Phagwah

The past four days have been an amazing experience and by the far the best in Guyana. It was the Hindu festival of Phagwah also known as Holi. My friends who I arrived with also came down for the weekend so it was fantastic to see them.

Phagwah (from Wikipedia) is celebrated by people throwing coloured powder and coloured water at each other. Bonfires are lit the on the eve of the festival, also known as Holika Dahan (burning of Holika) or Chhoti Holi (little Holi). The bonfires are lit in memory of the miraculous escape that young Prahlad accomplished when Demoness Holika, sister of Hiranyakashipu, carried him into the fire. Holika was burnt but Prahlad, a staunch devotee of god Vishnu, escaped without any injuries due to his unshakable devotion.

The celebrations started on Friday afternoon where most schools had their own programme. We went to watch at one school. The children performed poems, dances, songs and also the story of Phagwah was also told. Then the fun started – powder and water throwing! I thought this may take place outside – but no inside the classroom! You are supposed to wipe the powder on someone else’s face and say “Happy Phagwag” but as you can imagine with 10 year olds, it ended up as a big water and powder fight! It was complete chaos and lots of fun – everyone got covered including the teachers. Afterwards we ate traditional food which the children’s parents had prepared. It was a really fun afternoon!

Then Saturday my friends arrived – I hadn’t seen them for over 3 weeks and it was so good to catch up! We visited a local market and had powder put on our faces there!

In the evening we went to a local Mandir (Hindu Temple). We were just going to watch the bonfire (Holica) – we thought we would go and watch it from the road. Our taxi driver told us we could into the Mandir and see the temple. We arrived for the beginning of the service and were invited to join in. The temple was beautiful and full of statues of different Gods. There was some singing in Hindi and then a sermon was given on humility. At the end the women got up and danced and we were invited to join in – we had more powder put on us! We were made to feel very welcome. Then the men went outside and lit the bonfire – the women were not allowed outside until it was lit. Once it was, we went outside and watched it - it took a while to take, as it was so damp from all the rain we have had, but with a lot of petrol it finally went up. It was made out of pieces bamboo and was around 20m high. After about 15 minutes it fell over and then the party started! They had some amazing drummers and people started to dance. Then people started to throw water over everyone (including us) they put ice in the water to make you scream when it went down your back! We spent around 2 hours dancing and getting wet. There all kinds of ages and we were made to feel so welcome – an amazing night.

On Sunday the day of Phagwah we went to a village on the Canje river – we travelled there in a car all 6 of us plus the driver! – This was an East Indian community and a little of the beaten track. We had been invited there by one of the teachers at a school I had visited. Banmattie and her family made us so welcome. When we arrived we had another feast of traditional food including sweet meats, savoury and sweet dough balls, channa, roti. After we went out with her husband and children and listened to hear where the drums were coming from. We found them and joined a crowd of people walking around the streets of the village. You are supposed to wipe the ash from the bonfire on your face and then throw water to wash it off. Everywhere we went people threw water at you (again with ice!). We would pass someone’s house and they would invite us into the yard and we offer us food and drinks (including alcoholic ones). We went and visited the bonfire and smeared ash on ourselves. There was a truck driving around with big buckets of water throwing it over people. We met so many people – and as seems to be the case, people knew who I was and could refer to events from a couple of weeks ago such as what I bought in a shop! We went and swam in the ditch – one part was sandy and fast flowing water so we were happy to swim in it – you swim in your clothes in Guyana! We went back to the house and were given more food of Dhal puri and potato curry (not allowed to eat meat today – supposed to be the same with alcohol!) I shared with the teacher photos of the school were I use to work and we discussed teaching.

We got changed into our white t-shirts and immediately got squirted with water mixed with dye. We walked down the street and went and greeted the family’s neighbours – wiping different coloured powder on their faces and wishing them a Happy Phagwah and then hugging. Often at each place we were offered food and drink. We would then meet a little group of children or adults and have a bit of a water/powder fight. We progressively got more and more colourful as the afternoon went on. Again everyone from the community joined in from little babies to people in their 70s – I even saw a few dogs who had been Phagwah-ed! We decided to go for another swim in the ditch (which was the size of a river – but it is one of the ditches dug around the streets – they varied from ½ meter deep to a couple of meters) as we were so messy!

The family were wonderful to us, making us so welcome. Their kindness was very humbling – they have invited us back to celebrate other events with them. When we drove out so many people were waving at us – people who we had only met for a few hours that day and we left with many invites to come and visit again.

Phagwah is the festival of colours and it certainly was that!

When we returned home we had a lot of washing to do – all our skin is dyed in strange places – I have patches of blue and green all over my body! I again have hair full of glitter and think it will take another three weeks to remove. I woke up on Monday with all my face swollen – I think I had had an allergic reaction to the dye, i look very funny!

A fantastic weekend, one that I will remember for ever – there are a lot of photos but I couldn’t choose between them!

Shelley xx

The cockroach diaries

My second and third weeks at work have been more varied. I have visited quite a few schools and seen how literacy hour is implemented in grade 1 and 2. I have done several lesson observations. This has been good but it is hard not to project what you would expect to see in a classroom in the UK. I have seen some really good teachers who know their stuff, are engaging with the children and using some differentiation, but there are a lot of teachers here who are untrained, some as young as 16, or who are trained but don’t have the confidence or skills to be a teacher. Not much value is placed here on being a teacher and it is the “job” you do if you don’t have any other skills. Or if you are a good teacher you work here for a couple of years to get some experience and then move and work in the Caribbean.

I went to a lovely school this morning – I turned up unannounced which is a little mean but it I then get to see a true reflection of what is going on. I saw a good grade 2 teacher and some independent writing!!! There is SO much copying off the board here it was really refreshing to see independent thinking. The children only had to think of 5 words beginning with s and then choose one word to write in a full sentence but it was great to see. I have been invited to celebrate Paghwah with one of the teachers. This is a Hindu festival this weekend – my friends I arrived with are coming down for the weekend too – so really looking forward to it.

I have also been asked to teach (with no preparation or warning) – but it was good fun and I enjoyed working with the students. Most of the classrooms are in one big long hall divided by blackboards so the noise is really loud – how the students concentrate I don’t know! I am longing for my nice quiet classroom where you could close the door! So I decided to take them outside and we did some literacy games around story telling. They struggle to understand me – I am trying with the Caribbean accent!

I think I understand what my role will be here now – my official title is Early Years Literacy Advisor. I work in the regional office for the department of education in Region 6 of the country.  

• I will be running a Literacy Professional Development Course – this will start in May and comprises of 5 modules. The people on the course will all be teachers and there will be one or two teachers from each of the clusters (there are around 15 clusters and 54 primary schools). For each module there will be a day’s workshop and then the teachers are set assignments of teaching and presenting (to their clusters) what they have learnt. There is also a written assignment. I will go and visit these teachers between each module to assess how they are getting on. This course has now been accredited by the Ministry.
• I will be supporting Literacy Educators for the Fast-track programme. This is a programme which works with the weakest 20 students in grades 3-5. It is run in around 14 of the schools at the moment and only started last May. They are hoping for it to run in nearly every school from this May onwards. It goes back to basics for reading, writing and spelling and runs for 2 hours after school for 2 nights – the great thing about it, is it teaches children at the level they are at. For the children who attend it does seem to be making a difference but there is a high non-attendance rate often because children are needed after school to help in the home / farm. I will run training workshops for the literary educators – some who are teachers and some who are not.
• I need to attend cluster meetings and heads meeting and sometimes do workshops at them.
• Generally help in the department of Education supporting them however it is needed.
• A few other projects but waiting to see if we can secure funding.

So I think that will keep me busy for the next year!

I wore socks for the first time last night since getting here. I went to an aerobics class at the Catholic Church. It runs every night from, 5.30-6.30. It was fun – the lady who ran it was quite motivating – great improvisation of equipment – a wooden handle from a mop, a rug for a mat and a wooden chair. We did moves I have never seen before (and I am not sure how good they are for you!) and there was a lot of booty swinging – they make it look so easy - but it was good fun and a nice bunch of ladies were there and it will be good to make some friends from the community (I went again Wednesday too, more of the same!)

Cockroaches – well I hadn’t seen any for about 4 days – was getting quite excited that maybe I had removed them all from my house – but no I was greeted by the biggest one I have seen when I got home last night, then another smaller one in my room and another one this morning – the one this morning was on his back so maybe the “fish” spray is working! I am afraid you will be hearing a lot about cockroaches as they play a big part in my life! Other wildlife this week was a rat in the office and also a big spider. They though my reaction to the spider was funny – but they all screamed when the rat ran through!

The weather here has been really wet and rained on and off for the past week – Fri/Sat it rained non-stop and the yard completely flooded. All roads have ditches either side of them (a legacy from when it was a Dutch colony – not sure of the purpose of them as it means the streets flood a lot, they are full of rubbish and other animals which I wont think about!) so when it rains, it flood. The water was about 2 inches off coming in through my door (which is raised off the floor). Luckily it stopped raining Saturday afternoon and it does clear quickly. I have finally managed today to get some washing dry which was good as I was running out of clothes. You get them through them quickly and apart from skirts I cannot wear anything twice.

Went to the market and bought lots of lovely fruit and vegetables- the people behind the stalls are great and if you ask what something they will let you try it. I had sour apples this week (which are not apples and not sour).

We celebrate pancake night last week – some Guyanese celebrate and some don’t – it seems most celebrations are celebrated in Guyana – I think they just like to party! It was nice to have some people round to the house and the pancakes tasted very good!

I got a new mattress this week – you could feel the slats in the bed on the previous one and my back was starting to get quite painful. It’s a 8 inch foam mattress and so much more comfy – I definitely slept better last night.

Favourite comments of the week (by strangers as I am walking along) –

“Do you know what we call those feet in Guyana – Parrot feet”

“You look like Britney Spears”

“Did you enjoy your fitness last night” – by random man in the market – how did he know I went to aerobics last night!

“Whitey” – short and to the point I guess!

You have to laugh!

The flooded post office

balanced diet

a school

the rain

My yard flooding

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