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.