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.