Happy New Year!!!

I can’t believe it is already 2011. We started this blog a little over a year ago, as we began our adventure as Peace Corps Volunteers. Time has flown by it seems. It has been a year since I said goodbye to my family (the longest I have gone without giving my mom a hug). Tim and I were reading over the first blog we wrote in 2010 and it seems like so much has happened since then.

In 2010 we:

• Said tearful goodbyes to the teachers and students at Health Sciences High and Middle College

• Flew to Guyana, South America for our Peace Corps service

• Endured a grueling 2 months of Peace Corps Training

• Lived with a large, generous Indo-Guyanese host family

• Ate roti, curry, fried plantains, cookup, pepperpot, wild meat (bush hog, labba and iguana) and drank superb Guyanese rum

• Moved to our site in Linden and made our house feel like home

• Traveled the wild variety of Guyana; savannas, deep jungles, river villages, bustling cities, crashing waterfalls and majestic mountains

• Swam with sea turtles in the beautiful blue waters of Barbados

• Held educational sessions with teachers and students on communication, nutrition, teaching strategies, HIV and STIs, literacy,

• Weighed and measured hundreds of babies and consulted mothers on healthy child care

• Read over 50 books

• Learned to play cricket

• Watched almost every game in the World Cup Football tournament

• Ran, walked and exercised more regularly than ever before

• Made tons of new friends

• Enjoyed thousands of phone calls and Skype dates with family and friends

• Received 12 care packages with amazing goodies

• Wished we could have attended the 6 weddings and births of 3 babies in the lives of our friends and family back home

Then again, although much has happened, it seems like not much has changed. Tim and I are still deeply dedicated to our mission of service here in Guyana. We have survived 11 months of our 26 month commitment and look forward to the next 15. We have some exciting projects in the works and have a feeling that time is going to fly by faster than ever. The next group of Volunteers comes into Guyana in February and we are excited to welcome the newbies and help out with their training. Then in early April we are spending 25 days in the USofA! When we come back from our visit home we will  join the rest of our PC group at our week long Mid Service conference and then only have 11 months left of our Peace Corps service. We look forward to having some visits from some family and friends sometime near the end of 2011 and getting to share with them this wonderful country that has become our home.

Tim and I are looking forward to another year in which we continue to be surrounded by amazing people and experience life’s joys and mysteries together. We feel truly blessed wish the same happiness and blessings for all in the new year!


Chelsea’s New Years Resolutions: keep working on not biting my nails, learn to type using the home keys and get faster at typing without looking, learn how to french braid my own hair, live in the present every moment with compassion and love.

Tim’s New Years Resolutions: continue exercising regularly, write everyday for at least an hour, communicate more often with my family, take physical, mental, and emotional risks without hesitancy or regret, love life and live for the present.  

Much Love,

T & C