Farewell for now Guyana....

Friends, family, and anyone else who reads this:

After much contemplation I have decided to end my service early as a Peace Corps Volunteer. Why might you ask? Was because it was too difficult? NO! Did you agonizingly miss your friends and family back home? I missed ya’ll, but No! I am so glad that I put all the work and effort into becoming a Peace Corps Volunteer, even if it was for only a short time. However, for me it just wasn’t the place where I can provide the most service at this point in my life. I absolutely loved the country that is Guyana and everything that comes along with it! I loved the hospitality of the nationals and the amazing Guyanese friends that I have made and will continue to be friends with for many years to come. I loved the cultural exchange I was able to be a part of and the knowledge I gained that I can bring back home and share with others. That is one of the goals of Peace Corps that I am sure I was able to achieve in my short time as a volunteer. My personal goal in joining the Peace Corps was to be able to use my experiences and skills that I had already gained and use them in capacity to help others. After having the opportunity to that in another country, other possibilities presented themselves to me. I had to reassess where it was that I could have the most affect full circle. I realized, while I could touch the lives of many in Guyana, I could have more of a direct impact with my skills on students and families who need assistance in the States at this time.
To those of you who are considering the Peace Corps, I will give you my honest opinion. First, if you are someone who has not had a great deal of world experiences it is a great opportunity to be immersed into a new culture. Second, if you are someone who has a great deal of field experience and wants to make a great impact, I might suggest looking into VSO. With that Volunteer program you are able to apply to a specific job. Overall, if you have confidence in where you go and what you want, you will be able to do any project, anywhere, no matter what organization you are apart of… you just might have to be willing to put up with some bureaucratic headaches (but that everywhere isn’t it?). No matter what, if it’s something you want to do then follow your heat. Never have any regrets!
In closing, if you are thinking about the Peace Corps or any other Volunteer service, my advice is TRY IT! If it isn’t the right place for you than you can move on to better things with all the confidence in the world! I am so happy that I followed my heart! I never wanted to be that person who said “ Peace Corps, I always wanted to do that,” I can say “Peace Corps, I did that and had a great experience, but felt I could do more service to people who need it somewhere else, so I moved on.” However, I will always carry with me the memories, experiences, adventures, friendships, and kindness that were bestowed upon me during my Peace Corps service in Guyana, South America!!! All my love to my fellow volunteers and friends in Guyana!!! I will miss you all and I will visit again soon!!!

The Randomness and Things I Love About Guyana

My maurning (not misspelled…just creolese…something you learn to love…yeah? yeah!) routine: I wake up early early early early (in creolese repeating a word is a way to demonstrate emphasis, as if to say very)! 5:30 am on a Saturday maurnin? Of course! It’s bright and sunny Guyana! I treat myself to my coffee made with the lovely powdered milk, sugar, water, and Folgers instant coffee granulates that I despised in the states, but enjoy oh so much here. Sometimes I even add in a little Milo to make it “mocha.” Then, I head out onto my veranda to lime (hang out) in my hammock and slowly wake myself up. Brilliant!

Black outs: In the states this is often a cause for distress and chaos, but not in Guyana. They are an often occurrence, happening numerous times on some days. I love when I the blackness fall on the usually bustling streets of my town at night. The normal thunderous music (and I mean thunderous… they love their speakers here!) from the shops halt and the sounds that are Guyana can be enjoyed. The lazy cow and donkey fighting in the middle of the street, the venders from the bakery behind my house gaffing (chatting/gossiping), the amazing creolese phrases that I can now attempt to decipher.

Modes of transportation:
There is nothing I love more than when I see an entire family of five travel together… all on the same bicycle…. Yes they do it… it amazes me every time I see it! The balance, the coordination, the strength of the peddler, and the sheer lack of regard for the dangerousness of carrying a 4 month old in this fashion, along with 2 other children and a wife! It is awesome! Speaking of bicycles, I also love when I am walking to school and see a student of mine riding his older, much fatter brother to school on his handlebars (obviously being forced to do so)!
OK, let’s talk minibuses! Make yourself small is the saying! Imagine a 15 passenger van with up to 30 people… no I am not exaggerating… this is common! Many volunteers refuse to take the minibuses for this reason. However, I love them! First, they less expensive than taking a cyar (car) on the street or a taxi and they are SO much more entertaining! There is always a story. Remember that traveling family of five? So just when the minibus is so full that the conductor has to ride with his butt hanging out the window (yes this IS normal) we stop… for that same family of five and they all fit in!!! Mom and all three children sitting on top of each other in one small seat! How about when my minibus was stopped at a road block and the man dressed in a military uniform told the conductor he wanted to search my bag!?! I pause and think, followed by the quick “why?.......NO!” and they say OK, go ahead!?! That would never fly back home!
Yes, I almost forgot my favorite minibuses… the “boom-boom buses.”
There was a recent law saying music can’t be played in the bus… its Guyana… like that rule will be followed! So they play all sorts of random music that skips around and is so loud you can’t think. Then the random guy behind you just starts singing and can’t carry a tune to save his life! So, what do I do? Sing along and laugh the whole time! Damn right!

Then we have those cyars I was talking about. They are a little more expensive, but very accessible. Every time Im in a cyar I think of my brother, whom when he was younger lost his license numerous times for reckless driving (sorry Jesse). They drive well over 120 KM/hr on the roads, everyone passes everyone and just get to the correct side of the road in time before a full head-on collision without a blink of an eye from the country nationals. As I, at first was pleading for my life! It doesn’t phase me now. If the swerving in and out wasn’t enough there are always animals in the middle of the road. The cyars just swerve around them too…a huge cow, the random dog, a goat with a few kids… whatever. They also use one and only one signal for all warnings…. Honking the horn! Beep “need a drop?”… beep “im passing you”…beepbeepbeep “get the hell out of my way”….beep “ hey baby” … BEEP! so I pretty much ignore all the beeps! It will be weird to come home and drive without hearing all those BEEPS!

The animals: It’s like a 24 hour petting zoo! Any animal that might be penned up back home is just free to roam the streets, but they are not strays! Oh no, someone owns them, but don’t ever ask me who because I have NO IDEA! It funny how things just become normal to you, like the other day when I was leaving school and there was a bull blocking the fence. I just pushed him out of the way not even thinking any different. A horse was drinking out of the trench in font of my house and two donkeys are getting it in on in the market. Oh and the dogs here are never nice! But they are soooo funny when they get stuck together after matting and cannot figure out how to get apart… and you can’t help them because they will bite you! YES, I said they got stuck together! I can’t even describe the hilariousness of it!

The music! It is ALWAYS loud! Guyanese love loud music. There is no such thing as a noise ordinance that’s for sure! They build walls out of speakers bigger than me for any function… or even in their homes! Religion is always talked about so I wake up every maurnin to the loud Christian gospel and fall asleep to the shop’s random mix of soca, reggae, A-kon, Celin Dion, and 80’s soft rock. My favorite is when you get in a cyar that is all pimped out and the driver looks all thug (to use American terms) and he is rocking out to Richard Marx or Shania Twain. Yeah this is common! I love the randomness of this country!!!

There are many more random acts that occur everyday. I’ll be sure to share more another time! The randomness may be my favorite part of Guyana!

I published a lot of new posts…. All written at different times of course. I was unable to upload pics, but they will come soon! A random note to friends and family: if you attempt to call anD I don’t answer, try again… my phone is a little messed up and by the time I answer it you hang up and I can’t tell who called! Sad day! Try again! Love you all!

Site Assignment!!!

I am very excited about my placement! I became a bit worried because during my interview the program managers made it sound as if they wanted to send me to a placement that nobody seemed to want. I told them that I am very adaptable and would make the best of wherever they sent me…but it worked out that I got one of my top two choices because I had stated that I wanted to be able to utilize my skills!!! Yippee!!! I can’t say exactly where I will be living or working, but I can tell you a little about them. I can no longer be called “Jungle Jenny” because I do not have a remote placement in the interior. I will be living in one of the 6 towns in the country. Therefore, I will have easier access to amenities such as food, electricity and even internet! Even though it is still a third world country, I will not be “roughing it” like you may imagine a traditional Peace Corps volunteer to be doing. I saw a picture of my house and it looks fabulous! As for my job, I was hoping to be placed somewhere that I will be pretty busy and this seems to be the perfect fit! My primary assignment actually has two assignments built into one site. I will be working fulltime at a school with nursery through secondary students. I will also be working at nonprofit NGO (nongovernmental organization) working to train and teach literacy to community members and with youth on issues including domestic violence, drug and alcohol abuse and AID/HIV awareness. There is a large focus on incorporating the arts into the youth program, which should be a lot of fun! I was also told that there is a special education school in the area that needs assistance; because that is my passion I am really hoping to be able to spend a lot of time collaborating there as well! Looks like I might not have as much down time as I thought. I can’t wait to get started!

We have our swearing in ceremony this coming Thursday and I will no longer be a PCT! I will officially be a Peace Corps Volunteer! FINALLY! Then, it is off to my site bright and early Friday morning. I will try to keep everyone updated on how the move goes. Wish me luck!

Site Selection

So this week we had our site selection. In normal Peace Corps fashion, we did not get to see the possibilities until the day after they told us we would, oh well. We actually had a very good system worked out and nobody killed anyone over a chance to read a packet. The way PC Guyana has it worked out is that they put together packets of information on each possible site for the trainees to work for the next two years. There is information on our projects, counterparts, housing, village/town, amenities, etc. We get to read over all 32 packets, after which we have to write an essay on our top 5 choices and why and our bottom 3 choices and why. This is very nice as most trainees in other countries do not get a say in where they are placed. Next, we get to meet with the PM’s (program managers) for a final interview and then next week they will reveal our final destination. I hope that I did not make a mistake. I only wrote my essay for my top two choices…kinda seems like I put all my eggs in one basket, but I didn’t. The problem was that there were so many cool places that I couldn’t pick why one was better than another. I love the jobs and project possibilities of my top 2 choices, other than that I stated my abilities, placement likes and dislikes, and said to put me wherever I will be best used. I came into this with an open mind and I really think it is important to keep that! So wherever I am meant to be placed is where I will be and I will make the best of it!

Lake Capoey

Our group of education trainees took a tour (field trip) to Capoey Mission Amerindian village. We broke into groups and had a teenage guide take us around the village and tell us all about it. It was beautiful! We had an opportunity to see a woman making cassava bread, a staple food item of the Amerindians. It is quite a process to make! The cassava is a root vegetable that grows beneath the cassava tree. It is dug up and part of the tree is replanted and can be re-harvested in a year. The cassava is grated down and put into a long tube (I forget the name but it kind of looks like a huge Chinese finger trap- right?) and the liquid is squeezed out. The liquid is poisonous at this stage, it must be boiled down to a thick sauce called casareep. Casareep is used to flavor foods and as a preserving agent, most commonly used in a favorite dish called “pepper pot.” After the liquid has been removed from the cassava, it is dried and placed on an outdoor stove made of mud to make the bread. The bread is then thrown on rooftops to dry in the sun. Cassava bread is the most delicious cardboard I have ever eaten!!!

*** I have awesome pics of this but it is taking too long to upload so I will have to attempt again later... sorry***

Training

So training is very interesting….some fun….some not so fun…. But it is what it is and we are almost done!!! I feel like it had been forever, but at the same time the time just flew by. I loath the longs days of sitting in training listening to unorganized lectures, doing 5 million skits because that is supposedly more interesting than the lectures!?! And tons of group work that none of the trainers even listen to when we present…I LOVE TRAINING! So other than that fun…what is training really like? Honestly, it reminds me of the days when I was pledging my sorority. No, there is no hazing involved! Basically they give you tons of group projects to make you go crazy, then keep you in class so late that you don’t have time to work on it and you have to be in your home-stay by dark (6pm). Oh by the way, transportation stops at 6pm too. They also like to play the game “we will only tell you a day or two before you have to present the information” or “ by the way, you also have three more very meaningful assignments to do tonight that are due tomorrow morning.” Also, a lot of the projects include working with community members. This would be a good thing if we were staying here and could start something sustainable or meet with the groups again, but we are leaving soon. Therefore, they just have to be kind and let us use them to get our projects done for class. Peace Corps also loves acronyms- all PCT’s learn to adore KEEPRA and PACA. I do believe that some of the trainees really are getting a lot out of training in all honesty, especially the people who are not used to teaching or speaking to groups of people. Essentially that is what all PCV’s will be doing. I have to say I really like our Education Trainer! He is very experienced, does experiential learning activities, and provides us with a great deal of resources. I know that I complain, but overall it is a good experience I suppose. I think it is funny though, at first I was assuming that the reason they gave us so much to do was an attempt to stress us out and teach time management skills. The reality of it is that after training a big issue with volunteers is the lack of activity and how to manage a massive amount of down time. Everyone from home kept saying that I would be less stressed when I got here and it would be a nice relaxing change from the crazy classroom I had in the states. As it is definitely not stressful in the same sense here, there are different stresses. A CRAZY Peace Corps statistic that they keep reminding us is that the stress and adjustment that a PCV goes through is equal to that of going through a divorce or losing a family member….crazy right?