The trip got off to a rather traumatic start. Everyone was upgraded to business class on the flight to New York, except me. After this, our next plane from NY to Trinidad was struck by lightening! Due to the damage caused we had to change planes at Trinidad and were delayed. When we finally arrived after travelling the whole night we found our bags had not accompanied us to Georgetown. It was then decided that we should go out and see the nightlife of the capital city with no sleep and no clean clothes. We eventually got to sleep at 2am (7am British time) having been awake for 46 hours. Our bags turned up the next day and I have never appreciated my own clean clothes more.
We spent the week together in Georgetown socialising, seeing the sites and waiting around ALOT. The highlights included being interviewed for the six o’clock news, 2 boys being mugged at knife and screwdriver point, swimming in the British high commissioners pool and going to the Carifesta.
We arrived at our house in Blairmont (across the river from our school in New Amsterdam) on Friday morning. Our journey was fairly entertaining as we had a big, cool black guy driving the bus who enjoyed listening to classic 90s tunes such as the spice girls and boyzone. Pretty typical of Guyana,it is a really bizarre country (a guy just rode past the internet cafe bareback on a horse).
Our house is luxurious compared to the other volunteers. We have running water, electricity, double beds, a fridge and two balconies. The hammocks are already up but so far not much chance to ‘lime’ in them. We bought lots of fresh fruit veg and meat at the Saturday market. We have been attempting learn how to cook Guyanese food and so far it is going well. First on the menu was shark which is surprisingly tasty!
We started school on Monday which was a little overwhelming. For the first three days we were waiting for our timetable to be sorted, losing hope as we watched the teachers argue over which classes they wanted to teach! I finally started teaching today. I am teaching year seven integrated science, year 10 Chemistry and biology and may do some sixth form lessons when they arrive in October but this is yet to be decided. My first day of teaching went pretty well - got a fairly easy start as i had three year seven classes. The year 7s are really keen to learn and are pretty amusing to teach at times!
At the moment we are all finding the 5am starts and the hour long commute on the ferry and by taxi pretty exhausting especially when we have to wash, cook, clean and plan lessons when we get home. I’m sure we soon all settle into a routine and everything will get easier as we get used to it. The mosquitoes are also giving us hell! I started off thinking I didn’t need repellent and have paid the price with 50 bites on each leg between my knee and my toes, with the swelling making me look obese from the knee down. Cankles are not a good look! I have reacted badly to the bites and can only wear trousers as much as possible and hope the swelling goes down soon!