About a month has passed since I wrote my last blog, and so much has happened since. We now have a gas bottle! With the two functioning stove rings life and our cooking has improved significantly, resulting in successful lentil and potato stews, a very nice chickpea curry with rice, and more porridge than I would maybe prefer, for example. The Regional Educational Officer (REdO) told us we could eat at the dorms all year if we wanted to, which is incredibly generous, but most of the time we prefer to cook for ourselves. Both Treena and I love the rolls the kitchen staff makes, though, so we do have breakfast at the dorms quite often. For a week now, we’ve been out of gas, leaving us to eat at the dorms until our Head teacher organises for our bottle to be filled up again. Fingers crossed that will happen on Monday.

It is currently dry season here, and so, as expected, our rain butts ran out of water. For us, that means daily trips to the spring to fill buckets of water (best arm work out ever) and bathing as well as washing clothes down at the creek. Whilst it can be a bit of a nuisance once in a while, it definitely adds to the whole being in the middle of nowhere experience and is quite enjoyable most of the time. The only real downside is that I’m not actually going to feel clean until the Christmas holidays when I have a proper shower again; oh well, Treena’s and my new mantra: embrace the slum life.

Whilst life here may be simple, it’s often the simple things that make you happiest. Until coming here, I did not really understand the value of a nice biscuit or a slice of bread and I certainly took being able to contact anybody at any time for granted – I will not make that mistake again. When we do get small treats like that now, it’s like Christmas has come early. We also finally managed to string up our hammocks in our flat and have spent hours just liming (one of the Guyanese’s favourite word) or reading and listening to music. Already I cannot imagine life without my hammock. The children here don’t really have many coloured pens or paper, so they come by our flat to do drawings or to play cards on weekends and in the afternoons. The kids are lovely, and a lot of the drawings they make have sweet messages for Treena and me on them. Our goal is to cover one of our walls with them by the end of the year, and we are well on our way of doing that.

We’ve been very active in terms of doing things and seeing places throughout the past few weeks. One weekend we went to Kato, a village close to Paramakatoi, to visit the two volunteers Lucas and Dexter there. Kato is a three to four hour walk or an hour’s drive on the ATV (quad bike) away. We had planned on walking there on a Saturday morning, but on Friday night, quite surprisingly, two villagers from Kato turned up saying Lucas had told him we might need a lift and if we wanted to come along. Bear in mind we hadn’t packed and still had to shower. So we rushed, and off we went to Kato to spend a great weekend catching up with the boys and visiting some absolutely stunning waterfalls. Treena and I have also been on a few trips with some of the girls from the dorms. A group of them took us to a place called Yawong, which included bathing in a nice cool creek and visiting one of our student’s aunt’s house. Lovely people that the Guyanese are, we were given sugarcane and cassiri (a local drink made of cassava) when we were there, and a pumpkin and limes to take home with us. We have also discovered the deliciousness of fresh guavas, although I have to say the worms that inhabit most of them can be severely off-putting. When we went to Mountain Foot, another village that is part of Yawong, we asked the girls that took us to go down a different way, since the 4 that accompanied us to Yawong made us brave this very steep and big hill, which was an absolute killer on the way back – I cannot remember the last time I struggled that much to get up anywhere.

And then there was the big one: my 18^th birthday. Big shout out to Josh and Jordan, the two volunteers from Chenapou, who made the 12-hour trek to come and visit us that weekend. I do not envy them for the walk, and dread Christmas when we plan on doing it ourselves. We proudly showed them our beautiful village and its beautiful people.

The morning of my birthday, the 27^th of September, I went to the little shop that has internet and skyped home. Speaking to my family made me both happy and sad – I do miss them a lot. Treena went through the trouble of baking me a cake that day, which was awesome by the way; she asked if she could use the dorm’s oven and had the kids help her. What a legend. With September being Amerindian heritage month, my birthday happened to be the day the dorm’s children celebrated it. Some of the kids performed traditional dances, did sketches and played indigenous music. It was really interesting to see them all dressed up in their traditional clothing and to hear songs sung in Patamona. The matron knew about my birthday and asked me to come up whilst all the children sang happy birthday and lots of them walked up to hug me and wish me a happy birthday.

As if all that wasn’t enough, there also happened to be a lunar eclipse that night. When it was at its height, Catriona, Jordan, Josh and I went outside, lay on the airstrip and just watched it for a while. At the risk of sounding cheesy, that was absolutely magical and the perfect ending to an unforgettable birthday.

Probably the biggest event in school this term was the Sports Days that took place on the 8^th and 9^th of October. For about two weeks, the athletes amongst the students missed lessons to go to the field and practice, which meant that moving on to new topics became almost impossible. In the week of the Sports Days, everyone in school put a huge amount of effort into making banners and tags for their respective houses; everyone in school is placed into the houses A, B and C. On the 8^th, the events were long and high jump, with teachers competing only in the long jump. Luckily for me, it was only Treena and me competing in our age group (under 21), so even though my performance wasn’t exactly impressive, I still managed to score some points for my house, that being C-House, for coming in second. Friday was the day of the main events, the running. Almost the entire village turned up and the whole thing was very official. There was a sound system for the commentator, a medical tent, and food being sold everywhere. They even flew in ice cream, which Treena and I got far too excited about. The events were preceded by the three houses and their athletes ‘marching’ onto the field. In the weeks leading up to the Sports, Treena and I were regularly awoken at 5am to shouts of: ‘left, left, left right left!’ We really didn’t understand the need for all that practice, until we saw the marching that day. I was impressed to say the least. The students, led on by a commander, marched onto the field with somewhat of a choreography, which was then judged and gained them points for their houses. This was definitely one of those ‘you had to be there to get it’ moments, because me writing about it does not do it justice. Teachers were allowed to do up to three events, so as well as the long jump, I took part in the 100 and 200m sprints. I had previously sprained my ankle, so when it came to doing the 200m sprint, I more hobbled than ran it after coming in 3^rd in the 100m sprint. I still managed to get some points for my house and someone in the crowd shouting: “White gal sloow!” as I ran past.

I have to say that the whole experience was pretty memorable and different from Sports Day back in the UK, but then again, lots of things here are quite different. For example, until coming here, I wasn’t even really aware there was such a thing as World Teacher’s Day. Teachers at home, if you ever feel that you should be more appreciated, come teach in Guyana and wait for that day. Not only did our Head teacher Ms Paul make an announcement in Assembly to ask all students to be extra nice and good to us that day, but the teachers also spent the afternoon having food whilst we had our meeting to discuss the upcoming Sports Events and Ms Paul gave us all individual presents. We actually got presents! Okay, we got them as a result of the school doing so well last year so I didn’t technically do anything to deserve it, but I was still pretty content about getting a little woven jewellery box in the shape of a duck. Another thing I am very fond in terms of school here is the morning assembly. When the bell is rung at around 10 to 9 in the morning, the whole school assembles in lines according to their classes in front of the main building. First, the teacher leading the assembly asks them to do their morning prayers. They then recite the national pledge and sing the national anthem, or they recite the school pledge and sing the school song, depending on what day it is. I absolutely adore the school song, and Treena and me sing it quite a lot at home – not as nicely as the kids do, but with enough passion to match all the student’s put together. In two week’s time, it’s my turn to lead the assemblies for a week – we’ll see how that goes.

The teaching is often very challenging, and I can only apologise to any of my teachers who had to reprimand me for talking during their lesson – I had no idea just how annoying it is. Due to some changes within the departments, I now only teach Maths and Human and Social Biology (HSB), which I am definitely not going to complain about, since it is much easier to be able to focus on two subjects rather than 3. Having only limited access to any supporting materials for teaching, it is often a struggle to try to make lessons interesting and engaging. For HSB, I have my teacher’s copy of two textbooks and the chalkboard available to teach. More often than not that results in some very poorly drawn diagrams on the board for the students to try to decipher and copy. At times like those, I wish I were more artsy. Some of the challenges I face teaching here are similar to what I imagine them to be back home, i.e. hyper and talkative students, but some things you simply would not get in the UK or Austria. For example, one of my students decided to bring a bird on a string into class the other day. There’s me thinking it’s a toy bird throughout the entirety of the lesson, but no. At the end he walks up to me and goes: ‘Miiss, look!’ and has the bird fly onto my hand. I was so perplexed I didn’t even tell him off. I mean, who brings a live bird on a leash to class?? I really can’t complain though. Even if the teaching can be exhausting and frustrating sometimes, it is so rewarding to see students do well in a topic that you have taught them from scratch, to see that you can actually make a difference to their knowledge, as little as it may be. I love my classes, and as the weeks go on and I get to know my students better, teaching is starting to become easier by the lesson.

So far, I have had lots of ups, and the occasional down, but I am loving life out here in the jungle nonetheless and still cannot believe my luck when it came to being placed in this country, in this project, and with this partner.

I send my love home and miss everyone – I won’t be online for a few weeks now, but will update as soon as possible.

Lara

Lara