Guyana 08 Hazel Hathway

Continuing the drama in the ghetto that is Blairmont, we have had the police round this morning to file a report about the stolen camera. They questioned our front neighbours yesterday as they saw a man go in through our back door in the blackout on the night it was stolen. They didn’t mention any names. The police took away the brother of our next door neighbours this morning who they said was looking suspicious (he has also just come out of prison). Now our next door neighbours are threatening our front neighbour and her daughter, as they believe she told the police it was their brother. There are heated arguments going on across the street and we are just staying inside trying not to get involved. We just don’t really know who to trust but haven’t been keen on our next door neighbours since we arrived as we regularly hear her shouting at and beating her young daughter. Domestic and sexual abuse is pretty common in Guyana and is actually seen as a bit of a joke.
Megan would also like to mention stupid hospital number one. She had to be rushed to hospital this weekend as she couldn’t breath. She lost her voice from shouting too much at tutorial on Thursday. By Saturday she was coughing profusely and on Saturday afternoon she couldn’t breath so was rushed to hospital. The first hospital she was taken too first directed her the wrong way while telling her to mind the wet paint (whilst Megan was staggering and struggling to breath). The doctor then seemed more interested in what they were doing in Guyana than in treating Megan’s lack of breath. Jolene’s rage at this situation triumphed again and she persuaded them to put her on oxygen. They then however left her on her own in the room on oxygen after she had collapsed walking to the room. The nurses refused to let Jolene and Nicola be in the room with her, claiming it was ‘hospital policy’, but would also not stay with her themselves even though there were no other patients in the hospital (they preferred to fold bandages than look after a patient who is struggling to breath). They then went to another hospital which, thankfully, was far better. They diagnosed Megan with asthma which was probably brought on by all the dust and cleaning products we used whilst cleaning our house. She still has a cough now but is getting much better.
On the brighter side of things, we have discovered the supermarket in New Amsterdam. We all got incredibly excited after finding cheese, milk and bacon! We made an excellent spaghetti Carbonara to celebrate. We have also got involved in a school called school of the nations, which is across the road from tutorial. It is a private school inspired by the Baha’I faith. It based on teaching positive virtues and good character as well as the academic content. We really enjoy going there since everybody is friendly and helpful. There are also several teachers our age, including a Canadian volunteer. Went there on Tuesday for the celebration of the birth of their prophet, Baha’u’llah. Learning about the baha’I faith (we had never heard of it before we came here) was really interesting and thought provoking. Every Friday they have ‘firesides’ where they discuss community issues and teaching methods for encouraging positive virtues etc.
I also went up to a chemistry workshop last week in Georgetown. It was run by one of the few dedicated chemistry teachers in Guyana. She has been teaching chemistry in Guyana all her life and taught a large proportion of the chemistry teachers at the workshop. It was really refreshing to see someone so dynamic and passionate about teaching. At the same time I was shocked by the lack of enthusiasm and initiative from the other chemistry teachers. Out of at least 25 teachers there I was the only one willing to type up the work we had produced during the workshop so it could be emailed to everyone, despite most people having access to a computer.
We did not teach for the whole of last week as the whole school had to prepare for graduation on Thursday night. A ridiculous amount of money was spent on the event, especially on the trophies. About thirty trophies were awarded to the students, which they got to keep. Hundreds of pounds were spent on these trophies when the school can even afford enough stools for the lab or text books for the children. It was quite sickening to watch the school waste money on something so superficial in an attempt to try and be something it is not or something it used to be. It was also incredibly frustrating to not be able to teach for yet another week especially since I am six weeks behind with some of my classes simply because school activities mean I have not been able to teach. We now only have one teaching week left because two weeks are taken up by exams and the last week is taken up by Christmas parties. I have now taken to emailing my student’s notes and homework as it seems to be the only way we will get through the work.
Whilst I have been typing this we have just heard that the police have arrested our neighbours brother which will no doubt cause a lot of friction and arguments within the community. We are definitely looking forward to moving out!

Firstly, I have to apologies for my lack of blogging in the past few weeks. We have been very busy, mainly because we are very ambitious in our plans and usually forget to include the ‘Guyana’ factor i.e. everything takes at least twice as long as you expect. This week we haven’t even had time to go to the market to buy food since we have spent every afternoon trying to sort out our new house. The whole moving experience has definitely been an eye opener. I always knew corruption existed, especially in the third world but had never been lucky enough to experience it! Since the ministry decided we should move ‘as soon as possible’ over seven weeks ago it has been a frustrating journey of people not turning up to work, people not doing the job they should (like ‘cleaning’ but not removing the corrugated iron from the living room), applications not being made, essential parts not being available and money somehow being short (despite the fact that the ministry will be saving money by us moving since they wont have to pay rent). The house we are moving into is a house on the school compound in New Amsterdam and is owned by the ministry. It has not been lived in for a couple of years and there is no electricity (the last supply was illegal) or water. At first we thought it would be a simple job of getting a tank and water connected, electricity reconnected, the house cleaned and furniture moved in. it turns out this is far from simple where the ministry is involved. Seven weeks on we have a tank and water supply (after constant phone calls to the plumber), we have cleaned the house ourselves since the cleaners the ministry sent never turned up (Megan is now sick as a result) and we have half of our furniture. The ministry have given us two beds and one pillow for four people. Apparently they are waiting on some money to order the rest. After speaking to some locals it turns out that what normally happens is that somebody takes some money out of the budget at every level so by the time the workers need to be paid there is not enough money so the workers do not turn up to do the job. It is incredibly frustrating not being able to trust or rely on anyone to do the job properly. Everything that has got done is because we have made it happen. It has been a good lesson in how to get things done in this country: do them yourself. A good example of this is Jolene’s visit to the ministry to get our furniture (the ministry now hate her since they have been on the receiving end of so many angry phone calls!). she had been cleaning our house all day since the ministry cleaners never turned up so was wearing a t-shirt. They refused to let her in because she was wearing a t-shirt. When she told them what she thought about this they let her in. She marched in told them / took everything we wanted, promoting the man to say ‘ooh, little lady knows what she wants’. It seems forceful, assertive tactics definitely work in this country!
It is disheartening coming to this country as a volunteer teacher and being treated like this. We still have no electricity at the house so went to the electricity company on Wednesday to sort it out ourselves and the ministry hadn’t even made the application they told us they had. We have no idea when we will get power since the company ran out of voltmeters which needs to be fitted. We can’t move until we have electricity so at the moment we have two houses which we go between.
We were also robbed on Friday night in the blackout. We were eating dinner on the balcony at about 7pm and forgot to lock our back door. Someone (we have our suspicions) came in and took some money and Jolene’s camera. It has definitely woken us up more to the need for better security etc and the experience will sadly only make us even less trusting of people.
Anyway, aside from the frustrations of living here we have also had some really good experiences. We went to Orealla last weekend which is an Amerindian community 50 miles down the Correntyn River. The journey takes six hours on a packed boat (with no toilet!) where everybody strings up there hammocks one on top of another. On the way back we slept over night on the boat which was not entirely comfortable since hammocks and boats are not a great mix. It turns gentle rocking into a sleepless world violence and pain. Not fun. It was however very Michael palin–esq. On the way back we spent the first part of the journey on the roof of the boat watching the sunset and star gazing with Surinam to our right and Guyana to our left. Orealla is really pretty and we spent most of our time in the river, even after we saw a piranha jump about 10 feet away. Apparently only about 10 people a year get digits bitten off which was not all that reassuring. We enjoyed the peace and wildlife (seeing iguanas in there natural habitat rather than tied up for sale at the ferry stelling) was refreshing. Anyway I will have to continue this update as I have plenty more to add (slightly more positive things!) when I have more time. I am writing this at an internet café in NA since it is a blackout again in Blairmount so I cannot use my laptop. I am also locked out of both of our houses since Megan had to be taken to hospital because she had an asthma attack so they have taken all the keys. All in all it has not been a fantastic day but things can only get better!

Recently we have been discovering more and more that Guyana is a place where anything is possible. Illegal fireworks can be bought from your first form students outside the market, juice bottles can explode spontaneously and blackouts can last for a week. Everything will make so much sense when we get back to England as we seem to spend most of our time in a state of confusion. The past two weeks have been very busy with work and travelling.
This weekend we went up to Moruca, an Amerindian village north of Georgetown, to visit some other volunteers. They are also staying with a world teach volunteer from Cambridge and a Peace Corps volunteer from LA who are both slightly older and more experienced! To get there we had to cross four rivers – the Berbice, Demerara, Essequibo (which is 20 miles wide!) and down the Pomeroon and up the Moruca river. The journey was amazing especially the last bit in a speedboat through the jungle. On the way back the speedboat leaves at 5:30am so you get to see the sun rise over the jungle whilst speeding down river. It is incredible. Moruca is really beautiful – a world away from New Amsterdam. The Amerindians are quiet but friendly people. We visited the secondary and primary school and were shocked at how peaceful the place was despite having 400 kids in fairly small class rooms. Since there are no Amerindians in New Amsterdam and the population is made up of loud and lively Afro and indo Guyanese this was a big surprise to us. It was a world away from the New Amsterdam – it didn’t feel like we were in Guyana. While the people may be quiet, the jungle definitely is not. I was woken by the sound of howler monkeys at 3am on the first night which was really bizarre. There was also a tarantula on the wall of the bathroom and hundreds of army ants working together to lift leaves and flowers many times their size. Apparently we have to go back in the rainy season to see all the monkeys and snakes. We were interrupted at 2:30am on Friday (whilst searching for the diamonds we had dropped under the table) by the neighbours telling us to call a doctor because their son was really sick. We went over to see him sweating and barely conscious on the floor. After considering the possibility of septic shock we smelt the alcohol on his breath and realised he had just passed out from drinking. They wouldn’t believe us though since their son ‘never drinks’. Even in the jungle things aren’t so different from home. The Amerindian men drink a lot and cheat on their wives a lot which makes the whole place feel slightly uneasy and claustrophobic in my opinion. It wouldn’t be a nice place to fall out with your neighbours since there is no way of getting away from them. On Saturday we got a pick up to a nice sandy beach by a creek and went swimming and fishing, Jolene caught two Hussars which we could have curried but didn’t know how.
Moruca is in a strange stage of development. They have just got mobile phones and everyone has one. Digicell (the mobile phone company) is everywhere – there are Digicell signs in the middle of the jungle. The village seems to have lost a lot of its traditions since getting contact with the outside world. A lot of people have had a glimpse of what else the world has to offer and get depressed with their own lives. There have been several suicides in the village recently. Whether the two are related I don’t know but it could be a case of ignorance being bliss. Either way I don’t think any thing will stop the village from developing – there are plans to get the Internet. Whether good or bad, things in the village are definitely changing quickly. As for education, access to the outside world can only be a good thing but at the cost of the traditions of the community.
Back at school, our head teacher came into my chemistry lesson to invidulate it with no warning. I also just happened to be teaching moles and Avagadroes law – the hardest thing to first learn in chemistry. Luckily she doesn’t know much about chemistry though so she couldn’t comment on the content! She was pleased with my teaching but concerned that I hadn’t written every small detail of what I had done and said in my lesson plan. It seems that they would rather it looked like you were teaching well on paper than actually teaching well. I am still enjoying the teaching although Jolene and I are finding it ever more concerning (but amusing) that we make up the chemistry department in the best school in Berbice.
Tuesday was a public holiday since it is dewali (or deepvali) the hindu festival of light. I spent the day cooking with our neighbour and spent the evening walking around the village looking at all the Diya (small lights people decorate their houses with), fireworks and small kids spinning burning steel wool around their heads. The Guyanese have a fascination with fireworks and bangers (they sound more like bombs here though). There have been several every day at school which usually involves a loud bang screaming kids and lots of smoke. There was also a firework set off outside the staff room today which meant the police were called to school.
The blackout lasted a week and we have had consistent power for a couple of days until today when it went off again. I am now in Georgetown as I have to attend a CXC chemistry workshop today and tomorrow. I am looking forward to finding my own way around Georgetown and pretty glad I have made it safely so far!