Coming along

Caimen!

 

Greetings from Guyana! We are almost feeling settled, working on our third week here. We have started our jobs, Chris at the regional hospital and myself at the Learning Resource Center. We are still figuring out exactly what our roles will be and what we’ll be able to accomplish. Chris has been enjoying working in the hospital, weighing babies and giving health talks to expectant mothers (Breast is best!). He has also been hard at work, wielding a cutlass (machete), cutting down the wild savannah grasses that are our backyard, making way for our future garden. The South Rupununi is known for its cattle ranching, and it is the village joke that the locals eat “meat, meat, and meat stew”, so we are hard at work finding some ‘greens’ (vegetables) each day. We have befriended several farmers, so we’re doing alright, but we are anxious to get started growing food. The soil is sand which is throwing us for a loop, but apparently it is quite fertile, so pray for a good first crop. Those who accuse me of being picky will be happy to know I have begun eating eggs, black eyed peas and other beans, and the local staple – cassava. We have made several interesting meals, including eggplant, chickpea, and potato curry, cassava porridge, and pumpkin soup. I should also add that we have made our own cheese, from powdered milk, and biscuits and cookies on the top of the stove (no oven). We’re getting along quite well.

I have been working at the Learning Resource Center. It is a center that operates to support the training of teachers and the studying of students for their exams. We do suffer from a lack of resources, though, and I plan to make a project out of attaining materials for the center. We do have 3 nice computers on which I have been introducing primary (elementary) students to basic computer skills.

Our living conditions are working out. We are cooking on a kerosene stove, have no electricity in our house, and we didn’t have running water until today (thanks, rainy season!). We were pulling from a well, which I must say I became pretty handy at reeling up a bucket. We are in a concrete teachers’ apartment, 3 bedroom, kitchen, bath, and living room. We take bucket showers and brush our teeth with filtered water. Our ‘furniture’ currently consists of a mattress and a hammock, working on getting some benches and tables from the primary school so we have a place to sit. (For dinner, we sit on the laundry bucket and a stack of books, dined by candlelight. Okay, it was by kerosene lamp, but we were pretty happy with our ingenuity). 

We got to attend a birthday this weekend, which was conducted fairly similarly to an American birthday for a four year old. We had balloons, signs, fried rice, grilled chicken (over the open flame, my favorite!) birthday cake, and fission beans, a Brazilian specialty. (We are fairly close to the Brazilian boarders, supplies and foods are brought from Brazil rather than from Georgetown, Guyana). Children and their parents showed up for a fun time, ending with a pinata. J

After a gruelingly hot 2 weeks, the rainy season started yesterday. The rainy season runs May – August, a time that turns the hot, dry savannah into a cool, flooded mud pit. We are certainly happy for the cool, for we can now sleep at night without waking up in a pool of sweat. However, the trade-off of the coolness is a lack of transportation and swarming mosquitoes. We are likely to be unable to get out to the nearest city for our paycheck and supplies as the rivers flood and vehicles (even land rovers!) can’t cross. Also, in the last day, we have noticed an increase in mosquitoes and other swarming bugs as the rain creates standing water for breeding. We are on malaria medication, so we are safe. But not from the itchy bites. Thank goodness for mosquito nets! I don’t think I’ll ever feel safe sleeping without one.

 

Despite satellite internet, I am still having issues uploading pictures, so I apologize. I wish we get you visuals. Or live video feed. J We’ll keep working on it. Miss and love you all!