T Travels: 1-11-11

I love this date. It’s not quite as cool as 11-11-11 will be be, but it is pretty close! Anyway, I really wanted to post something on this date, I have this weird obsession with numbers, I suppose, but I might as well take the time to update you on what’s been happening so far in this New Year!

First, sad news. The hard drive on our Mac has finally crashed. However, since we recently received an external and some system software we are able to run our computer from our external drive. So it’s no longer a lap top, but more of a desk top. No matter. We lost some photos too, but we also got this other pretty neat software that can reconstruct lost files, even from a digital camera! We haven’t tried it yet, but with luck it will all work out. So all in all the damage to our hard drive isn’t a travesty. We may even be able to fix it when we visit home in April!

HOME! We are extremely excited to spend a good slice of April hanging out with our families and wonderful friends. We will be leaving Guyana on the 8th of April. We will be in Oxnard from the 9th-18th, Santa Cruz from the 19th-28th, and Portland from the 28th-3rd. We can’t wait to see you all!!!! But until April rolls around, we have some awesome projects we’re working on.

The New Year started with a bang! Maybe it’s too soon to start making jokes? But there was a grenade that exploded in Starbroek Market in Georgetown. It’s about an hour from us, so it doesn’t effect us too much. But worry not, it looks like it was an accidental explosion, so our lives are not in mortal danger.

Anyway, what I was getting too before I tangented was our projects. My current project is designing a student “Author’s Fair” for Region 10. I want to promote literacy through the use of creative writing. I’ve spoken with my counterpart and she is all about it. We’ve created flyers, an application, and a letter to send to schools. There will be 3 age categories (8-11; 12-14; 15-17) and two genre categories (poetry and short story). Students will submit the stories by Feb 10, we will judge them, and then present prizes for the winners during the week of Feb 21-26 (the week of Mash). Moreover, I’ve already spoken to the Linden branch of the National Library, and they’ve opened up their space to display the winning entries through that whole week! It’s really cool. And I feel really supported by my immediate community. Another awesome thing about this author’s fair is that it will based around the national holiday of Mashramani (Mash). Mashramni is an AmerIndian word that means “relaxation after hard work.” It’s a celebration of Guyana being a Republic, and it’s a very bright time of floats, colours, and costumes! Best of all it was started in Linden in the 1970s! So I am hoping this author’s fair will allow students to get in touch with their own roots and create wonderful stories and poems about it. Likewise, the Mash theme for this year is “Showcasing our culture. Sustaining our pride,” and the entries need to be based around this theme, so even more reason for these students to look into their own past for material. One of the most pertinent things I learned in teaching school back home was that when students see themselves (their culture) in the curriculum they pay more attention to education. With luck, they will see themselves in this activity and be inspired.

In terms of my professional development project, I have finished writing my teacher’s manual (85 pages later!) and I am looking into grants to try and get it printed up and distributed to the teachers I am going to work with. Filling out the grant forms allowed me to see this project with new eyes. I have a definite structure and focus now, which is always a good thing! I will write more about it a little later, as time progresses. I am also still helping Peace Corps out by assisting them in writing session plans for the incoming trainees! And I get to be in town at the end of this week to finish the job!

Chelsea (along with Sara) is working on some cool projects too! She is working in tandem with the Guyana Red Cross to get this programme, called “Be Safe”, started in the Linden area. Basically, this programme is a unique way to educate young children (grade 3 and below) about the different forms of abuse (unsafe touching, domestic, verbal, physical, etc.). The Red Cross is donating child friendly kits to be used in 11 local school. The kits are wonderful because they use a puppet, visual aides and the same facilitator (so the kids feel comfortable with her) for the 6-week course. Chelsea has arranged for 22 people (teachers and nurses) to be trained in how to lead the programme. Then, after the training the teachers and nurses will work in pairs to hold a “Be Safe” session with their selected class.

As mentioned, Chels organized a 2-day training for 22 different nurses and teachers. She had to create and hand out applications and information to 6 different schools and the 5 health centers! And she has gotten them all back, filled out! So now she needs to speak with the person in charge of the Health sector in region, double check the venue and the snacks and then she is well on her way to training the Be Safe facilitators! It is a mega-project, because even after the training she will be monitoring and evaluating her facilitators and holding weekly check up sessions. Hopefully it will all work out. But I am super proud of her.

Anyway, besides the Be Safe programme, she is still helping out at the health center (seeing and counseling mothers about their babies), trying to keep her secondary school health club afloat, and also still working on he monthly TV show. She’s a busy gyal!

All-in-all we’re in a solid place right now. We are happy in our community and feel safe and surrounded by friendly neighbors and coworkers. Not a day passes that we aren’t stopped by someone on the road who knows us to gaff. We’re also really excited to meet the new trainees who come into country on February 15th! It will super awesome to meet a whole new group of volunteers...I mean we’re the old ones now :). We’re really looking forward to taking some breaks from our community projects in order to help in some training sessions with the “newbs” (I just made that up... I think I played too many online games in my day).

Alright, the show must go on. We’ll update a little later! Lots of love to all!

T & C