Dear everyone & Blog,
I’ve just received your letters – having worked out how the post office works. Thank-you – it was nice to have something familiar on arrival especially with all the housing hassle that still hasn’t been sorted out.
I have never sweated so much in my life; collect all the sweat I’ve ever lost in one big bucket & it still would not equal the vast amounts over the last week. Yesterday on the boat it hurt to physically sit in the sun when not moving. By the way dad, I’d like you to know that its not just our boat that brakes/breaks? Oh dear I’m teaching in 2 days & can’t spell! Every time the boat stopped yesterday it took 20 mins to start it again.
Georgetown was good. We stayed in Kala our representative’s house which was about 40 minutes away from Georgetown & involved travelling across the world’s longest floating bridge over the Demerara river. They had cleared out the whole of the upstairs & put down loads of mattresses. It was really lovely being with everyone & I got to know some people much better than I did on training to the point where I really miss quite a few of them, so it will be lovely to see them at Christmas. Aunty Delta cooked our food for us outside on a fire in a massive wok – food such as rice, noodles, fish, curry etc. Breakfast was always good – egg mixed with sausage & onion.
We spent a lot of time waiting around because everything in Guyana is very slow – it’s all ‘just now’ which gives false hope as it actually means ‘some time within the next six hours – maybe’. Buses always took hours to come – chow was our driver – it was always a hot experience – waiting for the bus sitting on Kala’s bridge from the road over a ditchy rivery thing that contained piles of crabs! & then all clambering in to the minibus far too many for comfort – one would always have to peel yourself off the seat (I keep having to peel my hand off this paper. In Georgetown everything is mixed – the race, the houses (which are generally beautiful), the transport. A common sight when stuck in traffic is the Rastafarians in their large hats & dreadlocks driving their horse-drawn carts among the cars & minibuses. Everything’s colourful & another observation is the vast amount of trees!
We’ve done various things – visited the world’s largest wooden building, St George’s cathedral, which was stunning. We went to Guyana national museum which was so stuck for what to put into it you can go in and observe actual genuine English cider bottles. We had a talk by the department of education where embarrassingly everyone fell asleep. We went to Georgetown Zoo where I took a photo of a sloth holding its baby especially for Robbie. I also managed to get mud all up my bum from walking in swamp to see a manatee - really all you see is a nose!
We spent much time in office max – an awesome shop selling everything. I bought monopoly. We went to the British High Commissioners to swim & have a barbecue – it was an amazing house, I’m considering changing career choice! On the last night we went to a Brazilian all you can eat restaurant with the most amazing meat I have ever eaten – the best steak ever all for $2500 (about £6) & we also went to a festival event that was a mock Amerindian village with crafts and music & cheap colourful hats which we obviously had to buy! This was part of a cultural festival that’s on at the moment called corifesta. I love this place so much. The people are friendly but not in a pressurising or suffocating way (Georgetown people). I do love the morning downpour of tropical rain – I cannot wait till rainy season.
The journey to Moruca showed me the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen & indeed Moruca is stunning. We left on Friday morning after Orealla, New Amsterdam, Paramakambi & Chinapow. Taking the bus to the Essequito river at 7.20. We then crossed the river which took about an hour as it is so wide. It contains about 300 islands, the largest being the size of Barbados. A nice colourful straw hat I’d bought accidentally blew off & the driver ignored my pleas & insisted on turning around & going back after the flying hat. Also speed boat means SPEED boat, they are so much fun – the front lifts right out. At Supernaam (the other side) we got out all 7 bags & waited to discover who Romel the taxi man was. Turns out that Romel the taxi man likes to see just how many people and bags he can fit into his car. We managed 8 people & 13 bags. The drive took around an hour across open grass lands – Mum there were very satisfying lines of trees nearly all palm. This definitely is the Caribbean not South America. Unfortunately given the wedged cosy seating of us I couldn’t help but doze off. There was the usual array of brightly coloured houses & mixtures of mosque, mandir & church on entering the closest town to us Charity.
Then for the incredible boat trip to Moruca – 40 mins to the Atlantic along a brown river lined with palmy jungle (this time is the presumed without the breakdowns), 10 mins along the coast – the ocean was also brown, it was fairly calm. We then, as expected, turned towards land & suddenly found ourselves in mangrove. I’ve never seen anything like it. Black trees lifted up out of the water by long entwined roots, it was eerie – strangely beautiful. Through on the other side it opens up into open grasslands, dotted with palm trees. We had to keep cutting the engine when passing families & kids in their dugout canoes; this became irritating as every time we stopped it took at least 20 minutes to get the engine going & the heat was sweltering – so painful – my hair-tie that was around my wrist burned in to me! The colours of the savannah was/ is incredible – golds, greens, yellows with the orange of fruit and flowers, the black of the water & the blue of the sky. The river was very very bendy & the drivers must have such a good time tearing round the corners at full speed – sending refreshing ‘spray’ (bucket loads) all over the passengers. It took (minus the stoppage) about 1 ½ hours to reach Moruca (Santa Rosa). We passed the bar as we neared & were surrounded by many bobbing Amerindian heads.
It seems that no-one was really expecting us … no-one met us at the landing stage (where our sandals quickly started melting). So we asked around for help. A girl took us to get registered in to the village & took us to our supposed teaching residence bungalow (part of a group of 3). On the way we spotted 2 white girls – as you can imagine it is easy to spot the foreigners! (In Georgetown we met 6 white people, 3 are ex Project Trust volunteers returned to visit & 3 are peace corps from the USA – there were also the High Commissioner’s family. Whenever one sees a white person you can’t help but wonder why they are in Guyana – it’s not the average holiday destination!) The girls turned out to be peace corps arrived in Moruca a month ago, living in one of the 3 bungalows, staying for 2 years (both 25) & working for the hospital, red cross & resources.
It turned out that our bungalow was not to be. 2 were occupied & the 3rd had no key & had someone expected to move in today, so we are currently residing in the hostel which is ….basic. We have 2 beds at least, though with rather stained mattresses. The owner is lovely & actually it is OK but it’s a very annoying situation. This has been aggravated by the fact that we don’t even know now where we’re working as the ministry sent our profile to the primary school instead of the secondary so the primary are expecting us & the secondary not. Both majorly need our help but the secondary is not prepared for our arrival – shown by the housing situation – so we wait till Monday to find out ….
Looking beyond the annoyances Moruca is breathtakingly gorgeous – if the project fell through (which it’s not …don’t stress & start calling PT people, Dad) they would not be able to drag me away. The village is on both sides of the river with houses on stilts dotted around in small clearings beneath the coconut, papaya & mango trees. Everyone says ‘Good morning/ afternoon’ as you pass & at night they address you by saying ‘Goodnight’ which always confuses me & I end up replying ‘night night’ & expect them to leave. There is constantly music pumped out of most houses a style called ‘Chutney music’ – remixes to steel drums etc. The food is amazing – Sir Nigel the secondary head teacher set up a lady to cook all our meals while we are in the hostel. Aunty Juanita is lovely as expected – we & the peace corps vols took two of her children Amy & Alissia down to the creek today which was refreshing. There is also Aunty Evette, Aunty Shandra & Uncle Murphy & their adorable kids – Shania being one who’s 4 & talks & talks even though I don’t understand a word – the accent is so hard to follow. She is so confident she reminds me of Maia. So we’ve met a few people & know a few friendly faces & Uncle Murphy and Aunty Shandra are having a bamboo fire & rum party tomorrow to celebrate end of holidays so I’m sure I’ll meet more people.
A volunteer moved into the bungalow today – he’s British – went to Peterhouse in Cambridge & is teaching Biology in the secondary school. He says that Ollie and I can share the other room in the apartment so it looks like we’ll be moving in tomorrow.
Wildlife I’ve seen so far: Iguana, Vultures, parakeets, crabs; apparently there are monkeys everywhere though we haven’t seen any, we can hear the Howlers.
Sorry this has been such a long letter but there is such a lot to say, to tell, to describe but also my vocab is limited & my hand tired as well as my eyes. I was woken at 5.30am by loud music & it continues to play late in to the night – it’s now 10pm – when I say late it feels late as it gets dark at 6pm.
I apologise for the atrocious punctuation, spelling & grammar & also for the number of pagfes & the handwriting!
Loads & Loads of love to all,
Miss Emily
Xxxxxxxx
I wish you could see all this
The night sky is incredible, so many stars against a black sky & the shooting stars.
