The Years of the Perpetual Ponytail

The other day I was thinking, maybe I should get a haircut. I haven’t had one since I have been in Guyana (almost 7 months). I think this is the longest I have ever gone without going to a salon. My hair is long, stringy, full of split ends and utterly style-less. On some days, I long for a hairstyle. Wouldn’t it be nice to have layers or highlights? I sigh. But then I remember that I am in the Peace Corps, in a country that is at 4 degrees north latitude, almost on the equator. If you have read Tim’s blog about the weather you will know that it is not exactly a country that makes you want to wear your hair down (as it will likely stick to the back of you neck, dripping in sweat). So, on most days, you will find me with my hair in a ponytail, braid or bun. Tim jokes that these are the years of the perpetual ponytail. 

One of the things that I never thought I would miss about life in the U.S.A. is getting dolled up. Most of you know that I am not a girly-girl but I, like most people, enjoy feeling well put together. This feeling is one of the few sacrifices that Peace Corps Guyana demands one give up. I am always sweaty and I feel like I am covered in a sheen of dust and particles of burnt trash (that even now, as I write are wafting through my window). Even after I step out of my cold shower I do not feel one hundred percent clean. Today I had a Skype conversation with Heather B and, even through the pixilated web cam, she looked so lovely and clean. I think my telling her this might have creeped her out a bit. I mean, how often do your friends compliment you telling you how clean you look? 

Now, I am not complaining about my state of being. I am learning to accept that this is how most Peace Corps volunteers must feel. I am redefining myself and pushing the boundaries of what I am comfortable with, even in superficial ways. All I can do is imagine how wonderful that first hot shower in the States will feel, how amazing it will be to step into clothes that have been laundered rather than hand-washed, how confident and lovely I will feel when I can use a hair straightener and let my hair down, knowing that it won’t get frizzy and sweaty in 30 seconds. Until then, I exist in the years of the perpetual ponytail.

Home Improvement Sundays

I have dirt under my fingernails as I sit here typing. I am jamming out to some new music, thanks to the thoughtful package from Llewellyn and Tom that we were totally surprised by last week. I also have a proud sense of accomplishment that is becoming a regular feeling for us at the Linden house. The reason? Home Improvement Sundays.

Last week we were utterly fed up with the fact that we were still living out of suitcases (since we had nothing that could serve as wardrobe or closet or shelves). So, we decided to make some ourselves. Shelf-making in Guyana goes something like this: walk to hardware store to buy eight by four foot sheets of ½ inch ply board, carry said ply board on head awkwardly home, lug ply board upstairs to the balcony that will serve both as saw horse and workshop, borrow a saw from neighbor, oil the saw with canola oil, sit down with paper and pencil to design bookshelf, measure out and draw lines we wish to cut to make shelf, try using borrowed saw to cut and realize that the saw will never cut the board since it is too dull, go to another neighbor to borrow an electric handsaw, realize that electric handsaw blade is also ancient, return to hardware store to buy new blade, spend HOURS cutting through ply board with slow saw that is probably older than me, get offered to use a circular saw by another neighbor, rejoice in the speed and precision of the circular saw and finish cutting boards, nail boards together awkwardly, sand shelves, sit back in wonder with pride, sigh and momentarily wish there was an Ikea in Guyana, take back that thought because we accomplished something awesome and now could go unpack our suitcases!

In the end, Tim and I made three bookshelves for ourselves, two small ones for books and things and one to put our clothes. And, yes Llew, we think its funny too that we are some of the few rare PCVs who will amass a bookshelf full of books in a third world country that we will only live in for two years, you know us so well! Sara made two small bookshelves for herself and with the extra wood we decided to make a card table, which we have now collaged the top of and it looks super cool. It feels great to be unpacked and our house is feeling much more like a home with the new storage and organization space.

Sara also spearheaded the creation of a compost box. We have been throwing away tons of organic waste in our daily cooking and we had it mind to get a garden going so Sara read up on composting and got the materials to make a box with chicken wire and wood. Now we have a compost pile that is steadily growing and will hopefully yield a nice steamy load of fertilizer in a few months. And, since the compost box is within throwing range of my patio, I get to amuse myself by trying to aim eggshells and pineapple tops into the bin without going downstairs (I miss a lot and end up going downstairs anyway, but it is fun in a very juvenile way).

This week I took it upon myself to replant three baby papaya (called pawpaw in Guyana) trees that we had growing under our stairs. I had asked our next-door neighbor earlier in the week to order us a bag of mole (chicken poop fertilizer) with goals of nurturing these trees, as well as starting a small garden bed to get a kitchen garden going. As I was putting the cute baby pawpaw trees in their new homes, Sara and Tim came out to help weed a patch of our yard and get the soil ready for a garden. A few hours later, after having discovered some new and bizarre bugs, we sat back to admire what we hope will be a very fruitful endeavor (don’t hate the pun…).

We don’t know very much about gardening but are going to try to at least get some green onion, lettuce, cucumber and tomato going. If we can, we will save some money at the market. Projects like this also offer us an immediate sense of accomplishment. I’m finding that this is very important to my health and mental well being since I rarely see immediate results in my Peace Corps process of slow, grassroots development work. So, I am hoping that Home Improvement Sundays will become a regular habit at the Linden house and will help us stay happy and fulfilled as we soldier on in our adventure in Guyana.

- C

Our "closet" with the bookshelf we made and a rope and PVC pipe set up to hang our clothes on.












Sara's compost box.

Bugs...eewwwe.

Another bug. We aren't really sure what this dude is so we left him alone...