Pictures of the Annai trip

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Monday, Sept 18 - Heritage Fest

September is Amerindian Heritage Month here in Guyana and to celebrate this each year people travel from all over the country to Annai for a week long celebration called Heritage Fest. Annai is about 90 miles north of us (a 2-12 hour drive depending on the roads) and is also home to fellow World Teach Volunteers Heather and Jessica. Things still haven't really gotten stated yet at school here so Jessie Sue and I, along with the Project Trust girls, decided to take a personal day to go witness the festivities. Friday was the last day of the festival and was promised to be the most exciting and event filled day. With some help from Shirley, a friendly shopkeeper, we secured a ride to leave at 8:30 Friday morning. At 10:30 on Friday our ride showed up and by 11:00 all fifteen of us were packed into the pickup and ready to depart. Three people sat up front and twelve of us managed to position ourselves and bags for the 3 hour journey to come. I stood with my head poked through the canopy and hung on for dear life each time we bounced over the many large potholes along the road. I was actually more comfortable than most and I was also able to see the amazing countryside as we passed through it. On a few occasions we drove through clouds of yellow and green butterflies that swirled around in our wake... gorgeous.

We arrived in Annai at the festival grounds around 2:00 hot and dusty, but in good spirits. I immediately found myself a cold beer and some grilled meat on a stick. We all meandered around for a bit seeing the sites and getting an idea of how many people were there, and what sort of activities were taking place. We quickly realized that there were not nearly as many sports and competitions as we were led to believe. In fact, it seemed as though there was only one main sport taking place: getting completely stumbling drunk. We met up with our volunteers and went home to have a bucket shower and get some food, in preparation for the night. When we got back there was some singing and dancing taking place in the main pavilion so we sat down to enjoy the spectacle. Ten minutes later the generator failed and the lights for the entire area went out. Now, with nothing left to do I decided to compete in the local sport as best I could. With the help of some friends we tracked down some of the local drink for me to sample. It is called Piwari and is made by chewing on Cassava root and spitting it back into a jar to let it ferment for some undetermined length of time. The stuff is thick and grainy and very sour, but, surprisingly, not that bad. I probably drank more than my share, made friends with the locals, danced, and woke up in the morning where I had passed out on a bench in the center of the pavilion. Not only did I have a crushing headache but I looked down to realize that my sandals had been stolen sometime during the night. I left the grounds to many salutations from the locals and made the 45 minute walk of shame, barefoot, along a gravel road to the Annai teachers' house.

For the trip home we managed to solicit a ride with the Red Cross volunteers from Lethem and even managed to get a seat inside the cab this time. I tried to sleep off my hangover for most of the time, but also managed to snap a few pictures. Then, around dusk when I was beginning to feel better Wayne spotted an Anteater! We reversed jumped out and followed the strange beast on foot for a few minuted through the savannah.



A pretty good weekend in all, I would say.

Saturday, Sept 9 - First Week of School

Monday - We arrived at 8:15 in the morning as we were instructed (these were the only instructions we had) and began the day not knowing what to expect. School started with an assembly on the lawn to welcome the new students and also to introduce new teachers, me being one. The students recited school prayers and songs and sang the national anthem, all of which were muttered and inaudible. After the assembly the rest of the volunteers and I retired to the staff room and proceeded to stare at the wall for the rest of the day. We were told that by the end of tomorrow we would know our class schedules and could begin teaching on wednesday.

Tuesday - We started the morning the same way we left off on monday, but at around 9:00 Sir Hedley recruited me because of my vast computer skills to type up some notices for the students. I was surprised to learn that our office has not only a computer but a printer as well. When I returned from my typing assignment I was given my form class, essentially homeroom, which during the regular school schedule I will have for 20 minutes each morning for attendance and other bureaucracies. For today however I was supposed to sit with the class for the remainder of the day and keep them busy. So, with absolutely no preparation I entered the class and met the students for the first time. I introduced myself and then tried to write down all of the students names. Then I asked them to get out their notebooks and write about themselves and what their favorite subjects were. I bought myself a little time and managed to think up enough activities to keep them occupied for the rest of the day. At the end of the day we were told that we would know the schedule by Thursday morning.

Wednesday - I went straight to my form class and began in earnest to try and learn all of my students names. We played math games, and word games, wrote short stories, played pictionary and hangman. The students seemed engaged most of the time and although I was often making everything up as I went the day went quite smoothly. At the end of the day we were told the senior staff was going to meet in the evening to finalize the schedule and that we would know by Thursday what classes we would be teaching. After school Jessie Sue and I went fishing with some of the hostel kids. They showed me how to fish and I caught a little one , but not before I slipped and fell in the river. I had no idea that bank fell off so steeply because I went under like a stone and came up spluttering to the laughter of my students. Good times.

Thursday - The day was very similar to Wednesday, I played new games with my class and attempted to keep them busy for 5 hours. I can remember most of their names now and am starting to see their personalities and get to know these students. It is becoming exhausting trying to think of new activities without being able to prepare any lessons so for Friday Jessie Sue and I are planing on having a sports day between her class and mine. We are told that we may not know the schedule until Monday morning 5 minutes before we have to teach our classes.

Friday - I set my form class a short descriptive paragraph then let them make posters to decorate our class until lunch. Many of them finished early so I made a Boggle game on the board and challenged the students to find more words than me, I won. After lunch we sent the kids outside to play football (soccer) and volleyball. I was in-chrage of a football match between my Form 4 Science/Tech boys and Jessie Sue's Form 4 Business boys. The game was heated and excellent to watch even though my class lost with a final score of 5-3. After the boys finished Jessie Sue and I recruited for a girls game and, surprisingly, managed to get enough to have another good match. Many of the other classes came out to watch because they haven't had teachers all week and the afternoon was very successful.

Saturday - It was an exhausting week and I am very glad that it is the weekend.

Photos!!

More photos - this time of my house, the school, Lethem and Boa Vista.

Go here - Flickr

Sunday, September 3 - Brazil Trip

On Friday Jessie Sue and I crossed the river into Brazil to make our way to Boa Vista for the first time. We had our passports stamped and made it to Bonfim, the town just across the border, without any problems. At the bus station in Bonfim we ran into the peacecorps girls that have been staying in Lethem, so we buddied up and made the hour and a half trip to the city. We managed to find the hotel we planned to stay at and through a combination of gestures and badly spoken Portuguese words hastily looked up in a dictionary we secured our rooms for the night. The rooms were pretty basic but they were clean and even had air conditioning. There was also a pool with a restaurant and bar next to it so I would say for a about ten bucks each a night we did pretty well.

Boa Vista is a very nice city. There are lots of green spaces, parks, and treed boulevards. It is also pretty clean, I saw street sweepers and there is normally a public garbage within a short distance. There are plenty of nice shops which carry good quality products and a very nice open air market with lots of little well maintained kiosks. Everyone seemed very nice and no one hassles or pressures you in the market like others I have been in. Boa Vista is in complete contrast to Georgetown. both cities are of similar size, and although Boa Vista is still obviously a third world country it is leagues ahead of Guyana and seems to be very progressive.

The first night we walked to a park/square near our hotel that was full of fountains and sculptures. All through the square there were food carts that sold everything from fresh juices, ice cream, and churros, to pizza and amazing grilled sandwiches. The place was very busy and full of families, and couples, teenagers, and kids; it was very cool. The second night we met up with a guy we had met last week in Lethem and he took us to an awesome restaurant for some authentic Brazilian fish and afterwards to this huge club. The club was actually just a big open air square, but it had live music all night with dancers and everything. The place was a spectacle and it was tons of fun watching all of the people.


The trip home was a breeze and tommorow is finally the start of school.