Guyana 08 Hazel Hathway

This week we have experienced a lot of the Hindu culture. We were invited to the temple on Thursday night to celebrate the end of their nine days of fasting. They cooked seven curry for everyone which is seven different types of vegetarian curry followed by sweet rice and roti. We ate out of giant lilly leaves and had our first curry meal eaten entirely with our hands. At least it saves on washing up. The temple was very different from the mosque – it was very lively, noisy and colourful. The service was all about the kids and teaching them how to play music or how to carry out certain rituals. At the end they gave out work books, pencils and science text books to all the children which was really refreshing to see. We also went to a Hindu wedding on Sunday after buying Indian outfits to wear in Georgetown on Saturday. We all love the Indian clothes – they are so comfortable and colourful. I think the guests at the wedding appreciated the fact that we made an effort and in return made plenty of effort to teach us how to dance. After the ceremony we ate plenty of seven curry again from giant lilly leaves and danced Hindu style (taught by an amazing Hindu grandma) to loud Indian music. The Guyanese love to dance and Hindus are definitely no exception! After visiting the church. Mosque and Hindu temple we have decided that Hinduism is our favourite religion!
On Friday we went up to Georgetown and met up with the volunteers from St Cuthberts. We all enjoyed it but find Georgetown pretty tiring as it is so full on. We are all enjoying becoming more independent now as we get to learn how transport etc works here and how to deal with all the attention. It a really strange feeling leaving home but feeling less independent than when I left. At the moment we go everywhere at least in a pair as none of us yet feel comfortable walking through New Amsterdam on our own. This is mainly because of all the attention we get and because of our (probably unjustified) fear of getting mugged. Once we move over there though (hopefully next week) we should all have a lot more independence which will be really nice.
At school things are going well, getting on with SBAs despite the timetable still not being fixed eight weeks in. I am also discovering more and more how little the students like to think for themselves. They would rather copy notes from a blackboard all day than actually think about what they are writing. They get very concerned when I tell them it is just a thinking exercise and they don’t need to write anything down. The blackouts are still continuing with the last one lasting for 24hrs.

The past week has been very busy. Sports was rescheduled and was held on Friday. The events included cheerleading (Guyanese style) and a bicycle race on grass where everybody had a different size and quality bike. It was very amusing watching the guy on the tiny BMX trying to keep up with the racing bike. At the weekend we went to the beach which is an hour by bus over the river. The water is very muddy but at the bottom there is a whole load of clay which is apparently good for your skin. Consequently, we all gave ourselves a full body spa in preparation for the wedding on Sunday. Before the wedding we went to a Pentecostal church to meet up with a teacher. Church in Guyana is a world away from church back home. Everybody was singing and praying in such an uninhibited way. It was really good to see people so passionate about something and not afraid to show it. One of the unwritten rules in Guyana seems to be that you have to be religious. If you say you are not religious, they laugh at you. As for the actual wedding, it was very bizarre. Apparently they had already got married and were just legalising it on Sunday. It was held at their house which was decorated with a cake etc at the front. They were playing load Indian music so there was no way you could talk to each other. We waited for hours before the bride and groom turned up for 10 minutes, had pictures taken and promptly left. We were told there would be a party when they returned but by that time were fed up with waiting and went home. We have however been invited to another wedding this Sunday which is a Hindu wedding. Hopefully it will be slightly more exciting.
At school, I have been using the labs more and learning how to get things done in this country. The first form were fascinated with the reactions I demonstrated and left some of them asking why they had to wait until sixth form to learn about ligands. I have started my first SBA (experiment and write up which goes towards their final grade) with my fourth form. It turn out that they have only been in the lab twice. I don’t understand why, after four years studying science at a school with 3 labs they have only been in twice. There seems to be a generic answer to all these sorts of questions ‘this is Guyana’. I have also had success with my new punishment of giving the students poems or quotes to memorise and recite in front of the class. One of my first form successfully recited ‘I wondered lonely as a cloud’ yesterday. If any one has any suggestions of poems / quotes / lyrics / speeches don’t hesitate to let me know! I am aiming to have a class full of poets and philosophers by the time I leave.
We have also spent the past week trying to get things sorted so we can move into the house on the school compound. They found the keys they had been looking for all week to open the house but when we tried them they didn’t actually open anything. They broke the door down so we have now seen inside and written a list of all the furniture we need. They have also started cleaning it us for us, despite my fourth form offering to do it for us. Things seem to be moving more quickly than expected which is a really good sign.
We have had black outs every night for the past week. Noone really knows why but people say there is either a fuel shortage or workers steal essential parts which have to be bought again from overseas. I don’t know which is true but it is pretty frustrating for everyone, especially people who are trying to run businesses. Apparently the government is trying to keep it all quiet. Lets just hope it doesn’t continue since trying to cook by candle light is never that successful.

Travelling up to St Cuthberts is half the fun of the trip. St Cuthberts is an Amerindian village about two hours from Georgetown where there are three volunteers working. The last hour of the journey involves travelling on the legendary sand trail through the jungle in an open back pick up. It certainly wouldn’t pass health and safety rules back in England but its appears to be the only way to travel here.
It was Amerindian heritage weekend where the Amerindians celebrate their culture. It would appear that their culture involves a lot of Amerindian and reggae music, dancing (mainly the men) and a hell of a lot of Amerindian home brews. We sampled a whole variety of new and interesting drinks as well as traditional Amerindian food such as tapir (bush meat) and cassava bread (the Amerindian staple food). We also enjoyed the live Amerindian band, especially the novel lyrics which included lines such as ‘I love you like a plantain’.
The main attraction of St Cuthberts is the creek. It is really pretty with refreshing black water and plenty of trees and banks to jump off from into the water. It was a far cry from the luxury of our bathroom and shower – we had to wash in the creek and use the public long drop. The village is also built on sand, so in a nutshell, you can never be clean. The locals are friendly although the men seemed to talk to us a lot more than the women. One of the locals took us for a ride up the river in his boat. The jungle up the river is really interesting. We were really enjoying the trip until the engine cut out. At this point the driver chose to tell us that there were ‘plenty of Cayman’ in the river. We had to drift all the way back down stream (keeping our eyes pealed). This meant we missed our truck we had organised out of St Cuthberts. The next truck we could get back was at 3am on Monday morning. We enjoyed the rest of the day at the creek before returning home at 3am – rushing to get back to school on time. It was definitely an adventure and we are all looking forward to going again (perhaps on a slightly quieter weekend).
Since the weekend I have been enjoying teaching. I have now taken over a 5th form chemistry class who will be taking their CXC (equivalent to GCSE) exams this year. They have a lot of work to get through so there is a lot of responsibility on my behalf, especially as all of them are ambitious and aim to become doctors, physicists, pharmacists etc. I have also used the lab for the first time with my first form. The state of the lab was a shock – no running water, unlabelled chemicals lying around and everything is incredibly dirty. We have now got the water working again and started the job of cleaning up with the help of some sixth formers.
Today we have sports which was rescheduled due to the rain. It rained heavily again last night so it is possible it may be rained off again! This weekend we have been invited to a Muslim – Christian wedding which we are all looking forward to, but are confused as to what to wear.