Tuesday, January 23rd

Quick update

Things are going pretty well and scholl in is full swing now. The next two months are going to be really busy with school and some other activities. I have to be done teaching my fifth formers by end of March and then begin drilling them with practice exams for when they write CXC's in May. Right now they have extra classes every day of the week often in the morning and afternoon trying to catch them up to where they are supposed to be. From what I can tell this happens every year and then everyone remebers second term how much work is left to do.

Nancy my field director is coming down for a couple days in february to visit and the same weekend we are having a school fair/fundraiser. Should be a good weekend. We are also planning to go to Nappi for some kind of wilderness adventure... Shirley, the lady who runs the shop by the airstrip is setting it up.

They changed our school schedule all around and now I am teaching 2 more math classes and a science class. And... I am no longer teaching my scary english class. I have mixed feelings about that because although it is insane I also learn the most from teaching that class.

Ok that's it for now

Tobago

There is only one word to describe Tobago. Cliché… In a good way though. It is everything you would expect of a Caribbean country; beautiful beaches, blue water, mountainous jungle, and friendly, laid-back locals. The reason I say cliché is because I find it difficult to write about without sounding like a terrible travel magazine. Anyway, I think you can imagine what I mean (plus, there are pictures). It was, however, exactly what I needed to recharge for the coming six months.

Flying out of Georgetown the power went out in the airport, typical for Guyana. No big deal, they came on not long after, but it does help describe how I felt when I flew over Trinidad and saw all off the lights. It was like being a kid and seeing a city for the first time. I know that sounds a little silly, I have only been here for four months, but it was really crazy to see a country that is so similar to Guyana in many ways appear so different, and so developed.

After braving the chaos of the flight from Trinidad to Tobago Molly and I hopped into a taxi and made our way to the first of three places I stayed, Castara. We arrived, tracked down the owner of the hotel, she also owns a little craft shop nearby, and settled into our home for the next four days. Castara is a small fishing village with a little beach that is surrounded by towering jungle on all sides. I bought fish most nights fresh off the boats and cooked our dinners. Of the three, Castara wins for my favourite place in Tobago.

On the 17th Molly and I left Castara for Black rock Village to meet my folks. Molly left for home the next day and my parents and I attempted to ignore the excavator working on the beach while also trying to find some place to buy food. It is a good thing the diving from Black Rock was good because otherwise it didn’t have a lot going for it.

The 23rd we rented a car and drove up North along some of the windiest roads imagineable to Charoletteville, a much better place. It is also a fishing village and we managed to eat tuna, snapper, and lobster! Christmas day we went diving and I saw the largest brain coral in the world as well as a 7 ft shark from about 10 feet away. I spent the rest of my time drinking rum and cokes with my parents on the deck and reading. Molly came back from the States for a couple more days in Tobago then it was time to go.

Back in Georgetown a few of us volunteers got together and had a pretty quiet Old Years night drinking rum and a bottle of Dom Perignon out of bowls, courtesy of our Peacecorps friend Margret.

Back in Lethem now and ready for the next two terms of school.