed seeing all the projects down there. My favourite aspect of this part of the holiday was riding on top of the bus with music playing and just getting to enjoy the stunning scenery, and then watching the sun go down and the stars come out – pretty magical to say the least.

The holidays were very packed with travelling to different places, but there was definitely enough time to just relax and get some distance from every-day PK life. Whilst in Georgetown I went to the cinema twice, had pizza and burgers and tried to listen to as much new music as I could as well as buying a few bits and bobs and doing our big 3 month shop at the end of the holiday. It is so weird to buy 3 months worth of food all at once, and even weirder to think that this was the last big shop we had to do before we go home after next term.

When we got back to PK we got straight back into the way of things – teaching, seeing our friends, it’s all just normal life now and I am terrified to think that it’s only a matter of just over 10 weeks before it all ends and we go home. I plan on making the upmost of this term, squeeze in all the things we haven’t done yet and enjoy every moment of our time here. Before I know it I’ll be back home, and life in Paramakatoi will only be a memory. I really look forward to seeing everyone and to being home again, but I know how much I will miss being here.

And on that note: I will see you all soon.

 

Sending my love from across the world,

Lara

 

 

 

Sometimes, and for various reasons like putting up a blog every once in a while for example, it would really be nice to have internet that is actually available and functioning when you need it to be. As it is, our contact to the outside world consists of a few minutes worth of Wi-Fi every once in a blue moon when Dwayne, the guy who has internet, is in, which is rarely, and isn’t busy, which is even scarcer of an occurrence. Thus the lack of blogs I put up, which I profusely apologise for to anyone actually interested in reading them.

I included part of our term 2 activities in my last blog, and the rest of the term passed by just as quickly, if not quicker than the beginning of it. 11 weeks really isn’t much when you have school as well as lots of afternoon and weekend activities.

This term Catriona and I made it our goal to get involved in the community as much as possible. Our weekends were always packed. We spent them visiting places like Kato, Chenapou and Iramutang, baking cassava bread, spending time with the dorms children and in mango season, much to my delight, with fetching mangoes from Mountain Foot and eating as many as we possibly could. During the week we made it a point to visit our local friends after school whenever we could, which combined with the schoolwork we had to do kept us pretty busy most days.

I hadn’t expected it as much, but over time the place got colder and colder at night – I actually need a hoody most nights now and as I am writing this blog we have entered the start of rainy season which means lots of rain, and masses of mud. We took a trip to Iramutang, a place right across the Brazilian border, and whilst there I purchased a blanket, which is fluffy, yellow, has pigs on it and has turned out to be an absolute godsend (especially when compared to the musty sleeping bag I used before that).

Transport has not been our friend this term. It took us over three weeks worth of attempts to even get to Iramutang. First, the truck we had organised to get a ride with broke down, next the ATVs going were way out of our price range and then when we thought we had finally figured it out and were going to get a free ride, we were left waiting at 3 o’clock in the morning for ATVs that never came. We finally managed to get to Iramutang, and it was very odd just to be on pavement again and to have phone signal. It is pretty crazy how much difference it makes just to cross the border from Guyana to Brazil in terms of infrastructure and alike. Our bad luck with transport didn’t stop there, but extended to our Kato trips as well as our Chenapou trip, leaving Catriona and I to think we have some form of spell on us.

Our issue with the Chenapou transport was that we had organised an ATV to take us back to PK so we wouldn’t have to walk both ways, and then said ATV broke down whilst we were in Chenapou so we had to somehow rearrange. When you have no phone signal and rely on radio to contact people in the region, it really isn’t all that easy to organise things, but thankfully we managed to. I do enjoy radioing people. It’s pretty cool to get to call out to places and to do the whole “copy” and “roger that” procedure; however, it sometimes takes an eternity or even several attempts over a few days to get through to the someone and more often than not the connection is really bad, so I would really prefer to have signal.

The Chenapou boys had come to PK for Mashramani, the Independence Day, and when the event was over we trekked back with them. The trek was considerably easier this time, and Chenapou as impressive as the last. Our stay including bow and arrow shooting practices, two canoe trips and a visit to the Backdam. It was really interesting to see the Backdam, which is what the gold mining places are called. I got to try myself at hacking at the ground, holding the power hose and handling the pump (excuse the lack of appropriate terminology), all of which is very hard work in my opinion, and I only did it for a short while. Over the course of our stay we saw a total of 3 snakes, one of which Catriona almost stepped on when we were trekking back to PK, causing me a near heart attack. I still love Chenapou, and the village and our experiences there are definitely well worth the trek, and even the snake encounters; they do make for a good story as long as nothing ever comes of it.

We have had a few visitors to PK this term, and it is always with great pride and love that we show them our little village. First it was Jonny, representing our Desk Officer from Project Trust. He was only here for about half a day and a night, but we did our best to show him PK’s best sides and spots and I think/hope that he enjoyed his stay. Right before the end of term Catriona’s mum and her friend Holly came to visit. Again, we tried to show them as much as possible, and because we had a slightly longer time frame this time we managed to introduce them to our local friends and local foods and drinks like cassiri, carie and toumar. We also introduced them to the joys of fetching water buckets and bucket showering as well as showing them all our favourite spots. From what I could tell, they enjoyed their time at PK, and I would even say fell in love with it as quickly as we did; but then again, how could you not. When Anne and Holly came, they brought some things for us, including 2 boxes of cereal and actual (well, UHT) milk, which after not having drunk real milk in over 6 months turned breakfasts into a heavenly experience for a few days. It was really great to have them here. Catriona loved seeing her mum and I loved getting to meet her – she was incredibly kind to me, and so if she ends up reading this, I’d like to say thank you.

Towards the end of the term we had quite a lot of schoolwork to do. Our first task was to make the exam papers for our classes as well as specifications plus specifications tables and mark schemes, which takes up far more time and a lot more effort than I had anticipated. During exam time we had to invigilate our form classes and mark the papers of our subject classes. Once all that was out of the way it was time to do all the stats for our form classes, fill in the kids’ report booklets, create masterlists and balance the class registers, as well as having to do some other paper work. Doing all that paper work is definitely not on my list of favourite things to do, but it is a very satisfying feeling when you get finished with it all, hand your papers in to the headmistress and just be done with it.

The past few paragraphs were a very very condensed version of what I got up to this term. I really wish I could put up more blogs so I could describe aspects of my life here in more detail, but we make do with what we have. There is only one more term left now and I already dread the day I have to leave PK, and my kiddies, behind, so I plan to make the most of it.

This holiday was certainly marked by a lot of adventure, but also by relaxing, food and fun.

I apologise in advance if my travel accounts are far more detailed than any other part of my holidays, but I felt it needed the most explanation to get the feel across and to try to convey what it was like. Bare with me when reading, and try to imagine the journeys yourself if you can.

Treena and I spent the first few days of our holiday in Paramakatoi (PK). Josh and Jordan joined us from Chenapou the day after the holidays started, and then we just waited for the 5 Region 9 volunteers who were meant to go travelling with us. Whilst in PK, we took the boys to the Yawong falls, the rock, and we played cards, a lot. The other vols got stuck on their travels, so when we couldn’t hold on any longer because we had transportation to organise upon arrival in Chenapou, we just left them a key to the flat, a note on the door telling them to meet us there and apologising for just leaving without them, and then we set off. For those of you who have never trekked for 10 hours straight with the longest break being 15 mins, let me tell you this: it is tough. When we got to Chenapou, my feet were blistered and my shoulders dead, so reaching Mouth Creek, the site across the river from the village, was the biggest relief you could possibly imagine. Excluding the stop for casiri at a locals’ house, we made the trek in 10 hours, which is Amerindian time and therefore something I’m quite proud of since they are known to walk incredibly fast. The most striking part about Chenapou is seeing the Potaro River for the first time. When you are used to a sort of puddle from your village, it probably seems twice as majestic, but either way it is an impressive sight and I would be lying if I said I wasn’t jealous. It was the most incredible feeling to be able to freely swim and actually feel clean when leaving the water.

Originally, we were going to fly out from Chenapou, but there were some complications, leaving us to set off to Kaieteur thinking we might get stuck and end up having to spend Christmas in the village – we all took it quite well, I figured it’s all part of the adventure, after all. The Region 9 vols joined us the day after we arrived, fair dues to them for actually making it. They were lucky enough to hitch a ride on an ATV for part of the way. We spent a night catching up and sharing stories about our projects before the 9 of us set off for the Kaieteur Falls the next morning. The school’s headmistress had organised a boat for us, which, in Guyana style, was late, but at least turned up. From here on out, our experiences at Kaieteur were marked by a sequence of what I’d call extremely lucky coincidences. In short, we managed to go to all the viewpoints even though the top one was closed due to recent suicides because we met Steve Backshall (a British TV presenter) who took us up there with him; we were also lucky to meet a ranger on our way, who, when we told him our story, made a few calls and got our journey to Georgetown planned for us. He did originally ask us to pay the $3000 tourist fee for going to the viewing points, but when he realised we weren’t just your typical tourists but teachers in Guyana, he arranged for us to be able to stay in the guesthouse for free. We spent the night playing cards in the tourist lodge, then dancing and listening to music with Kaieteur’s tour guides in the local shop, which made for a really entertaining evening with very interesting people. The falls, the world’s longest straight drop of water, are breathtakingly beautiful and a sight I won’t forget very easily, and I feel very privileged not only for having seen them, but having seem them the ‘none-touristy’ way.

Our journey from Kaieteur was quite tough, but in retrospect also quite funny. We had to trek down ‘OMG Mountain’ very early in the morning and whilst it was pouring it down with rain; yes, the mountain’s name is an indication as to how difficult it was to get down it. I managed to fall a total of 4 times. Before you judge, know that it was incredibly slippery, the big rucksack on my back did not help, and barely any of us made it down without slipping at least once. Our group was then picked up by a boat to get to Mahdia, the one place in Region 8 that could actually pass as a town, and even has phone signal! Normally, a boat journey like that would be quite the fun undertaking, but when it is the one day that even flights to Georgetown get cancelled because of the heavy rain, it isn’t all that fun anymore. It took us the whole day, including a stop to switch boats, before we arrived, soaked through and freezing cold, at Pamela landing, where a truck picked us up to finally get us to Mahdia. We spent the night in the guesthouse there, and then drove the last stretch of our journey in a minibus. This was an incredibly bumpy ride, and we had a short delay when the driver had to stop because the break fluid was leaking. He ‘fixed’ it, then carried on, which left me feeling just a little bit weary for the rest of the ride, and very relieved when we arrived in Georgetown in one piece. I have to say that up to this point in the holidays, it was the most adventurous and spontaneous journey I have ever undertaken, and I would do it again in a heartbeat.

We stayed in Georgetown for the next few days, mainly eating food we haven’t had in months and exploring the town and its nightlife. Pizza tastes so much better when you haven’t had it in 3 months, and the joys of having phone signal and not having to walk for ages to find someone and pass on a message is something maybe only people who have lived without phone signal will understand. Some of the other volunteers joined us then, and we met the rest of them on our way to Lake Mainstay, where we spent Christmas. Our team of 9 had been increased to 21, and it was a very happy reunion. It felt great to be able to exchange stories and find out how other projects were going, but as good as some of the other projects sound, I can say without a doubt that PK is the best project of all and I am very lucky to be there. Being in Lake Mainstay meant relaxing by the lake all day and spending our nights in the beach bar right by the shore of the lake, from which we could just jump into the lake in the middle of the night, so it was nothing but enjoyable. I talked to home on Christmas Eve, which made me quite melancholic, but being surrounded by so many great people, so many friends, it was a brilliant and memorable Christmas despite that. During our stay, we played volleyball, had shoulder wars in the lake and some of us took part in the limbo, drinking and dancing competitions on Christmas Day. In a nutshell, it was incredibly fun and we were all quite sad to leave.

For New Year’s, we travelled to Suriname. We had a few days to go to the local markets and malls, visit the cinema and eat at McDonalds (yes!), and just explore Paramaribo, Suriname’s capital city. On the 31^st, a street fest took place starting in the morning through to the afternoon. There was a parade, stages with Dutch rappers and musicians, lots of food and other stalls to keep us entertained. At night, there was a big gathering in a park where we celebrated the New Year. The music was great and so was the atmosphere. Leading up to New Year’s lots and lots of firecrackers and fireworks were fired throughout the days and nights, and that night, a big countdown introduced us into the new year, and I could not have chosen better people to spend it with than our Guyana volunteers. Just to put the amount of firecrackers into prospect for you, on the first day of the new year, walking through the streets, you were literally treading on a bed of red remnants of firecrackers pretty much anywhere you went. Good luck cleaning that up.

We left Suriname very early on the morning of the 2^nd of January for yet another long journey of ferries and minibuses, after which some of us stayed the night in the Project Trust flat in Georgetown and then off we went to Paramakatoi. Saying goodbye to all the other volunteers for another few months was quite sad, and so was knowing we’ll return to no phone signal, barely any wifi and having to fetch buckets again. Good thing PK’s upsides far outweigh the downsides – I did miss my second home whilst we were away.

I was meant to finish there and leave this blog to talk only about the holidays, but we had no way of accessing the internet until now, so I will just include a little bit about the time since we have been back in the village. From the moment we got back, we were incredibly busy. We try to visit our local friends as much as we can, and get involved in anything possible. Dorothy, one of our friends, taught us how to make proper bakes and when we visit there is always a grapefruit, some curry or simply a nice chat in it for us. Weveny, another local, took us to her farm to pick oranges and tangerines. Climbing up an orange tree and getting the oranges down with a stick made me feel quite skilful and we then carried our gatherings back to Weveny’s house in her warashi, which is quite the experience and increases my respect for the Amerindians who have to carry these heavy loads for hours when they go to their farm further. One day, Weveny took us on a walk and we walked up the hill that provides the best view on the village. She told us stories about what Paramakatoi was like when she was younger, about the missionaries that came and how things have changed drastically since then. It was quite the feeling standing watching over the village whilst listening to her stories, and it just made me feel that that’s the sort of thing that makes me glad I chose to come here. A couple of weekends later we went to Bamboo Creek, an annex of PK, to stay the night at one of our student’s family’s house. We helped with the parching of farine (a staple food made out of the cassava root) and were given lots and lots of bananas, coconut, and farine and touma (a local dish with peppers and some form of meat) until we could not have eaten any more. Slinging our hammocks up in the wooden hut/house made for a fun night, and the next day before we left the family made armadillo stew which was actually surprisingly delicious. It was a very memorable weekend.

We also went to Kato one weekend and the Kato vols took us to the Paiwaramun falls and Mermaid pools, both of which were absolutely beautiful and well worth the long trek. In the weeks leading up to Burns night on the 25^th of January we also held Ceilidh sessions and made tartans in art club in order teach our kiddies a bit about Scottish culture. Both the kids and us had a lot of fun, so we might just do a few more Ceilidhs as we go through the term; if there is time, that is. What can I say, we are so busy this term that we actually have plans for every weekend leading up to the Easter holidays already, and I cannot wait for all the things we have still got planned.

The holidays absolutely flew by, and I cannot believe that we are already past the first month of the new year. There is so so much more I could and want to say, about the holidays, and our time here in general, but our lack of internet means I don’t have many opportunities to put blogs up, so I take to just recapping events. If anyone reading this blog would like to know more, though, feel free to send me a letter and I’ll be very happy to reply. Like I mentioned in a previous blog, receiving mail here is the most exciting thing.

Now I wish everyone a fantastic year 2016, and I will see some of you at some point this year (weird).

 

Lots of love,

Lara

Another month has passed, and I am still alive. It’s odd to think that I’ve been in Guyana for more than 3 months now. That’s a quarter of my year gone, just like that. In many ways it feels like I just left home, and then in others like I have been here forever.

Okay, so in my last post I was very optimistic that we’d get gas soon. The problem I didn’t calculate in is that there is this ‘just now’ mentality here in Guyana, just now meaning things get done in the range of in between 5 minutes and weeks on end. As a result of that, it was only a week ago that we finally got a new gas bottle – hallelujah. It’s hard to describe the joys that gas bottle brought for us. I’m tempted to compare it to having Christmas and my birthday on the same day. That might seem exaggerated, but if after 3 hours of cooking on the kero stove lentils were still hard and boiling water for tea takes about 1 minute on our gas stove whilst it took at least 30 on the kero, I think it’s not all that far fetched.

The other change that has come about in this past month is a change in weather. Until very recently, every day has been equally hot and dry; however, the nights have started getting cooler, and we have had a few pour-downs of rain, indicating the start of rainy season. When I say pour-down, I mean it. The ferocity with which the rain comes down is insane. I have to say it is pretty amazing being inside when the masses of rain start coming down; that is, apart from the leaky windows. And having our rain butt full to the brim is a gift since it means we only have to fetch our drinking water from the spring. PK being on top of a mountain, we don’t run the risk of getting flooded either, but that doesn’t stop the paths from turning into mudslides. We’re told by the time we return after Christmas break, we’ll be mid rainy season, and everything will be damp and muddy. That should be fun.

There’s still a week left of school before we break up for the holidays, and I cannot wait. Very high up my list of things to do over the holidays is eat some really nice food; after that, it’s catching up with the other volunteers and then start planning our summer holidays in an internet café somewhere. I still think it’s incredible that even in the remotest of places of this earth you are now able to get internet, even out in PK. Granted, it is very slow, and often unreliable, but still. It suffices for sending emails and making voice-calls, most of the time, anyway. The wi-fi in the little shop we normally go to is currently broken, so because we didn’t know there was another person offering it and we had a very important email to send, we went to Kato one weekend to use the internet there. The Kato volunteers told us the internet is very fast and much cheaper than ours. We trekked for 4 hours to get there, spent the day skyping home, sending emails and downloading music, and then trekked all that way back home on the same day. I call that dedication. It was so good to be able to see people on video, and even though I almost died going up the hill on the way back to PK, I’m glad we did it –I don’t think I’ll be doing that trip twice in a day any time soon, but trekking has become an integral part of my life anyway, and it was a good preview on our trek to Chenapou in the holidays.

Almost every weekend we take on some expedition or the other. We have visited several close-by villages, creeks and waterfalls. I find it quite difficult to describe any of the sceneries without either rambling on for pages and pages or simply not being able to depict what it is like. It’s walking for 2 hours, sweating like crazy and then finally reaching your destination that makes for half the experience. At that stage, when you reach a creek – this big, cool creek, surrounded by rocks, which you can sit on and climb over and just breathe, you feel incredible. Once, we sat there, ate the lunch we brought, listened to music and just relaxed after our journey, and out of nowhere a swarm of swallows flew by our heads, dipping in the water whilst whizzing by, only to loop back and begin the whole spectacle all over again. This went on for quite some time, and isn’t something I will forget easily. Now, this was only one of the trips we undertook. There were plenty more, all of them brilliant experiences but very hard to put in writing without going on and on. I have learnt one thing about trekking though: just starting off with the goal of exploring earns you a lot of laughter the next day, and could potentially end up with you lost in the depths of the rainforest quite easily. News here spreads fast, so if the white people go for a trek, ‘get lost’ and ask around to see where they can go, then everyone will know about it. We knew we weren’t technically lost, but the locals saw that differently. They also chastised us for wearing shorts, since there are lots of snakes around. Oops. Will not do that again. 

I do really love the people here. Our colleagues are great, so are the kids, and the locals we have befriended so far are amongst the loveliest people I know. There are two locals we regularly visit, and it is a pleasure every time to hear their stories, and a great laugh as well as a struggle to try to learn Patamona from them. We are trying to learn, if with little success at the moment. I have promised myself that by the end of the year, I will be able to hold up a conversation in Patamona though, and I will get there, you know, eventually.

I have had some very interesting experiences in terms of means of transportation so far. I’ve hitched a ride on the back of a truck, being seated on a bag of peanuts and thrown around through the entire, very bumpy, ride, travelled on a tractor trailer full of bags, pots and people and have clung onto the back of an ATV, which isn’t exactly comfortable either. All in all, the experiences were fun but severely discomforting, and I have learnt that health and safety just aren’t quite looked at the same out here as they are back home. It sure makes for some good stories though.

After the Inter-House Sports Competition that took place just before I wrote my last blog, the best athletes were chosen to represent the school in the Inter-Schools Competition, at which the athletes for the Nationals would be determined. The event took place in Kato, the village in which two of our volunteers are stationed. Catriona was amongst the teacher athletes, whilst I went along as a supervisor for our students. I will never forget our journey there and back. This is the journey of before mentioned tractor-trailer. I have to say that getting lashed by bypassing twigs is not amongst my favourite activities in the world and the comfort level of that sort of travelling really is quite low. The trip itself was really good though. PK being the only secondary school with the other two being what’s called primary tops schools, they have an advantage and win the competition almost every year. It filled me with so much pride to see our kiddies do well, and my voice was hoarse from all the cheering afterwards. I literally went crazy when Treena competed, and she was good! She even won the long jump in her category. The whole trip was a lot of fun, and I even got to be a scorer on the day of the jumping events (I felt very important indeed). There was one incident that impacted the enjoyment of our stay massively, though. My heart goes out to Arnold, one of our students, who slipped in the high jump and injured himself severely. He had to be flown out to Georgetown where he now awaits an operation to fix his leg, an operation which costs G$100,000 and for which the school is now trying to raise some additional funds to help out his family. I wish him a very quick recovery.

There was one other big event in the past month. Just last week, PK hosted the North Pakaraimas Expo. On Friday and Saturday, 16 villages from all around Region 8 came together to exhibit various cultural displays including dances, songs and a fashion show, compete in football matches and even a forro (an Amerindian version of a Brazilian dance) competition. I saw a lot of the traditional wear, which is absolutely incredible, and ate a whole lot of food throughout the two days, which was also pretty good. At night, there was music on the stage and people would dance the forro or just lime (the Guyanese way of saying relax) around the stage. After a few initial failed attempts to learn it in Kato I am proud to say that I can now, if slightly clumsily, dance the forro. I even danced with the Toshao, that is the village captain, of Karisparu, which is something I certainly did not think I would be doing. It has been a really good, and really fun weekend involving lots of food and dancing, two of my favourite things.

Coming up to the holidays, it is very evident that the students’ (and teachers’) work ethic has changed. The marks for the term had to be in this week, which means that there is no more work that ‘counts’ and students are well aware of that. Instead of moving on to new topics, I am now doing revision with the kids to go over all the topics we have done throughout the term. All of my students have worked really hard over the past few weeks and I am really happy and impressed with what they’ve achieved over the term, so I am quite content to lay back a little and just review content with them. I am also starting to make decorations with my class for our end of term class party, which everyone is looking forward to. There will be a meal for the class, and then a big dance with all classes in the extension building. I am just glad I have a form assistant who is helping me with the organising – I’m not entirely sure me cooking for 30 students would go so well. Treena is planning to get a ceilidh going, so that should be really good and I am excited to see the students try out that sort of dance. I am generally very excited about Christmas time here; who knew. Even in the rainforest with the least Christmassy climate imaginable, I am getting into a Christmas-mood now we have entered December. Treena and I have both received parcels lately, and getting art stuff for the kids and some chocolate and an awesome tea advent calendar for myself has definitely aided my excitement for this time – getting mail out here compares to receiving the most amazing present ever, no matter what the parcel or letter may contain.

I can only say it time and time again that there are so many funny, awkward, interesting, small moments still to be mentioned that I simply do not have space for. I wish I could get across on paper what it is I am experiencing, but all I can do is recount some of the main events and hope that anyone who reads my blog can also read between the lines and see the things that are left unsaid. I am having such a great time with countless brilliant experiences here and have no doubt that that will keep being the case throughout the next three quarters of my year.

So now I wish everyone back at home or wherever you are reading this blog a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year – may it be a good one.

 

I shall report back soon,

Lots of love from PK,

Lara

About a month has passed since I wrote my last blog, and so much has happened since. We now have a gas bottle! With the two functioning stove rings life and our cooking has improved significantly, resulting in successful lentil and potato stews, a very nice chickpea curry with rice, and more porridge than I would maybe prefer, for example. The Regional Educational Officer (REdO) told us we could eat at the dorms all year if we wanted to, which is incredibly generous, but most of the time we prefer to cook for ourselves. Both Treena and I love the rolls the kitchen staff makes, though, so we do have breakfast at the dorms quite often. For a week now, we’ve been out of gas, leaving us to eat at the dorms until our Head teacher organises for our bottle to be filled up again. Fingers crossed that will happen on Monday.

It is currently dry season here, and so, as expected, our rain butts ran out of water. For us, that means daily trips to the spring to fill buckets of water (best arm work out ever) and bathing as well as washing clothes down at the creek. Whilst it can be a bit of a nuisance once in a while, it definitely adds to the whole being in the middle of nowhere experience and is quite enjoyable most of the time. The only real downside is that I’m not actually going to feel clean until the Christmas holidays when I have a proper shower again; oh well, Treena’s and my new mantra: embrace the slum life.

Whilst life here may be simple, it’s often the simple things that make you happiest. Until coming here, I did not really understand the value of a nice biscuit or a slice of bread and I certainly took being able to contact anybody at any time for granted – I will not make that mistake again. When we do get small treats like that now, it’s like Christmas has come early. We also finally managed to string up our hammocks in our flat and have spent hours just liming (one of the Guyanese’s favourite word) or reading and listening to music. Already I cannot imagine life without my hammock. The children here don’t really have many coloured pens or paper, so they come by our flat to do drawings or to play cards on weekends and in the afternoons. The kids are lovely, and a lot of the drawings they make have sweet messages for Treena and me on them. Our goal is to cover one of our walls with them by the end of the year, and we are well on our way of doing that.

We’ve been very active in terms of doing things and seeing places throughout the past few weeks. One weekend we went to Kato, a village close to Paramakatoi, to visit the two volunteers Lucas and Dexter there. Kato is a three to four hour walk or an hour’s drive on the ATV (quad bike) away. We had planned on walking there on a Saturday morning, but on Friday night, quite surprisingly, two villagers from Kato turned up saying Lucas had told him we might need a lift and if we wanted to come along. Bear in mind we hadn’t packed and still had to shower. So we rushed, and off we went to Kato to spend a great weekend catching up with the boys and visiting some absolutely stunning waterfalls. Treena and I have also been on a few trips with some of the girls from the dorms. A group of them took us to a place called Yawong, which included bathing in a nice cool creek and visiting one of our student’s aunt’s house. Lovely people that the Guyanese are, we were given sugarcane and cassiri (a local drink made of cassava) when we were there, and a pumpkin and limes to take home with us. We have also discovered the deliciousness of fresh guavas, although I have to say the worms that inhabit most of them can be severely off-putting. When we went to Mountain Foot, another village that is part of Yawong, we asked the girls that took us to go down a different way, since the 4 that accompanied us to Yawong made us brave this very steep and big hill, which was an absolute killer on the way back – I cannot remember the last time I struggled that much to get up anywhere.

And then there was the big one: my 18^th birthday. Big shout out to Josh and Jordan, the two volunteers from Chenapou, who made the 12-hour trek to come and visit us that weekend. I do not envy them for the walk, and dread Christmas when we plan on doing it ourselves. We proudly showed them our beautiful village and its beautiful people.

The morning of my birthday, the 27^th of September, I went to the little shop that has internet and skyped home. Speaking to my family made me both happy and sad – I do miss them a lot. Treena went through the trouble of baking me a cake that day, which was awesome by the way; she asked if she could use the dorm’s oven and had the kids help her. What a legend. With September being Amerindian heritage month, my birthday happened to be the day the dorm’s children celebrated it. Some of the kids performed traditional dances, did sketches and played indigenous music. It was really interesting to see them all dressed up in their traditional clothing and to hear songs sung in Patamona. The matron knew about my birthday and asked me to come up whilst all the children sang happy birthday and lots of them walked up to hug me and wish me a happy birthday.

As if all that wasn’t enough, there also happened to be a lunar eclipse that night. When it was at its height, Catriona, Jordan, Josh and I went outside, lay on the airstrip and just watched it for a while. At the risk of sounding cheesy, that was absolutely magical and the perfect ending to an unforgettable birthday.

Probably the biggest event in school this term was the Sports Days that took place on the 8^th and 9^th of October. For about two weeks, the athletes amongst the students missed lessons to go to the field and practice, which meant that moving on to new topics became almost impossible. In the week of the Sports Days, everyone in school put a huge amount of effort into making banners and tags for their respective houses; everyone in school is placed into the houses A, B and C. On the 8^th, the events were long and high jump, with teachers competing only in the long jump. Luckily for me, it was only Treena and me competing in our age group (under 21), so even though my performance wasn’t exactly impressive, I still managed to score some points for my house, that being C-House, for coming in second. Friday was the day of the main events, the running. Almost the entire village turned up and the whole thing was very official. There was a sound system for the commentator, a medical tent, and food being sold everywhere. They even flew in ice cream, which Treena and I got far too excited about. The events were preceded by the three houses and their athletes ‘marching’ onto the field. In the weeks leading up to the Sports, Treena and I were regularly awoken at 5am to shouts of: ‘left, left, left right left!’ We really didn’t understand the need for all that practice, until we saw the marching that day. I was impressed to say the least. The students, led on by a commander, marched onto the field with somewhat of a choreography, which was then judged and gained them points for their houses. This was definitely one of those ‘you had to be there to get it’ moments, because me writing about it does not do it justice. Teachers were allowed to do up to three events, so as well as the long jump, I took part in the 100 and 200m sprints. I had previously sprained my ankle, so when it came to doing the 200m sprint, I more hobbled than ran it after coming in 3^rd in the 100m sprint. I still managed to get some points for my house and someone in the crowd shouting: “White gal sloow!” as I ran past.

I have to say that the whole experience was pretty memorable and different from Sports Day back in the UK, but then again, lots of things here are quite different. For example, until coming here, I wasn’t even really aware there was such a thing as World Teacher’s Day. Teachers at home, if you ever feel that you should be more appreciated, come teach in Guyana and wait for that day. Not only did our Head teacher Ms Paul make an announcement in Assembly to ask all students to be extra nice and good to us that day, but the teachers also spent the afternoon having food whilst we had our meeting to discuss the upcoming Sports Events and Ms Paul gave us all individual presents. We actually got presents! Okay, we got them as a result of the school doing so well last year so I didn’t technically do anything to deserve it, but I was still pretty content about getting a little woven jewellery box in the shape of a duck. Another thing I am very fond in terms of school here is the morning assembly. When the bell is rung at around 10 to 9 in the morning, the whole school assembles in lines according to their classes in front of the main building. First, the teacher leading the assembly asks them to do their morning prayers. They then recite the national pledge and sing the national anthem, or they recite the school pledge and sing the school song, depending on what day it is. I absolutely adore the school song, and Treena and me sing it quite a lot at home – not as nicely as the kids do, but with enough passion to match all the student’s put together. In two week’s time, it’s my turn to lead the assemblies for a week – we’ll see how that goes.

The teaching is often very challenging, and I can only apologise to any of my teachers who had to reprimand me for talking during their lesson – I had no idea just how annoying it is. Due to some changes within the departments, I now only teach Maths and Human and Social Biology (HSB), which I am definitely not going to complain about, since it is much easier to be able to focus on two subjects rather than 3. Having only limited access to any supporting materials for teaching, it is often a struggle to try to make lessons interesting and engaging. For HSB, I have my teacher’s copy of two textbooks and the chalkboard available to teach. More often than not that results in some very poorly drawn diagrams on the board for the students to try to decipher and copy. At times like those, I wish I were more artsy. Some of the challenges I face teaching here are similar to what I imagine them to be back home, i.e. hyper and talkative students, but some things you simply would not get in the UK or Austria. For example, one of my students decided to bring a bird on a string into class the other day. There’s me thinking it’s a toy bird throughout the entirety of the lesson, but no. At the end he walks up to me and goes: ‘Miiss, look!’ and has the bird fly onto my hand. I was so perplexed I didn’t even tell him off. I mean, who brings a live bird on a leash to class?? I really can’t complain though. Even if the teaching can be exhausting and frustrating sometimes, it is so rewarding to see students do well in a topic that you have taught them from scratch, to see that you can actually make a difference to their knowledge, as little as it may be. I love my classes, and as the weeks go on and I get to know my students better, teaching is starting to become easier by the lesson.

So far, I have had lots of ups, and the occasional down, but I am loving life out here in the jungle nonetheless and still cannot believe my luck when it came to being placed in this country, in this project, and with this partner.

I send my love home and miss everyone – I won’t be online for a few weeks now, but will update as soon as possible.

Lara

Lara

  

Almost two weeks ago now we arrived in Paramakatoi. The first thing that needs to be said is this: it is absolutely stunning. So much so that explaining it seems almost impossible. From the first moment on, flying over the village and seeing it from above, it had me in awe; rainforest as far as your eye can reach, a design in a small field that spells out ‘Welcome to Paramakatoi’ and then the village itself. For days, every time the locals would ask Catriona and me how we liked it here, our first response would be to say just how beautiful we think it is. Even now, two weeks in, I’m still taken aback every time I look out the window. What can I say, it is pretty incredible.

Upon arrival we settled into our little apartment quite quickly (once we got a couple of hours of cleaning and bracing the army of cockroaches in that is). Our home is really basic but homely and comfortable. There are two small bedrooms, a bathroom with a toilet and a shower (both of which are technically non-functional), a living/dining room and a small kitchen area. We don’t have running water; however, we do have electricity from 4 until 10pm and seen as the sun sets at around 6pm every day, that is absolutely amazing. Having cleaned, unpacked and decorated as much as possible we now live happily alongside all our house mates, which includes two bats we lovingly named Greg and Gregora, countless moths, the odd lizard and occasional cockroach. The amount of food we brought in from Georgetown (see picture!) will hopefully get us through to the end of the term. Getting food here is not easy because our remote location means everything has to be flown in and things at the shops are therefore very expensive. When we started our journey to Paramakatoi, that being a two-hour flight on an 8-seater plane, we were accompanied by 7 cardboard boxes filled with anything we might need. Treena and me are self-sufficient, although cooking on our little kerosene stove has proved to be quite the challenge sometimes and we have had some support from the dorms for a while– we should be getting a gas bottle for our gas cooker soon, but apparently getting one here is incredibly hard and can take some time; the bottle we were supposed to have somehow went missing over the summer.

Because Paramakatoi Secondary School is somewhat central, children from all around region 8 go to school here, meaning that many of them live far away and have to stay at the dorms throughout the term. The kids are great, and already they often pop by after school to say hello, or rather: ‘Hi Miiss’, a sentence I must have heard a million times already. After two days of getting timetables sorted in school I ended up teaching Maths in grade 8 (12/13 year olds) as well as Human and Social Biology and English in grade 10 (15/16 year olds). I am slowly getting accustomed to teaching and although it still feels odd to be on the giving rather than the receiving end of the education system now, I do enjoy it. All of the students, and especially my form class, one of the three grade 8 classes, are brilliant and I am finally learning the kids’ names as well as pronouncing them correctly, which I am probably far too excited about.

So this is life now. Teach from 9 until 3 in the afternoon, then come home and do the daily chores. We fetch drinking water from the spring and washing water from our rain butt, clean the flat, burn our garbage in our garbage pit and cook. Granted, we have had the odd mishap – there were several mini explosions when burning our garbage, we’ve ended up eating absurdly hot peppers we thought were sweet ones and I’ve taken a gracious slide down a muddy hill to list just a few, but overall, I’d say we are doing pretty well. During the week, we spend our evenings reading, playing cards, marking exercisebooks and drinking hot chocolate when we don’t visit people or have visitors ourselves and on weekends we go trekking and exploring, visit locals and play some more cards. The people here are some of the most warm-hearted and welcoming people I have met in my life and visiting each other as well as helping each other is a given here.

Treena and I have been welcomed into the community instantly; we’ve been visited as well as having been invited to visit, and have been given small gifts like bananas, mangoes and local vegetables like plantain. I cannot wait to see more of the area, get to know moreof the people and hopefully even learn some of their language (Patamona). If what’s to come is anything like what I’ve gotten to know so far, I don’t think I’ll be disappointed. With this I come to the end my first short insight into everyday life here in the deep rainforest of Guyana – I hope to give a more detailed update some of the aspects of life here very soon. 

Having started my journey to Guyana on the 21st of August today is the first time I have had access to internet, giving me an opportunity to share my first impressions and experiences in the country.
Granted, the journey was a long one (one 10 hour and one 1 hour flight as well as a bus journey), but it was also a really good one. It was the first time all Guyana volunteers got to spend time together after having been on different training courses, and everyone was buzzing with excitement.
The past few days have been incredibly exciting, fun, and interesting. We attended a sort of training course at the ministry of education here, went to a creek to swim and play volleyball, went for a meal twice (Chinese and Brazilian, yum!) and us volunteers were even invited to a pool party at the High Commissioner of the British Embassy’s house. Today, my partner Catriona and I went to shop for food. As a result of our project being so remote, we’ve had to buy enough stuff, including cleaning utensils and mainly food, for the next 3 months. It took us absolute ages to gather everything we needed and we ended up paying quite a lot of money, which might be due to our extra purchases like comfort food for hard times (I mean, you cannot go anywhere without cookies). The amount we spent was actually reasonable, but paying thousands of dollars, even though that might not actually be that much in Euros or Pounds, is very painful and will definitely take some getting used to.
We’ll be making our way to our project on Sunday and I cannot wait to be able to blog about our experiences there. It has been a really good first week in the country, and I look forward to many more.