March/April

20/04/13

As always, a lot has happened since I last wrote. I’ve completed another term of school, seen Andrei, my parents and my brother in REAL LIFE (I was beginning to think that they were made of pixels), gone to the famous Rupunni Easter Rodeo,  rediscovered what luxury is in Barbados, and turned 19.

1.       

Another term of school

The Easter term was so busy!! I’ve really got into teaching Biology, and I think my students are really enjoying it too. I’d like to think that the standard of English of my students is improving, though it may just be that I’m not shocked anymore when I see sentences like ‘They does play in bush’ being written by 16 year olds.

Karate classes are still going very well; my students can nearly do the first Kata by themselves and they know quite a lot of self-defence techniques, and I have been very impressed by how quickly they have picked up the Japanese terms!

I had so much marking to do at the end of the term, but it was relieving to have Andrei in PK at the same time (though not as productive for my marking). He really helped out by teaching my science students a crash course on genetics, and I have found that they are picking up concepts like sex-linked inheritance and co-dominance much more quickly because of it.

2.       

Easter Holidays!

The Easter holidays, although only a short 2 weeks were such a nice break! As I said, Andrei came to visit in the last week of school, so we went out for walks exploring PK, and he made friends with many of my friends here. Despite the attack of a huge jumping tarantula the evening before we were due to leave for Georgetown, we both had a lovely time!

We spent a few days in Georgetown seeing the (limited) sights, buying cheap clothes and eating way too much,  and then we went on our ways. I headed up to the Rodeo in Lethem for the weekend. If anyone fancies it, it really is a lot of fun, despite the 16 hour bus journey on an non-existent road that will take you there. There are bucking broncos and bulls, which the vaqueros valiantly ride. Project Trust volunteers ride them slightly less valiantly, but Harry, Ben and Dougie did a pretty good job! In the evenings there was lots of farine and meat on a stick, and of course forro dancing (mixed in with wining).

After the Rodeo I caught the bus back to Georgetown so that I could get a plane to Barbados. My family decided to holiday there, so I went along to re-discover luxuries like flushing toilets and running showers. In the few days I spent there I went scuba diving over the reefs, jet skiing, wave jumping and submarining. And of course no holiday is complete without lots of eating! The fresh fish in Barbados really made a nice change of diet too.

After that, it was back to PK to enjoy my final term.

3.       

Turning 19

I had a lovely birthday, mostly just liming around doing nothing much! On the night before my birthday Rosie and I went to a girl’s birthday party and danced forro for about an hour, and although I didn’t really feel like going to the party I actually had a really good time.

Anyway, my dance partner was a very good dancer, one of those that made me feel like I was a good dancer too!  After the party we went back to Samantha’s, and spent the night watching Brave. I kept falling asleep though… I was so tired  and cold that I didn’t feel like walking home in the (relative) cold and the dark, so I stayed for a sleepover at Samantha’s, whilst Rosie went back home.

The next day I woke up late! Woo! Samantha even woke up before me and woke me up by giving me a birthday hug and a birthday song. She gave me some presents – a lovely cream linen skirt with sequins at the bottom- great for school – and a green shell necklace and earring set. Really pretty! I had some tea and listened to country music whilst I watched the world go by on the balcony. Rosie came over and gave me a birthday hug, a 4 pack of caramel biscuits and a birthday card which contained my main present. I’ve been wanting to build a warashi for a long time, so she arranged for me to weave one with Leon, one of the teachers at school, after school every day. It’s such a nice thought, but realistically I will only have time to do it on Thursday and Friday and at the weekend.  Still, if all goes well I’m coming home with a warashi!

She made pancakes, which we ate with lemons fresh from the tree and delicious brown sugar. Samantha made some fried onions with calabrase (Brazilian sausages) and it was so yummy with the pancakes! We limed about dancing, chatting and cooking lunch, and had a late lunch/dinner picnic. Sadly, it was a picnic that had to be held on the balcony as it was a bit rainy… it was still really nice though! And for Samantha’s birthday I think we will be going on a real outdoor picnic  J

 For the picnic I made boiled eggs, cut open and filled back with the hard yolks mashed with mustard and butter and Samantha made tuna sandwiches with brown bread, whilst  I baked a chocolate cake  from a box that Sammy had given me (as well as a smiley face mug from his wife). We feasted on the cake, some other piece of cake that Rosie had bought and some biscuits that Rosie had sponsored.  Then we went for a walk to mountain top and watched the sun set, walked back to Samantha’s and watched El Dorado, another animation, stayed up talking after which Rosie and I went back home to bed.

Thank you for your birthday wishes!

Right, that’s all for now. I’m off to eat Samantha’s chicken curry!

Send me a letter and the reply might even get back before I do.

My address is:

Paramakatoi

North Pakaraimas

Region 8

Guyana

South America

P.S. If you know Jake Dowell or Jordan Rickard  (vols in Kato) you can send them mail by sending it addressed to them at the above address. 

February

February 14^th

Happy belated pancake day everyone!

I spent the day at school, and in the evening Samantha, Rosie and I enjoyed pancakes with our precious sausages and CHEESE, followed by classic lemon and sugar. Samantha enjoyed it so much that we made pancakes for breakfast on Valentine’s Day too, after staying up the night before watching Jackie Chan in his glory days when his hair was glorious.

I’ve been incredibly busy this term, as I have started to run a debate club on Monday, a Karate Club on Tuesday and I am continuing with my computer classes afterschool on Wednesday. The Karate club has been going really well – I have a total of 64 students on my register and regularly get 50 in my class! They all love it, although because of the large class It does get a bit cramped sometimes. I always get good vibes from the students and they are much better behaved that when they are in school! The class is probably 40% girls 60% boys most of the time, so it is pretty even. This weekend I am doing a self-defence workshop for a women’s group of a nearby village called Kato, where there is an American volunteer called Rachel who runs the group. Apparently they are all very excited, so that should be fun!

The weather here is still much warmer than back at home, I am sure, but it has started to get colder and darker with the rainy season. Sometimes there are some quite cold gusts and heavy tropical rains, and the ‘bad’ weather has meant that I have started to get a cold. During the day the sun still gets quite hot most of the time, though sometimes the cloud cover is so thick we don’t really see the sun! The clouds and the cold, wet weather also means that looking at the stars at night is a bit more difficult, so we have started to stay in and wrap ourselves under blankets to watch films.

Last week we enjoyed a visit from our Desk Officer, Chris. He brought us two big packets SWEETS which we devoured as soon as we got them (mini eggs and gummy snakes if you want to send any in the post … hint hint), and he watched us teach a couple of lessons. We had fun staying up and chatting, and playing cards by the light of a candle. The next day he went off to Kato to visit Jordan and Jake, and due to being unable to get a flight we went and joined them for the weekend. I think that all that I am allowed to say on the internet is just that it was a hilarious weekend in which there were many laughs.

Anyway, that’s all for this month… oh, and happy Valentine’s day.

Love

Charlie

January

Tuesday, January 8^th 2013

Time is flying by so quickly! In a spare moment at work today my thoughts drifted off to the future, and the topic of how much time I have left in Guyana sprouted up. I find it so strange that the half way mark is coming up, and I still feel like I’ve just arrived. One year is really no time when it comes to all I want to learn and experience in Guyana.

At the end of the Christmas term Rosie and I moved house again, this time to the Medex quarters which are unoccupied as the Medex has his own house in the village. It’s not a bad house by any standards, but it just doesn’t feel like home. We hope to move back into our old house by the end of February at the latest, but the contractors say they might have it done by the end of this month (I am very sceptical about contractors’ perceived deadlines, though). They are raising up the whole building, renovating the inside and building two new apartments underneath, so no more liming in hammocks or cooking under the house! L

I only returned back from holiday on Sunday, and already it seems so far away. I think that’s when you know somewhere is really home. It seems like so much has happened in the three weeks that I’ve been away; we spent a few days in GT before all 22 of us headed off to the balmy beaches of Tobago. It was nearly only 20 though, as the boys in Kato only just made it to the airport before check-in closed! They decided to decline the flight that was offered by the region, instead taking a brilliant trip from Kato to GT on the back of a contractor’s truck, where they got to see a large amount of Region 8 and 9. We were all a bit relived when they turned up at the airport covered from head to toe in orange dust and looking a bit windswept.

Tobago was great, I went scuba diving in the day, and at night we partied on the beach, partied in the clubs, and the other vols partied on a boat on Christmas day, though I had a fever so I spent the day sleeping! Despite being ill for a couple of days, I had a brilliant Christmas. For New Year I stayed in GT with a few of the other volunteers, and the rest went up to Region 9. New year in town was probably the best new year I’ve ever had. The rest of the holiday I spent time with very good friends that I had made, went shopping, ate out, partied out, played a bit of water polo, and did a HASH too J Don’t worry, not the drug. It’s ‘a drinking group with a running problem’. Essentially it’s an adventure run with a party-with-a-twist at the end. Check it out in your area of the world – it’s so much fun!

Although I had a great time on holiday and I was sad to leave the friends that I have made, I am happy to be back in the cool climate of Paramakatoi with all my friends here. I definitely feel that I am back home.

This term I should be even busier than last term, with the addition of HSB (Human Social Biology), a karate club and a debate club to my timetable, in addition to my English and Computer classes. I am determined to take up running in the mountains, though watch this space to see if I actually do it. One thing I don’t need much motivation to do is horse-riding, which I will be doing a lot of at the weekends now that I have found the owner of the horses in PK! Hopefully next time I write I will be back in the comfort of my hammock in my old house J

I’ve been putting all your letters on the wall, please keep sending them to me – Sammy the shopkeeper/postmaster will tell you that I get very excited whenever I have post!

I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year,

Best wishes for 2013

Love Charlie

Very sorry, it’s nearly the end of November and I haven’t even written for October! How did that happen? Time is flying so quickly…

This month I’ve had some amazing experiences. Rosie and I walked to another village where there are Project Trust volunteers called Kato, which is about 4 hours up a mountain away! We spent a long weekend with the boys there, visiting creeks, cooking in the bush and learning how to dance forro.

This month Rosie and I also visited an Amerindian farm and helped with the work which was an amazing experience. We helped to pull up cassava, scrape it, wash it and make cassiri (a traditional drink, fermented cassava and purple potato). I tried to lift up the warshi full of cassava, and just about managed it but felt as though my knees would buckle under the weight. I can’t fathom how little old ladies in their 80s can walk for hours up a mountain carrying a warshi full of cassava or fire wood, and I can even barely lift one! The women here work so unbelievably hard. All the teachers work full time and have just as much as me to do at school and at home, plus they get up at 4.30am most mornings to make cassava bread or cassiri, or spend their whole day doing hard labour at their farms. I expect when they turn out to work at school on Monday they actually feel as though they are having a rest, compared with the amount of work that they do at home at the weekends.

Teaching is still going well – although getting very busy! My grade 11s (same as year 11s) have had a CXC (equivalent to GCSE) pre- test from the Ministry which I have to mark. So far I have only marked the multiple choice questions… a bit disappointing as most of them got Es. I also have to mark paper 2 which comprises of an essay, comprehension questions, a summary of an article in 120 words, and a story. It’s going to take hours to mark! I am glad to be marking it though, as it is the first time I have actually seen a mark scheme for the exam I am preparing the students for!  I also have to set my entire grade 10s and 11s at least 4 end of term assessments. So far they have done 2, and are currently doing one more, so I have lots more marking to do!

Although I have had a lot more work to do this month than I did last month I think the main difference has been in the attitudes of the kids. Last month they were very shy and reserved, and hated to do anything other than copy from the board. This month they have really come out of their shells, sometimes getting a bit unruly! It is very tempting to set them to copy out notes sometimes as it keeps them very focussed and quiet, but I have tried to make my English lessons as interesting as possible, even though it sometimes results in over-excited children.

I am still really enjoying the lovely warm climate, and I never fail to appreciate the beauty of Paramakatoi’s views when I eat my porridge on the front step every morning, and especially when the sun sets in the evenings. The people are as generous and kind as ever, and I feel that I have made some really genuine friendships here.

Having said this, I have started missing some pretty weird things, as well as some expected things. Firstly, I would like to urge you all to appreciate sandwiches. I never really appreciated how good sandwiches were when I could eat as many as I liked, and I wish that I had eaten more sandwiches when I had the opportunity. Make sure you get thick crunchy crusts, cheese and LOTS of lettuce. You should really appreciate lettuce. I wish I had eaten more lettuce…

Understandably, I also miss washing machines. I vow never to complain about ‘doing the washing’ if I have a washing machine. It simply doesn’t count as washing. It’s just moving dirty clothes from the bedroom floor to the washing machine, to the washing line. Sitting on the front step on a Sunday morning and scrubbing the dirty clothes for 3 hours – now that’s washing. Appreciate washing machines.

Also, my dad’s fruit crumble, stilton cheese, crunchy apples and red wine. Nuff said.

I am looking forward to next weekend, with the visit of Heloise from Project Trust on Friday to Sunday. Rosie and I are having a Thanksgiving dinner party on Saturday with our Project Trust friends Jordan and Jake, along with Rachel an American Peace Corps volunteer, and our friend Shamir the AREO (Assistant Regional Executive Officer) who are all coming from Kato (4 hour walk away). We also invited our neighbour Samantha, Nurse Wall (an American Missionary who has been in PK for the best part of her whole life) and Sammy the shopkeeper. In total we are a party of 10, so Nurse Wall offered up her house as a venue for the evening, as it will be quite cosy with 10 people in our little house!

As well as that I am also looking forward to having a well-deserved rest at Christmas. The plans are to spend a week exploring around region 8 with the Kato boys and the Project Trust volunteers in Chenapou, Ben and Mark. After that we will all head off to Georgetown to catch a plane to Tobago, where we will spend another week and celebrate Christmas with the rest of the Guyana group. For New Year we are all heading off to Suriname, as we heard that there were some spectacular although slightly hazardous street fireworks that we couldn’t resist the opportunity to see.

Probably by the next time I write another update I will have moved house again as there are plans for my lovely little house to be renovated. We don’t mind this, but they want to build two more apartments underneath the house which we are not so happy about. I’ll tell you what’s going on next time!

I hope you’re all well, I bet there are hundreds of annoying Christmas adverts already, and you’ve all probably got your advent calendars! Don’t forget to send me a letter and I promise to reply, I love to receive mail - it really makes my day. I’m collecting a nice stack of mail, and I love to watch it grow and to re-read my letters when I’ve had a bad day.

Hope to hear from you soon!

Lots of love

Charlie

Hello from PK!

Blog post 1: Friday 5^th October 2012

Sorry to keep you waiting for so long. I didn’t die in a plane crash in my travels to or within Guyana, I’ve just been so busy I haven’t had time to write a post yet.

I’ll have been in Guyana for 6 weeks this Sunday, and the time has flown by so quickly it feels as though I have still only just left home. I started my journey at Gatwick airport where I met the other 21 volunteers, and flew on to Barbados where we waited for a good 5 hours for our connecting flight to Guyana. We boarded the plane, which was my first experience of a small aircraft – it had approximately 40 seats and was very turbulent and noisy! We arrived safely at Ogle airport (just outside of Georgetown) and went to collect our luggage. Sadly, our luggage did not have such a successful trip and was still all the way back in Barbados, so minus one very smitten Jake (who, by some miracle, got his bag) the other 21 volunteers went without clean clothes for a couple of days until our bags finally turned up.

In total I spent 1 week in hot, humid smelly Georgetown and actually had a really good time. From Sunday night I was living at the PT flat with another 13 volunteers – 3 girls and 10 boys which was a smelly, cramped and sometimes hungry experience but I quite enjoyed it nonetheless. There was a lot of sitting around playing cards … and not much else actually. The rest of the volunteers were staying at Kala’s house, which sounded more comfortable! On Thursday all the volunteers departed to their projects apart from the Region 8 crew, which included myself and Rosie (Paramakatoi), Jordan and Jake (Kato) and Mark and Ben (Chenapou) as our flights could not be organised to depart any earlier. The flat was considerably more comfortable with only 6 people, and we actually needed the extra space to store all our supplies for the year. Unlike the projects in other regions, Region 8 projects are very isolated, with the only access being by plane, so the local prices are very expensive. We therefore had to buy all of our supplies for the next 3 months and take them with us.

On Sunday 2^nd September we left for Ogle airport again, this time just Rosie and I boarding a 6 seater plane! This was a very exciting and enjoyable experience for me, especially take off! I was sitting right behind the pilot so I had a great view out of his front window, and also could see how he operated the plane.

We landed and had to search for someone who could tell us what to do next. Finally we found Miss Lewis, the DEO (District Education Officer) although at the time we didn’t really know who she was. I assumed she might be the Headmistress. She showed us to what I thought was maybe an animal shed, which turned out to be our house. Inside it was much nicer than I was expecting, and many people came to our door to welcome us and make sure we were settling in. People found us a kerosene cooker, pots and pans, plates, bowls, cutlery and anything else they thought we needed! Although I felt a bit disoriented with lots of strange people coming to see us, I really appreciated their kindness and felt very welcomed into the village.

 That night we had a gruesome experience with a huge spider, which made us very jumpy! We also found a huge number of cockroaches coming out at night, lots of other smaller spiders and a couple of giant millipedes. The latter didn’t bother me too much though. We never managed to kill that spider on the first night, but after that we became a bit more hardened to them and killed quite a few, so I’m sure it must have been one of those.

We lived in our little downstairs house for about 2 or 3 weeks, and then we were moved into an ‘upstairs house’ – a house on stilts. Lots of people had suggested that we move, but Miss Lewis was uneasy about it due to the house having a rather dangerous broken back step. Eventually we moved because the dormitory kitchen had not been finished (or started actually) so the dormitory children would have no food unless they built a temporary kitchen, which was decided would take place in our house.

Thankfully the children in the dormitories did not starve as they had actually not arrived yet, as the refurbishment of their bedrooms had not been finished (or started, actually). They decided they would have one group of children living in the dining hall whilst their rooms were refurbished, and they would rotate the children until all the rooms were finished. They would instead eat in the classrooms.

Due to there being only a fraction of the children at school that there should have been, teaching in that first week was essentially non-existent, and we mostly just sat around in the staff room looking confused. That first week seemed to take an eternity, but we got through it. In the second week we started teaching, and the week went much more quickly. I found the students to be incredibly quiet and shy, so my fun and exciting lesson plans with lots of interaction were met with blank looks and lots of shy giggles.

Since then, Rosie and I have really settled in and made ourselves at home. My class sizes are on average 35 students, and I am really enjoying teaching. I am teaching English instead of Science as English is a second language here, and the local teachers were reluctant to take it up. I teach in Grade 9A, all 4 classes in Grade 10 and in Grade 11. This is the same as teaching year 9, year 10 and year 11 in the UK. The students are still shy, but they have been coming out of their shells a bit more which has been great for me as a teacher.

Yesterday my Grade 10A students left me a sweet note on my desk saying:

‘Miss Charlie is a pretty young volunteer teacher

She came far away from the Atlantic Ocean. She has red hair and blue eyes.

I wish I had one.’

People in general in PK are very kind, generous and caring. At the weekends someone will volunteer to take us on a long walk in the jungle to find waterfalls, creeks or nice spots to have a picnic. We are always being given free food, like Avocados (which they just call pears), oranges, tangerines, bananas, coconuts, cassava bread, farine (ground cassava root – a bit like couscous)  and the list goes on!

We have made lots of friends and are feeling very at home J

Anyway, I think that’s enough rambling for now. I am going to update this blog about once a month, as the internet is quite expensive at 1000GYD per hour (about £3) and I have a lot of work to do!

I hope everything is well at home, please keep in touch and send me a letter! It would make me very happy to receive one, and I promise to send a reply J

Best wishes,

Charlie

Project Map

UPDATE:

Below is a map made by another volunteer, Mark, showing the location of all the projects in Guyana and which volunteers are working there.
You can also find this on the Guyana page.

Thanks, Mark!

Training

On the 2nd July I arrived on Coll to complete a week of training. At the time I didn't really know what to expect, having only my experiences of Selection in October 2011 to go by, but I can safely say it fulfilled my one expectation - that I would leave Coll trained.

Although the course only lasts 5 days, I felt as though I had been away from home much longer than that - partly because I had, and partly because each day was packed with so much it felt more like 3 days.

One of our stops in scenic Scotland.
Mark, Gemma and myself

I started my journey on Saturday, when I travelled up to Coventry to stay overnight with another Guyana volunteer, Mark, who was driving up to Oban the next day. For any future volunteers: driving up is much cheaper than flying or taking the train as long as you have people to split the cost with. We picked up Gemma who lives near Birmingham after 2 hours of driving, and after a rest-stop and chat with her parents we set off for another 6 hours of driving! Although, we stopped at service stations every 2 hours (organised-Mark had planned these in in advance), and with the good company and many breaks the 8 hour journey really didn't seem too long at all.

Before we knew it we had arrived in Oban where we checked into the Backpackers hostel, had dinner, showered and got socialising with the other volunteers. We all decided to have a drink at the suitably dingy Irish pub across the street which soon filled up due to some important sporting event showing on the TV there - Spain v Italy Euro Final I think. We ignored it as you can probably tell, instead being very excited to finally meet the like minded people who would accompany us to Guyana, especially our partners! I met my partner, Rosie, at the pub when she arrived from the train which had taken her all the way from Bristol. I think we got on really well - in some ways we are very similar but in others very different which I think is a winning combination, so I think we are going to have a great year together. We got chatting about what we wanted to teach; she really likes Maths and doesn't do Science at A level. I on the other hand would absolutely hate to have to teach Maths and love Science, so we pretty much divided up our curriculum within the first 20 mins of meeting each other! A good match it seems, Project Trust. After a while we left the pub which had become very noisy, and they had started to ask for ID (at the time Roise was still 17) so we wandered back to Backpackers to continue our chat and met two other volunteers, Hayley and Tara (also partners) who, unbeknownst to us at the time, we would be sharing a room with all week and would make good friends with.

The driving crew at the dingy Irish pub
 (+ Scooby, Mark's mascot )

L - R: Gemma, Natalie, Tara, Charlotte and me.
All Guyana volunteers at the pub.

The next day we were up early in order to catch the ferry to Coll at 8 am. We arrived at around 11am and begun the course. I won't go through every session because it would take far too long, but we were basically given sessions on both general and specific aspects of teaching, staying safe, and culture. There were a combination of lectures, discussions and activities which made for a very interesting and busy week. A highlight of the course for me was the teaching practice we had to carry out. After being given sessions on class control, lesson planning etc. we had to give a 10 minute lesson and a 20 minute lesson to a small group and an assessor. This was similar to Selection where we had to give a 10 minute lesson, however the stark difference was that on Selection I was worried I would run out of things to say, and on Training I wished that I had an hour because 10 minutes just wasn't enough to get in all the activities I had planned! The 20 minute lesson was a little easier, but I still would have been more comfortable with more time. I found that although I was a little nervous before my turn, I quickly began to enjoy my lesson as my "students" were having lots of fun with the activities I had planned.

A group of us enjoying the wonderful but rare Scottish weather

Although we didn't get a lot of free time, due to having so many sessions, when we did have free time we sometimes went to the beach which was absolutely beautiful. We could stay to watch the seals play and the sun set. Although the water was freezing I rolled up my jeans and waded in. It was quite a strange experience; the sun was very hot on my skin, and yet my submerged legs were going numb with the cold water, and the air smelt heavily of sulphur due to the rocks.

On the last night Project Trust held a special dinner and a Ceilidh which was the highlight of the week. There was a bit of waiting prior to dinner whilst we drank rum punch and a few of the staff members read inspirational poems and said a few inspirational and well wishing words. We really should have soaked up the punch with a delicious meal then, but we waited a little longer whilst we all stood in front of a camera live to the House of Commons. Project Trust were having a fundraising event there and wanted to connect to Project Trust volunteers all over the world in their projects, and connect with the new volunteers at the Coll headquarters. We all showed our excitement and appreciation, after which one volunteer played the bagpipes beautifully. Finally, it was time for dinner which, in the style that we had become used to all week, was enormous and wonderfully tasty.

Our whole country group including our desk officer,
Chris, who is in the middle in the blue shirt and black trousers.

After words of thanks and grace from the elected volunteers we headed to the bar and the Ceilidh commenced shortly after. The Ceilidh is always lots of fun, especially when people are a bit tipsy (more than a bit in some cases!) so it was a very enjoyable but hot, tiring and sweaty night. Dancing a Ceilidh is very good exercise. Once the traditional band had packed up Chris (our desk officer) cracked out his Guyanese music and lots of the Guyanese volunteers including myself danced the night away in - kind of- the traditional Guyanese style.

L -R: Rachel, Lauren, Gemma and me.
Ceilidh night.

The theme of the evening (and indeed the next week - it's really catchy!) was the song 'I am a Guyanese' by the popular artist Adrian Dutchin. If you would like to have it stuck in your head too, please see the video!

It's not long now before I leave for Guyana, I have my plane ticket! I'm leaving on the 25th August 2012 at 11.20am from Gatwick and making a short stop in Bridgetown, Barbados before getting the connecting flight to Georgetown, the capital of Guyana. I'll stay in the Project Trust flat for about a week with the other 22 volunteers whilst my internal flights are organised and more paperwork is sorted out, and then I begin my teaching term on Monday 3rd September.

Thanks for reading!
Charlie