Letter 9 from Guyana

6/3/09

Not much has happened since I last wrote. The Jambie spirit continues to possess girls – I can currently hear a girl screaming with it downstairs, she’ll probably be sent home just like the others, just in time for missing exams! 8 girls have been possessed in the last week..what a surprise.
Craig and Ollie went to the dormitories last month to walk in on one of my brightest students thrashing and screaming -> full of the Jambie. One of the older boys was holding her down – clearly using the event to feel her up. Most of the dormitory boys seem to have had enough of this whole thing & they themselves are starting to suggest that these girls are just doing this for attention. The girls laugh about it, & as soon as Craig & Ollie appeared to be more interesting than Subina – the supposedly possessed student, they all turned away from her & she herself sat up & started joining in the conversation. It’s strange, we’ve had lots of meetings about the situation & the staff are so divided about what is actually happening. Sir David – a very well respected member of staff & the community is convinced that it really is an evil spirit causing these ‘fits’. Miss Lucy, another respected and very outspoken member of staff is sure that this is either a psychological or attention seeking situation. Whatever is going on needs to be sorted out – often it’s the very bright students who’re being affected & the size of the dormitory has gone from about 130 to 60 students. These kids are not coming back and they’re influencing those that are left behind. I had one of the girls come to my Biology class, sit down & place a lime on the desk in front of her. When questioned about it she said that it was there just in case something ‘rose up in her’ – she left the lesson ½ way through – she could feel ‘it’ stirring.
The dormitory boys are now sick too. This time I think that it’s genuine – something to do with diet – real bad stomach pains – to be honest they don’t look well.
Did I ever tell you that we have a new HM? We had Sir Nigel last term, Miss Bernie (Big Bernie – there are 2) for the first 3 weeks of term & now Sir Glen. He’s a really nice guy, quite shy, but nice to work with.
Did I mention that in January we got paid? Wow – a lot of cash - lots of photos of rolling around in money. Highly inappropriate but irresistible. Unfortunately since then I’ve had to pay off all debts from the previous 5 months & so my pile has run rather thin.
Craig & I continue to go for regular walks following our rule that any interesting path has to be taken. This has led us to many dead ends, random houses, cassava fields & ponds but also to a few new places worth finding! My favourite find has been Cabora Creek which is surrounded by jungley trees. It’s fairly deep & very cold & has nice logs that you can sit on while watching Toucans fly around overhead. Our first visit there Craig & I watched 4 Toucans flying around – I guess that makes 8 cans?
Did I mention that I’ve moved on to creating chicken pies? Damn it, I was going to try & write a letter without mentioning food!
We’re now famous! We were in the Newspaper. A photo of Ian & I (right at the front) then Ollie, Liz & Craig, then Nick & Nicola & Meg (other volunteers – at the back) all at Mashramani parade in Town 2 weekends ago. We’re labelled as ‘tourists’ …just because we’re white it does not mean that we’re tourists! Our students found the picture before us – one has stuck it in her IT book with ‘Miss you are beautiful’ written underneath. Haha, to be honest I just look fat. Yuk!
Mash was good, though I got the most sunburnt I’ve ever been; my nose has never been so hot! About ½ of Guyana was in town for the parties, beer, rum, music & float parade. The Ministry of Amerindian Affairs invited us to be on their float & insisted that they had costumes for us. Only Stewart properly took up the offer & his costume turned out to be overly tight, tiny red shorts & a gold headdress. He also frazzled …mainly because they insisted on covering him in baby oil so as to stick glitter to his chest & then having him walk with the float in the hot hot sun for 2 hours.
That weekend we also went to New Amsterdam to visit the 4 New Amsterdam Girls (NAGs). New Amsterdam is about a 2 hour car journey from Town & is just like a smaller simpler version of Georgetown. I quite liked it, though would not be able to live there comfortably with the number of nasty & annoying comments that follow you down every street. The girls live in a fairly big house (bungalow) on Multi School’s compound – where Hazel & Jolene work. The school was MASSIVE & had cows wandering through the building. The best thing about New Amsterdam was finding BUTTER! REAL BUTTER, I feel that at home I never properly appreciated the stuff. Oliie & I also managed to buy Olives! Wow!
While at New Amsterdam the girls’ friend Jason – a lean black guy with dreads – decided to take us on a walk to a ‘creek’. We were fairly suspicious about the idea because the Guyanese are not the most environmentally friendly people – they’re taught at Primary to throw plastic away into rivers – so we thought that any creek in New Amsterdam was not likely to be hygienic.
After a long, prickly, ant ridden, bushy walk alongside of a perfectly good road (we later discovered) we arrived at a filthy looking trench. We were told that this was not the creek (thank God) BUT that we had to cross this to reach the creek (Yuk!). So we held our belongings above our heads & sunk into the clayey bottom of this lovely 4 metre stretch of water whereupon we entered into a field of tall sugar cane. This, of course, was Ollie’s idea of a dream – surrounded by sugar - & of course it’s healthy sugar because it’s a plant. There was literally caramel seeping from the stems &, as Jason cutlassed a path through the forest of sugar canes we were handed back sticks of sugar cane to nibble on. The field had clearly been burnt recently & so there was ash all over the ground – so obviously we had to give ourselves war marks – we soon arrived at another trench which, again, we were told had to be crossed – this time it was too deep to walk, so belongings had to be left. On the other side we found ourselves still in the sugarcane field but this part had been completely chopped & burnt. At this point Jason pointed to the next trench & said ‘that’s the creek’ err….well….it wasn’t a creek & it was exactly the same as the trench we’d just crossed. Anyhow we proceeded towards it hoping to be pleasantly surprised. We arrived, after having to throw Jolene over a ditch too wide for her to cross, to find, as we had predicted, a trench similar to the previous one. The water was warm & brown & was sweet & sugary (not that I meant to drink it ….eww parasites). Hey it was an experience! A morning well spent!
Other news:
Our friend had a baby! I was meant to be there to see the birth but left the hospital at exactly the wrong hour. It’s incredible – like Craig says: ‘The greatest magic trick ever’. Crazy how 1 hour it’s inside Susan & the next it’s a living being in the world!
On a sadder note a friend of ours was killed 3 weeks ago by a falling tree when working out in the bush. We didn’t know him well but he’d been to a few of our parties & we’re good friends to some of his relatives. He was only 28 & had a wife and 3 gorgeous kids. In Guyana when someone dies there is a night wake, so for 9 nights friends & family go up to the dead person’s house to play cards & dominoes. The nine night (the last night of the wake) is always a fairly big event & I found myself taking part in very serious dominoes with 3 old, fairly tipsy men. It seems that the most essential part of the game is to slam the dominoes down hard enough to make a really good bang & shake the table – earning a round of applause.
It was my birthday! The night before us whities of Moruca had a big roast dinner – yorkshire puddings & stuffing included! On the Monday (my actual birthday) I allocated myself FROSTIES – something we don’t usually allow in the house because I eat them so fast – like within a day – because they’re addictive & make me hyper. I also managed to get my hands on some Bournville Chocolate – it was stupidly expensive ….but so worth it! I had an awesome day at school – gots to love the kids! Received loads of cards from students …nearly as many as on Valentines (yes a very successful valentine haul this year). The afternoon I managed to go up by the Church to use the internet & saw all my lovely messages….THANK-YOU to all. It was also Whanita’s son’s birthday (Church, the youngest – now 6) so we went over in the evening for cake, curry & roti. The Guyanese here do ‘stick the cake’, where who’s ever birthday it is cuts the cake then feeds it to a member of opposite sex & then that person does the same to them! Very odd. There are also many verses to the Happy Birthday song here including: ‘How old are you now’ & ‘may the good Lord bless you’. The thing I’ll never forget on my birthday was waking up & sitting outside watching the sunrise over the jungle when suddenly Happy Birthday songs blast through the trees from Whanita’s house – full volume just for me….so surreal! After cake we went to play pool at Aunty Jenny’s where I celebrated in usual fashion by losing every game ….always so close! After this Ollie & I returned to watch ‘The Notebook’ at home in hammocks.
Craig was sent sing-a-long Mamma Mia – we had an awesome time with some rum & a worried looking Larry watching it last weekend. We payed back the neighbours for their noise in the mornings by singing into the early hours of the morning.
Finally, before returning to the advanced Jambie situation, I find myself talking more & more like the locals. It’s worrying, but if you’re trying to explain something to children who’re just not understanding you, it makes much ,more sense to just say it how they understand it rather than to repeat it in my *ahem* lovely queen’s English 50 billion times.
Th is turning to +
So. Three has gone to tree etc.
My >> me
Us >> we ‘come by we house’
Hers >> she ‘she book’
His >> he
Take >> carry ‘carry me home miss’
At >> by
U is pronounced o ‘Ogly’

Etc. Crazy stuff.

So the advanced Jambie situation:
Today there were 6 girls that got possessed at school. Now it’s not just the dorms kids. School closed at 2.30 today & Sir Glen told all the dorms children to go home as soon as possible. Exams have been postponed to the week after next & there’s an emergency PTA meeting on Tuesday to discuss whether school should continue this term!
INSANE!
Off to St Cuthberts this weekend to vist Ian, Declan & Stewart & their 2 pet turtles. The to Town for Phagwah – a Hindu festival where lots of dye gets thrown all over everyone, followed by large amounts of water.
WOOP!
Will update you soon on situations, remember: The Jambie likes chicken & the colours red & black, it’s big & hairy with pink eyes & doesn’t like lime, garlic & methylated spirits ….
Stay safe!
Lots of love
Emily xxx


Sorry about the writing ..v messy…v tired.