Holidays in Guyana

Merry Christmas All! Here is a quick look into the Christmas Season in Guyana:

Tim and I have both, along with all our colleagues and friends, wrapped up our projects and work until the new year. Now we are in the full swing of the holiday season here in Guyana. Christmas feels different here for many reasons. Even though it is our second Christmas here, we still aren’t with our families so that always feels a little strange. The weather is still hot, muggy and sunny, which isn’t much like holidays back home. But the spirit of the season remains the same. Even in Guyana, people are eager to make their houses nice for their family and friends, putting up Christmas lights and decorations. Everyone makes plans to visit each other and share food, drinks and good company. So that’s what we plan to do this holiday.

Today we are going over to a neighbor’s house to spend the day. We prepped yesterday by heading over to fellow PCV, Tka’s house and learning how to make Jamaican meat patties which we are bringing over to our neighbor’s to share today. Tomorrow we are heading to New Amsterdam to visit with some other PCV friends and take a mini-vacation into a river village near them for some relaxation, nature and fun. Then we hope to ring in the new year in Georgetown before heading off to our Close of Service Conference (COS), the last workshop we will have as Peace Corps Volunteers. It is crazy to think how far we have come.

But in the here and now we are enjoying being together, sharing a last Christmas in Guyana. Check out some pictures from our holiday treat baking, visiting Georgetown and other crazy holiday adventures.

Sara baking yummy Christmas cookies at Tka's to give away to family and friends (I thiefed some....)

Holiday decorations in the clinic at work

Our Halloween tree in November gets Christmas presents that Mom brought from America! Thanks Mom!

A very scary, huge, white Santa give Season's Greetings to everyone in Georgetown. TIG!

For Christmas, I fixed Tim's shabby old copy of The Brothers Karamazov. Resourceful PCV with duct tape. Yay!

Starbroek Market in G/town was so busy the weekend before Christmas. So many people shopping and selling. 'Scuse me little veggie sales girl!

Selling tons of imported goods. Box cake anyone?

Local, Guyanese holiday necessities: sorrel, hot pepper, thyme and tubers.

Homemade Jamaican meat patties! Yum

15 Weeks to Go

We’ve been thinking a lot about leaving Guyana since we only have 15 weeks left here. As with most things in Peace Corps, we have very mixed emotions about leaving this beautiful country that has become our home. We decided to make a list of things we will miss very much about Guyana and also note the things we can say we won’t be missing at all. This is by no means a complete list, we are sure there are things we forgot about but here is what we have for now anyway. Here goes:

Things we will miss:

• Easy and cheap access to fresh tropical fruits: mango, pine, papaya, passion fruit and weird stuff you have probably never heard of (awaro, five finger, ginip, star apple, dounce) etc.

• Living on the river, admiring the beauty as we cross it everyday
• The beautiful, expansive skies: brilliant, fiery sunsets and sunrises and nights with millions of glittering stars

• Greeting everyone with a friendly, “Good morning/afternoon/night”
• Always being able to predict the weather. Let me guess: hot and muggy! Correct again!
• Loud Caribbean music blasting from mobile carts on the roads
• Food: plantain chips, cookup, roti, pepper pot, dahl puri
• The sounds of the jungle morning, noon and night: birds, frogs, bugs, roosters
• Evening thunder and rain storms

• Knowing our neighbors, shop keepers and a general a sense of community
• Getting everywhere by public transportation; mini buses, cars, and the freedom of not relying on anyone else to get anywhere because we can walk most everywhere!
• The flora of the jungle
• The fauna of our urban jungle: cows, sheep, chickens, dogs and cats that run (seemingly) wild all around the streets and yards of the entire country
• The “just now” attitude, island time, taking it easy, nah takin’ worries and time to relax and chill
• Having most of our “adult” responsibilities (bills, rent, medical care, etc) taken care of by Peace Corps and not having to worry about those things, peace of mind, job security
• Guyanese hospitality
• Random events that make us smile and laugh: seeing a 6’6 black man driving a supped up car with a Celine Dion CD blaring from the stereo or almost stepping on a mamma sheep as she gives birth to twins in the side of the busy market road
• Having luxurious free time to read (Tim has read over 150 books) and watch movies/TV
• Cheap and delicious Guyanese rum
• Getting DVDs of movies just released in theaters in the USA for $100 Guyana dollars (50₵)
• Dark, super-sweet, local Guyanese sugar
• The smell of sun dried laundry
• Being able to make our own work schedules and, at times, when work is slow, being allowed to show up, “show my face” then leave work to take care of personal business
• Our coworkers, neighbors and friends who all know and love us and watch our backs

Things we won’t miss and are glad don’t always exist in California:

• Mosquitoes
• Cold showers
• Men sipping, being called white gyal or bai/whitey/Barbie/baby/sweetie/sexy
• Animals (and animal dung) on the public roadways and in our yard
• Homesickness
• Incessant, unavoidable heat
• Our grammar degenerating into a poor version of Creolese (“I wan fuh go ah the market”, “watch at this ting” “me nah know” “how baby today? He goin a’right?”)
• Long, hot and uncomfortable mini bus rides
• The “just now” attitude, showing up late or not at all, little to no accountability
• Turtle slow internet connection
• Being judged and told we are going to hell because I (Chelsea) am not baptized and we are not Christian then almost forcibly dragged to church services to save our souls, being told by total strangers that I (Chelsea) am a sinner for wearing pants when the Bible says women should not wear pants…
• Only having three choices of bland Caribbean beer (Banks, Carib, Stag)
• Not having an oven
• Hand washing all our clothes
• Being asked very personal questions by strangers when we first meet them (are you married, do you have kids?, why not? how old are you? would you like a Guyanese boy/girlfriend?)
• The smell of garbage/dead things rotting in the trenches
• Humidity
• Being the victim of the Guyanese habit of stating the obvious (when Chelsea is bloated: “you gettin’ thick, you must be getting a baby”, when she is out in the weather without an umbrella: “white gyal you takin’ too much sun/rain”, when she is exercising: “you takin a walk”. Why yes, I am thank you!).
• People assuming that we are rich/privileged/religious/ New Yorkers because we are white
• Having no anonymity at all: leaving our site to go across the entire country and still being identified by strangers then having people in our own site tell us how they have heard of our exploits (probably from said strangers) in the far-off town upon our return
• Having to bring our own toilet paper and hand sanitizer everywhere we go because there is never any guarantee that there will be a well-stocked bathroom

Election Stay-cation

Almost immediately after my mom and bro left, life for us Tibbses in Guyana took an interesting turn for two reasons:

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.

Thanksgiving: Guyana Style Take 2

This year was our second Thanksgiving in Guyana. Both years we have been fortunate enough to celebrate with family and friends. Last year Sara's family was visiting Guyana and this year we had my mom and brother to share the fun. Along with our biological family, we had our Peace Corps Volunteer 'family' and our Guyanese 'family' joining the festivities.

Since we don't have an oven everything was cooked either on a stove top or in our steel drum BBQ. And, like last year, everything was delicious! We had all the traditional American feast items; turkey, stuffing, gravy, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, veggies, wine, and pumpkin pie. Added to that was some extra chicken, Tka's spicy macaroni, Guyanese rum and snacks, Princess's spice cake with cream cheese frosting and Sara's wheat-free rice dish (made with love for my bro).

We decorated the Thanksgiving Tree with post-its of what we are thankful for, cooked, gaffed, ate food and laughed until the wee hours of the morning. We are truly blessed and so endlessly grateful for our family, friends and friends that have become family. Our life is rich and full of love and we give our thanks for our blessings everyday (but especially on a day like Thanksgiving)!

The next morning, Mom and Bup headed off to Barbados to wrap up their vacation before heading back to the USA. I was sad to see them go (and had a very, very scary anxiety dream about them leaving when I took a nap later that day) but I remember all the fun times we shared together in Guyana and in the end, I can only be grateful for the fact that they were able to visit us at all.

Spending time away from our family and then getting the treat of a visit from a few of our beloved ones has made Tim and I realize how important family is to us. We are determined to make family a priority in our life when we get back to America. We plan to live within driving distance of both of our sides of the family and spend more quality time with everyone. I especially look forward to living near my bro, who is so much fun to hang out with. I love how he gets along with Tim and my friends and I feel like we can enjoy each others company on a deeper level than we have done in the past. I look forward to the not-so-distant future where family interactions are a part of daily life, not just a treat on holidays.

My "oven"

The Thanksgiving Tree

PCV Princess, neighbors Lisa and Baby Nathan and I having a fun evening!

Tim and PCV Mark shucking corn for BBQ corn on the cob! Yum!

Family Visit Continued

Mom and Stephan's visit to Guyana continues to be an adventure enjoyed by all. They are getting an authentic Guyanese experience full of wonderful hospitality, more food than they can eat, late nights and early mornings, last minute planning, plans falling through, hand-washed laundry and pirated movies.

On Saturday, we hired a bus to drive us out to Rockstone, an Amerindian village about an hour outside Linden. The village was hosting their annual Fish Festival and I had arranged to hire a boat to take us down the river to see some rapids, experience the thrill of being on a speed boat in the jungle and swim in black water. The boat trip was fun, the day was relaxing and adventurous and we got to eat fish curry and drink paiwari (cassava wine).

The following day we had booked a tour to fly to Kaieteur and Orinduik Falls. I was so excited to show my family the beautiful, remote and untouched parts of Guyana that are so different than my urban community. We endured a harrowing minibus ride to the airport and met up with our tour, only to be told that the weather in the interior was bad and we wouldn't be able to land the plane. I was devastated that our trip was canceled! The tour company tried to reschedule for later in the week but they couldn't charter a plane since all the planes are busy flying elections materials (ballots and boxes, etc) into and out of remote villages for the upcoming presidential election on the 28^th. I think I was more disappointed about the cancellation of our trip than my mom and brother were (either that or they are good at hiding their disappointment). Mom is rescheduling the trip for Tim and I in the new year and getting a refund for their half. When I go, I will have to take the sock monkeys as stand-ins for Mom and Bup (not going to be the same though).

Instead of our epic rainforest trip, we had to improvise so we headed into Georgetown, where we had reserved a room for the night in a hotel with a pool, and would have been content swimming and lounging around all day. But when we arrived, the pool was closed for repairs. Again, I was more frustrated with the situation than my family. Mom and Bup had a great attitude, exactly the kind you need in Guyana where even the best laid plans tend to fall through. I just felt like I should have planned things better for them and was pissed that things weren't working out like I had wanted.

Again, we improvised and explored gritty, ugly, beauty of Georgetown. We took pictures at the seawall, went to the National park and pet the manatees in the pond, went to the zoo (the smallest, most depressing zoo that exists) and had an early dinner at a Brazilian restaurant where we drank and ate delicious fare until we felt like bursting. The night was topped off by watching Guyana Star (think American Idol with one million percent less production value) and giggling in our hotel room.

On Monday we took a whirlwind tour of Georgetown and Mom and Bup got to do some souvenir shopping for CDs, movies, jewelry and crafts. We bought our turkey for Thanksgiving and headed back to Linden. Since then we have just been kicking it in Linden. Tim and I have gone to work in the mornings, allowing Mom and Bup to relax and sleep in (as much as they can with the roosters crowing right outside the window). We have had a continuous flow of visitors and friends who have been generously feeding my family and teaching Mom about Guyanese cooking. To me it seems like an underwhelming thing to do with my family that sacrificed so much to fly down here to visit. But Mom insists that she didn't come to Guyana to be tourist, she came to visit me and Tim and see how we live our lives so that is what she is getting.

Today and tomorrow promise to be a hectic, fun and social time. We have Peace Corps Volunteers coming to visit from all over Guyana for Thanksgiving and we have an epic feast planned. Then Mom and Bup leave the day after Thanksgiving. I am getting a little sad to think of them going. I have loved having them here so much. I am so grateful that they have been able to experience the hardships, beauty, fun, tedium and general roller coaster ride that is my Peace Corps service in Guyana. I know now that when I look back at this experience, I will have people who can relate to the beautiful madness of it all since they have experienced it alongside me. I am so unfathomably thankful!

As far as we got to Kaieteur Falls: the airstrip in G/town...

So, instead, we went to see a manatee

Manatees are cool!

Mom at the seawall, oh the beautiful Atlantic Ocean....and beaches full of trash...

Family Visit!

Coconut water, hydrating and delicious

At the airport! Welcome!

Last Wednesday dawned bright and sunny, humid and hot, a typical day in Guyana in every respect except for the fact that we had our first (and probably only) family visitors! We were so excited to welcome Mom and Stephan for their 10-day visit. Tim and I hired our favorite taxi driver (a rasta man with tons of character, I'd even say as much personality as there are dreadlocks on his head, and that is a lot) to take us to the airport to greet them. We wanted to welcome them in style so we made a welcome sign to hold up at the airport and stopped at the first roadside fruit stand we saw to buy us all fresh coconuts and happily drank the water with
straws.

Since Mom and Steph have arrived, I have loved getting to narrate the experience of Guyana to them and see each and every unique aspect of this wild country in the light of their fresh perspective. The things that had become almost mundane to us (wildly speeding mini buses, scrumptious tropical fruits, Creolese dialect, livestock roaming the streets, trash piles burning on the sides of public roads, unexpected torrential downpours, and much more) became new and exciting again as we watched Mom and Steph witness them for the first time.

Both Mom and Stephan have been champions so far, enduring the not-so-niceties of life in a
developing country with aplomb. Mom has a series of itchy red bites all over her body that are maybe mosquitoes or bed bugs or fleas, but she doesn't complain. They both are rudely awoken every morning by the incessant crowing of the many roosters that live in the yard next
door. They sweat in the heat and yearn for the comfort of a fan orA/C but still join us on our daily routine trips to work and the market and around.

Since Tim and I couldn't totally play hooky from our responsibilities, so far we have just been showing Mom and Steph around Linden, introducing them to our friends and coworkers and living as we do, experiencing our routine. This weekend, however, the fun begins! We have planned a river boat, day-trip-adventure for Saturday and a flight to and guided tour of Kaieteur and Orindiuk Falls on Sunday. We will eat Brazilian BBQ, explore Georgetown and come back to Linden in time to start prepping for Thanksgiving.

Everyone is well and happy and so totally grateful to be sharing this unique, rare and wonderful
adventure together. More stories in the days to come...

-Chelsea

100!!!!!!!!

This is our 100^th blog! It is hard to believe that we have been writing on this blog for 23 months and have written 100 entries! To commemorate our adventure thus far we summed up what we were up to each month of blogging and even created a word cloud using one entry from each month. Check it out!

December 2009: Found out our assignment to Guyana, accepted it and said our first good byes to family and friends.

January 2010: Moved out of our apartment in San Diego, said more good byes

February 2010: Finished work at Health Sciences High, left San Diego and arrived in Guyana and started Pre-Service training, met our host family

March 2010: Learned tons in Pre-service training, went to visit older volunteers for a week visit, more learning, got our site placement

April 2010: Swore in as official Peace corps Volunteers, moved to Linden, started work on our projects, Tim turned 29

May 2010: Found Rasta kitty, celebrated with fellow Lindeners at Town Week, explored our region on outreach trips, Sara turned 24, witnessed a baby born at the health center

June 2010: Adventured around Guyana, floundered a bit with our projects, celebrated our one year weddinged anniversary

July 2010: Watched almost every FIFA World Cup soccer match, met back up with our training group for a reconnect training meeting

August 2010: Built our own bookcases and dressers from plyboard, planted papaya trees in our front yard, Chelsea turned 25

September 2010: Struggled with various tropical maladies, enjoyed an amazing vacation in Barbados, met with our counterparts for a project planning conference

October 2010: Midwifed for Rasta when she had her kittens, organized and distributed thousands of unused books for schools throughout the region, finished writing teacher training manual

November 2010: Celebrated Thanksgiving with fellow PCVs and Sara's family, started working as the host for local TV program Health Watch

December 2010: Attempted a trip into the interior to visit friends, got stranded and learned patience and acceptance, had a wonderful Christmas celebration at home in Linden with enchiladas and friends

January 2011: Finished training for the Be Safe program, big project accomplishments, got staph infections, cured said infections

February 2011: New training group arrived in Guyana, facilitated tons of training sessions with the newbies, marched in costume in the G/town Mashramani parade, dressed as our alter egos for a party commemorating our 1 year in Guyana anniversary

March 2011: Continued to help with newbie training, completed the Be Safe! Program and hosted a well-deserved graduation ceremony, planned and executed first annual Linden young authors fair

April 2011: Visited home in the U.S. For a month, kicked it with our families and friends, gorged ourselves on American fare and libations, Tim's dirty 30^th birthday

May 2011: Started running with the Guyana Hash House Harriers, attended mid-service training conference, dealt with broken computer frustrations, cried over a sick baby, then busted butt to get him help and save his little life

June 2011: Worked with remedial teachers in secondary schools, planned/stressed over our future plans, survived without a fridge when it broke for a month, celebrated our 2^nd weddinged anniversary

July 2011: Traveled to Shell Beach and watched leatherback turtles lay eggs, professional development with summer school teachers, started law school applications

August 2011: Kept on keeping on with so so many different projects, Chelsea's 26^th birthday celebrated in Barbados when we made a short stop there in the way back to the States

September 2011: Joyously celebrated D+L's wedding back in Oregon and enjoyed family and friends for 2 weeks, experienced ancient Guyanese culture at the Amerindian Heritage festival, submitted law school applications

October 2011: Submitted grant for an infant nutrition class, hosted excellent activities for Education Month, celebrated Diwali, good things still to come......

Happy Diwali!

Today in Guyana we celebrate Dewali (or Deepavali), the Hindu festival of lights. Tim and I celebrated with our friends and neighbors at the house of one of the few Hindu families in Linden (a predominantly Afro-Guyanese and Christian community). On Diwali, to celebrate the triumph of good over evil, we made and lit hundreds of diyas (tiny clay pots filled with coconut oil and wicks) and helped place them around our friend's house. It was beautiful! Then we ate delicious vegetarian food; puri, channa, pahlari, potato curry, sweet rice, and of course the ever popular parsad (a too-sweet, doughy treat that most Guyanese I know pretend to love but then foist off on unsuspecting gringos like us).

We were very appreciative tobe included in the ritual of Diwali. As Tim and I stood looking at the diyas we were reminded how important it is to remember that the good in the world will always triumph over evil with the help and support of your friends and neighbors. Oh and it also helps to have a little monkey god friend on your side too....


Happy Diwali everyone!

Eulogy for an Uncle Lost

Earlier this week, I talked to my dad and he told me my Uncle Herm passed away last Friday. Uncle Herm had been a constant in our lives as far back as I can remember. I am not sure about his exact age, but I am sure about him being a good man. He was always quick to smile, quick to quip, but willing to listen, quick to laugh, but always had good, strong hugs. He was at every party for every child, nieces and nephews all, and even at the parties of the children’s children. He came to our family holiday parties, smiling, laughing, hugging, his navy tattoo bulging on the forearm that held his punch in slightly shaky hands. He would regale us with stories, hold a child or other on his lap, play with them and joke with them; always making me smile. His wife lives on, Aunt Marge, my heart goes out to her and their many, many years of marriage. I will miss him, but life comes, goes and all we can do is live the best we know how.


Much love to you, Uncle. My meditations and thoughts go with you. Be well.

Education Month

The Peace Corps Pic 

We just wrapped up our education month activities and it was fun!!! We did a literacy tent where children were told stories and played literacy games and also a elocution and reading competition where the students came from all over Linden to compete in reciting a memorized, classic poem or read a passage from a book out loud so we could see who was the most fluent. Good times.   I wanted to share a few pictures! Thanks Chels for helping me out!!!!  

Ms. Chapman, my counterpart, discussing story books with Nursery children at our Literacy Tent!

One of the games we created for Primary school students to play. Basically the rod has a magnet and line attached to it and the students try to catch a "fish" which either a word or image. If it's a word they have give synonyms or antonyms of the word, if it's an image they need to identify the image, then spell the word.  FUN!

Me acting a fool doing drama for the primary children. They had a good laugh. I performed the "Three Goats  Gruff"

Ms. Chapman and her sister perform the ginger bread boy at our Literacy Tent! 

A little boy reads to me at our Literacy Tent. The game was "Read a book, Win a Book" He was pretty good!

She's trying to win a book, so I'm helping her out a bit!

Children being "child sized grass" that the goats gruff wanted to eat! I feel so powerful! They do what I say!!! ;) 

At the end of the Literacy Tent, we present the National Library with a Jolly Phonics kit to show our appreciation. 

The students who came to our Elocution/Reading competition. They came from all over. Those two schools on the left live about 2 hours outside of Linden. It was great to see them part of our Eduction Month Activities.

One of our Reading Winners getting his textbook and reading book. Don't worry, all the participants were winners. Everyone walked away with a book or text book. The winners just got a little more.