Blog post 1: Friday 5th 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 2nd 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.
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.
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,
