Letter 6 from Guyana

HAPPY NEW YEAR 6/1/09

I thought that, seeing as the postcard space was fairly limited, I’d also send a letter with other random holiday bits & pieces on.
On Christmas day we all payed $80 & got on a glass bottom boat that took us to a reef – where we went snorkelling. We then got dropped off at a sandbar in the sea for 30 mins & went for a more relaxing swim followed by a visit to a private beach with lots of very strong rum punch, lots of food & limbo dancing. All was very merry until Ruth (one of the volunteers) decided to dive in to a rock, concuss herself & pass out, at which point we decided we ought to take her to hospital. We spent the evening sobering up in the sea & then went & watched Christmassy films back at the hotel. .
We went to a bar with a pool table on New Years Eve (or Old years as everyone here calls it) called Black Onyx. The Tobagans believe that giving a free drink & food on New Years Eve brings luck for the following year. So we got lots of free rum punch & then free food too – the pool got …. interesting. Then we all headed back to a beach called Mount Irvine Bay where lots of randomers were having a party. Ian & I were in charge of the Project Trust count downs (we’d had one earlier for Britain) which was a good thing seeing as no-one would have noticed otherwise. We started counting from 10 & by 4 everyone had realised what was going on & by 1 the fireworks were going off. At this point all PT volunteers sprinted down to the beach to the darkest point and went skinny dipping – what we didn’t see were the rocks in the sea so as we all ran in bare we all went slam bang on to our bums as we slipped over on the rocks – lots of scrapes! It was a good night.
Tobago is a nice island – fairly developed – with mountains & beaches. Personally I really wanted to climb the mountains but never got round to it! The biggest shock was seeing white people. It was actually quite unsettling & really made me dislike them. It worries me about coming home – just the thought of walking into Heathrow & being surrounded by whities is worrying and kind of scary. In Trinidad airport I found myself automatically going to sit next to the black people where I felt more comfortable. Very odd.When in Georgetown, if you see a white person you always end up staring at them thinking – “what the hell are they doing in this random country?”. They usually seem to be thinking the same thing & the result is walking past each other scowling!
So now it’s back to school. Oo you know I decided to stay that night in Georgetown in a Guest house – Ollie & Milly joined me. That night the Project Trust Flat was broken into- the metal grate on the door was completely ripped off. 2 MP3’s were taken & $120000G from one guy & about $75000G from others & a brand new CD player one of the guys had bought. Everyone’s bags had been emptied & strewn all over the floor & Mirjam had been asleep in the flat the whole time by herself. Scary! Good idea of mine to stay somewhere else – otherwise I too would have been asleep in the flat at that time.
So that’s the current news. We also have a new pet tarantula …Steven; he’s moved into Barbara’s old web. Weather’s still wet, there are rumours it’s going to continue for the next 4 months – let’s just hope they’re rumours!
Hope all is well,
Lots of
Love
from
Emily xxx

Postcard from Tobago

I thought I’d send you a nice postcard to show you what you missed out on over Christmas. This was a particularly nice beach we visited – we followed the wee river up through the mountains behind the beach for about 15 minutes & found a waterfall &n large pool where we all played for a while …. How sweet – teachers do play too you know! It was really good to get away, see the other volunteers, go to a cinema (ooo the novelty), relax next to BLUE sea rather than Guyanese brown & drink cocktails. However it was all a bit too short & was pretty sad saying goodbye to everyone at the end – especially Ian . To be honest it did not seem like 4 months since we’d all last seen each other – but everyone seems to have had very different experiences to each other & there were lots of stories to tell/ hear.
Lots of Love
Emily xxx

Photos

Here are some photos from first arrival to the end of Jen's visit

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/ep4500/Guyana1Selection?authkey=WWa388LXnK0#