Friday, June 18, 2010

Venturing out and coming home


Last week, I had the awesome opportunity to accompany the national coordinators of the Youth Friendly Health Services (YFS) program on an outreach trip. Our mission was to explore the possibilities of establishing health services for young people in dormitory schools in the hinterland regions of Guyana. The ladies from YFS asked me to come along to provide them support and also so I could pick up some new ideas for ways to improve the youth friendly clinic, my primary project, at my site in Linden.
The Ministry of Health had planned a 5-day trip for us to visit Mahdia and Paramakatoi. We flew out of Georgetown on Wednesday in a 12-seat prop plane and I got to sit in the copilot seat! 
The scenery that spread below us was nothing but lush jungle with dark rivers cutting snaking shapes through the greenery. We landed in the remote, mining outpost town called Mahdia. It seriously reminded me of the Wild West; red dirt roads, wild untouched mountains surrounding us, and curious, silent stares from all the locals as we strangers walked down the streets to find our hotel. I almost expected to see tumbleweed and to get stopped by the sheriff with his six shooters. In Mahdia we met with regional leaders, hospital staff and the dormitory school children. I had a few charming interactions with students when we used our visit as an opportunity to lead discussion with the school children on topics relevant in their community, like the dangers of tobacco and cigarettes and teen health (puberty, menstruation etc.). 


Our next stop was an even more remote Amerindian village in the Pakaraima mountain range. Again, we hoisted our backpacks into a tiny plane and soared over the jungle on our way to Paramakatoi (PK). However, on our way, the pilot needed to make a short stop to drop off another passenger. I wasn’t sure where we were stopping until I looked out the window of the plane and saw the wide, winding river suddenly drop off into a cloud of mist. It couldn’t be, I thought. But it was! We had stopped at the most famous tourist attraction in Guyana; Kaiteur Falls. Kaiteur is the largest single drop waterfall in the world and, as our plane dipped towards the landing strip I got a breathtaking view of this natural beauty. Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to get off the place and get a closer look but I managed to snap off some photos before we took to the sky. Now I am even more motivated than I was before to take the 4-day hike to get an up close, and more lasting, peek of the mighty Kaiteur before I leave Guyana.  

Arriving in PK was a breath of fresh air, literally.  Since the village is high up in the mountains it gets a nice cool breeze that was so refreshing, especially for this California girl who is used to more temperate climates. It was so peaceful and scenic. I felt so serene and relaxed during my whole stay in PK. We had someone cook us meals and bring them to the guesthouse where we stayed. And, even though I didn’t have amenities like a shower or current, I felt more comfortable in rural PK than I did in the busy, noisy hotel in Mahdia. The Ministry gals and I even had a chance to take a few hikes around to check out some of the scenery and explore a bit. We did get some work done though when we met with the dormitory school to put steps in place to provide health services for the 300+ youth who live in the dorms. We also had a question and answer session where we gave the students the opportunity to write down any questions they had on any health topic (sex, drugs, alcohol, self esteem, etc). Boy, did we get some funny questions! I think my favorite was, “What are the consequences of taking too much sweetness?” Now, you might think this student was asking about eating too many sweets, but he/she was actually referring to too much sex. Ha! Don’t kids just ask the darndest things? 
 
 
On Sunday, after four days out in the field, I headed home to Linden. Amazingly, coming back actually felt like coming home! I was so excited to sleep in my own bed, cook my own food and share my stories with Tim that when my bus zoomed over the crest of the hill that leads into Linden and I caught my first glimpse of the bauxite factory smoke stacks puffing away I sighed and thought, “Yay, I am home.” It’s an odd feeling, starting to feel at home here. Overall, the trip was a great break and a cool opportunity to see something new. But I also gained some new insight about my own sense of place in Guyana that is helping me stay strong and positive.
For a while now I had been feeling like I was always getting stared at and sipped at because I look so different than everyone else. I just imagined everyone thinking, ‘Hey look, there goes a white girl!” However, when I was traveling in the hinterland regions the odd stares didn’t bother me as much. I guess I was thinking that I was being stared at because I was a stranger, not because of my race. But the more I thought about it, why should I be bothered by the stares and catcalls at ‘home’ in Linden? Aren’t I just as much of a stranger here? Even though I feel more at home, I am still the new girl on the block in the eyes of my community. It feels a lot better to have this perspective than one based on racial difference. Even in this short week excursion I learned a lot by venturing out and then retuning home so I can only imagine what lessons await me when I return home to the States after the rest of my Peace Corps service…



Wednesday, June 9, 2010

It's the little things.


Truly it’s the little things that make our day.  On Monday, our 1-year anniversary of being “Weddinged”, Chels and I had a wonderful day. We were able to spend time in each other’s company and take almost a full day to ourselves. We ate, cooked, and opened care packages! Our San Diego crew sent some things and so did my mother.  It was so sublime to get spices, cookies, COFFEE, books, letters, random bathroom things, and some new threads. It was like X-mas in June. Perfect.

Thank you so much friends and family for making our special day even better.   (And I know more are coming and we’ll get those soon.)

Anyway, I am at work there aren’t many things to do since national exams are coming up and there isn’t much time to observe teachers teaching. But I don’t mind so much, I had a busy week last week with a workshop about a remedial reading program called the “6-Year Program.”  Usually students go to secondary school for 5 years (Form 1 is 7th grade, Form 2 is 8th grade, etc.) When they are in 11th grade (or Form 5) usually students have the option to either finish up school, or take an extra year for advanced studies.

This 6-year program is for students who are entering Form 1 and are struggling learners. Some don’t even know how to recognize the alphabet, others can barely work with numbers, and still more may have learning disabilities (or may not have attended primary school in the first place since your level in primary school is based on age). Likewise, since the primary system is automatic promotion (which means you’re passed to the next grade regardless of your academic performance or skills) some of these students have simply flown under the radar or their primary teachers did not care enough to work with them since they were identified (usually by the teachers themselves) as “slow” learners.  (On a side note, so far I haven’t notice special needs accommodations/tests either). Thus this 6- year program is a transitional year between grades 6 and 7 at the secondary school level, which gives the students an extra year to "catch up".  

 The teachers are mostly primary school trained, and the Ministry has created a national curriculum that emphasizes reading and maths, but also contains some other subjects like science, social studies, and art. The idea behind it is to get these students into learning. Teach them to love learning, which can be hard sometimes for a 12 year old, especially when they’ve failed so many times in the past. It's about making their learning relevant to their lives and connecting all the disparate subjects into a seamless quilt of intrinsic motivational goodness.  Then, we hope, they take that love of learning throughout their secondary school careers.  It’s about making them into students. And it has a lot of potential, but some of the teachers needed more training on dealing with struggling adolescents and creating more “student centered” lessons, as opposed to “chalk and talk”, so Georgetown (or the Ministry of Education) set up this workshop for many of the teachers to hone their skills. I am extremely interested in this program and I think it may be part of my primary project (in addition to working with primary school teachers to start building their capacity to work with the Gradual Release of Responsibility theory, and more efficient group work.) 

In other news, Chelsea’s gone for now. She went to Region 8 to a town called Mahdia and a village called Paramakatoi (sp?) She is doing some work with the Youth Friendly Services national coordinator and will be back on Sunday.  I tried to sneak into her backpack, but it was just too small for me, so I will have to wait for my day to travel to the interior regions for some overnights. 

Anyway, I will be off this weekend to visit another volunteer for his birthday, it should be lots of fun and it will be good to see him.

Much love,
T & C

PS we have a recipe blog in the works, so check it out: hobbitfood.blogspot.com

-T.

Saturday, June 5, 2010

The Mundane: Day-to-Day Life and an Essential Question.

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It’s Saturday. The sky is a mix of gray and blue with the humidity making me sweat. Rain is coming. Chelsea is at work, tending to her Youth Friendly Services like every Saturday. I am home, with our kitty, contemplating and cleaning. 

I was pondering that three years in the future, in our cushy, developed country, I don’t think I will remember these mundane times. I may have an impression of what I accomplished on these chore-ridden Saturdays, but I won’t know the details.

So this entry is for the mundane. 

I finished eating oats and I drank my two cups of coffee. I fed the cat a little bit ago, but she is whining for more. Sometimes she enjoys playing with her string, her Guyanese homemade toy, or a wad of paper when she realizes I won’t give in to her meowing demands; other times, she curls up either in my lap, or in her cubby, or in someplace where it’s cool and “cat” naps for spell. Now she sleeps by my feet.

I went to the library today, searching for a secondary project. Every other Saturday students from the nursery level to secondary school come to literacy/phonics classes in the library. A nursery school teacher runs it, but today I offered my services. I worked with a group of 7th and 8th graders helping them with their writing. I will probably do it again next time, if nothing else comes up.

After I got home I did up the dishes and swept my apartment, which I do every Saturday. Now when I sweep I separate my floor into sections: kitchen, table area and antique orange rug, above and below this orange rug, the main rug on which my couch sits, above and below that relic, and the wooden slats before the sliding glass door. In each section, I sweep the dust and dirt into organized little piles, then, with a small, pink hand brush, I sweep the piles into my bright pink dustpan. Then, I head outside to the porch, and with my “outside” broom, which is really only long stalks of dried grass tied together, I sweep off my porch, pushing the dried mud off the steps. Some Saturdays I will sweep out the other three bedrooms and two bathrooms, then mop everything in its entirety, but not today.

A little later today I will squat in the second bathroom and vigorously rub clothes against themselves in the soapy, dirty water (dirty because they’ve been soaking for at least 3 hours) thus washing them. Then, I will turn on the shower tap and rinse the clothes in a bucket of continuously running, rust coloured pipe water, grabbing an end of the fabric, and dipping them, sometimes pushing water out bucket, until the clothes are sopping with less soap.  After which I will hang them on my outside clothesline to dry. However, they will probably not dry because, during the rainy season, I guarantee, it will rain on them before they’re completely bereft of moisture.

After the laundry is safely hanging outside the day is usually mine. Sometimes I read, post a blog, nap, and all in all relax. Some weeks I will head up into Block 22 and help Tony with a support group or take a car to visit and help Chelsea, but probably not today.



Chelsea will be home a little after 4 and then we’ll head off to the market to purchase food for the week.  And who knows what the night will bring.

But this is simply the mundane.


Here’s a question that has been bugging me for weeks, perhaps you all can help me answer it:

In order for them to empower others do they themselves need to be empowered?

Much love,
T & C