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!