Letter 2 from Guyana

Dear Mum, Dad, everyone & blog!
Well it’s a month into my Morucan life …only about 9 to go before I can up & leave to go travel – which I am so excited about, but wish I could do now.
Firstly thank-you so, so much for your letters & packages … they keep me going when times are tough! And times have been tough & I’m sure that they will continue to be, so keep them coming.
Right down to business, I have a feeling that this is going to be a long slog of a letter … (and I can’t remember what I’ve said before so bear with me a little.)
So project trust has sent me to the most beautiful place. They really gave me ‘something different to home’. The only problem is that it is indescribable – you have to see it to understand. Even photos can’t capture it – especially the night sky which still astounds me every time I look: just the sheer quantity of stars, the clarity of the sky & the blackness. I enclose a map that Ollie drew. The weather is hot surprisingly! When the sky is clear it can become unbearable & I begin to melt. When the clouds come it cools & in the event of rain it feels as though the tin roof is going to fall in. We usually strip down to underwear or swimming costumes at this point & run out to shower under the gutter, fill our buckets, sing & dance & make complete fools of ourselves – I cannot wait until November: rainy season woop!
After rain all the monkeys come out to play in the trees (jungle) outside our front door. & yes we have a front door now & a whole bungalow to go with it! Ollie and I moved in with Craig into the teaching accommodation purposefully built for volunteers. We don’t have an oven – all we have is 2 hobs (the 2 ovens are broken). We have 2 bedrooms both with double beds & so Craig is in one & Ollie and I in the other …it’s cosy .. we then have a shower that doesn’t work due to lack of water & a toilet with the comfiest squidgy pink seat! The rest is open sitting room/ kitchen & we have a hammock here hanging from the roof – which is usually occupied by a sleeping Ollie! I think I’ve previously mentioned the wildlife we live with: lizards, tarantulas (we had a pet one named Barbara that lived in the ceiling) cockroaches, ants & frogs – though these tend to house in the cistern during the day and jump around at night. There are then also the bats that like to fly over our mosquito net at night. The house is concrete but its wall’s like paper. Miss Deena lives in the middle apartment with her 2 kids, 2 nephews & 2 sisters (the house is the same size as ours) & the children insist on waking, screaming, playing &, worst of all, playing the harmonica at 5 am … we hear it all …we can hear them snoring – THAT is how thin the walls are. We are often woken by howlers in the trees outside, rain on the tin roof & drunken men knocking on our door/ falling in to the building at all hours of the night. So that’s ‘home’.
We plan to get a dugout canoe! Although this place is amazing I find it claustrophobic. Everyone knows us .. we stand out a tad so they all know what we’re up to, what we do etc. There’s only one road which is the route to everywhere & exploring off road is kind of dangerous – you may get eaten, fall into swamp or cutlassed by an Amerindian child. So the way to explore is by boat therefore we are going to get one …hopefully.
We also have a job now. I’m teaching Form 3 (year 9) biology & then IT to forms 1 & 1 class in form 2 (computerless). To be honest I don’t enjoy teaching at all. The kids are at the age where they’ve realised that if they don’t want to work they don’t have to. They can no longer be scared into it. They are also bored out of their minds: every year they do the same thing in every subject but with the tiniest bit more detail. They don’t understand any type of learning that isn’t copying from the board & so any activity you do to make the lesson fun it takes 4 times as long as was planned because they simply don’t get it. There are some that just can’t read or write – there’s one lad who is re-sitting form 3 for the third year & my smallest class has 41 children. I certainly got a challenge – though perhaps a larger one than I wanted.

Ollie & I have been keeping ourselves busy. We went to Georgetown 2 weeks ago for the weekend – mainly to get money. There we met the 4 New Amsterdam girls who seem to be having, in some ways, similar & in some ways very different experiences. We got to know our way around the city – got the hang of how ‘buses’ work. This was all with the help of Chip – a guy who helps Kala out with the Guyana volunteers – very nice guy – a good contact. To be honest a journey to Georgetown, although very expensive, is worth it for the trip. We had to get up at 5am to take the speed boat so we saw the sunrise over the savannah & palms, flocks of scarlet storks flew overhead while 3 speed boats (w included) raced across the sea. STUNNING.
We have started helping out at the dorms which is OK, tiring & had one awful experience last week when I angered the dorm-mother by suggesting the word ‘play’ & she promptly left leaving just me to look after 130 kids for the night (so she said). I wanted to just burst into tears but I called Ollie & Craig & they came & helped until 9pm when the DM returned fuming & said she was going to report us to the headteacher.That really stressed me out.
We are also taking part in the Morucan Red Cross youth group set up by Sophie, one of the American girls. We are then hopefully going to start helping out at swimming classes at the river though it sounds like because the water is too low the training for the moment is going to be ‘physical activity’ at 5.30 am on a Monday!
This week has been eventful. We had sports day (the first half) yesterday. It was field events & teachers have to take part. I did long jump, shot put & discus & came 1st, 2nd & 1st for Toucan house: teachers event female U21’s! Running events are next Friday. With some events if I come first then I go through to interschool, then regional & then national events in my category! HaHa!
This weekend it has been the end of ‘Amerindian heritage month’ so parties every night. Last night we went to Flavi’s where an awesome band played till past 3 am. Tonight there’s a beauty pagent in Mora (a nearby village) & the captain’s asked Sophie to run for beauty queen! After there is another band playing at Flavi’s. Tomorrow there are events such as tug of war & cricket at ‘Russia’ – it’s not the village’s real name but I think it’s known for its vodka! It seems that old men here only live for alcohol, they drink all day every day. Last weekend there was a large ‘Digicel’ ceremony. Digicel is a phone company & have advertisements & shops all over Guyana. In Moruca phones are the ‘in thing’. DIGICEL IS EVERYWHERE … it’s very surreal to see people paddling in their dugout canoe speaking on a mobile!
As for food .. well I’m certainly not going to come home stick thin as I had hoped. Unfortunately, with Moruca being Guyana’s largest Amerindian community there are a lot of shops – like every family pretty much owns one - & they all sell exactly the same things. The chocolate I usually don’t get as its fairly melted but it depends on the cravings. We’ve discovered American popcorn, marshmallows, many sweets to satisfy Ollie, but best of all banana and chocolate milk (milk is the biggest craving). We’ve discovered how to make pancakes using powdered milk – that is now breakfast as well as porridge. I’ve drunk more fizzy drinks than I have ever in England because they are so refreshing. Non-imported snacks – so local snacks – that we’ve discovered are cooldown (bags of fake juice), palari – balls of battery dough, & pine tarts – pastry with pineapple jam in. I’m hungry so much. Ollie & I have been very inventive with our lunchtime cooking. Banopic being the most successful creation … mashed banana, sugar, peanut butter & crushed biscuit. It tastes surprisingly like banoffee pie! Every Saturday morning we go down to the market & buy our fruit & veg & extras for the week: usually consisting of Okra, Bora (like a long green bean), egg plant, squash, avocado if possible, limes, oranges, plantain, bananas, fish, spray for killing insects, eggs etc. But the diet is so high in carbohydrates; they always eat roti – like savoury eggless pancake - & bake – like savoury doughnut. We invented a really good sweet roti with bananas soaked in rum then folded in the roti with sugar & cooked till caramelised , mmm. So the diet is healthy but packed full of carbs & then surrounded by tempting sugary joy to satisfy the many cravings. This is not an excuse for you to not send me food. I’ll come home fat! Also with no teeth!
I went to the Church today met the priest who let us use the internet! We also met the Church parrot, church puppy & church kitten. It’s such a lovely peaceful place & loads of kids around helping out. There are spectacular views also.
Nearly time to love you & leave you. Being out here & receiving your letters makes me so grateful to you guys, I’ll never take you for granted. I love you all so much & already am dying to see you again. Like I said if you can come out then do - & at any time.
Loads of love, hugs & kisses,
Emily XXX