2 months!

Two months!

I reached the 2 month mark on Sunday – wow that sounds like a good chunk of time! The past few weeks have been busy and also been really good!

I am sat in the dark typing this – well by candle light – we have had a power cut for around four hours. It’s quite nice as there is no music and I can hear the crickets and frogs! I live on a relatively quiet street for Guyana but there is always noise so it is really peaceful tonight! I am glad I bought a laptop with a good battery life! Luckily I had something easy to eat in the fridge so it’s been fine that there is no current. I am hoping it will be back on by the time I go to bed as it is really hot at the moment and the fan will not be working!

The first 5 or 6 weeks that I was here was a sort of rainy season. There are two seasons here – rainy and dry and they have two rainy seasons per year. The past few years the weather has not followed the same pattern as usual – so it was quite wet in February and March and it’s not supposed to be. Now it is dry season – we have had the odd shower but not many – good for getting the washing dry – bad for me! Actually it’s not been too bad and you learn to adapt – I usually walk with an umbrella, drink lots, go slower and don’t go out around mid-day. I shower before I go to bed and sleep with the fan on. I guess it is around 32 degrees here at the moment.

I ran my first workshop for the Literacy Educators – these are the people who carry out the Fast Track scheme. This is a scheme run after school for 2 hours, 2 nights a week. The weakest Grade 3,4, and 5 children attend and they go right back to basics. The scheme has nationally just completed its first year. I ran a workshop on what phonics and phonemic awareness were and taught the Jolly Phonics actions and some songs. Some of the LEs were great and really got into it (see the pictures). Phonics is still relatively new here and although most teachers have heard about it they don’t fully understand what it is or how to use it to teach reading. I will be running training for them once per month.

I have also run some cluster training – two sessions on group work and literacy and one on oral comprehension. I used the book the Gruffalo (thank you work!) each time to help. Firstly it allows me to model reading a story. Stories are not read much at schools (if at all). In fact there is a very little reading for pleasure here by parents or children. Secondly it shows that reading can be fun – and it was! The teachers were laughing so much at the book, joining in with the repetition and it always got a clap at the end. I have also read it to some children too – but I think they struggle with my accent to fully understand it!

I got to visit the National Centre of Education and Resource Development. This is where all the decisions get made about testing, the curriculum and education generally. I met with the Literacy Coordinator, Fast Track Coordinator and also the director. We had some interesting discussions about the education system here. Professionally I am getting to do things here that I am not sure I will ever have the opportunity to do back home. I do feel a little out of my depth sometimes – especially as (because you are white) people listen to what you are saying ((well some of the time!)

I spend about half of my time in the office and I am having to learn to be patient! There are not enough computers compared to staff and often that’s fine because there is a lot of paperwork here – but sometimes you can leave your computer for 2 minutes and someone has sat down and started using it! We have internet at work but today it wasn’t working because we haven’t paid out bill – there is only one person who is allowed to pay it and she wasn’t in today– so we will see how long it is before we get reconnected! There are two phones – only one you can call cell numbers on – so again there is often a queue for the phone and I know we are lucky to have a printer and photocopier but they are often broken, out of ink or paper. It is definitely a case of learning to be patient, planning a head because you may not get to do what you want when you want, appreciate things will taken twice as long as back home and that that, is ok! Always be prepared for the unexpected and don’t leave things to the last minute – all good lessons for me to learn!

I went to Mahdia a few weekends ago – this is a mining town about 8 hour into the interior of the county. It is a real frontier town with a slight Wild West feel to it. There is one road which runs from the top to the bottom of the country and we went about half way down it. Some things are grown in Mahdia but most things have to be imported either on the minibuses or by air. It’s not an easy place to get to. This means prices are slightly higher there too. On our minibus we had boxes and sacks of things packed in and around us – plus a lot of people! The first 1 ½ we were on a paved road and after that it is a dirt track through the jungle. It is quite a wide road which our driver made full use of to avoid all the pot holes. I felt like I was on a roller coaster! I and the friend I went down with kept swapping places to be by the window – she was sick and I nearly was! We also had to take a pontoon with the minibus across the river – this ironically was the stillest part of the journey! After 8 hours we arrived feeling very rough and to top it off I ripped my trousers getting out of the bus!

Mahdia was beautiful with mountains all around – it is a little cooler and definitely quieter – around 1000 people live there. We went to visit another volunteer who is there and does a similar role to me. Her challenges are very different – a big one for her is getting to the schools as some are only accessible by plane! They have current from 6pm – 10pm.

Mahdia has a pool (there is obviously money in gold mining!) and it was lovely to go swimming! Here people tend to swim in shorts / trousers and t-shirts as they see swimming costumes as under-wear, which is quite funny because some of the girls wear so little or very revealing outfits at the weekend! I got taken on a quad bike one day – we went off-road and down to where the small gold mines were – it was a beautiful ride and quite an exciting one too! I thought the quad bike was going to tip a few times as it was so muddy but on the dryer bits we went really fast.

On the Monday we visited the schools – the primary children had a yellow uniform – my favourite I have seen so far – they were so gorgeous! The red uniform is the nursery kids. We decided to fly out of Mahdia – couldn’t face that bus journey again so soon! Plus it is comparatively cheap to fly out (more expensive to fly in as the planes are usually loaded up with goods). It was great to see Guyana from the air – 90% of the country is jungle /rain forest and it look like a whole load of broccoli! There is also a photo of the big mining.

Last weekend I went down the east bank to help a lady with her sons’ reading. I met her on the first day I started work here at a PTA meeting – she phoned up and asked if I could go and help her. It was quite humbling experience as she lived in a wooden house on stilts, it had some holes in the floor and part of the roof had come off so when it rains it leaks. Her and her 5 kids all sleep in one room and they have a kitchen –but no running water and no electricity. She is also a single mum. It made me very thankful for what I had and also makes me really appreciate the amount of money I get – she gets less money a month than me and needs to feed an extra 5 mouths. Her kids were lovely and I did some reading support with her 10 year old son who has some learning difficulties. He is unable to read which isn’t that uncommon here because the education system fails a lot of children but he also had communication and comprehension issues. He was such a lovely boy and luckily he was keen to learn – I will try and go back in a few weeks to see how he is getting on. Afterwards we went outside and flew kites – for Easter kite flying is a big thing here and all the children in the “feeding the poor” scheme got given one. We spent hours flying them – they were such nice kids and played together really well considering they were siblings! After we went for a walk in the back dam (sort of jungle like woods next to the river) and I saw a poisonous snake – the kids decided to throw rocks at it to make it go away – luckily this work – I was getting a little scared that it was going to retaliate! It’s only a 15 min drive from where I live and it was so peaceful – nice to get out of the town (which is only 20,000 big – but feels big here!)

On Sunday I went to another Hindu festival – It was called 9 nights – I wasn’t allowed any fish or meat on the day as we went into the Mandir – the Hindu temple. We went with the same family that we celebrated Phagwah with. It was quite long – nearly 4 hours (and that is a long time to be sat on the floor for) but it was lovely to be part of something so special. There was a lot of singing and chanting and the family gave thanks by offering foods and gifts to the gods. The women all looked so beautiful in their saris and traditional dress. After we ate traditional food which the family had prepared for everyone.

Hope you are all well and thank you to those who have sent letters it really means a lot!  Have a happy Easter!

Ps still no power – I am off for a shower in the dark – you cannot take candles in there!

PPS - the power came back on just before my shower and lasted about 30 minutes - so i got everything done in that time!