Letter 10 from Guyana

25/3/09

7 months gone, 4 ½ to go.
I can’t remember when I last wrote, whether it was after Mashrami, after Phagwah, both, or not at all. So, as usual, bear (bare?) with me a tad.
So, since returning from Phagwah – a Hindu festival where lots of dye is thrown over EVERYONE & EVERYTHING resulting in dyed skin, clothes & hair (Ollie’s hair is still green 3 weeks later) for a fair few days – Ollie and I returned to Jumbie mayhem. Since getting back the school has been evacuated & ‘cleansed’ by exorcism several times. It’s exams at the moment (though no-one’s quite sure whether they’ve been cancelled after yesterday’s havoc) & several times they’ve been interrupted by dramatic scenes of possession from various girls. This week, for 6 nights in a row, the Pentecostal Church (i.e. ‘Clap Hands’) are holding a crusade on the ballfield – about 200m from our house. This involves aggressive, strangely accented preaching, AWFUL keyboard playing, the WORST singing, some exorcisms & plenty ‘Praise to Jesus’, ‘Flee evil demons’ & ‘Hallelujahs’! All done through microphones & being belted out so that the whole of Moruca can hear for FOUR HOURS …I just want some peace & quiet!
So yesterday, at 11.00, just as form 1 & 2 were finishing their IT exam, all went crazy. Suddenly there was screaming coming from all over the school & there were students all over the ballfield. 4 girls got the Jumbie & were being carried, or manically kicking up on the ballfield. Each was surrounded by a group of students, being held down & prayed over.
At this point Sir Steve ran into the class I was invigilating & told them to stop what they were doing & get out of the class & school as fast as possible. I told them they could leave if they were scared but that if they wanted to do well they should try & finish. Within 10 minutes the school was cleared apart from the staff who all congregated in the auditorium waiting for permission from above to leave. While we waited there was still one girl thrashing around on the field, surrounded by a group of 20ish people, including her mother & completely traumatised younger brother. They prayed over her & sang & struggled for about an hour.
We never got permission to leave so we waited until the usual time of 12.00 for lunch & returned at 1.00 to a studentless school & for a 3 ½ hour meeting where …what a surprise ……nothing was decided on. It is possible that next week (our last of term 2) no students will come to school & yet we, being staff, will have to turn up & spend a week doing nothing.
I’m bored of it all, I’m bored of school keeping being dismissed & us still having to turn up & spend hours doing nothing. I’m bored with Jumbie & don’t see how it’s going to be stopped. All the emphasis is on prayer & locals are generally closed to the idea of getting in psychologists. Yes prayer is a healthy thing to do, however this has been going on for far too long & we need to start looking at other options. I wish that the ministry would step in & help. There’s a condition called ‘crowd hysteria’ that has been diagnosed in schools where similar things have happened. Look in to it; no-one seems to be here!
I’m so tired of doing nothing!!! Very tempted to just leave & go to St Cuthberts where we’re actually needed & will be used.
Other news: Easter plans are made. We’re going down to Lethem on Monday – we being me & St Cuthberts & Dora boys. Ollie is meant to be going on the Sunday (she’s going Aishalton project with New Amsterdam Girls). Craig is flying down on the following Saturday with a friend from England. Rodeo is happening on the Saturday & Sunday there & so most of Guyana goes to take part! Not sure what we’ll do during the first week, maybe go to Brazil or there’s a cabin on a mountain, near a peanut butter factory, that has nice walks around it close-ish to Annai…we’ll just wing it. After Rodeo, me, Craig, Ollie, Craig’s friend & maybe Milly are going to go to Karanambu Lodge. Karanambu is in the middle of the jungle & is a research & eco-tourist place. It’s run by a pretty eccentric lady who releases giant otters back into the wild. Ollie & I fly back to town on the Wednesday. Then on Friday we may try to go to Kaiteur Falls. It’s going to be an expensive Easter! BUT HEY! I’ll get STEAK!
We continue to see plenty sloths & plenty Toucans at the moment. Shame that waterproof camera number 2 drowned. We went on a bush cook last Sunday. Bush cooks are where you go somewhere nice, generally in the bush, make a fire & cook lunch. We went to Cabora Creek – a beautiful and secluded part of Moruca. I walked there about an hour after the others as I was still in bed as they left! I put on some chillaxing music – none other than choir boys (don’t laugh – I was feeling mellow), waved to a sloth in the bamboo & set off for Cabora Creek. I past a tree with a couple of Toucans in it – they always shock me by how weird they look - & also passed the biggest caterpillar/ grub thing I’ve ever seen – about 3cm diameter & 15 cm long – like something out of Doctor Who. I then passed a very traditional, palm roofed stilted house & 3 little girls (probably all 6 yrs and under) who were in the ‘yard’. They’d clearly been asked by their mother to pick up rubbish outside – they were all carrying plastic bags – but instead they’d decided to play ‘dizzy dinosaurs’ (you know the game where you spin round until you fall over!). So these 3 tiny girls, their long hair all in plaits & in their home made ‘princess’ dresses were all spinning in the dust & wind with their plastic bags held out like parachutes apparently (to me) all to the music of choir boys – it was an absolutely gorgeous sight.

(Break from letter as I get dragged downstairs to take part in a special school ‘crusade’. 5 more girls sick….school dismissed….apart from…teachers….service with the AWFUL keyboard downstairs…I thought it couldn’t get worse! OH well, I suggested to the teachers that we have a bush cook at the school seeing as we having nothing to do & they all said YES! So have gone to get supplies)

SO I arrived at the creek without having been eaten by a ‘tiger’, much to the relief & joy of our local friends & had a lovely afternoon.
My birthday cards starting arriving 2 weeks back, thank-you! Though the PM hates me so much that I can no longer enter the post office so others have to collect it for me!
‘One more girl just got ‘attacked’’
Grrr, this thing is driving me mad!
Well, that’s most of the news, I think…Whanita is pleading for any dresses that could be used for the Moruca day beauty pageant….Maybe check out some charity shops? Also for bright make-up…she trains the beauty queens!
Will write after Easter,
Lots of love,
Emily
xxx