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.