Meet Henrietta and Cock-a-Doodle, our new hen and rooster!

We got them for eggs. 

Aren't they great??

Carrie and Justin, we'll make you proud!

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!

 

 

 

14 hours to Lethem. We shopped and had a conference. Then 6 hours to our village. All I can say is thank goodness we came in an air conditioned Land Rover – over the bumps and through the creeks (which will be rivers in another month or so), it was the roughest road I’ve been on. Peace Corps brought us out with all our luggage, but from here on out, we’re responsible for finding rides into Lethem to buy supplies and pick up our monthly pay check. Next time, we’ll probably be making the trip in the back of a pickup or on a tractor – especially in the rainy season.

We picked a good weekend to arrive. The community is celebrating 100 years of Christian (Catholic) presence in the South Rupinuni (our region). There were hundreds of people here from the surrounding villages – people walking, biking, and tractor-ing 15-50 miles to come in for the celebration. All over the village there were dozens of hammocks strung in huts, homes, and benabs (round huts). One hundred years ago, Father ___ came to the region from Britian, bringing formal education and health care. He learned the languages and traveled the region for many years. Living in our community now are two British community development workers and a British priest who has been living here for almost 50 years and is over 90 years old. There are 8 churches in the community, each of a different denomination. They all joined together to celebrate. We had an amazing lunch where almost 1,000 people were fed from cooking over the open flame, with the village’s own cattle – beef curry, cook-up (rice, black eyed peas, coconut milk), and limede. We did manage to find some vegetables for Chris. There were also cultural shows with dances, songs, and stories from each village. The Amerindians love football (soccer) and volleyball, so we watched many competitions between the villages. And our favorite part, they brought all the village Toshaos (Too-shaws - chiefs) forward to a yelling competion – who can yell the longest – and then all their wives forward for a laughing contest – who can continuously laugh the longest.

Being in the heart of the Savannah, the people consume a lot of beef, then beans and chicken, supplemented by rice and flour products. We have heard that there is some farming a few miles outside the village, but we have yet to see the produce. We’ve not even found a place to purchase fresh fruits or vegetables, so we definitely plan to start a garden. We actually just found a thyme plant at our back door, growing wild! Next month is going to be exciting – the beginning of the rainy season which will make it very difficult for us to get out, as the savannah will flood and there will be rivers going across the road.  But more exciting, it is the beginning of mango season, and we have heard that there are more mangos than we could all eat. The mango trees here are the mother of all trees – HUGE. And apparently they bear a lot of fruit – it’s going to be a good time.

Yesterday we were able to witness the changing of the government. The village just elected a new Toshao last week, and they had an official meeting, an ‘inauguration’ of sorts, ceremoniously handing leadership and property over to the new leaders. All the property of the village was listed – land, cattle, farming equipment, kitchen and office supplies, buildings, and finances were listed and transferred over. After a very long meeting which was conducted in English and the local language (the older villagers don’t speak English well and the younger don’t speak the local language well), we went to a great party at the new Toshao’s place. We were able to meet many village leaders, and announce that if anyone had any vegetables, pass them our way J

We are cleaning our new place and should move in this week. We have grand plans for decorating and starting our garden. It was a rough trip here and a bumpy first few days, but we are settling in and learning our way around. And far as we can tell, there is no mail that comes out this far, so we are working on an address we can send things to in Lethem and then have people in Lethem forward them on when people are making trips out. We will let you know our address as soon as we secure one. And there is internet here, but it is costly, so we’ll try to update as often as we can. Be good, folks!

In Aishalton!

We're settling in our village. Working on getting an address we can have things mailed to. We'll be needing some seeds, some cocoa powder, and spices (oregano, cinamon, red pepper). And any other luxuries you feel like sending :) Internet is slow and expensive, so I'm going to make this quick. We're doing good - figuring out where we're going to live and how to get fresh fruits and veggies here. We've heard good things about next month - the mangos come into season. The mango trees here are HUGE. Like, the mother of all living things huge. Apparently there are more mangos than everyone can consume. I'm looking foward to it :)

Will update more later. We love and miss you!

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).