1. We got an awesome ROOMIE! Our PCV friend, Cassie, moved into the spare bedroom in our apartment. She had been stationed in a remote site in the savannah of Guyana, near Brazil, but needed to leave her site for her own important reasons. She still wanted to be able to finish out the rest of our service however, so we asked her to come live with us and, along with Peace Corps staff, we helped find her a temporary assignment in our hometown! We excitedly opened up our space to Cassie. She is a smart, funny, free-spirited woman with an amazing capacity for love and laughter. We have been enjoying hearing of her adventures in remote Amerindian villages. She taught us how to make wine out of local fruits (by fermenting it in sugar, leaving it in bottles to get “strong” in the sun for a week or so, straining it and voila!) and we have had many fun game nights since she moved in. Despite the fun we’ve been having, it has been an adjustment to have another person in the house. We now share a tiny, super mini dorm fridge amongst three of us, same goes for filtered water, dishes and chores. It is a challenge for all of us to adjust but the three of us get along very well, enjoy each other’s company and still manage to give each other space so ultimately it is a positive change.
Cassie and I being silly with Wax vampire teeth!2. Occurring almost simultaneously with the addition of another to the Linden Crew, were the highly anticipated Guyanese National Presidential Elections. Elections in Guyana happen every five years. People get the opportunity to vote for a party (rather than candidates) for the presidency. It is a proportional representation system so, depending on the number of votes each party gets, seats in the parliament are assigned (more votes for your party = more seats your party gets). Historically, race plays a large factor in politics, with the Afro-Guyanese siding with a particular party and the Indo-Guyanese with another. People here debate how true that is today but, in the past, things have gotten pretty heated amongst the different parties (riots, theft, arson and mild civil unrest) so Peace Corps had to prepare us for the worst. Here wha' happen:
The election was on Monday, November 28th and, starting on Sunday we were officially put on “alert”. Now PC has all sorts of rules for us to keep us safe from any turmoil that might occur including, but not limited to: avoiding any political conversations, demonstrations and public gatherings (basically staying in our house), keeping ours phone on, charged and full of credit at all times and having a go-bag packed and being ready to evacuate at any time. With this sort of preparedness we were almost excited for something to happen in our usually quiet urban jungle paradise. So, Tim, Cassie, the rest of the Linden Crew and I stayed indoors as instructed, slept in, did laundry and long-avoided chores, made fruit wine and delicious meals, played cards and watched an entire season of Gossip Girl.
We were on official “alert” mode (i.e. election stay-cation) until the elections results were finally announced on Wednesday evening. Yep, you read that right, it took 2 ½ days to count and verify elections results. Hand counting ballots takes time. Not quite as easy as the fancy system with almost instant results in the USA. It was a trio to watch the news and hear the hubbub of gossip from our friends while we waited for the results. All was quiet, almost eerily so, but still no unrest, no excitement. Even when the results were announced (the majority party stayed in power in the presidency but the coalition parties have the numbers in parliament) almost all stayed civil and cool. Except for one small demonstration-turned riot-with rubber bullets all was very democratic, peaceful. I think there is more contention at an Occupy demonstration than there was in this election in the developing country we live in. Go figure! All in all it made our stay-action seem a little foolish but I actually rather appreciated the forced down time. It was relaxing and much needed.
Passion fruit, Cherry, Pine, and Star fruit wines brewing
We hit the ground running back at work after the elections. Cassie started her new job, I finish with the first of two six-week infant nutrition workshops this week and Tim just wrapped up his professional development sessions with his remedial teachers. Now, as December speeds by, we join our neighbors and friends getting excited for Christmas and holidays from school and work. We promise to blog about “winter” holidays in Guyana just now. Until then, blessings from all of us.
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