Swear-In!

I'm officially a Peace Corps Volunteer! All 32 of us made it through training and became PCVs! It's actually the 1st time in at least 3 years that no one has dropped out during training, so YAY! We spent the week in a hotel in Georgetown having some sessions and hanging out.  The hotel even had AC and hot water!!!! Heavenly! This was on top of a pool and internet.  Pure amazingness.  It was a really good week.  It was great to all get to be together, including the remote people, and spend some time together before we head off in our own directions.


For the ceremony some of us dressed up in traditional outfits.  The remote people wore traditional Amerindian accessories, from grass skirts (over dresses/pants), to feather head pieces.  Some wore traditional African outfits, and others, including myself, wore traditional Indian outfits.  It really depended a lot on what ethnicity our host families were and it was a lot of fun.  Getting a sari on so that it doesn't fall off is really hard!

 All the girls in saris

 Roomies!

The Minister of Health, a representative from the Ministry of Education, and the U.S. Ambassador were among the speakers.  It was a nice ceremony, with two great speeches from fellow just-sworn-in volunteers, and an absolutely awesome video put together by Matt, that was probably the biggest highlight.

Anyway....I'M A PCV!!!!

 Korea poses

 The group with the Minister of Health, Ambassador Hart, Rep. from the Ministry of Education, our Country Director Brennan Brewer

Phagwah, Site Placement (!), and HFA

A lot has been going on in the last few days.  Thursday was Phagwah, Friday was site placement, and Saturday was Host Family Appreciation day.  So, I'm going to start by telling you about....

PHAGWAH

Phagwah is a Hindu festival of colors and is the celebration of the triumph of good over evil and the beginning of a new season, Spring. People go around throwing colored powder or colored we powder stuff at each other.  If you want to stay clean, the streets aren't safe. Just as a tidbit, the colored powder is basically dyed baby-powder and generally comes off of skin and out of clothes.  The wet stuff...well, if you're blonde your going to have multicolored hair for a while.  And its not going to come out of your clothes. 

I went to the Indian Cultural Center with a PCV and another friend.  It was amazing! There was tons of bright colored powder, kids with water-guns (to be avoided at all costs), and lots of fun.  The Prime Minister was there and he was also very effectively Phagwahed.  Its actually amazing the access people have to their public officials here.  If anyone tried throwing colored power on out VP, they would be taken down before the powder had a chance to hit.  Here, its totally acceptable, expected, to Phagwah officials.  I was an amazing experience and I can't wait to do it again next year!

Shaleenie, Me, Princess

SITE PLACEMENT!

We got our site placements! And as I'm writing this a little late, we've also has site visits!  I will be staying in West Demerara in Canal #1 Village! Not sure exactly what my new address will be, but I'll let you know when I do!  I'm going to be working at Two Brother's Primary school working mostly with teaching literacy to low-readers, phonics, and some Health and Family Life Education! It's a great school, only 97 students, 5 teachers, and a head mistress who seems pretty awesome!

Canal #1 is about 15-20 minutes from where I'm living during training.  I have mixed emotions about this.  I love the area, its super close to the capital, close to my friends and host family, but it's nowhere new.  I'm also 7 miles down the canal and the only food source are the fruit trees and small snack stands...so I'll be coming out frequently to get food.  I don't have another volunteer very close by, but its easy to get to Georgetown and there are 2 others from my group (Guy24) as well as a bunch of people from Guy23 here too!  

The area is actually pretty rural, especially considering its proximity to Georgetown.  I have goats, cows, chickens/roosters, and other random animals roaming around my yard as well as 2 dogs that come with my new place.  I'm living in the downstairs of a house with a family above.  The 2 dogs are actually the family's, but there outdoor dogs and always on my doorstep.  And super friendly.  My place is big, much bigger than I was expecting, with 2 bedrooms (that both have beds!), a big living area, and a bathroom that may be a little sketch.  It also cam with a hammock! Love! And gets lots of light!

But on to my sketch bathroom.  It's really not bad.  It's just that almost every time I opened the door there was another critter. This is how The Bathroom Saga went:

1. Giant spider=bashed to death by rolling pin.  Body left to rot.

2. Frog. Ignored. 

3.  Spider body gone.  Frog not to be found.

4.  Another giant spider.  Too fast for death my rolling pin.  Score: Me-1, Spider-1

5.  Return of the frog.  Put on my yellow rubber gloves, scared the frog, it peed, eventually got it into the bucket and outside.  

I also went through an insane amount of Baygon killing other flying insects.  Pretty sure I inhaled an unsafe amount...

I love my new home, I think I'm going to enjoy living in the Canal, and I can't wait for school to start!  Also, I have plenty of space for any of you to come visit me :-)

When it came to actually getting our assignments the PC staff had us play a game of bingo and each site and who was there was revealed one by one.  It was kind of torturous wondering when it was going to be you, but also really fun :)

 The Weapon

 The Victim

 The Cleaning Crew

My home!

HFA

The day after we got our site assignments was Host Family Appreciation day.  We prepared food, had a talent show of sorts, played games, ate, and expressed our appreciation for our families.  I absolutely love my host family, so it was something I wanted them to enjoy.  It actually started a little rocky due to bad weather and a lack of electricity, but we were able to pull it together and it was really a lot of fun!

A group of us did an "Indian" dance.  We practiced a few times beforehand, but we ended up editing about 5 minutes before. It wasn't the most perfect/coordinated of dances, but it was good, we had fun doing it, and the families enjoyed it, either despite or because of the mistakes I can't say for sure.

 Cake!

  Everyone with their families

Mashramani! And other....

I've now been in Guyana for over a month and I'm still loving it! My host family is still awesome and Maria makes the BEST flan ever...and she made it tonight :-)

Another trainee here posted what a typical day is like. It's spot on, so I'm stealing it (thanks Lauren). A day here usually goes something like this:

12:00am – 6:26am: wake up intermittently to the sounds of dogs barking, roosters crowing, babies screaming, music blaring, and other not readily identifiable noises. 

6:26am: Alarm goes off. Hit snooze.

6:30amAlarm goes off again. Actually get up and into cold shower.

6:40am-7:20am: do normal getting ready routine, with the added step of applying sunscreen and anti-itch cream to your bug bites.Choose clothing that will minimize sweating while still trying to follow dress code.

7:30am-7:55am: Go to neighboring volunteer's house, wait for other volunteers and walk to training.

8:00am-8:15am: wait for the doors to be unlocked and mill with the other trainees referencing many common topics such as what kept you up last night, how was washing laundry, or have you tried this fruit?

Somewhere around 8:30: actually start class

8:30am-9:50am: point of the day where a trainee is maximally engaged.

9:50am-10:00am: think only of your snack or of getting a snack

10:00am-10:15am: break!!

10:30am-12:00am: trainees concentration is faltering. Minds drift towards lunch.

12:00pm-1:00pm walk home and eat lunch. Try to convince your host mom that you can’t eat an entire plate of rice

1:00pm-4:30pm: sit listlessly, pining for the moments when the fan turns and faces you. 

4:30-8:30pm: Change out of sweat drenched clothing.Rinse off the accumulated sweat, sunscreen, bug spray, and dust. Flop down on bed. Attempt to do homework or journal. Maybe watch a pirated movie supplied by various Peace Corps Volunteers.

9:00pm-11:59pm: Drift to sleep whilst being serenaded by the sounds of dogs barking, roosters crowing, babies screaming, music blaring, and other not readily identifiable noises.

I do have some awesome ear plugs that help cut back on the random noises heard throughout the night/morning, but they usually come out :-/ Training is rough and I keep hearing from current PCV's that its the worst part of PC service. Though, having all 24 of us together is nice since we have people around to socialize with who understand our frustrations, excitement, etc.  But still, the actual training part isn't so much fun. 

On to more exciting stuff! Guyana has a crazy amount of holidays which is pretty awesome since we get the day off to celebrate.  February 23, was Mashramani, or Republic Day.  I spent the day (10:30am-8pm) in Georgetown enjoying the parade with 3 other PCT's (Peace Corps Trainees).  And I got badly sunburnt, though not quite as bad as another girl I was with, despite several coatings of sunblock.  I guess SPF30 just isn't strong enough for me here.  Need to buy: SPF 120.

The Mash parade is certainly interesting.  The first float to go by in the morning was a group of white missionaries waiving Jesus flags.  Maybe 30mins later the real floats started coming by with people from the ministries and other organizations all dressed up.  Now, floats in parades here are a little different then at home.  For the most part the one's here are trucks with speakers followed by the participants in that organization on foot.  

All these people dressed up and following the floats are generally arranged in lines going boy, girl, boy, girl, etc.  The floats stop and the grinding begins. By early afternoon the grinding had progressed to some seriously dirty dancing.  There is a really popular song here called 6:30.  The basic point of the song is that girls position themselves like they're the hands on a clock when the time is 6:30 and grind, or what's really done here, wind, up on the male behind them.  I encourage you to youtube winding.  It's what I saw all day. 

It was a good day, despite the sunburn that is still pealing. (Gross!) 


This Thursday is another holiday, Pagwah, a Hindu celebrations involving lots of different colored powders being thrown at people.  I'm pretty psyched. And then Friday is site placement!!!! I'm excited/terrified for that all at once.  I'm hoping to be placed in/near where I currently live, but I know that's highly unlikely.  I'm preparing for some crazy rural site, but hoping for more urban, though mostly I just want to be near another volunteer.  Anyway, it's going to be an interesting week and I can't wait!