Life: 3 Months In

I've now been in Guyana for just over 3 months and at site for just over 1 month.  Time is a little crazy here; the days go by pretty slowly, the weeks fly by, and the months just seem to come and go.  When I think of being here in the terms of 2 years, I won't lie, I panic a bit.  Two years is a long time. But I think its going to be over before I realize it.  Guy22 has been leaving gradually over the last month, and watching them go has been...strange.  It's odd to think that in 2 years, my group will be the one leaving, that our time here will be over.  For now, that seems far off and I prefer to think in the shorter term (while obsessively looking at Master's programs for after)  and give myself things to look forward to.  This makes 2 years much less daunting.

During the week my life is pretty tame and I live on a schedule that goes something like this:

7:00-alarm goes off.  Hit snooze.

7:05-alarm goes off again. Either get up or hit snooze.

7:08-7:18-Enter bathroom, first checking for strange animals/creepy crawlies, once I've determined it safe, enter bathroom and have cold shower.
 
7:20-7:40-figure out what I clean/mostly clean clothes I have that match/somewhat match and get dressed.

7:40-7:45-look in fridge to determine if there is food for breakfast. Probably not.

7:45-8:05-alternately look on fb and lay in hammock. Maybe both. At the same time.

8:05-8:15-get ready to leave

8:15-8:45-walk to school. Hopefully its not raining.

8:45-3:00-at work. Trying to figure out what I'm doing/how to do it.

3:00-3:30-walk home in the blazing hot sun.

3:30-6:00-hang out at my neighbors and play with cute kids and/or veg at home on the internet.

6:00-8:30-at home. probably not doing much.

8:30-take laptop, go to bed, and fall asleep while watching movie.

8:30-7:05-Alternately be woken up by: dogs barking, trucks, and other strange sounds. Eventually remember that, yes, I do have ear plugs. Back to sleep.

I love my community and all my neighbors who have been nothing but welcoming.  The babies across the canal from me who I spend time with almost every day have learned to (kind of) say my name! I've now been taken to 3 different Mandir's and given (pretty bad) impromptu speeches at all. I've been to yoga at one of the Mandir's twice now.  I love it, but its more aerobic than what I've done at home.  I mean, I've never done squats or jumping jacks in a yoga class before.  There is also what I would consider normal, relaxing yoga, as well.

Work is a little crazy, though that's mostly because I still don't feel particularly confident in what I'm doing.  Teaching literacy is a lot harder that I expected, but I'm figuring it out.  I'm doing pull-out groups with just the lowest readers from each grade.  My classes have just started, but I'm hopeful they'll go well.  I'm going to take pictures at some point, but my school is basically a one-room wooden building on stilts.  The classrooms are divided by chalkboards, and the library and computer lab have their own rooms downstairs.

As for my house...well...it's been interesting.  I live in the downstairs and a family lives upstairs, but the stairs have been sealed, so its totally separate.  Maybe 2 weeks ago I had a tarantula, scary hairy legs and all, fall on me while I was in the shower. Definitely one of the most terrifying experiences of my life.  Though screaming, I was coherent enough to grab my towel as I ran away.  When no one responded to my shrieks of horror, I realized I was going to have to deal with the situation myself.  I put on my lime-green rainboots, grabbed my broom, and re-entered the chamber of horrors, also known as my bathroom.  With the assistance of my handy broom, I was able to kill the furry legged critter and continue on with my day, though I remain skeptical when entering the bathroom.

 Spider that fell on me in the shower. Death by broom.

Then it happened again.  Not a tarantula falling from the sky onto me, but critters invading.  I was contentedly laying in my hammock one night last week when I saw what I thought was a bat fly by.  I promptly screamed, leaped up, and went to see it where it landed on the window in my kitchen. Thankfully, it wasn't a bat, just a giant moth.  Unfortunately, that wasn't to be the end of my terror that night.  Once I realized it wasn't a bat, I became aware of other things.  There was a tarantula on my wall.  Yes, another black, furry, terrifying spider.  More screaming followed. Though that would be enough for any person for one night, I then noticed a big crappo (frog the emits some kind of poison when you get to close to it) and a baby crappo.  I now had a giant moth, a tarantula, and 2 frogs to cope with.

First, the worst of the offenders had to be dealt with.  The tarantula needed to go. I tried spraying it with Fish Spray (like Baygon, it kills bugs).  That only made it angry and run towards me. Insert more screaming. Realizing that wasn't going to work, I once again grabbed my broom and started trying to beat it to death.  It just wouldn't die! Every time I thought it had finally met its end, it would stop playing dead and come at me again.

At this point Tasha, my friend who lives upstairs, having heard all my yelping came down to help.  She was able to successfully kill the dreaded tarantula, and, with more yelps from both of us, we ushered the frogs away.  A carpenter is supposed to be coming this week to put screens on my windows and do something about the broken door that the frogs came in from and hopefully my land lord will be doing something to help keep the spiders away.  I don't know how many more tarantulas I can handle. Other than that, my house is nice.

My weekends are packed full.  I spend a lot of time in Georgetown (Town), have done 2 more has runs, which have both been fun and involved me getting caught in the rain and the 2nd wading through some pretty gross trenches, at night, and having to scoot around the cows and goats in the path.  Last Saturday was a holiday, Arrival Day, and I went to the nearby park with another PCV, Holly, to see the floats that were build like old houses and watch/listen to some Indian dancing/singing.

To go back in time a bit, Easter, which is celebrated on Monday here, was also lots of fun.  I painted eggs with friends, most were hard boiled, but we did do one the hard way: blowing the yoke out through a pin prick.  Hard work. I went to National Park and saw hundreds of kites being flown.  Kites are flown to symbolize the spirit of Jesus rising to Heaven.

I also went to Leguan, a secluded beach in the Essoquibo River, with some friends. There was some fire-side cooking, swimming in the rain, and general fun hanging out.

And I do get some awesome sunsets...