Sandvoort, I made it!

Hello all,

I know it's been a while since I last wrote.

Here is a quick update on my life. Quick quick.

I am officially at site. I live in region 6 Berbice, google map it!

Zandvoort is small and normally pretty quiet. I was welcomed by a current volunteer Miss Patty who truly made me feel so comfortable at my new site. The whole first week she cooked for me, made sure I was taken care of and filled me in a little on the village.

I helped her with her summer camp for a week, and now I'm plant sitting while she's on a well deserved vacay(:

The kids call me Miss Frances, I sit in my hammock every day and kids pass by yelling my name. I'm still getting used to the bugs and critters, sometimes I hide under my net, cook in darkness, and talk to myself. Living alone surely is different for me. Sometimes I feel lonely, but I've been keeping busy with reading, making things for school and having some kids over to cook and play card games. I've learned my lesson on when and how often to have kids over, and I've been enjoying the experience of what feels like me growing up.

Cool fact about my village is that they first got electricity in 2002. AKA it is still sort of new. Most have TV sets and few have internet. (I have neither)

In fact the only app that really works on my phone is whatsapp. So my insta, Facebook, email and other world wide web usage is quite limited.

My hope is that I can get internet installed maybe around christmas because that would just make life easier. I will budget accordingly to make sure I can afford it, but it seems like it would be good for me.

I'm currently at another PCV's house borrowing her internet and no joke I had a list of things to do. Update my phone and kindle, send, check emails, downloads to do, pictures to upload, messages to send and so on. In fact the blog was one of the last things on my list.

Alright so I live in Sandvoort and if you follow my instagram which you all should do, we just celebrated emancipation for the past week! It's been a lot of history and it's been amazing to see the pride that comes from those within the community, how they worked together to pull off the event, decorating and cooking, preparing dances, poems, songs, and even getting the newly elected president to come out!

School starts up at the end of the month. I'm still getting used to the laid back environment here. You know I like order and plans and what not. But those things aren't a part of the culture...

So I've decided that it's ok to not have a plan for school. I'm going to assess the literacy levels of each student so if it takes me over a month, then it takes me over a month. I'm going to assess the levels, get to know them, have them tell me about themselves and I'm going to make note of it all. Then once I'm finished I'll devise a plan from there. Figure out who needs my help the most and what I'll be covering for each child. It's going to work out!

I'm not posting pictures today bc of time and also bc I forgot my chord. I  had to tote a whole bunch of other things so it slipped my mind. After this I'm headed to the market to buy my veggies (I'm still figuring out how to buy for 1 without things going bad and only going to the store once every week and a half or so). Then to the store to grab a few other things.

Check out my fb and instagram: Frances Anna & frannadee

FINALLY I HAVE A NEW ADDRESS!
mail is greatly accepted. I'm trying to write to people too, just give me time to reply!

Frances DiFabio, PCV
94 Sandvoort Village
West Canje, Berbice
Guyana
South America

Also, PLEASE download whatsapp. I can't communicate without it. My number is +592.689.5076 don't forget the +!

Love ya lots!
Fran

This is one of Miss Patty's pics from her hike around Sandvoort!

I've been slacking

Saturday, June 20th,

Has it really been a month since I’ve written anything? I’m sorry guys. Things have been crazy!

Tomorrow marks 2 months in country 25 to go!

I finished up my practicum at Diamond, and many of you have already seen my SOCA project in the video I posted on FB a while back. 

When we presented to our fellow trainees, we really had a sense of pride. Not only in the work we did and the outcome of the room, but also in our school. We truly came together as a team and I think it better prepared us for more projects at our schools.

It wasn’t exactly easy, and we hit many bumps along the way, but we managed to do something for the school that we were excited about. The school not only has a beautiful new space, they have new hopes and ideas for the room too. We as peace corps volunteers aren’t here to make things easy for others, we can’t just give resources. We have to work with our communities to make it better collectively. We start movements that the community can continue to work towards, we are catalysts for change, not the creator and it’s quite humbling. Our teachers had ideas for the space, our students, had ideas. And their ideas continue even after we’ve moved on. That’s what is so beautiful about what we’re doing here. We work together for the bettering of a community, we want sustainability. 

We were invited to the graduation of the school on July 1st, so we plan on going. It’ll be exciting to see what they’ve done to the reading room. 

Okay other exciting news……

WE FOUND OUT OUR SITES!

So for the next 2 years, I’ll be facilitating a literacy program at Lochaber Primary, in Region 6, Berbice.

I’m really excited because I’m close to a lot of other volunteers. So we head to Georgetown for trainings with our counterparts. Our counterparts are the people who guide us through out our two years at site. My counterpart is my Head Master (principle) and grade 5 teacher. There are 4 other teachers, a Nursery school teacher, a grades 1 & 2 teacher, a grades 3 & 4 teacher, and a grade 6 teacher. Lochaber is a village of 350ish residents, with about 90 primary school students.

My counterpart is uber busy, so he was unable to come to the second day of training which I was disappointed about, but more than understanding of. I just hope I feel supported from PC and my community through out the whole two years of my service.

Day 1 at site. I spent 7 days here.

My counterpart wasn’t able to travel with me so my girl Missy (another trainee) and her Counterpart, Lucie, took me to Berbice. It took about 2 hours I’d say, maybe a little less to get here. Wain my CP, picked me up and we picked up Jon Michael (another trainee) and is CP. We went to Wain’s, Jon Michael lives below him so Wain is his host family, then we drove to my school. I said hello to the students and teachers quickly and we headed to the neighboring village where another PCV is training. Miss Patty showed us her school and we then went to my apartment. I live alone. I have one bedroom, a tv, kitchen, bathroom. Kinda.

I also have like a million creatures, cockroaches, lizards, frogs, spiders, other strange bugs, ants, mosquitos…. so Wain took me inside, didn’t acknowledge the creatures and had to run. He told me he’d be back in a little for dinner and that he’d send over Auntie Jackie. This hasn’t happened. So to bed I go, hungry and alone. 

Today’s not a good day.

Overall this trip to site has been tough. I’m told many people struggle at site at first. You know, that it is just part of the madness we signed up for.

I’m learning things.

I’m learning things about another culture, about patience, about what I am and am not capable of. I’m learning about myself. Which is exactly why I challenged myself to do this in the first place.

My biggest fear on this whole planet is being alone. It’s always been my biggest fear in life. I just hate feeling alone. Probably because I know what I’m capable of. And this week at site I felt very alone. I didn’t feel a whole lot of support. And it scared me. 

But…. the other PCVs and PCTs helped me more than they know. So did my host family in Soesdyke and in America. 

I have an overwhelming support system. That I’m extremely thankful for. So be mindful. Some days I really need you. Some days I just need to figure out what’s going on inside my head myself.

I love my kids. They stayed with me after school. Sometimes longer than other teachers would stay. We would read. I think they just wanted to spend time with me. They wouldn’t have cared if I made them clean the yard, sweep the floors, or even read. It was beautiful.

A few facts on my site…

Low-kah-vah (this is how you pronounce it)

Lochaber is a small community of 350 people Mostly East Indian, some Afro Guyanese

There is one school, with 90 students (not all from Lochaber, some from neighboring villages too)

Located about 10 minutes by car from NA

There is one small Lutheran church, with a Hindu worship center in a neighboring town

Most mothers don’t work

Men drive cars, farm, work in factories nearby, some don’t work or are searching for jobs

Most parents and community members are illiterate 

There is one little house market where you can purchase drinks, snacks, and bread, but I have yet to see anyone ever go there. If you need anything from the market you have to catch a car out of the community or call a taxi, or BIKE!

L ots of animals; goats, cows, sheep, dogs, frogs, lizards etc.

O ne big road, one scheme

C lose to New Amsterdam and you can see sugar factory

H as a ball field

A lways quiet

B eautiful

E xtremely small

R ice fields nearby

My students help me come up with this, they love their little village.

FAST FORWARD: I’m back with my host family and I’m sorry I never posted the other blog but here’s more!

June 27th

Saskeia's husband Jason showed up for a surprise visit from America for their first wedding anniversary which is tomorrow. He's only staying 3 days, but I'm glad I get to meet him.

June 28th

Sunday. CHURCH.

TOUGH. Let’s just say gay marriage still isn’t accepted here and the preacher made me realize that.

What’s tough is that I haven’t been able to fully express my thoughts on this issue. No one knows about my family here. Or let me clarify, many volunteers and my new found friends are the only ones who may know. 

July 3rd

We had a great day at the US Ambassador’s house. I enjoyed the pool, underwater camera, gaining green hair, meeting Barrack Obama, eating vegetarian meat, eating quality cheese, and eating cake with real live strawberries. It was like like a dream. A day of beauty. Happy 4th America!

July 5th 

Best day with the host family thus far. We were hot. Jenny was cooking, there was a black out and jokingly Saskeia said “lets go to the creek.” Jenny turned and said “let’s go to the creek!” and I said “AHH LET’S GO TO THE CREEK!” and off we went! Jekeia joined us and off we went. On our drive back the rest of the downstairs family was coming to meet us. So we went to another creek. Just like that,  I was a tree climber. I was a rope swinger. I was a black water swimmer.

July 6th

Proof that there are also negative days on this journey. Today was hard. Today wasn’t easy. BROKEN CRAYONS STILL COLOR. And this has thus far been the biggest challenge of my entire life. And somewhere, deep inside I’m proud. Because I’m challenging myself in ways people couldn't imagine or dare to do. I’m glad for days like today. I’m thankful of days where I feel like pure ‘hell.’ They make me want more days that feel like ‘heaven.’ So here’s to the many more tough days, I can’t wait for you to remind me how much I appreciate the good ones.

PS maybe once a month I'll throw out an update. Maybe that'll be more realistic. Although I do love and miss writing. It is good therapy. Sorry for slacking.

Signing out for now.

xoxo, Frances Anna

RICE

Monday, May 11

ELECTIONS

Boring day for me- I basically was on house arrest. But it was an exciting day for Guyanese!

Tuesday, May 12

NO ELECTION NEWS

I had training- no need to elaborate.

Wednesday, May 13

NO ELECTION NEWS

Again, more training.

Thursday, May 14

NO ELECTION NEWS

AKA still no one is working and no school. So no practicum as planned -training instead.

Friday, May 15

THE OPPOSITION WON.

This week felt INCREDIBLY long. 

For reference to the process of voting here in Guyana, check out my last blog. 

Basically the results were only announced 4 days after elections took place because of this process and because of a few other reasons. Recounts were called for and took time to complete. 

But those happy with the election celebrated with song and dance and even some tears!

It was a HUGE day in history.

Saturday, May 16

FISH MARKET

We left at 5:30 am and went into Georgetown and headed around the fish market. I’ve never been to a fish market, but that smelly place had some beautiful fresh catches. I wish I would have taken pictures, but it’s been hard to take pictures because I already stick out and don’t need anyone seeing me flashing my phone everywhere.

Birthday Party for Sarah S. and Missy! It was so nice to see everyone outside of training, and to see the adorable puppies at Sarah’s(:

Sunday, May 17

Laundry day. Hand wash. Working on my technique. Took me over an hour. Relaxed after the hard work.

Then I went to Kelly’s for Suzie’s BDay Bash! Same as yesterday- it was nice to spend time together as people and not just PCTs. 

Monday, May 18

Today we went to the schools for practicum in the morning. I performed a literacy assessment on my grade 1 pupils and just had them identify the letters and their sounds. The kids loved working with me even though it was boring. I also loved working with them! The assessment was difficult to do with the noise level and lack of space to conduct it in, but I was able to receive some data and analyze it into what is exactly needed. The rest of the day we had a reflection.

Tuesday, May 19

Training. No fun.

Wednesday, May 20

FIELD TRIP to GT (Georgetown)

First, we went to NCERD National Center for Educational Resource Development.

They taught us about how the educational ministry is set up and of course gave us resources to use and contact to reach once we go to sites.

We also got to go around GT a bit to different shops and book stores.

No time for ice cream though.

Thursday, May 21

Half day with the crazies at school. I basically worked with them one on one and was able to help the “lower level” students as they’re called here, to receive a bit more attention which helps them learn more. The kids love me now. Sometimes they forget to call me Miss Fran and they just say Fran instead of just saying Miss, which is the respectful way to say teacher. After school, we reflected with education volunteers.

Friday, May 22

Training all together today. That means volunteers from Laluni (the far training site) and the Soesdyke and Timehri. 

Saturday, May 23

Kyera (my new PCT friend) went back to Sarah S’s for another party except no one showed up. HA so yeah it was nice though because it was so low key! 

Sunday, May 24

I’m pretty sure I did nothing today.

Monday, May 25

Rice:

I’m taking this opportunity to talk about 2 things thus the title of the blog..

I’ll start out with the obvious- rice has become a main food in my diet. Not gonna lie, I don’t love it. First I’ll explain in what ways I eat rice, how often and then I’ll explain how good it is. Then I’ll move onto my other reason for writing about “rice”. 

Rice is a major crop here in Guyana. This means that it is a cheap food and comes in total abundance. AKA we eat rice all the time. Rice for breakfast, rice for lunch, rice for dinner. I’m lucky because I don’t eat rice for breakfast and my host family knows that I truly don’t care for rice. But I eat it often because I am here to learn about the culture and make it more of my own. So, rice fried, rice in cook up (basically rice with veggies or rice with beans, or rice with… just all cooked up together), white rice and brown rice (with sides of vegetables and fried fish nearly every lunch). Basically I eat A LOT of rice. To me rice has no nutritional value and is just a place holder. It pretty much just shoves my stomach full, but I think since it has no benefits of eating it I get hungry a little later. Maybe that’s just because I eat less than 1/3 of the portions my family would eat.

ok moving on to the other meaning of rice.

Roaches and mICE =RICE

So. To make a long story short. I was up watching tv all alone when a HUGE flying roach comes out of no where. I have a minor panic attack, laughing at myself of course, but I remained very still. Once I calmed myself down, like a 5 year old who didn’t get their way, to my surprise popped out a little mouse!!!!!!!!!!!!

I’m going to get used to these things, but I’m living in such a nice house here I didn’t think it would happen just yet. I also didn’t think a mouse would pop out after I freaked over a cockroach. I literally ran to my room laughing at my ridiculous self and locked myself in for the rest of the night hoping the creatures wouldn’t find their way to my room. 

(mind you other trainees have bats in their rooms, lizards, frogs, spiders.. and I freaked out over RICE)

Tuesday, May 26

It’s my birthday and I’ll smile if I want to!!

Rewind a bit. 

I woke up, got out of the shower and to my delight a cake was on the table. My jaw dropped with shock of the surprise and its beauty.

My host mama is a champ and made me a beautiful cake of the Guyanese flag. We wrapped it up and I shared it with all of my friends. I also was sung to, blew out a lighter as my candle, and received a handful of cards, and a few hand made bracelets. I truly can’t express how thankful I am to be here with so many supporting and loving people. This is my first birthday away from home in 23 years and I definitely shed some tears in wishing home friends and family could have been here to help celebrate as well. BUT I’m so thankful to have the love from everyone in GUY27, thank you thank you thank you. Here’s to many more times of leaning on you all for support!

Here’s to another 2 years!

Wednesday, May 27

Today we were at the school all day again. I’m not going to lie. I really don’t want to have my own classroom. I love working one on one with the students. There is one boy who really wants to be on the same level as his friends, he did the homework I gave him over the holiday, and he asks me for help regularly. It makes me so excited just thinking about him because I can’t wait to really focus on him and help him with his basic letters and numbers so he can actually start learning like his peers.

I say it was hard because PC gave us a project. But our Head Mistress isn’t really the head mistress, she is the acting HM and also has her own classroom to teach. Like today, she had a meeting so my teacher went to teach some of her classes. Back and forth back and forth, her class our class, her class our class. It was just so tough. And in our project we are to work with the school to do something the school needs and wants. HM told us that they are getting a reading room ready and would love if we could help. When she took us to see it, they have NO books. No libraries in the school, no art classrooms and gyms like we are used to in America. The thing is we don’t have access to books to create the reading room, no books, no tv, no furniture, no carpets, we have nothing tangible to contribute. So how do we help? We came up with materials that the student could make, books, literacy tools, flash cards etc and we explained them to the teachers today. They basically are at just the same loss we are. We still have no materials. So it was a rather depressing meeting for me. I felt down after it. Like I’m not here to give you “things”. I’m here to work with your community. And I felt alone because the things they want I can’t provide. 

So even though the day was hard as hell. I’m really thankful for my buddy who is going to make this short stint at his school enjoyable for me.

SIDE NOTE:

I’m sorry for the delay. I’m going to attempt to blog once a week from now on. And I’ll type in a word document every night to not forget!

ALSO: 

My iPhone isn’t recognized by my computer bc of my Guyanese sim card so I haven’t been able to get pictures on here. If anyone knows how to help me PLEASE do!

Love you, thanks for reading and SO sorry I wrote so much!

Kisses,

Fran

Parties, Practicum, Elections OH MY!

Tuesday, May 5- house party. 

I wasn’t allowed to help cook or clean, but I was eventually aloud to help serve the food. My task was to go to the children and give them the pre-made plates of food. You may guess what happened… or you may not because I personally was shocked.

Every child that I went to wouldn’t take the food from me or just looked at my white skin with such confusion. I mean the kids truly don’t know and were confused beyond belief, but I was too! I never in my life have even been unable to connect with a child, it was rather depressing…until another PCT’s, (Peace Corps Trainee) Allee’s host brother came up to play “catch me catch me” which is virtually tag. Then all the kids came flocking! They must have realized how fun we’d be! We played every game, danced and laughed. Kids are definitely way better than adults. Not gonna lie though, there were some attractive young male gentlemen guests at this shin-dig. But in getting back to the kids… a 14 month old and his mom came up to Allee and I and he was loving Allee, waving to her, fist pounding, they were pretty tight. Then little Emmanuel came up to me and did the same thing, but he continued to lift his hand to my face and caress it. He literally was so taken aback by my skin that he just had to touch it. It was quite a precious moment and continued to happen later on in the night with another little boy maybe about 4 years old. Oh I can’t forget about the paparazzi girl (she was probably 8) who was following Allee and I around taking photos because she was seeing white people. Then there’s my boy who was 11 wearing a Texas jersey who knew about the whole in the ozone layer and that that’s why the weather has been changing. Texas was born in Guyana, lives in Guyana, but his mother (who has cancer) lives in Buffalo, New York. This means that Texas goes to the states every summer and sometimes for holidays too. He was a really cool cat, oh and he’s moving to Buffalo after school gets out this year! 

Anyway the party was a hit, and so were the white girls! Did I mention that the music was on point? Well it was! Alcohol or not (in this case not) these Guyanese know how to throw a party!

Wednesday, May 6-practicum

Today was my first day going to school!

I’m going to attempt to write quickly about how the school system is set up in Guyana just so you have a general understanding!

Nursery School -3yrs 2mths-5yrs 9mths -non-compulsory

Primary School -grades 1-6 -mandatory

Secondary School/Primary tops -4-6 years -mandatory up to age 14.5yrs

Tertiary -University of Guyana (Georgetown or Berbice) OR Cyril Potter College of Edu. 

3 terms:

1. Christmas- Sept-Dec 2 weeks vacation
2. Easter- Jan-Apr 2-3 weeks vacation
3. August- April-July 6-7 weeks vacation

Okay so what all of this means is that you graduate high school by the age of 16 and then you get a job. Often people become teachers right away as you don’t need a degree to teach. Often teachers receive some sort of training and eventually get a degree whether it be 2 year or 4 year, students have 2 choices for furthering their education.  

Anyway, my practicum is at Diamond Primary School and I’m in a grade 1 classroom (equivalent to our kindergarten classroom). I get to go in a total of 8 times, I get to help out, teach a lesson or two and get to know what the dynamics of a classroom are in Guyana. The kids were adorable, there are some I already know I want to work with one on one because they are struggling to write and keep up with the class. Just like your typical classroom, students are all over the spectrum. There are some that are a little ahead and get a little crazy because they’re bored.. I’ll talk more about the students later and hopefully snap some photos too!

So far I’ve noticed that it is extremely loud. This is because there are no wall dividers between classes. So the teachers have to create their own with shelves and posters and chalk boards. There also seems to be a serious lack of resources. A student in the class broke his pencil and couldn’t participate the rest of the day because he didn’t have a sharpener. I think the student may have chose to not ask to borrow a friends, it wasn't the teacher telling the student he wasn't aloud to participate. Some other volunteers talked about how some of their partner teachers were teaching two different classes. So they would go from one side of the board to the other, no matter how awesome the teacher was (which they were apparently pretty awesome) it could be seen as wasting time as the students had to wait for the teacher to come back to continue the lesson. If a teacher is absent, the class is split and sent to another class which is learning totally different material. There is normally one class of each grade in each school. Often schools don’t have running water or sometimes electricity. The principal /head master or head mistress normally has their own class to teach as well. Both schools in America and Guyana need advocates. They need teachers who fight for their students and they need resources to teach their students, this is the bottom line for me. This is just a quick overview, just some observations and I’m sure I’ll have much more knowledge on the topic soon enough. I also am not trying to bash Guyanese schools in any way, these teachers work hard and so do the students, I just wish the resources were a little better so both the teacher could do an even better job facilitating and the student could do a better job learning.

Thursday & Friday, May 7 & 8

Election gaf?!

First I want to start out with what a typical day looks like which is why I won’t be posting daily. 

5:00 wake up and do yoga or go for a run sometimes both

shower & get ready

eat breakfast

head to training

8:00-5:00 training

5:30 home

6:30 dinner

9:00 everyone’s in bed

11:00 the hour I normally fall asleep- I need to work on making this earlier because I get so tired during the day.

Mainly the day is filled with training, but I normally get quality time with the fam. when I get home! One of these nights we gaffed about the upcoming elections:

I won’t speak much on certain things within this topic, but I do feel as though I should fill you in on a few things and you can look up the rest if you’re so inclined. 

So this upcoming Monday, May 11, are the elections for a new president for Guyana. Similar to the US, elections fall every 4 years, and there are normally 2 big parties that the elections come down to. You can start voting at age 18 oh and a big difference is that it is done via paper ballot, and your finger gets dunked in ink so you can't try to vote a second time, and you only find out the results a day to a few days later.

From what I understand, originally the 2 parties were mainly separated by race, but now that is seemingly not so much the case. There is though a more liberal party and a more conservative party. 

For my host family’s sake, I won’t talk about which affiliation I believe they have. Peace Corps asked us not to talk about politics and so I just had my host family explain the system and the 2 parties and not much beyond that.

The reason why I’m bringing this up is because it is believed to be a year of change for Guyana. The current party in control is the PPP the People’s Progressive Party. The PPP has been in control for the past 23 years I believe. But this year it is believed that the APNU+AFC may win the election. A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change. There have been threats that if APNU+AFC wins that they will jail current political leaders. Regardless of the outcome, there is bound to be disagreement. I say this just so my family knows that there is indeed an election and things may not go smoothly even though I hope and believe all will.

SO…PC is taking extraordinary measures to keep the volunteers and trainees safe. So no worries fam, know that we have an evacuation plan, and that we have the day off and must stay in our homes in case anything were to ensue. Also, to help ease your minds, we aren’t in Georgetown (if anything were to happen it'd happen here) so all will be fine!

Saturday, May 9 

Today I slept in, and relaxed. I woke up early of course, but forced myself back to sleep until 8. I had to get up though because I was sweating so much. My host family keeps generously offering me the fan every night, but I need to get used to this heat because it isn’t going anywhere! Anyway I read a book on my kindle, relaxed, had a good bit of alone time, it was nice. I’m not going to lie though, some PCs were walking past the house and apparently some got together and I was a little sad not to have been included. It would have been nice to get out of the house while I can. But whatever, it is what it is, I enjoyed a good book and finally had time to reflect a little bit about what the hell is happening. I still feel like I don’t know, and maybe I never will. 

**side note: it's ok for me to spend time alone, I need to get used to this feeling we all know I'm not so good at it, but I'm working on it and it helps not always having your closest friends and family always around.

Sunday, May 10

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!!

Today I again was able to sleep in although again I woke up before 6 and finished my book before falling back to sleep. I was awake for good by 8, due to the heat, but I started working on my Mother’s day card for my sister-in-law. Haha it’s kind of silly referring to my host family this way, but I kind of love it! Anyway I bought a Mother’s day card for my host mom when I was in America when I didn’t know I needed 2 cards.. so today I made another one! The house is quiet in the morning as my host mom and sister went to church. I’m not sure what the plans are for the rest of the day, but I’m sure they’ll be low key.. it’s also been a bit rainy so I doubt we’ll go anywhere. I am excited to FaceTime my mama though! She doesn’t know, but there is a Mother’s day surprise waiting for her! Remember back in one of the first blogs when I said I was excited about something, but that you’d find out about it later… this is it! I actually hid cards and a picture in my desk drawer before I left since I knew the first Mother’s Day without me would be tough. So mama, I love ya and I hope you enjoyed the little surprise, I was so excited about it I’m glad I don’t have to wait any longer! Happy Mama’s Day to all of the wonderful mothers out there!!!

I think this post went long enough, I’ll post again soon!

Any requests for what to write about next?!

-please let me know, thanks!

Lots of love,

Fran xoxo

Cultural Differences- Getting to know Guyana

So Guyana used to be called Guiana, then British Guiana, and now it’s Guyana. This last change happened May, 26 1966 as Guyana gained it’s independence. Guiana is the Amerindian word for “land of many waters.”

Ok. so that’s kind of boring… but here are some other random facts.

To my sociological, anthropological people -there are six (kind of seven) main ethnic groups in Guyana.
1)Amerindian
2)Europeans
3)Africans
4)Portuguese
5)East Indians
6)Chinese
7)Mixed-Guyanese

The three main religions are Christian, Hindu, and Muslim.

There are 10 regions, more or less comparable to our states, and boat loads of waterways.

It’s definitely a Caribbean country. You know you say it’s in Central America even though it’s really in South America, but you come here and you hear the Creoles and you understand why it’s a Caribbean country.

The national language is indeed English, but (and that’s a big but) there is another language that is quite difficult to understand! -Creolese- Mainly you hear everyone talking with almost a Jamaican accent, very Caribbean. But once they start speaking quickly to each other it tends to get a little jumbled. Occasionally my host father is difficult to understand, but most of the time my family is easy to understand as they speak very little Creolese. Apparently it is’t spoken in school, and those who don’t speak it are often better educated or of a higher class. It’s like you don’t hear doctors speaking Creoles, but maybe you’ll hear the bus driver. Here’s a slew of Creolese sayings/words:

lime- hang out
vexed- mad/upset
susu- gossip/whispering
mi nah no- I don’t know
mino- I know
pittance- very little
tek- take/took
di- the
an- and
nof- a lot/plenty
taak- talk
awee, geens- away, against
badii- body
piipl- people
bai- buy
waahn- want
wahm-nin day- what’s happening
mii- me
ii- he
abedeez- we
aalyall- all of you
dem- them
gaf-talk

PS my Creolese is pretty pathetic and I don’t hate it.. I often understand it and that’s good enough for me!

Some households have cars, electricity, wifi, dish television, running water etc. while others have bucket flush toilets, or even latrines, outhouses, people taking bucket bathes, no running water to the house etc. It all varies. Some homes are just the mother, father, and children while others are mother, father, adult children, grand children… pets you know the norm. Some homes are wooden some cement, some huge some small.

For those of you wondering more on the lines of the home I’m living in.. my host family’s home is very nice, rather large, has running water, electricity, wifi, 3 cars, dish television, flushable toilets, a shower, a full kitchen (oven, gas stove top, refrigerator, microwave). I have my own room, a full size bed, bars on my windows, a lock on my door.

I have a host mother, father, and adult sister who live in the upstairs portion of the house. My host brother, his wife, and 2 kids live in the downstairs portion of the house both containing kitchens and bathrooms. And the from of the downstairs is basically another kitchen for my host mom as she used to do and still does a bit is catering.

The home I live in is beautiful, and I’m quite fortunate!

K- I need sleep Love ya, I hoped you liked your first insight into life here!

xoxo,
Fran

And so it begins...

Quick. Recap. Go.

Sunday, April 19

The flight went smoothly and Dad and Brian picked up Leah and I. We went to the hotel checked in and then went to dinner. Feast your eyes on our entertainment: *******

Monday, April 20

I roomed with Sarah Bee last night and guess where we went to breakfast. Ihop! I may have been there once in my life, but it was down the street from our hotel and a no-brainer really as we were eating our last American Bfast. We got back to the hotel and had our first orientation. It started at 2 and ended around 7 I believe. We split into groups and ended up eating great food at a tapas restaurant. The night fell and things started getting more real.

Tuesday, April 21

Wake up, pack. Your life is about to change. Basically the day consisted of 43 people freaking out about their luggage. BUT 43 of us made it onto a plane and at 10pm 43 of us arrived in Guyana. We were greeted and welcomed as we got through the airport and we split again into 2 groups for 2 different hotels. I stayed at Wind Jammer and had wifi so I called the fam which was nice. Damaris and I roomed together in a nice room with air conditioning and 2 bug nets!

Wednesday, April 22

I woke up in Guyana to a rooster and off the group went to breakfast at Status hotel, where the other half of GUY27 was. The breakfast had mini bananas, papaya, I think hot dogs in ketchup, eggs, toast, the most delicious pineapple I’ve ever tasted, and shredded fish. Then our first day of orientation began and it was basically hellos to everyone and a simple introduction to PC Guyana. We all went in busses for about an hour to the ferry and met a few current volunteers and headed off over the essequibo river. After a little over an hour, we hopped on more busses (ps EVERY TIME I say bus, I really mean 15 seater van) and after another hour or so and we made it to Lake Mainstay where we’d be staying together for the next few days. It is a little resort and we are the first PC group here who got to do our first few days of training there. My roommate is Cassie and together we made our way to our cabins.

April 23- April 30

I don’t know how to describe lake mainstay and I didn’t take many photos so bare with me on the writings from these few days.

The wifi wasn’t great but I occasionally was able to communicate to family and friends. 

Most days consisted of group work, orientation and food. A ton of food. Mainly fish, a cabbage salad, rice or roti (the roti is delightful-look it up) we also ate quite a bit of hot sauce, sweet ketchup and fried foods for EVERY meal, fried pumpkin, fried plantains, fried fish, chicken… the list goes on and on. Oh and the portions are huge, and the day starts early. We normally had breakfast by 6 or 7 and would train until 3 or 5. Other fun things we did during training were dance lessons, we had a kick ass bon fire -smore’s included. We had a swim test in the lake where they tested to see how comfortable we felt in the water, swimming, floating and canoeing. We sang some traditional songs, danced our butts off and really learned a bunch about the culture.

-One thing I completely never thought about was the water situation. I’ve never been more thankful for water in my life. I never knew how beautiful it was to have clean water to drink, and I’m so sorry that I took advantage of it. Here in Guyana there is clean water available but drinking water must come from a bottle. So I learned how to strain, bleach, and filter or boil my water. I also brush my teeth with bottled water. It’s just mind boggling to me how such an important resource is so under developed in countries today. So readers, please enjoy, and be thankful for your clean water sources. We are quite fortunate to have them.

Martindale & Dartmouth

We went on field trips in small groups one day and my group took a bus, to a speed boat and headed to see a small primary school with the nicest of teachers, principal, kids and parents. The kids showed us their school, a dance and the pet baby alligator next door. This small school house had an upstairs and a downstairs and there were no separating walls just open spaces and chalkboards as wall dividers. We ate cassava bread, dipped into a spicy fish soup, and drank delicious coconut milk.

We stopped for lunch which consisted of rice and same. Same is a type of bean (similar to a green bean I believe) that was made into a delicious curry dish. I also had a great mango juice and ice cream. We then met up with Dan, a current PCV and he showed us around Dartmouth. We stopped into the Primary school where we heard a puppet show and then we went to the secondary school where he worked. We then walked to his house where his family lived on a compound. His family lived on the bottom of the house, he lived upstairs and his grandparents and aunts and uncles lived on the properties surrounding. Dan made us play games, like how to tuck in a bug net, how to plug in a fan with energy converters, how to light the gas stove that uses  a propane tank, how to do laundry in your shower, how to bucket flush a toilet, how to sweep with a broom made from a palm tree.. he taught us the basics. He also took us to the ocean before we left. We didn’t go in because it was not the going in type (all brown and rough and dirty).

We did laundry one day at Lake Mainstay. We only washed  2 pieces together. I eventually washed the rest myself one morning before breakfast. Oh and by doing laundry I don’t mean that the 43 of us hopped on a bus to the closest laundromat, I mean the 43 of us hand washed our clothes in buckets and hung them on the line to dry.

The bed bug dilemma. Plain and simple, a bunch of people had bed bugs. Luckily I did not. 

Side note: Lori, if you’re reading this, I’m sorry, but I have to write about how inspiring you are to me.

So I realize that not all people can leave their family and friends and everything they know and love to subject themselves to a different culture and way of life, but I can’t stress how important I think it is for people to learn about other cultures. Anyway, here’s to Lori. My new friend. A fellow volunteer. Who happens to be deaf. Going to live in a different culture can have it’s advantages and disadvantages. It is hard to say what is a disadvantage though because every disadvantage can be made into a positive thing. Example: The deaf population in Guyana is lacking resources and most people don’t even know it exists. But isn’t that the whole reason peace corps exists? We are here to help community members help their own community. Lori, I love and admire you for sharing your talents, knowledge, and love with the world. Not just with the community but with your fellow volunteers as well. Lori, James (a local who happens to be deaf), Rachel (an amazing response volunteer who has been interpreting for Lori), Quincy and Ruben (locals who are interpreters) all helped teach us signs and I believe will continue to teach us more and more and I can’t wait.

Wolves and villagers may be the best game invented. It’s hot as hell here and I’m going to get fat.

I learned how to do a head stand and a crow pose which are both incredibly hard to do in my opinion and I also learned how to do a sun salutation. Here’s to being hella happy and free. Yoga will be a part of my morning routine, thank you Marie.

Thursday, April 30 

We went back to wind Jammer. Took a tour of Georgetown, went to the zoo, saw the tallest wooden structure in the world, St. George’s Cathedral, ate, had kids stare at me with wide eyes in shock of seeing a white person and then had adults point and say wow look there’s a white girl. Also, everyone in the city LOVED my tattoos. Blondie was a hit! And now it’s time to meet my host family!

Friday, May 1

The W Family! I live with them in Soesdyke in their BEAUTIFUL home. Seriously, I was prepared to live in a hut. And I’m virtually living in a beautiful mansion with all of the amenities you could imagine, wifi, direct tv, cars, a laundry machine, running water, indoor plumbing, a refrigerator, it’s unreal. My mom’s name is Jenny, dad Keith, sister Saskeia, brother Keith Jr., sister-in-law Jewel, nice (8) Jekeia, nephew (1) Jaden.

My mom is in catering so good eats are already happening and they’re just all so nice! They made me a welcome poster, Jekeia made me a bracelet, Jaden let me hold him, I had help hanging my bug net and I’ve already added my personal touch to my room!

Saturday, May 2

Yesterday we drove to Georgetown to Borda Market (which I stayed out past my 6pm curfew) and I tried soft serve ice cream and I was told that my hair looks like a beautiful golden river. I went to bed later than everyone around 10:30 and woke up later than everyone at 7:30. But I did my new morning yoga routine and felt pretty good. I am tired, but maybe that’s because it’s hella hot and I haven’t had a time to really think about what is happening to my life right now. 

Today is a rather relaxing day, my mom’s been cooking away for a picnic/party we are having in 3 days. I’ve done some reading, wrote this bad boy, and I have some homework to do too. Tomorrow is church and probably more eating.

First meals with my host mama: fish, veggies and rice, it was delightful. fried fish and plantains as american as the cuisine gets around here. This morning I ate some mama fruit and something else that was super sweet, I also had bake that Jewel made. It is like an english muffin on steroids. Fruit cake for a snack and for lunch, fried okra and rice, again really really tasty. 

Ahh I’m sitting outside on the veranda finishing this up and I just saw my dad ride his bike home wearing one of the Phillies hats I got! I love it!

But thanks for reading this madness! Maybe next time I write it’ll be about something I observed or experienced so y’all can learn more about the culture rather than my every step each week.

Signing out,

Fran

PS be sure to check out the photograph section. I think that’s where I’m just going to post them all! It may be easier that way! Also, my address for the next few months is posted too!

Any questions or comments, please I’d love to answer and or read!!

Miss ya -kisses!