A Week In

Hello!

I arrived safe and sound in Georgetown after a long and extremely tiring journey. We got here around 1am local time last Friday. This is the first opportunity I have had to get on the internet so I'm sorry for taking this long.

After sleeping only until 6am (11am GMT) on the Friday we all had to get up and spent the entire day lazing around in the sun, trying (and failing) to get used to the heat. Indeed, sitting here now, at a computer, with a fan blowing on my back it's still far too warm. But the locals say it is "the hottest week of the year"  or something, as it always is when you'd quite like to be a wee bit cooler. But no matter, it's lovely to be able to wear shorts and t-shirt and not compain about the cold!

The rest of the week we have spent avoiding the sun by our flat. This is tiny. two bedrooms, a kitchen with a bathroom attached and a veranda. We have all strung hammocks up outside because it is just too hot to sleep inside. We do have mosquito nets as well, because the mozzies are an absoolute nightmare. I've already been bitten about 20 times, and I am by far not the worst. The hammocks are really comfortable, I find it difficult to stay awake whle lying in one. In fact, on Sunday, I lay down in a hammock at about 11am with the intention of joining the conversation going on around me, and just ended up falling asleep. It was lovely.

On Monday we went to a meeting with the Ministry of Education, which, of course, lasted far too long and was far too boring, but we did get to meet the Minister of Education (our employer), which was good. One of the first evenings we went out for a chinese, where our meal costed roughly four pounds, and was huge, last night we had dinner at a pizza place and met the World Teach volunteers who will also be based in Paramakatoi. They seemed very nice, though I must say Emily did most of the talking to them.

Tonight is the opening of Heritage Month, so there will be a celebration, which I am looking forward to. We are going out to a Brazilian buffet restaurant tonight after this, which should be good though it is fairly expensive by Guyana standards (G$3500 - roughly twelve pounds).

I am pleased to say everybody seems to be getting on very well, though one of the guys has been having trouble adapting to a lot of things, and culture shock hit him quite badly. Apart from that and the occaisional hint of cabin fever, we are all getting along famously, which is a relief to Kala, our representative, as she said last year's group were nowhere near as close. I now see what Doug means about her being a great person to have as a representative - she will help you with absolutely anything, and believe me, she has a lot of contacts.

I am leaving next Friday, but all but four volunteers are leaving tomorrow or the day after, so I should get another chance to use the internet before I go to Paramakatoi.

For now, I have to go, people are getting impatient. All the best and I hope everyone is well.

Antje

The Journey Begins...

Hello everyone! Or should that be goodbye...?

I'm leaving this evening to begin my journey towards the remote Paramakatoi. I don't quite know how I feel about this yet. It seems so far away and yet I'm counting the hours (seven) until I leave my home, my friends and my family, not to mention the many comforts and luxuries I have become so used to in my few years in our society. I really can't explain the excitement and anticipation which has been brewing inside me for close to four months now. All I have to say is that I am forever grateful to everyone who helped me along the way, I know there is absolutely no chance that I would even be contemplating going on this trip if I hadn't had your support. So thank you, from the bottom of my heart. I don't know how to tell you how much this means to me.

I don't know if you've ever tried fitting a year's worth of clothes, shoes, toiletries and teaching materials, along with about five years of memories, into a 65L rucksack without exceeding 23kg. No easy feat. It is, however, in a way embarrassing, to think how many things and belongings we feel we need to have. My room is full of boxes upon boxes of things that I thought I needed. Things I use once in a lifetime but don't want to throw away for fear of facing an occasion when I will have to think, "if only I'd kept that a month longer", or "I gave this away last week!" and then grudgingly buying another. To be quite honest, I wouldn't be surprised if when I return I bear a bag of weight maybe 10kg, and still think I won't use the majority of it again. I'm sure my mum would be more than happy if this was the case.

So my epic journey:

I will get a bus to Glasgow this evening, where I will stay with my Project Trust partner, Emily. In the morning we will fly down to Gatwick, to arrive at about eight in the morning, check in, and then fly from Gatwick to Barbados at midday, arriving at about half past eight in the evening, GMT. We will then wait about five hours in Barbados airport, before flying to Georgetown, to arrive at about half past ten, Guyana time. So about half past three in the morning, our time. I will be in Georgetown until the 9th of September, when I fly to Paramakatoi. From then on it's letters only, and the beginning of my year as a teacher.

I will try to post another update during my stay in Georgetown to let you know I got there safely.

Just a quick word - if you send me a letter, please print the address on a big, white sticker on the envelope, then it is more likely to get there. Sorry if I'm repeating myself, but this is quite important.

So all there is left to say is - please keep checking my blog and have a fantastic year!

Lots of love,

Antje

xxx

Briefed, Trained and Extremely Excited

Hello everyone!

So I've just come back from training on Monday and I am getting really eager to be off. I have found out a whole lot more information about my project, but most importantly....

I AM LEAVING ON THE 25TH OF AUGUST.

I'd just like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has helped me reach this point. It would be a tragic thing for me not to have managed to get this far after all the effort everyone has put in, so my sincerest appreciation to every single one of you.

On training I was told a lot about my project - too much to put on this page without it getting tedious, but I will try to sum it up as best I can.

My partner is called Emily and is in some ways my double (personality-wise anyway), and in some ways my exact opposite. I really think project trust have done an amazing job in pairing up the volunteers and I really couldn't have asked for anyone better. I say this now, goodness knows what I'll say after living with her for a year, but I know we will work it out, whatever happens.

Our house is, yes, on stilts, and it has a lovely red zinc roof and is supposedly one of the nicest houses in the village. It is right next door to the school and literally a 50m - if that - walk from the air strip. The toilet is "erratic" and the shower doesn't work, but there are rivers everywhere and the locals bathe as often as three times a day, so it won't be a problem. There is a rain butt for water, but this has to be boiled. We have two gas rings for cooking, and there is an oven in the school in case we want to bake. There are beds in our rooms but when we arrive in Georgetown, Kala Seegopaul, our representative and a very accomplished woman, will take us hammock shopping, so I suspect we will end up sleeping in these instead, as there are apparently bed bugs.

There are 16 Project Trust volunteers in total in Guyana, and just over the five days of training we have already bonded a lot. About a two days' walk from Paramakatoi (PK) there is a village called Chenapou, home to one of the fifty-odd primary schools which send pupils to board and go to school in PK. Here there are two more Project Trust volunteers, Ryan and Mike, who are then only a further few hours from Kaieteur Falls, the world's largest single drop waterfall - meaning the combination of height and water volume falling here is greater than anywhere else on earth. It is said to be a really breathtaking and awesome place, so watch this space, as we will definitely be going there.

I have found out an awful lot about the culture but I will try to keep this brief. PK is inhabited by Amerindians: subsistence farmers who live off what they can grow from the land (apparently anything, but they tend to grow mainly cassava and fruit). Any food they do need to buy is flown in from Georgetown on a small eight-seat plane - which is also how we get to the village. There is a small shop for other everyday things but it is expensive. Their two main past times are "liming" - lazing about, also "gaffing", which is basically the same but also incorporates some talking/ gossiping - and dancing - which is supposedly quite intimate and very sexual.

In the villages in the Potaro-Siparuni Region (or Region 8 - containing PK) of Guyana the Amerindians still speak in their native tongue - a language called Patamona - a lot of the time, and I am delighted to be exposed to and get the chance to learn a little of a language which is spoken by only a few thousand people. For example, the word "Paramakatoi" comes from the name of the creek it is based on and from the Patamona word for savannah: "katoi" or "ktoi" - so the Savannah on the Parama Creek.

The main mode of transport is, not surprisingly, walking, however it is possible to hire ATVs (quad bikes) and guides for journeys between villages. I must admit this is one of the most exciting parts for me so far! The next nearest town, Kato, is a three hour walk away, a walk which some of the pupils unfortunately have to undertake on a daily basis.

We will be staying in Georgetown for at least five days before going out to our project. During this time we are to buy any extra things we need and a term's worth of food. This will cost us approximately 50,000 guyanese dollars, a pound being about G$300. We will be paid monthly wages of G$60,000 plus G$7,000 "rural area incentive". This is because we will actually be working for the Ministry of Education in Guyana as, having Highers (and Advanced Highers), we are more qualified than some of the other teachers, who only have the equivalent of GCSEs in the form of an end of year exam by the Caribbean Examinations Council, or CXC.

I will obviously find out an awful lot more while I am out there and I imagine it will be different in many ways to what I have entailed so far. I will put up another post shortly before I leave, but for now, I leave you with my address.

They say that every volunteer responds differently to different things and there are other pieces of information or realizations which really hit home, and for me, it was receiving this address on the front of my post report which made me appreciate what I am doing, and what lies ahead of me. It seems strange but it gave me a bit of a jolt into reality:

Miss Antje Kremer

Paramakatoi Secondary School

Paramakatoi

North Pakaraimas

Region 8

Guyana

South America

 

Thanks for reading and please stay in touch,

All my love,

Antje