Site Placement!

We received great news about our site placement. Chris and I will be serving our two years in an Amerindian village in southern Guyana. It was one of our top choices, a combination of both our interests. We know there is a computer lab with internet in their resource center, but the electricity is from solar panels and it is only on the computer lab and a few other buildings (not our house). Our water will come from creeks and rain tanks, but there is no pipe water system. There are no land lines or cell phone service, but we will have Skype. J Chris will be working with the hospital doing health education and I will be working with their Department of Education, working with teachers to improve literacy and their library. We hope to get involved in secondary projects of environmental work and gardening. It is a fairly remote area, about 4 hours outside the nearest city, and due to flooding, we may not be able to get out for 2-3 months during the rainy season. (Don’t worry; there is an airstrip in case we need an emergency exit). This is about all we know, I’m sure our first few days will be quite an experience settling in and ‘integrating’, to use popular Peace Corps terminology. 

            We are still going in this week for a few final days of training before we swear in Thursday morning. Our swearing in will be attended by Guyana’s Minister of Health and Minister of Education, our Ambassador, Peace Corps staff, host families, and ourselves. We will be swearing in along with 30 other people as “Guy21”, the 21^st group to serve in Guyana. I would just like to take a moment to acknowledge the awesomeness of our group. I’m sad we’re going our separate ways this weekend, but I’m excited to see what we’re going to accomplish in our term of service.

            I have been coming to a greater understanding of what it means to be a Peace Corps volunteer through Pre-Service Training and from discussions with fellow volunteers. I am more confident in my decision to join Peace Corps and spend two years living in another culture and integrating into the community. I am going to develop these thoughts and write a blog about it later. 

            On a side note, Peace Corps volunteers read some awesome books and then pass them around, so I’ve already gotten my hands on a few. Recommended reading for those interested: One Thousand White Women, an amazing historical fiction story about the integration of Caucasian ‘civilized’ culture and ‘savage’ Native American culture, quite fitting for my upcoming adventure. The book had me forgetting it was fiction, not history. Read it, you’ll love it.    

            Quote of the post: “Some see the glass as half empty; some see it as half full. A Peace Corps Volunteer sees the glass and says, ‘I can take a bath with that.’”

            

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter from Guyana!

We are having a great time with hot cross buns and kite flying to celebrate Easter. We even got to sing "Up from the Grave He arose" in church this morning, my favorite Easter song. I must mournn the fact that we didn't get Easter baskets full of chocolate, but we did get to celebrate the resurrection and that's what counts. Kite flying is symbolic of the resurrection, so today and tomorrow, children all over Guyana fly homemade and store bought kites. Chris and I both attempted to make kites, but the store-bought ones definitly fly better. :)

The past two days we have also spent painting. One of our fellow volunteers is staying with a family who needed a building painted, so we decided to do a little 'community service', and have been painting inside and out - contrete annd wood. It has been a great time and has allowed us to feel productive.

So, in Guyana, animals are everywhere. Domesticated animals, roaming animals, wild animals: dogs, chickens, birds, goats, cats, chickens, ducks, turkeys, sheep, lizzards, mosquitos, donkeys, cows, and more. And, well, there are about three things they like to do: Eat, sleep, and... have sex. Maybe because it is spring, love is in the air? I heard kids from farms grow up knowing alot about sex, but I had no idea. They must know EVERYTHING. I have seen almost all the animals in the above list procreating. The male chickens chase the female chickens in a fierce hunt. The females last for a while, but then they are caught. Please send an email request for further description.

As for your Creolese lesson, "Boat gone down falls cyan turn back" - A boat that has gone over the falls cannot turn around. Meaning, once young people start in activities they shouldn't be involved in, it is hard to make them stop.

Chris and I were able to choose 3 sites we are interested in serving in, we wrote our essay about them, and will find out Friday where we will be. There was quite a bit of tension deciding which site was best and writing about why we wanted to be there. Our sites will either be small city or small village, Amerindian or East Indian, farming or ranching. We are excited to see our options and get excited about swearing in next Thursday (april 23rd) and becoming 'real' volunteers.

We're having a great time, we love and miss you. Can't wait til you visit. (Yes, you).

A Day in the Life of a PCT (Peace Corps Trainee)

4.30 am: Wake up to the sound of roosters crowing and dogs barking
4.45 am: Try to go back to sleep
5.00 am: Wake to the sound of host mother, preparing breakfast and lunch and washing the previous day’s dishes
5.15am: Try to go back to sleep
5:45 am: Wake up to another round of dogs barking
6:00: The day is heating up, try to go back to sleep in the warmth.
6:30 am: Decide it is time to wake up, get out of bed, tie up the mosquito net, and shower
7:00am: Press clothes for the day
7:30am: Eat Breakfast - baked goods, toast, crackers, or fried plantains
8:00am: Leave for training, take taxi to church 3 miles down the road
8:30 am – Noon: Education Training. Teaching children with special needs and alternate forms of assessment
Noon-1pm: Lunch – prepared by home stay mom, curry and roti (flat bread), fried rice, or fried potatoes
1pm-4.30pm: General Training – Cross Cultural Session: Creolese Language, Safety and Security: Incident Reporting
4:30pm: Walk to snackette for drinks and snack, take to the sea wall (Atlantic Ocean) and enjoy, complain about training with other trainees :)
5:30pm: Head home to home stay – taxi. Busy time of day, so be sure to squeeze 4 adults and 1 child in the back of a compact car, and one adult and child in the passenger front seat. “Mek yuhself small” as the taxi drivers say.
6:30pm: Dinner with home stay: Potato Stew, Roasted Eggplant, or “Cook up Rice (Rice and beans and vegetables)
7:00pm: Treat the day’s maladies: sunburn, heat rash, mosquito bites
7:30pm: Relax with home stay – play games, watch TV, do homework, play cricket
8:30pm: Get ready for bed – brush teeth, shower, get down mosquito net, apply mosquito spray
9:00pm: Bedtime, debrief day with Chris. Attempt to fall asleep in the heat.


The life of a trainee – after April 23rd, we will be living in our sites as volunteers, doing our Peace Corps work and integrating into our community. Training is a little boring, but we are having a good time meanwhile. We escape to area lakes on the weekends, swimming and cooking food ‘bush style’ – on the fire. Last weekend, we took 5 live chickens, a ton of food from the market, and made lunch – from killing and plucking the chickens to peeling the garlic and chopping the veggies, we did it all on location. Best tasting meal ever. I decided all the best meals I’ve had have been cooked over the open flame – can’t beat it.

Last week we got to visit current volunteers in Guyana to see what life is like. I spent a week with a couple in an Indo-Guyanese rice farming community. Both the husband and wife are working in primary schools, teaching computer classes, literacy, and Spanish. It was great to see their Guyanese friends, how they cook and live on the Guyanese budget, and how successful they are in their work. I saw the library and computer labs they established. Chris spent a week on an island in Guyana’s Pameroon River. He lived amongst Amerindians whose only electricity is solar power and who bathe in the river. I should also say he lived with tarantulas and slept in a hammock. We survived. Thrived. We are anxiously waiting for Friday; we will get the information about the sites available for us. We will find out where we can live, information on our jobs, and pictures of the available housing. Then we will write essays requesting the sites we choose and will find out the following week where we will be. Exciting times.


A few quotes from the week:

“Peace Corps. It is the ugliest time of your life.”

Q: “If the Amerindians sleep in hammocks, how do they manage to procreate?”
A: “They weave strong, strong hammocks. Built for two.”

“Where is Machews?” (Translation: Where is Matthew?)

“Me nah know” (Translation: I don’t know)

“You can buy happiness. It’s called cheese.” (Dairy is not widely available and is very expensive in Guyana).

Next up: Day in the life of a Guyanese animal, and more Creolese lessons. By request. J
PS: We are working on uploading pictures, the internet is mighty slow.