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

Paramakatoi

Just a short post to say I have received my placement letter! This is a letter telling me about where exactly I will be staying in Guyana, what my accommodation will be like and what life is like there. It's very real now, and very exciting!

If you want to read about it, click the tab saying 'My Project: Paramakatoi' or follow the link.

Check out the page on Guyana, too!

I've just got to keep studying for exams and chugging on with my fundraising. I have coming up for £3000 now which is great, but I have over £2000 more to raise before the end of July. To add to the funds i'm having a raffle, tickets £1 each, top prize £100 plus other great prizes, let me know if you want to buy any - it would really help!

I'm also planning a gig on the back-burner, so if you know any artists who would like to perform please let me know.

Charlie

Fundraising endeavours

I realise it's been quite a while since I last posted, and I thought that I would tell you about some of my fundraising endeavours, so here I go.

The reason I haven't posted, excluding all other aspects of my life, is a Karate Marathon. It's taken a little longer to organise than I had hoped, but finally it's coming to a fruitful end. Essentially, the idea was to use the SKA (Shotokan Karate Association) and the affiliated clubs to run an association wide Karate Marathon. The students would all try to raise a target of £20 which they would hand in a week before the event. The marathon would take place in their normal karate lesson, and would consist of 1000 techniques in 1 hour (so it's really more of a karate sprint).

Around Christmas time I visited many clubs (most of which are in London) and gave a talk to the students and instructors about Project Trust and the work I was going to be doing, and of course the marathon. I gave out hundreds of sponsorship forms and set the ball rolling, so to speak.

One student from Grundy Park who raised £80!
She definitely deserved a medal...

Most of the clubs have completed their marathon now, so i'm just waiting for  money to trickle in. I've been going on a tour of karate clubs, giving out prizes to the students that have raised the most, and those that have put in a lot of effort. To be honest, the prizes are pretty cool. For first prize, we have a choice of punching bags, breaking boards and mitts or a new karate suit to choose from, along with a medal saying "SKA Karate Marathon 2012" and the other prizes are medals and chocolate (I wish I could win one!)

We've had great fun with the Karate Marathon - I hope I have as much at my next event! (Possibly bingo...)

Students from Grundy Park after the prize giving

Members of Cambridge Karate Club completing their marathon

If you'd like more information on the Shotokan Karate Association the affiliated club in Cambridge, please see:

http://karate-masters.co.uk/ (please try not to go via google search on this one -  it charges us when you click on it)

http://www.cambridgekarateclub.org/

Thanks for reading!