Monday, Aug 28 - Election Day

Today is election day here in Guyana. There has been lots of talk and rumblings that bad things may happen in the next few days, riots and such, but we are quite safe here in the hinterlands. Some of the other volunteers left their sites near Georgetown to go back to Bartica until Thursday when all of the election stuff has blown over. I think it will end up being a lot of hype and only some minor things will happen but who knows the next few days could be interesting

The Annai girls (Heather and Jessica) came down to stay with us on Wednesday and only left this morning. They came to escape the solitude of their site and we had planned to go to Brazil this weekend. The trip never happened because they forgot their yellow fever immunization card, which is just as well because I think we all just needed a few days to kick back and get some rest.

I am beginning to be able to picture myself living here for a year now. It still hasn't settled in fully, and I don't really expect it to until school gets under way, but I really positive about my site, the town, and the people. The only issue we have really run into over the last few days is that I think a lot of the places we go for groceries are charging us a white person tax. When we tried to buy some bikes the guy looked at us then proceeded to tell us that the bikes we wanted were twice the price of what we had been told to expect. Heather and Jess also went to buy milk the other day and were told it was 220 even though it was clearly marked as 200 right on the carton. I hope that as people get to know us, through school and just being in town, this tax will go away.

I made a fire last night, carved some sticks and cooked some shish-kabobs over the coals last night. It was damn good if I do say so myself. We actually have a pretty good selection of food here but any one thing is pretty contingent on the shipments that have come in so I am learning to be flexible and creative when it comes time for dinner. I think cooking may be one of my biggest hobbies down here so expect me to be a master of the curries and king of roti when i get back next year.

Hopefully I will get some pictures up of our house, the school and town soon for everyone to see, so look out for those.

More Photos

Go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/seanrumble/

Wednesday, Aug 23

Finally made it to Lethem and got settled into our house. Tuesday I woke up early and finished packing for the flight at 10:30. Our ride showed up half an hour early, which is unheard of here, so I said my final goodbyes and we made our way to the small airport a few minutes from the college. Check-in was quick and in no time we were boarding the small 12 passenger plane. Watching the landscape change as we flew South was truly awesome and after about an hour the plane banked sharply and descended to a tiny red dirt airstrip. We dropped off Heather and Jessica in Annai and took off again for the final leg to Lethem.

Twenty minutes later we dropped through a rain cloud to the paved runway of Lethem. We departed the plane into what I have discovered is essentially the middle of town; about 5 buildings a few shops a restaurant and the internet cafe. There are more shops and offices scattered around the area, but the town is a lot smaller than what I expected. I pictured more of a Bartica size town but this is definitely not the case. Upon arrival we were picked up by a man and driven to the regional education office where we met Miss Benjamin. We talked to her for a bit and then waited for our driver to come back from lunch and drive us up to the school and our house. An hour later he came and we arrived at our site. There was no one to greet us and no one was quite sure where we were supposed to be staying. After a few phone calls, thank god we have the cell, some exploring, and some introductions to others living here we discovered our house, only to be locked out for another 4 hours. Finally some men came and after trying to move us to a different place they let us in and handed over the keys. The place hadn't been cleaned at all and was in some serious need. Jessie Sue and I caught a ride into town to grab a few necessary cleaning supplies, and dinner, then walked home in the pitch black to start the night of furious scrubbing.



Day two in Lethem we ate some awesome pineapple and started up on the cleaning again. I have never seen so many spiders huddled together in my entire life, but the majority of them are gone for now and I hope we can keep it that way. After another 4 hours of cleaning we headed to town to start the process of stocking up on goods. We met a guy named Terrence who works for some NGO's here and he offered to show us around a bit and point out where we might find stuff. We went back to Miss Benjamin to collect a bunch of essentials like pots and dishes and then with the service of her driver stocked up on other essentials like hammocks and fans.

Today was much better than the day before and I feel like I have a home and am comfortable living here. For dinner I improvised and made some cucumber salad and Caribbean flavoured cocunut milk rice with chick peas and tomatoes. Not too bad for what was available. I am so glad I can cook again it was one of the things that I was missing the most over the last few weeks.

Photo Update

I uploaded a ton of photos to http://www.flickr.com/photos/seanrumble/
I will be putting the majority of my photos there from now on so check it once in a while too.

Thursday, August 17

Thursday, August 17
This week has settled into a bit of a routine of planning our lessons at night, helped along of course by a little rum, and teaching in the morning. I teach from 9:45 to 10:45 which isn't very long but the rest of the morning and afternoon is usually spent trying to avoid the heat and waiting for the rain to come. I never new how exhausting it could be to walk 5 minutes to the store. On the other hand I am perfecting my guyanese walk which just means that I walk at about one fifth of the speed I normally do. I am beginning to understand why everyone is always late and have come to really appreciate the siesta.

Yesterday about 10 of us took a walk to a monastery just to go check it out. I brought my camera in expectations of some great photo-ops but when we got there the monastery turned out to be a pretty average wooden house. We didn't even get a tour of the inside because the priest was sleeping. It did have a nice little garden though and was in a nice spot along the Mazarumi river. Mostly I was disappointed because I had visions of an old stone building left by the Dutch and worn smooth through years of use by the silent monks traversing the halls.

Last night I intended to go to bed early but on my way I stopped to talk with Ross and Vinnie who were outside having a few drinks. We had some great deep conversations, a really good bullshit session, on every subject and so when they ran out of booze I went with them to the store to get more. Just down the street is a little shop and we stopped to get some more vodka and guzzler, essentially bottled tang, to keep us going through the night. There were two guys there who happened to be drinking the same thing, although they were much drunker than us at this point, so we stopped to have a drink with them. A 26 of vodka later, knowing the life stories of both Neil Jr. Diamond and Christopher Problem, we stumbled home and I finally made it to bed.

Today was the last day of teaching here in Bartica so Alicia, my teaching partner, and I had a review game for the kids which I think they really enjoyed. It was out of control at times but also really funny. After their last class today my class met for lunch and they invited the six of that teach them. One of the girls made some cook-up, basically caribbean flavoured rice, beans, and chicken, that was really good and some of the other kids brought some drinks and ice. After we ate some of them danced a little then sang that beautiful song by James Blunt which was absolutely hilarious. One of the girls also gave me a thank-you card which was really sweet. I wonder if it was the same girl that passed me a note last week asking for my full name, address and telephone number. I have only been here for a few weeks and it seems I am already breaking hearts.

Tonight is our last night in Bartica so we are heading out to a Brazilian restaurant for a nice meal and then I assume everyone will head straight home to pack, because we have to be ready to go at 5:30 tomorrow morning. We are taking the speedboats back to Georgetown thankfully, no more ferry ride, and will then have the rest of the day in the city to take care of any business before we are banished to the hinterlands.

The more I hear about my site the luckier I feel. Our fellow Rupununites in Annai are an hour from even the smallest village and a 2 to 12 hour bus from us in Lethem, depending on the roads. Jessie Sue and I, on the other hand, are a mere 20 minute walk to town and a quick boat across the river into Brazil and about an hour from Boa Vista, which is a large town of about 300,000 people. We also have running water, maybe, and a pond in the back that we can swim and fish in. I am getting really excited to get to Lethem and settle in there.



Something that slipped through the cracks. When we originally arrived in Georgetown and had our welcoming ceremony we were filmed and made the national news. They repeat programs here for weeks at a time and everyone gets there information from the TV so we have become minor celebrities. I have been recognized at least once that I know of, and everyone seems to know who we are before we meet them. We have been warned repeatedly that we will have no privacy here and everyone will follow all our comings and goings, so it's fun for now, but we'll see.

The Jungle Trip

Saturday August 12

Today we went for a hike into the jungle to a remote beach on the river. Before we left the women here who have been cooking our meals made us lunches of really good rice and beans, some fried okra, and fried chicken. We filled our packs and headed out from the dorms up the road into the interior. About 15 minutes down the road we turned at what looked like a quad trail and walked along that path for a another 15 minutes. Just as we reached the path that lead into the jungle the midday storm rolled in and the skied opened up and dumped rain on us. We were told that the trek was going to be an easy one and that flip flops would be fine. We quickly learned this wasn't the case and I decided it would be safer (and more fun) to walk barefoot.
Water began running down the path in a river of mud, but we managed to wade our way through and emerge safely at the beach. Starving from the adventure a few of us sat on a worn wooden boat and ate our lunches in some of the heaviest rain I have ever experienced. It was brilliant, I loved every soaking minute of the experience. The rain never lasts too long here and 30 minutes later the sky appeared again and the sun even peaked out. Vinnie and I attempted to swim to a large rock in the river that had some kind of monument on it but half way realized we were getting further from our goal and not closer. The current was actually quite strong and the swim back to shore took a lot more effort than we had anticipated. By the time we got back others had come out of their make shift shelters and had begun to play in the water, and on the rope swing there. I took the time to explore the abandoned buildings and take photos. When it was time to leave some people were too tired so they called a boat to take them back to town but I elected to hike back through the jungle. It was just as good the second time because I had a chance to take some more pictures with the sun out. The trip was awesome in the true sense of the word. I was awed.

Day 6, 7, and 8

We walked dow to the river Sunday afternoon during the hottest part of the day. Luckily I slathered myself in suntan lotion because a few others came away with some pretty bad burns. The spot where we went to has a pretty nice sandy beach, but like everywhere there is bits of trash here and there. We also noticed that locals just drive their cars onto the beach and park them into the shallows to wash them. Ingenuity at its finest I guess if you don't have running water. The river is muddy but pretty good, and the water was a mix of cool spots and really warm spots. We kept trying to find a cold spot and to stay in it. On the way home we saw a huge parrot sitting on a fence and stopped to talk to him. He seemed pretty interested and we got within about a foot of him.

Monday we started our first real day of teacher classes. I can't quite explain what it is like to sit in a classroom to try and learn while sweating so much that all of your clothes are drenched. I never thought I could sweat so much my shirt has been literally soaked on a few occasions. Luckily everyone is in the same boat, girl and guy, and it has been rather funny making fun of others ass or knee sweat. Monday was exhausting from all the heat so once the sun went down we made our way down to the bar to knock back a few banks beer. It is amazing what a little cool breeze from the water and an icy beer can do to revive you.

Tuesday we started in again early. We had a man come from the ministry to tell us about some of the different regions and watch a video on some of the scenic locations and animals in Guyana. It was pretty cool to watch and made me excited to get to my site and also to fish. They hunt huge man-size catfish with a bow and arrow down here so my new goal is to learn how to do that. It was another long and hot day but not quite as excruciating as the day before.

The food is still really good but I think the lack of fruit and vegetables is really starting to wear on some people. Mostly I miss cooking for myself and being able to eat on my own schedule.

It already feels like we have been here for a lot longer than a week, in a good way though. It has been really amazing how quickly most of us have become friends in such a short period of time. I guess when you spend all day together and go through such similar experiences, both good and bad, closeness is the only possible outcome.


More pictures to come next time.

Picture Dump

No particular order. I will figure out a better way to do this in the future, but for now just click on them to see larger versions.