Category: Guyana

Hello all, I’ve received some requests for information about our jobs. I was kind of waiting for a while to write about it. I wanted to get settled in and get some things done first so I’d have something to write about. In Canada, this would be a fool proof plan. In Guyana, things take time. This doesn’t mean I have nothing to report, but what I do have to report is “nothing”. As in, nothing has been happening.

In the last 3 days at work, I have read 2 novels. This beats the total number of novels I read in my entire high school career (1 – ‘The Catcher In The Rye’). It’s not due to a lack of trying to work. I’ve been waiting for supplies, people to show up, co-workers to wake up, and, internet (which is coming just now). That’s right, I’m here to build a website, and I don’t have internet access. Anyway, I don’t mean to gripe, this is what I was told to expect in all of my VSO training.

So on to more photos…

This is where I spend my weekdays.

Here’s the computer-lab-to-be. Once I have everything I need (hopfully this week), I’ll be able to build a network and start training staff, teachers and union officers basic computer skills. For now, though, this is where I read, play my hand held Sudoku game (props to the Pinders and Kozubs), bring new meaning to the word Solitaire, and sweep for mines (still haven’t beaten ‘Expert’ yet). I do get visitors from time to time. This is only because I have the only air conditioner in the entire building.

This is what I wore on Halloween. I went as “a business man in sandals.”

So I know this hasn’t been the most exciting blog. But we’ll try to do better next time.

Until then, take care!

Hello!

As promised… we have some video of our house to show you! It’s broken down into 4 sections, so you can feel free to peruse our typical Guyanese home. I think it was a good sign when we saw that there is a mango tree in our backyard. We still need to figure out how to get at the fruit – it’s too high!

Part 1 – The Entrance

Part 2 – The Livingroom & Bedroom

Part 3 – The Kitchen

Part 4 – The Bathroom

We’ve both been working this week. I am going to be doing OT work for the Ministry of Health, but my placement goals and objectives have not yet been determined, so I have the chance to tour different programs and help to decide where I can make a difference. There are actually no OTs that work in Guyana so, as you can imagine, there are a lot of areas that are in need of some improvement.

RobO has been assessing his computer lab and trying to get equipment in place. I guess it’s pretty hard to start making a webpage when they don’t have internet for him yet! They say it will be hooked up ‘just now’, so hopefully he will be able to get started soon.

We’re starting to get the hang of shopping at the market and cooking Guyanese food. We have even initiated a budget, so I think we’re settling in. Today we watched part of a live cricket match at a cricket club close to our house. We’ve been spending lots of time reading, relaxing, and staying in the shade during the hot afternoons. There’s a movie rental shop just up the road from us, so we’ve rented a couple of flicks (some legal, some not so much).

Thanks for the comments, and keep us posted on how winter is going!
DawnO

Due to popular demand (though i believe it’s just Mike commenting under different aliases) here is the monkey video i had promised.

The following video was taken at an beach-front bar/zoo. Monkeys just run wild in this place, it’s fascinating at first, but annoying later. If you ever find yourself at this bar, don’t leave your bottle of coke on a ledge for 30 seconds while you go grab a napkin. Once you start your journey back to your drink, you may see a monkey next to it. Do not make eye contact! He will wait for you to look at him before he tips over the bottle and runs. I may have learned this lesson the hard way.

So without further adieu,
The Monkey Video

We moved into our new house last Wednesday (Oct25). After a week of living in it, I think we’re getting settled in quite nicely. At first we were a tad overwhelmed by a few things.

1. it was/is quite dirty
2. it’s on a very busy street where the Guyanese “share” their music all night
3. no more guesthouse where meals were prepared and internet was hi-speed
4. ants

After a week of cleaning here and there, we’ve managed to remove most of the grime. The noise is only bad from 3pm till about 8pm, the mornings are quite calm. We’ve mastered the market and Dawn has successfully cooked most of our meals. I’m operating at a 50% success rate thanks to a chicken dinner that didn’t go so well. Oh and ants? Well they’re still around, but everything is in ziplock bags and sealed up so they’ve been pushed back to minimal numbers.

I’m still having adjustment issues, but I figure they’ll fade away as time goes on. (Note: The last sentence has gone through a series of edits)

So now it’s time for the Legend of Lucky.

Dawn and I both bought bikes on Saturday morning. It cost $12,000 Guyanese which roughly translates to $60 Canadian. Dawn’s cost her around $10,000. We had ourselves a nice little Saturday planned. We had to purchase our bikes, go to the shops and buy some things for our house, and then hit the farmers market for some food. We might have gone to Bed Bath and Beyond but didn’t know if we’d have time. So we purchased the bikes, and headed to Guyana Stores. I don’t know if you all know this but Dawn and I have a tendency to name our personal belongings. All of my guitars are named, we named our car and even named our laptop. I felt that my new purchase also deserved a name. My last bike was called Nu Nu because that’s what was written on it. As we rode to the department store I looked down at my new ride for inspiration. The words, “Multi-Terrain Temptation,” were staring back at me. I wasn’t keen on sitting on something I referred to as “Temptation” so I figured it’s call it MTT until I came up with something better.

We arrived at our first destination so we locked up those bikes as best we could and headed into the department store. 40 minutes later we returned to our noble steeds with bags in hand to find my bike lock was all but destroyed. It was damaged so much, in fact, that my key would no longer unlock it. This meant that it was now chained to a metal gate and unless my kung-fu anger gave me super human strength, it would stay chained to that gate.

Now you might be asking yourself, “Self, what about Dawn’s brand new bike,” and “say hey, how the heck did you get out of that dilly of a pickle?” Well I’m glad you asked. Dawn’s keen sense told her that she should perhaps purchase a bike that didn’t have gears on it. There are no hills in Georgetown. It would make the bike less expensive and, well let’s face it, less desirable to would-be thieves and hooligans. Her bike wasn’t even touched. My silver 18 speed and fingerprints all over it. As for the pickle, Dawn stayed behind to defend the bikes with her yoga skills, as I went on the hunt for some bolt cutters. It took me one stop to find a guy that could tell me where I could find what I was after, and after 15 more minutes, I was heading back to Dawn accompanied by a warehouse worker and his bolt cutters. As we rode away into the sunset, I heard Dawn say, “I think you should name him ‘Lucky’.”

So that’s the end of the story. I would have told you about Legend of Clicky (Dawn’s bike), but it’s quite short and self explanatory. Stay tuned for a video walk through of our house and a monkey video for Dawson and Michael W. Harvey.

Hello everyone,
We’ve moved into our house so we don’t have access to the internet as much as we used to. I’m on my lunch break so this will be brief. I started work last Wednesday and it’s going well. I’ll fix the picture problem and then I’ll snap some pictures next week when I remember to bring in the camera.

And in other news… I’ll hand it over to DawnO…

i just got confirmation that i have a VSO placement, and i start on monday!!! the goals and objectives of the placement have not been determined yet but, regardless, i have a placement!
yipee!!

We took the following videos last week when we were in the jungle. Thought you’d be interested to learn a little bit about 2 common trees found in South America.
So click on the following links, sit back and try to spot the exact moment when I get infected with malaria!
Video 1 – Wadara Tree
Video 2 – The Walking Tree

Enjoy!

Yesterday we got back from a 2 night/3 day trip to the Shanklands, which is located on the Essequibo River. We took a bus from Georgetown east to Parika (45 mins). From there we boarded a speed boat and headed up the Essequibo to Shanklands (50 mins).

Shanklands is a “resort” and was quite charming. The idea was to take the volunteers on a little trip before we were sent off to our jobs. We were separated into groups of men and women and were placed in guest houses.

There was a lot to do, including swimming, kayaking, playing chess (with a giant chess board), hiking and hanging out in the sun. We have a couple of educational videos for everyone to watch… Unfortunately I can’t upload them with my current internet situation. I guess that’s what I get for scamming off the internet from the pub across the street. Stay tuned.

It was a great little trip, enjoy the rest of the photos.

hello!

we’ve learned and experienced so much in Guyana in our first week here that i thought i would fill you in on some of the highlights…

– the weather – it’s about 30 degrees every day, which feels like 40 degrees because of the humidity. in the sun everyone sweats uncontrolably, in the evenings it is comfortably hot, and there’s always a breeze coming in off the ocean, which is much appreciated!! in the air conditioned rooms it is freezing cold. i think i’m the only person in this country who actually avoids air conditioning!

– danger – i’m sure if you do any research you will read about how dangerous Georgetown is. in real life, there are many dangerous areas, but now that we know what areas to avoid, they say we should be ok. there are all kinds of stray dogs hanging around all the time (much like i’ve heard thailand is like), so i’m always cautious about them. also, Georgetown is actually below sea level, so along all of the roadways and sidewalks there are trenches to collect the water. it would be really easy to accidently step into one of these, and rumor has it they pulled out a six foot anaconda from one!

– culture – even though Guyana is in South America, it is considered to be a Caribbean country (likely because it’s english speaking). so, it feels very Jamaican here. their big sport is cricket, and Guyana is hosting part of the World Cup of cricket, starting april 2007!

– transportation – vehicles drive on the left side of the street here, so we are forever looking the wrong way. actually, it is important to look in both directions as people tend to drive really crazy here. people take ‘minibuses’ around town, which are like 15 passenger vans, originally decorated by the owners, that drive specific routes. there are also cabs that have a set rate for anywhere in georgetown, and many people ride bicycles.

– ‘just now’ – everything (except the vehicles!) moves very slowly here. people use the expression ‘just now’, which can mean anywhere from one minute from now to a month from now. they say in our placements that we really need to push to get an actual timeline or nothing ever will get done.

– food – in one word – yum! it is a mix of indian, caribbean, and amazing fresh fruits and veggies. their staples are rice, yams, plantains, and they have lots of curries. we’re really excited to get out to the market and try out some of the fruits we’ve never heard of. we can get almost everything that we could buy at home, though some of it is really expensive. rob says the award winning rum, made right here in Georgetown, is the best he’s ever had, and he’s only tried the cheap stuff so far!

feel free to ask us questions if you’re wondering about anything else. of course we’ll update you with more of what we’ve been up to and pictures as we go along! and, send us email! we’ve got lots of internet access and are looking forward to hearing about what’s new with you and what’s going on back home.

~dawnO

Today we have most of the day to ourselves. Yesterday we went for a tour of the city. We got oriented, toured the markets, and walked through the Georgetown zoo. If there are any Harry Potter fans out there, we found a Hippogriff. Unfortunately we neglected to bring our camera with us (we didn’t need to look any more like tourists).

So in part II of our picture extravaganza, we thought we’d show you a glimpse into our time at VSO. For the past week we’ve been attending in-country training with 13 other new volunteers. It’s amazing meeting people from all over the world. There are volunteers from Canada, the US, England, Ireland, Wales, Holland, and Kenya. Our instructors are mostly from Guyana (which are either Afro-Guyanese or Indo-Guyanese). We have two volunteers that will be working with the hearing impaired and have been teaching the rest of us sign language. We have all picked it up quite quickly and want to continue lessons throughout our placements.

Now for some photos!

In our last post we showed you our guest house Rima. The VSO office is only 2 blocks away. Here’s a look at the path we walk down.

Here we are at the VSO Office.

Inside they have offices, a kitchen (where they make us fresh fruit juice daily), a library (see below), a conference room (where we spend our days), and internet access.

Well, we’ve run out of pictures. We’ll try and take some more today for Part III.

RobO and DawnO

Hello everyone!

So far the VSO placement has been great. We’re at our in-country training for the next week and will be moving into our new place on the 20th (we hope). For now we’re staying at the Rima Guest house. It’s like a hostel meets bed and breakfast.

The food has been excellent and mostly gluten free. The weather is quite hot and humid. It has rained but not too much at all. Life on the equator means that the sun rises at 6am and sets at 6pm. The transition is fairly quick. It’s as if a switch is flipped to turn on and off the sun.

It’s time to go tour the city! Part 2 and 3 coming soon!

RobO