The mystery of training location has been reveled! But you have to read
this to find out. Sucker.
We had to go on a scavenger hunt to find out what training site we were
going to go to(hinterland, which is inland, or coastal/town). They hid
envelopes with our names on them in these small huts. One of the volunteers,
Andrew, told me he saw where mine was but wouldn't tell me where so I had to
find it myself. In the envelopes were pictures of an animal which we would match
with our host families, and a slip of blue or orange paper for us saying
'Coastal' or 'Hinterland' for training. I was hoping for Hinterland. It sounded
amazing, the true Peace Corps living rough experience. Living out in the middle
of the rainforest, catching anacondas and jaguars daily. (haha, not really.) I
was really hoping to get hinterland, but until I tore open my envelope, I
wasn't sure. I saw orange paper, which I knew from seeing the other volunteer's
papers was hinterland for them, but I was afraid they'd just printed them all
on orange paper. Yet, here in the beautiful Laluni, I know for sure. I am
hinterland! And it is amazing.
I met my family yesterday and they
are quite wonderful. Before I met them we had to pack up from Splashmin's
resort, stuff all our piles of things into one car, pile ourselves into
another, then off we went. The drive took longer than expected because we got a
flat tire, then our driver fixed it, then we stopped again and we all assumed
it was a tire, but alas we had run out of gas. So, there, in the middle of
nowhere, a van full of trainee volunteers were stranded with bunches of
vultures circling overhead. It was a sight to see. There were tons of vultures,
3 different groups of them, all flying near us. It was pretty sweaty, but we
made it work. Eben brought out his guitar and entertained us for a bit until
the driver Andrew(different from the volunteer) came in his Land Cruiser and
brought us to Laluni. Andrew is a wonderful driver. Fast, and furious. The
roads are primarily sand and dirt mixed together so it does not all wash away
when it rains. Therefore, they are not exactly straight or stable. They are
however, quite wonderful when going crazy fast.(So many bumps. It is a
wonderful thing.) I enjoyed it vastly.
Upon arrival at Laluni, we were ushered into a church where our
possessions had been neatly piled. Waiting in the bright blue pews in the back
were the host families. I was ridiculously nervous. My face was already tired
from smiling so much, because I really couldn't stop grinning all day, despite
occasional spikes of nervousness. To begin, the community members had prepared
a song "Lean On Me" which they performed for us. I almost cried. It
was exceptionally beautiful and really touching to know that these people who
start out as strangers are willing to open us into their houses and hearts,
making us parts of their families. I'm still bewildered by their generosity and
kindness.
After the song they presented an acrostic poem spelling 'Welcome To
Laluni'. Then there was a bit of a mishap because there was to be a fashion
show, but they were missing a couple members. In the meantime one of our Peace
Corps trainers, Norwell, stood up and told two jokes. Then Norwell said Eben
could play guitar for them, but Eben looked really nervous so I volunteered to
sing "Skinny Love" with him. I forgot a lyric and a chorus, but all
in all it was okay. By the time we were done, they had all the kids dressed up
in different traditional clothing. The day we arrived, May 5th, is also the
holiday Indian Arrival Day in Guyana, so many people were wearing their finest.
There were three adorable children dressed up in some exquisite East Indian
outfits. When I saw them I was really hopeful I would be in their family, but I
didn't think it was possible.
Later, when matching cards, I had a jaguar and met my host mom, Gaitree,
for the first time. She hugged me, then stepped back looking at how tall I was,
which we both laughed at. (I found out today someone's host mom referred to me
as "girl who is tall like tree" which is 100% accurate. I love it.)
Then I met Ravi, my host dad, and their three kids.(Remember those same
adorable kids from earlier? Yeah. Bet you can't guess what happened next.) My
host siblings are two little boys, ages 8 and 9, and one girl who is 6 years
old. The girl is named Anjani(Serenia) Doobay(she was helping me spell her name
and wanted me to type her last name too, so you can enjoy that too.) The
younger brother is named Amar(Sachen) Doobay, while his older brother is Hemraj(Shivo)
Doobay. They have their home names, the ones in parenthesis, and their school
names.
They have an amazing house, I get
to stay upstairs with everyone else, in a room to my own. I can open the
windows at night, they're slot windows, because they have wooden bars across
them. Last night I was really comfortable the whole night. I have an awesome Peace
Corps provided mosquito net which covers the whole bed when I sleep and keeps
out all the bugs.
Laluni
I wish I had the right words to let you see Laluni like I do. It is an
amazing place, and I feel any description I give will fall sadly short, but I
will do my very best.
Laluni is remote. The only way I've been getting in and out is a sand
road which eventually tees out at a road with pavement and such. Within the
town the homes are pretty far apart, from my perspective at least. I live in a
house which is about 30 minutes walking away from the center of town. There is
plenty of space around the house which is primarily occupied by a variety of
beautiful green plants. It's so different compared to the color scheme of
Colorado which involves a lot of browns, tans, greys, and perhaps some greens. Here, the variety of
green is astounding, as is how many plants grow. They take over pretty much
anywhere which isn't constantly trampled by vehicles. The sand forms the base
layer, pretty much all the ground around here is sand which makes me highly
impressed with the locals who manage to bike on it without falling over
constantly. The grasses take up the lower section, a pleasant, somewhat
brighter green. This is also where the snakes like to hang out as it's not as
hot at the sand. The trees are numberless, stretching beyond what I can see.
Their color variations compliment their peers. They stretch up to the sun,
testing the wind. The sky is often open blue, unless blocked by rainclouds.
In the main part of Laluni there is a school(Laluni Primary), a
church(where we do our training), a cricket field, a rum shop, and that's about
it. There are several homes in the main area, and most of them have a shop
attached to the front of them where you can buy snacks and the like. Three of
the volunteers live right in the center of town, less than 5 minutes walk to
the church where we do our training.
The attitude in Laluni might be my favorite part. Everyone in Laluni
knows everyone else and is really friendly. Instead of using their car horns to
be angry and aggravated, they use them to greet their friends and say hi. I
love it. I've never lived in a small town so I do enjoy the bits where everyone
knows everything about everyone else, but I can easily imagine it bothering me
if someone knew something I didn't want them to know. However, it is nice
because everyone I run into is someone's relation to someone else, or something
like that. I feel pretty protected here since if anything were to happen,
everyone would know immediately and would help me get out of it, if I weren't
able to get out of it on my own. I think the main danger here is snakes which
are hard to see at night. My counterpart
teacher, Priya, said she was standing outside the other night and had a snake
slip right over her foot.
The School
Laluni
primary is where we do our work. Kelly, my neighbor, and I both decided to work
in the fourth grade classroom. It is quite enjoyable.
Upon
entering the school I was rather perplexed. There are not walls between the
classrooms. There are pillars sometimes, and posters hung between them, but the
school is one large building split into many classrooms. Downstairs there is
2nd grade when you first come in, then it goes 1st, 3rd, and 4th, and primary
students are in the back, separated by an almost wall. Upstairs there is one
large classroom and the Head Master's office(he is the equivalent of a
principal). In the room upstairs they have 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th grade. But I
think there is only one 7th grader and one 8th grader up there. It is rather
wild.
The noise
level is definitely new. It is loud. There's no getting around that. However,
the students seem to pay attention really well considering the distractions
constantly surrounding them. The students here, from what I have observed so
far, are very obedient and do exactly as the teacher says. It is quite a
change. Although, I wonder if part of it is related to the fact that corporal
punishment is not illegal here. It is however, highly monitored. I believe the
only person who can administer whips/lashes is the head master and it must be
recorded on a form what the student did, how many licks they will receive, on
what body part and such. I do know that it has to be something serious, you
can't just say people can get whipped for nothing. That would be terrible. And
the head master has to approve licks as an appropriate punishment measure.
Although,
like I said, the classrooms are ridiculously well behaved. They refer to
teachers as either "Sir" or "Miss". They also stand in the
morning or after lunch when you come in and say "Good morning/Good
afternoon Miss." It's adorable. They also(mostly) stay standing until you
release them to sit down.
An
interesting thing about the school system here is that many teachers are not
certified and may start very young. I will discuss my specific counterpart
teacher, Priya, in further detail in my next blog post, but for now be
satisfied with the knowledge that these teachers start young and develop most
of their expertise from hands on experience, which is not the worst way to
become a better teacher.
Also, the
class sizes are smaller in this school than I expected. Our trainers have
informed us that we will very likely encounter some gigantic class sizes
depending on where we will be, but our classes are rather tiny. I think there
are 15 students in 4th grade. And that's one of the large classes.
I loved being
in the school because it made it feel a lot more real. We are finally getting
our chance to begin to do the work we came here to inspire.
May 11th
--The First Day Off
We'd been training every day until this Sunday. I got to sleep in until
7. Extravagant, I know. It really was wonderful compared to 5am, though. The
sun was already up and everything. It was grand.
I did laundry for the second time so pretty much everything is clean
except what I wore today. It is excellent. When I hung it out to dry it tried
so fast because it was super hot.
It was Mother's Day so I gave my host mom, Gaitree, some chocolate I
brought from CO and a card I got for her and some incense I'd bought at the
store in Georgetown. I hope she liked it. The day before she came home from
shopping and gave me a wooden carved version showing the ten regions of Guyana.
It also holds a pen. It is fantastic. She also got me a stuffed bunny because
my sister Serina was mentioning how I don't have any teddys for my bed. Last,
but certainly not least she got me three big bejeweled hairbows with feathers
on them. I am not sure what they will match with but I will find something.
Since it was Mother's Day I got to go next door to Ravi's parents house
and hang out there for a while and meet tons of relatives. It was really neat
but I don't remember anyone's names. I also saw the teacher I'm working with,
Priya, there since she's a cousin to either Gaitree or Ravi. It was cool. I
also went over to Kelly's family to get a chicken with Priya. Kelly's house is
really neat with all the animals and her family is exceptionally nice, although
I really haven't met anyone here who isn't excessively nice. Seriously. Oh
wait, exception being the house of men who whistle at Kelly and I every time we
walk by. They do not seem the nicest, but perhaps they have all have charming
personalities behind their less than flattering demeanor.
At Kelly's house they have a pet monkey every so endearingly named:
Monkey. Kelly's mom said we could give him some banana so we did. Let me tell
you. It was so much fun. I cannot even describe the range of motion this monkey
used to show how excited he was. Having that tail as an extra grasping limb
allowed him some seriously crazy motions. And the noises he made. I want you to
picture how adorable a tiny monkey is. Now translate that into sound and you
will have the noises he made. SO FREAKING CUTE. I couldn't even handle it. Too
cute.
After that I came back home and tried to make lunch and dinner so Gaitree
didn't have to. I guess it turned out okay, I made a chicken stew but it
required patience which I am constantly in a short supply of. I did get to read
some of my book when I was waiting though.
After lunch and visiting with Gaitree's mom who came over it was time to
go to the creek. All together it was myself, Gaitree, Sachen, Serina), Shivo,
Priya and Kelly(my neighboring volunteer). It was quite the adventure. The
water is dark black though, so it is hard to see any terrifying water
creatures. I kept wanting to go out deep and swim about, but I was afraid there
would be something scary out there because there was this warm current I kept
running into once I got out beyond where I could touch. We all played Marco
Polo for a while, then we played our own version of it where instead of
shouting, we clapped and tried to find the others. I was a rock star at it
because I am so long and can pretty much just jump in a direction and hope I
get someone. I also flail violently in someone's direction and can usually find
someone.
We also determined that I was pretty much identical to a cow because I
was wearing a black and white swimsuit. We got to this conclusion because this
big 'ol fly landed on me and they told me it was a cow fly. Therefore, I am a
cow. I am thrilled about this. Speaking of being animals, the other day at
training I put my hair down for a little bit because it looked weird and I was
tired of having it up. Some of the other volunteers commented about me looking
like a lion. It made me smile. My hair is not as terrible as it could be
considering how humid it is. It isn't great, but it could certainly be worse.
Hilarious
Stories:
When I was
in the shower the other day, I hadn't checked to see if there were any animals
inside and had just started showering. I was just doing my self cleaning
business when this frog LEAPT OUT OF NOWHERE and just continued to hop about.
He stayed on one of the little cutouts the shower has in the walls, but I still
freaked out quite a bit. Of course I calmed back down because there really
isn't anything a frog can do to me, and he pretty much stayed in his little
area. Still. Frog in the shower. Add that to the list of new experiences.
I was in the
bus in my favorite seat in the back by the window and another volunteer,
Andrew, was saying how I couldn't get out of this window because it was too
small. Obviously I took it as a challenge. When we got to Red Grounds for
training with the coastal volunteers I slid out the bottom section of the
window, relying on a bar in the middle to support my weight. Apparently when I
was about halfway out the window the bar bent really bad and everyone was
afraid I would break the bus. But, I got out, on the ground, without breaking
the bar. I then proceeded to feel somehow really silly and triumphant at the
same time.
One day
Kelly was talking about how close she and I are becoming because we walk
together every day. She said "we're like this" and held up her
pointer and middle finger and kind of shook her hand. From that point forward I
have taken to saying how we are by using that gesture. It pleases me.
Another
shower story: I went into the shower and started washing myself while looking
around. I saw this massive shadow of a spider and was excited/startled because
it looked like a possible tarantula. Unfortunately it was only a huntsman
spider from the look of it. Still, he hung out there and didn't move the whole
time. We had a good friendship going. Andrew told me about one time he was in
the bathroom and he spotted a tarantula in the corner. It was a pinktoe. He
showed me a picture. I was super excited. He wasn't as much. He kept saying it
was vicious and would try to kill him. He also joked with someone else that
whenever someone said something about being creeped out by something, I would
probably say it was really cool. It's a pretty accurate statement.
On the way
home from our adventure/homework in Georgetown all of the hinterland volunteers
pestered our driver Dennis(it was more like asking, but shhh) if we could go
get ice cream on the way home. We stopped at the fabulous Ice Creame Palace. So
good. I had been craving some ice cream because it is so cold and also because
I love sweet things.
Walking home
in the darkness:
We got back real late from Georgetown Saturday night. So late the sun had
already set by the time we got to Laluni. Rather than being prepared like an
intelligent human being, I did not have a flashlight, my headlight, or even a
phone which could help light the road home. I also did not take time to
consider that someone from the community probably could have given Kelly and I
a ride home.
Since we'd decided to walk home and had no flashlight so Andrew let us
borrow his iPhone to use the flashlight function. Kelly and I made our way as
best we could, but it was quite distracting. Rather than it being a normal sort
of darkness, there were lighting bugs which kept terrifying me because even
though I full well knew they were not eyes, they looked like eyes from some
deamons following us. I freaked out. Me freaking out did not improve the
situation. Kelly was trying not to freak out but eventually we were both quite
nervous. Rather than walking on the two tire tracks in the sand, Kelly and I
ended up walking on the patch of sand in the middle so we could link arms and
be somewhat less terrified. We must have looked rather comical wandering down
the road.
At one point we were trying to maintain our calm when I saw something
move to my left. In my mind I meant to say "Ah! A frog," but what
came out was just "Ah!" which Kelly translated into "AH THERE IS
A SNAKE RUN FOR YOUR LIFE." Granted, I would have definitely thought the
same thing. It was quite hilarious.
As we continued down the road we saw someone we'd met earlier who was
walking down to the shop to pick something up. Unlike us, she had a real
flashlight and walked with us for a little while. As we were walking with her
we saw some headlights coming down the road. Kelly thought it was her family
but I was convinced it was kidnappers who were going to introduce us to human
trafficking in South America. Fortunately, I was not right at all. Kelly's
family had been worried about us and had been considering driving all the way
to Red Grounds(an hour away) looking for us. Lucky for us, they gave us a ride
back home and our troublesome walk in the darkness was cut short.
However, everyone in the community found out we, two girls, walked home
alone in the dark. There was quite an uproar from the community because they
were worried about us. Here on out, whenever we get back late we will find a
ride from somebody in the community.
