Getting started

Last Monday I started work – went to my new office which is a 25 minute walk to my house. Got all suited and booted – best clothes on to make a good impression on my new manager and it decided to chuck it down with rain on the way there! But then she wasn’t there anyway! Arrived to a power cut so had a quiet morning looking over a few documents. In the afternoon I went with the three other volunteers to a PTA meeting. This is a new thing in Guyana and they are now encouraging a parent, school, child- link. Parent’s evenings have literally just been introduced so that should start happening over the next year.

We had 50 parents attend the Friends school – the village was called Friends – they have great place names here! Workshops were done on “what makes an ideal parent!” ways to support your child in numeracy and literacy (about 60/70 % of the parents were illiterate – so they had to come up with creative ideas) and finally nutrition. This workshop was given after we had had our “snack” of cake. Snacks are a big thing in Guyana and you have to provide a snack if you are running a workshop. The parents were great and contributed lots of ideas. There were a lot of formalities – prayer, then pledge, then thanking to different groups at the beginning. At the end they sang the national anthem and more thanking. At the end a lot of the parents came up and hugged us all to say thank you! Was a great afternoon and a great start to my job. I am starting to understand a little more what my role and job will be here.

The rest of the week was mixed – some sitting around not doing a lot and other visits to schools. We went to see some teaching – I saw one good teacher who was involved with her students but I am also some awful teaching. Teachers sat behind their desks (until we walked in!) not doing anything, with sums written up on the board. It seems that something gets taught (I am using that term loosely) and then the students are left to get on with it or not. Some can do it but some cannot – there is no differentiation here and if you don’t get it – its tough and the class is moving onto the next thing so the child just slips further and further behind.

We watched a lesson on multiplication – there were some multiplication sums on the board. Some children hadn’t even started as they did not have a pencil and others did not understand it. We sat down with some children and tried to demonstrated multiplication – they didn’t understand so went back to counting on a number line – they couldn’t count – so I did some basic adding with them – they couldn’t do it – when I child cannot count to 30 or do 9 + 2 – there is no way there are going to be able to multiply 2 x 45. 

A big problem here is that a lot of teachers are not trained – some have finished school at 16/17 years old and have become a teacher. There is one teacher training college here which you can go to full time or you can also train on the job. But generally good trained teacher leave the county. There are as many Guyanese living outside the country as there are in the country, and half of the money “made” in Guyana comes from people overseas sending home money.

It was lovely to be back in a classroom – yes I miss it! And it sounds like I will get to be in class a lot of time with my job. I am sure I will have a lot of further comments about the education system but I will reserve commenting on it until I have further spent time in schools.

I met with my “boss” on Friday – pinning her down for a meeting was hard – she is a busy lady! There is something here called functional hierarchy – basically everyone has a position of ranking and you are not allowed to step out of that but also everything has to be approved / run passed by the Regional Education officer.

I have spent the weekend cleaning and washing – I have moved the house around a bit, got rid of some rugs and finished cleaning it all. I am trying to have a clean house to stop the bugs etc but cockroaches seem to be a daily occurrence! Luckily I am getting a bit better at handling them and have to deal with them in a few funny situations. New Amsterdam is famous for two things – blackouts and mosquitoes! I was going to bed on Thursday night – around 9pm – my new bedtime! Saw a cockroach go under my cupboard – spray under there with the fish spray and waited – nothing happens. As it was so hot decided to go for a shower to cool off. Just got out of the shower and we have a power cut. I have placed torches all around the house – go back into my room and see slightly stunned cockroach on the floor. Luckily I had my cockroach catcher nearby (a plastic cup and laminated sound sheet!) and by torch light I catch him – I now have to find some clothes to put on so I can throw him outside. I had to catch another one last night in another blackout – they are bothering me slightly less than this time last week so maybe in a years time I’ll be picking them up with my hands!

I also made bread this weekend! You can get bread here but it is sweet – as are a lot of foods. One of the main crops here is sugar – there are huge sugar plantations near where I live and one of my schools is on a sugar plantation. I also tried to make yoghurt but sadly this failed so I need to wait for another culture to try again.

I went to the market this morning and my fridge is now stocked with all kinds of fruit and vegetables – some new ones! Will let you know how I get on making Guyanese food!

So overall it has been a good week and I am definitely feeling more settled – will have to work out a bit more what to do with my evenings as I have been watching a lot of Glee and Gossip Girl! 

Photos - my new and improved house!

Our third and final Mash parade!

One of the PTA meetings.

More house pictures