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Merry Christmas!

2006 has been an extremely busy, life changing year for us. The first quarter was dedicated to getting everything ready for our wedding in April. It was exactly what we had imagined. The events were planned to perfection. Imagine that 😉 A big thank you to those of you who were able to share in our special day. We spent our honeymoon in Canmore with day trips to the Banff Springs Spa and a cave tour. I may have had the best steak of my life at that hotel.

Our summer was busy, as usual, with weddings, weekend trips home and to the mountains. A highlight of the summer for me was hiking the West Coast Trail on Vancouver Island with my little brother, Cam. What an amazing bonding time! Rob and I spent the following week between Victoria and Vancouver, enjoying our holiday with friends and family.

I was flying to my various VSO sessions which allowed me to see Ottawa and Montreal for the first time. At last I got word that we were heading to Guyana! Dawn was on the West Coast Trail at this point so I couldn’t tell her until I picked her up in Victoria. We spent the next couple of months frantically trying to get everything in order for our trip, quit our jobs and moved our stuff to Medicine Hat. Soon it was Canadian Thanksgiving and we were on the plane, headed south.

And that’s where all of you faithful bloggers started the journey with us. We have experienced an incredible amount of things so far, and haven’t even reached our half way point yet! We’re so lucky to have had such a remarkable year, and such an amazing first year of marriage. It’s been really nice to be able to support and learn from one another as we explore another culture. It’s also been great to have support and encouragement from all of you.

From Guyana, we would like to send out a warm (well hot and humid) Christmas greeting! Best wishes and stay in touch in 2007!

Here’s are a couple Christmas videos.
Christmas Video Hi | Lo
Blooper Hi | Lo

Hi blog fans. I’m noticing a build up of things to blog about since Christmas is just around the corner. It’s time to get going.

Today I’m going to write a bit about the people of Georgetown because I realized we haven’t really shown you much of the place we’re living in.

Guyana is a Caribbean country located in South America. The majority of the population lives along the coastline and is comprised of and equal amount of Afro-Guyanese and Indo-Guyanese. There is a minority of Amer-Indian people that mostly live in the interior of the country. This makes for a very eclectic cultural mix (and great food!). Being a Caribbean country, they sure know how to relax. The following is my account of recreational activities the people of Georgetown take part in. I am by no means an expert, but this is what is absolutely apparent.

Cricket
This is by far the most beloved sport of the nation. As much as Canada lives and breathes hockey, Guyana’s heart lies in cricket. Kids play it in the streets and adults watch the West Indies play on tv. It’s truly everywhere. In a few months Guyana will be one of the few countries lucky enough to host the world cup cricket games. We have been told that the entire country might shut down while the tournament is taking place. Dawn and I already have our tickets to a game.

Watch the video Hi Low

Dominoes
Dominoes is very popular in Georgetown as well as cricket. People here take their domino sets to the neighbourhood rum* shops and play all night. There is a technique involved in playing. A lot of people tend to slam their domino onto the table as hard as they can. In trying to find out why I was told many things from , “it just feels good,” to, “it’s used to intimidate your oppontent.” Last week there was a dominoes tournament held upstairs at my workplace.

You can watch an entire hand unfold here. Hi Low

*the rum here is award winning and, might I add, fantastic.

Hope this was slightly interesting. We’re working on our Christmas blog next.
Cheers!

just a quick update to share some really exciting news.

i found out yesterday that the Guyanese Canadian Cultural Association (who i was connected with by my great OT friend andrea) has agreed to fund 100% of the cost of my accessibility renovations to the Palms Geriatric Home! i was crying from joy yesterday that by the time i leave guyana, the residents of this home will be able to access their bathrooms and dining areas safely. this was the best christmas present i could have ever hoped for. stay tuned for before and after pictures and updates.

in other news, we trapped mrs. jingles and baby jingles in our mousetrap last night (at the same time!! i know – we’re pretty efficient). we have concerns that there may be another junior jingles, so we’ll be baiting the trap yet again tonight.

we’re looking forward to seeing christmas pictures and hearing stories of your holidays.
love dawnO

As Dawn indicated in the last blog, I now have internet access at work! Today I finally got every machine in the building access to the net. So far I have been busy trying to undo all the damage my fellow co-workers have already done. One officer tried to “turn off” the internet before she went home yesterday, so her computer needed a quick fix first thing this morning. Others have become overcome with joy when a pop-up window tells them “Congratulations! You’re our 1,000,000th visitor!!! Click here to claim your prize!” The more experienced of them have already installed every toolbar yahoo has to offer and ask me why their music video cuts out from time to time. “Oh, your work related video?” I ask. I am fighting the urge to introduce a very strict firewall, or worse yet… a cyber-nanny.

I’m hoping my problems will go down significantly once the president of the union returns to work on Monday. When the cat’s away… I am also holding out hope that the novelty will eventually wear off. In the mean time, I’m trying to educate each person as I fix their computer. In some cases I reproduce the problem and have them try fixing it. Other times I wait for them to wander off so I can secretly delete all the crap they’ve managed to install on their machines. I can only do so much.

That’s the work update for now. Things are going to slow down from a crawl to a vegetative pace over the Christmas season. In Guyana Christmas begins on the 15th of December. The schools have already shut down for the holidays. We’re sticking around home for the 24th-26th, but are planning a little getaway over New Year’s.

We hosted our annual joint Christmas party last Saturday. The sister party was held on the same day in Vancouver by Carla Jane and I’m told it was another successful event. We managed to provide enough food for our guests, and I think everyone had a good time. I had originally intended to project a movie or 2 on our huge white wall (Christmas Vacation and the cartoon version of the Grinch) but that idea fell through for various reasons. Regardless, it was nice to do something here that reminded us of home.

Time for a creature update. Dawn may have sugar coated her previous report about how “we successfully trapped our house mouse.” The truth is, the mouse, who we affectionaly call Mr. Jingles, got his head crushed in by a mouse trap. It was pretty cool. This morning, I met our other house mouse, Mrs. Jingles. I was on the crapper when she decided to run past my foot and dive through the crack in the wall behind the toilet. She’s much smaller and craftier than Mr. Jingles so we may have to resort to poisoning the poor sweet innocent creature.

I added a video to Dawn’s last blog of our little cooking lesson. For all of you celiacs, Cassava is the answer to bread woes. For the other 2 of you that are still reading this, I am currently working on a blog that focuses on the people of Guyana. So that means more video and pictures.

happy holidays from Guyana!

as many of you know, robO and i take turns twice a month planning ‘superdates’ for eachother. last sunday, robO surprised me with what i rate as the best superdate to date!

i got up in the morning and went for a jog while rob made us one of our favorite breakfasts of hashbrowns with veggies, cheese, and spices. we relaxed, reading in the sunshine, until 1:00, when he had organized for us to go to a Guyanese woman’s house to learn how to make curry, roti, and gluten free bread options. it was definitely my best day here so far.
cecilia (our host chef) cooks curries and roti every day, and she was comfortable experimenting with gluten free ingredients.

the curries here are really amazing, and she showed us how to make a restaurant quality potato curry that i think we’ll be able to replicate at home. get ready for some dinner parties once we’re home!

‘roti’ is a type of bread that’s sort of like a cross between a tortilla and indian naan bread. it’s really great to dip into sauces or gravies, or it can be made with chickpea or potato filling. yum. the ingredients of it are really simple (flour and water), but it’s the preparation that looks pretty tricky. they are usually made on a ‘roti pan’ on the stove top, and we learned how to ‘clap’ them to make them light and separate the layers after they’re cooked.

Check out the roti clap video here Hi | Low


now for the coolest part… we learned how to make ‘cassava bread’, which is gluten free and made from the cassava root (sort of like a potato). after peeling and grating the cassava, we had to wring out the excess fluid and let the cassava (now a flour-like consistency) dry in the sun.

we then pressed it together on the griddle, and it magically formed into a pancake type product. once cooked on either side it tastes a little like a dense bread. we don’t have any pictures of the finished product because i think robO devoured it all too fast! we’re thrilled that he’s now got a ‘bread’ type option here, and that it is only one ingredient (we didn’t even add water to mix it!!).

the real test will be when we try to make these things without Cecilia…

in other good news, robO is at work right now installing the INTERNET on all of the computers!
yesterday i got approval from the medical director at the hospital to start my cardiac education groups, and today i got approval from the ministry of labor to start making some changes in the public geriatic home to make it more accessible. now i’m going to start trying to fundraise to pay for the changes that need to happen (ramps, handrails, grab bars). if you’re feeling in the holiday spirit and would like to donate, my aim is high – just over 2000 US dollars – to allow these geriatric residents to access their bathrooms and dining areas safely and independently.
and maybe the best news of all, we successfully trapped our house mouse. now we’re working on our other house pets – mosquitos, lizards, ants, and the odd cockroach. we’re enjoying our pet bat because he eats the mosquitos.

we’ve got lots of other pictures to share, so i think rob’s going to blog again this week. on the weekend we’re doing a road (and boat) trip to visit another volunteer who is in a different region. we’re looking forward to getting out of the city again.

take care,
dawnO

Hello everyone,
We have an assortment of photos that really don’t suit any particular theme so I thought I’d just purge them into one blog so that I can get rid of them. Roll over the images to get a short description.

Hope you’re all doing well.

Feast your eyes on these!!!

hello!

so now i’m 3 weeks into my job, and i was very concerned at the start, but i’ve settled in and am excited to share what i’ve been up to.
now, it’s important to note that i am one of only 3 occupational therapists in the country of Guyana (the other 2 are also VSO volunteers). there is really no awareness in the country for rehab in general, but there is really no knowledge of OT. even the rehab assistants who have had specialized training in OT do VERY basic physio exercises with most patients and rarely ever link any activities to function.

i’ve had a part in deciding what my role is here in the next 5 months. the difficult thing is that it would be really easy to start treating individual clients and make a difference that way, but we’re looking for sustainable development.

so, i have 3 main roles while here:
1. i am trying to set up group rehab programs for:
a) patients in the hospital wards (who currently receive no rehab and no discharge planning)
b) clients in a public geriatric home
c) clients in a private geriatric home
2. inservicing with rehab assistants in different areas, including patient lift and transfer techniques and arthritis: joint protection
3. trying to enhance the use of OT intervention and adaptive equipment with 2 stroke clinics

you may read these objectives and think they sound pretty manageable, but the Guyanese culture is very limiting. the wards have anywhere from 30-40 people in them, who lay in bed 24 hours a day (there aren’t even chairs beside the beds). the nurses and rehab assistants don’t get paid very much, and so many of them work more than one job or go to school full time in addition to working, so it’s really common to come to work and sleep, or not even come to work at all. the facilities and equipment are unbelievable – no accessibility, no maintenance or repairs. i have seen some things here that i never would have imagined actually go on in a health care system anywhere. i don’t really want this to be sensational and depressing, so i’ll stop here.

i have some big plans, and feel like i’ve made some headway in a few areas. i’m going to be inservicing doctors and nurses at the hospital and trying to set up a cardiac rehab group there. i went to the private geriatric home (where there are 52 residents and ONE staff member) and did some interventions that i feel have made an impact already. i will also be training rehab assistants to run and continue these groups after we leave.

i’ll keep you updated on my progress. Until then, send positive OT vibes my way, and if you have any great ideas or motivational messages, send them along!

Hello everyone,
Here’s another video, this time taken at Marudi creek. It’s probably not the most fascinating piece out there, but I am kind of addicted to taking videos now despite looking, sounding and feeling like a total dork.

My apologies to those that have a rather slow internet connection. I know the videos are quite large. I’ll see if there’s something I can work out so you can see a low quality version. Low quality dork…

Enjoy!

The Black Water Video

For those of you interested in a job update, it’s slowly picking up. I have only read half a book this week. They told me broadband internet will hopefully be installed this week, so if it’s up and running in 2 weeks I’ll be thrilled. I have also submitted my list of materials that I require to get the network up and running. Once again, I’m hoping to see the equipment in 2 weeks, despite being promised it today.

Hope everyone is doing well. We certainly enjoy all of the comments so keep them coming! It’s nice to know people are reading this.

Time to sign off, (this was supposed to be a quick entry). I’ll leave you with a random picture of a horse.

Hello!

RobO and I just had an amazingly refreshing weekend, so I thought I would share what we’ve been up to.

Saturday we got awesome news!! Our parents (both sets!) are going to meet us in Isla de Marguarita (an island off the coast of Venezuela) right after we are finished our placement in Guyana! We will be finishing our placement around Easter (April 9th) and plan to say our goodbyes here, then spend a few days in Trinidad and Tobago before meeting our parents on April 21st! It will be a great treat before we start our backpacking adventures in Peru and Ecuador.

On Sunday a few of us went on a day trip to a place called Marudi Creek. Rob and I were itching to get out of the city for at least a day, so we packed a picnic and caught a minibus out to the creek.

Now, just let me explain the concept of the minibus. These are 15 passenger vans that scream around Guyana picking up and dropping off passengers. They are privately owned and there are regular routes that they run, but there are no set stops – you just waive to the bus from the side of the road to pick you up and let the driver know where you’re getting off. Most of them have some sort of ridiculous sound system blaring bad music, and they will honk, weave, essentially do anything to get the most number of passengers the fastest.
The minibuses going to out of town locations will wait at the market until the bus is filled before they will take off. So, one could be waiting any period of time for enough people to fill the bus to get going.

Because there were 6 of us, we filled our minibus really quickly. We were dropped off at the Creek (about 45 mins away when travelling 160kms and weaving in and out of traffic and livestock), and knew that it may be tricky to catch a bus back into town because the buses would all be full driving by. One of our fellow volunteers made a deal with our minibus driver for him to come back to retrieve us with an empty bus at the end of the day. I have to admit, I was extremely skeptical that the driver would come back for us, and was even tempted to get on another bus that came by, but we were pleasantly surprised that our driver kept his word.

Anyway, Marudi Creek was an amazingly relaxing and refreshing place to spend a Sunday. There is a blackwater creek for swimming (black water because of the minerals), table tennis, beach volleyball, and little huts to relax and read in.

Note: I am fully aware that you are interested in hearing how my volunteer work has been going, but have chosen to save those adventures for a later blog. Stay tuned!

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!