An expedition weekend

For the last few weeks, Tim, Sara, Tony, our friend Belinda and I have been exploring the back tracks of Linden looking for trails for the Hash. For those of you who don't know, Hash House Harriers/H3 or simply the Hash, is a running/expedition club. There are groups all over the world that meet to run trails, share songs and drinks afterwards and enjoy a very unique sense of community. Tim and I were introduced to the Hash in San Diego, but were too busy to get very involved. We only went twice. Here in Guyana, after we heard there was a club, we haven't missed a trail.

In fact, we even volunteered to set the last two trails. As Hares, we were responsible for finding a trail and then marking it for the Hashers with piles of shredded paper as clues to follow. We set false trails too to throw them off course.

People were coming into Linden on Saturday afternoon for the first run and we planned another one for Sunday morning so we started setting the trails on Friday afternoon. Tim, Sara, Tony and I headed out with bags of 'shreddie” and started laying it down to mark the course. People stopped and stared, wondering what we were doing out on the backroads, placing paper marks near their houses. Were we setting jumbie curses perhaps? Well, we weren't deterred. Neither were we deterred by the sudden downpour, that soaked us to our skin and sogged-up our paper, making it extremely hard to set our trail. We slogged through what was once a dried, muddy flatlands when we explored the first time, but that the rain had turned into a veritable swamp. I think thats how Sara got a skin infection (poor girl!). We clambered over two rickety wooden bridges and snaked our way under the rusty, monolithic, long forgotten and abandoned aluminum factory. Basically, we set a RAD trail. In Hash terms, because we don't like to brag about how awesome we are, people call a trail like that a really shitty trail. :)

On Saturday we woke up at 5:30 to set the Sunday run, which we had named Hangover Hill. True to its name, the trail was up and down sand hills, canyons, valleys and more freakin sand hills. Although that trail was shorter, it required more endurance. We were beat after setting the second trail but only had enough time to head home and gobble down some mac and cheese before the Hashers showed up in Linden, ready to run the trail we had set on Friday. Sheesh.

Both runs went off without a hitch. We were proud to show off two very different sides of Linden to those who Hashed with us. Our trails took us through areas and provided vistas that most people, even locals who have lived here their whole lives, haven't seen. That is one of the benefits of being a part of the Hash; getting off the beaten trails. We got great reviews for our trails and were happy little first time Hares. We learned some new Hash songs and cooled down with some icy Banks. We ended our evenings at Belinda's ice cream shop and made fools of ourselves. Generally a great weekend. (Thanks to Sara for the awesome photos!).

Next weekend we are going to Shell Beach, a Northernmost part of Guyana, where the leatherback turtles come to lay their eggs. We are spending two nights on the beach and hope to come back with sweet pictures of TURTLES! Stay tuned.

Solstice Soliloquy

The seasons turn. Today is the first day of Summer. The longest day of the year, but as the sun set around 6:30 pm it whips me right back to where I am: only a few degrees north of the equator.

Ruminating over cultures and history, I wonder how the indigenous Guyanese lived before inevitable onset of colonialism. In England, the season were a large part of society. In Winter the climate is cold and rainy, fair in the Fall (and possibly rainy), green in the Spring (and less rainy), and nice in the summer. Moreover, there are some historians that theorize Stonehenge was built as a calender used by the early Brits. Likewise, I remember referring to a British historian's book about the importance of the seasons and ceremonies in England when I was writing papers in History class. He mentioned how many of the Catholic holidays had sprung from old pagan practices at different times of the year (when to plant, a celebration in mid-winter, etc.).

But thinking about the Guyanese I am baffled. It rains, it's dry, rivers flood, cassava grows in the interior, tons of fruits and coconuts fall off trees almost year round (I am simplifying, of course). Did the early Guyanese plant during the rainy season because the ground was soft and water was plentiful? Was there a risk of losing crops from excessive rain? Or was this something that came about because of global warming? Was there early irrigation systems the stemmed from the rivers like Ancient Egypt? Did the indigenous people have a knack for predicting the weather? ( I mean we can predict pretty well and it's only been a few months). What was their experience like? Did they hunt the wild beasts of the savannahs, coastlands, jungles and rainforests? So many questions. Perhaps I should look for a book....

Anyway: HAPPY SUMMER SOLSTICE EVERYONE!!  

Some photos:

The full moon earlier this month. I love DSLRs!

Summer Shadows play long across our paved roads. 

Summer Days to come.

Happy Birthday Sampa and Ondi!

Happy birthday to two amazing, wonderful family members of mine! Sampa, my Sam Grandpa, and Aunti Ondi, may your days be filled with blessings, love, joy, good food and great company! I love you!

You know you are integrated when...

Tim and I have been feeling very Guyanese lately, so we made a list.

You know you are integrated into Guyanese culture when...

1. You get complimented on how Guyanese your outfit looks: brightly colored/fluorescent/multicolored clothing and silver high heels.

2. You purposefully get up at 5:30 am on a Saturday to do your laundry so it will dry before the inevitable afternoon rain. When it rains at 2 and you have already folded and put away your clothes you applaud your Guyanese weather-predicting intuition.

3. When you see a small child walking in the middle of the road, you tell him to “walk in the corner” meaning, on the side of the road so you don't get hit by a car. When someone tells you the same thing, “Hey baby, walk in the corner” you no longer think this is rude, or wonder, “what corner?”, you simply move aside to let the car/bike/person pass you.

4. You no longer EVER put your water bottle/bag/backpack on the ground, but rather find a chair or table on which to rest it. You were tried of getting scolded for this by your co-workers, now it is second nature.

5. You feel funky if you do not bathe at least 2-3 times a day. The word, “shower” or phrase, “take a shower” are no longer in your vocabulary. Even though you only have a shower, and no bath, you only refer to the act of cleaning yourself as, “bathing”.

6. When you are walking home from the market, and the rain starts to pour, you flee to the hearest market stall for shelter and huddle under the awning for however long it takes for the rain to slack off or stop. You and 4 other Guyanese people wait there and gaff for a good 20 minutes.

7. You do not hesitate to discipline someone's child who is misbehaving.

8. Saying “Good morning/afternoon/day/night” to everyone you see is so routine for you that when you are sitting on a minibus and someone else enters and does NOT greet you and everyone else on the bus, you gossip with your seatmate as to how rude that it.

9. When you order lunch at your favorite food stand, you don't ask for anything specific, as you know there is likely only one thing available. You just say, “Please for a food.” and are happy with your box of chicken/fish and rice/cook-up dish. You never forget to ask for pepper and ketchup either.

10. You drink a Stag beer at 10 am on a Sunday. Ahh, refreshing.

Happy Father's Day!

To our Dad's and all the dad's out there: Have a wonderful, wonderful Father's Day! If it weren't for our dads we wouldn't be the people we are today! The influence you have on us, your love, your humor, and your genetic make-up has formed us into the adults we've become. We love you and wish you all the best on this day which rightfully belongs to the legendary caste called fathers!  Thank you so much for all of your support you've given us! Much love!

Forward-Thinking Mondays

Since I work on Saturdays, I take Mondays off to take care of things around the house and in my personal life. I work out in the morning with Sara and have breakfasted and gotten my java kick by 8am and then it is chore time. Today, I did the dishes and a load of laundry by hand (day dreaming all the while of the day when I will have a washer and dryer) and cleaned my mud-caked running shoes. I was planning on checking my emails but the power went out, so I swept and tidied.

When the power comes back on I am going to dive deeper into the law school application process. I have already done a ton of research and now basically just need to start the work. I need to update my resume with my PC experience, write my personal statement, ask for letters of rec and send out all that paperwork and request my transcripts. I don't think it is too early to start all this, since applications open in September. That gives me two and a half months to get this done. And, I am on Guyana time, where everything goes a little slower and I can never predict these power outtages. So yeah, work to do.

For those of you who gave me advice in response to this blog, thank you. As you can tell, I have decided to at least apply to law schools (Berkeley, Davis, Stanford, UCLA, Hastings and Santa Clara) and see what happens. I guess I realized that the fear of debt was the only thing that was making me hesitate. If money was not an issue I would have no qualms about going to law school and becoming a lawyer. It really is what I want to do, so I figure I should apply and see. Who knows, maybe some school will want to offer me scholarship money and we won't have to go as much into debt as I expect.

On Mondays, I also tend to devote an hour or two of my time to looking into life-after-Peace Corps plans. It is an activity that I justify as being useful, but really it is more about giving me a certain peace of mind where I can daydream myself away. Recently, I have been planning our South America backpacking route. We are hoping to head from Guyana to Peru (by plane), explore Peru, including Macchu Pichu, pop into Bolivia around Lake Titicaca and La Paz, bus it down the coast of Chile and through Santiago, then into Argentina, through Argentinian wine country and then back to the States. We will be back in the States around mid-May 2012. We should know by then where we will be relocating, (wherever I get into law school) and we can start looking for a place to live and jobs to get us by until we both start school in the fall (me as a student and Tim teaching). It is all so exciting to think about, and I am so glad that we have ten months to figure it all out.

The other day, Sara and I were walking and she told me about a dream she had in which she was told we were being evacuated from Guyana and sent home. I thought that was a terrifying concept. As much as I miss home, family, friends and luxuries like hot water, I am so NOT ready to leave Guyana. I am not ready to start thinking about loan/car/bill payments. I am not ready for traffic. I am not ready for that hectic pace of life. In Peace Corps you trade those stresses for new ones; mosquito bites, feeling the strangeness of being one of two white women in city of 60,000, extreme heat and humidity, cooking with no fridge or oven, etc. We have learned to cope with the present challenges, and I don't know if I am ready to trade them back in for the stresses of life in a developed country yet.

So, for the next ten months I will stay happily under my mosquito net and only devote time to planning for the future on my stay-at-home-Mondays.

Yes I'm Still Here and Garrulous as Ever!

It's Saturday. I'm home and Chels is at work. The sky is gray-clad and rain falls in sporadic bursts. In other words: just another day. So here's an update.

These last weeks have been interesting, we've been hashing with the Hash House Harriers, we've been going to MST, lamenting about our computer and fridge (but not too extreme; see Chelsea's previous posts.), and working.

The other day I decided I wanted to try and take the Foreign Service Officer's Exam (FSOT) and become a diplomat. I signed up, gave all my information, and tried to register for the test that's occurring today at the US Embassy. But since I am home and not in G-Town, it didn't quite work out. My name is in the system, though, and they will let me know when the next one occurs (should be around December time).

How did I come to decision from education track to diplomacy?

It was a process. Back when we taught at HSHMC one of the teacher's brothers was a Foreign Service Officer in Asia. He gave a few talks to the students and it sounded pretty neat. However, I didn't think diplomacy was in my cards. I did think that Chelsea would be a better candidate, though, being wayyyyyy more tactful than me (I?). (I have this habit of just saying what's on my mind...not the best skill for a diplomat talking to world leaders and all). She really didn't express a desire to become one so we thought nothing of it.

Time passed and our Country Director sent out an e-mail saying the embassy was offering the FSOT exam free of charge in June. I didn't have an immediate desire to take it, but Chels suggested I should, since I know all sorts of random things from government to economics to popular culture (which the exam tests) and probably would be good at it. This took me aback. Me? Good at diplomacy, politics? I thought about it and I did some research on the Foreign Service and the State Department. The more I read the more I became intrigued.

I realized being a foreign service officer was similar to my Peace Corps experience: meeting people, talking about the US mission, analysis, and need's assessment; feeling people out to see how they will react to certain suggestions, being political (which happens in my office daily), being tactful (yes I have learned 'tact' these last 16 months); knowing when to stay silent and when to offer opinions, how to lead, manage, facilitate and organize and how to integrate into a completely different culture (with respect and cultural sensitivity.) After this realization I signed up and registered, but I signed up too late and missed the international deadline. It's okay, though, I am not too attached to the idea, but I wouldn't discredit it as an option. I will probably take it in December if they offer it here, and if they don't then the Universe had other plans I will go along my merry way.

Besides FSOT stuff I'd been busy working with the remedial teachers for the 6-year transitional programme I talked about ages ago. My REDO left and our secondary officer is acting in his place, so she has given me the mission of supervising the 6-year teachers all through June. I have a set visitation schedule and plan on hitting up each teacher at least 3 times this month. I've got plenty more to go. It's a lot of field work and travel, but it keeps me busy and if I can make a difference I'd be super stoked. I am also working on organizing a professional development program for teachers who are teaching summer school. I've chosen four schools and two teachers from each school to visit at least once a week during the six or four week summer term. I will be making copies of my booklet and distributing them to the teachers and working with the teachers on using the booklet to improve their teaching. I am writing a proposal to my region and with luck we will get the program off the ground.

Onto more fun stuff, these last few days Chels, Sara, Tony, and I have been traveling around Linden to look for Hash trails. We volunteered to Hare a Hash on June 18^th. It's been really fun traveling all around Linden looking for tracks and “shiggy” trails. It's stunning around here. I never knew Linden had such beauty. I have been taking pictures, but until our computer is fixed I'm hesitant to upload them onto our temporary hard drive. But words are worth a thousand pictures, right?

There are red sand hills that circle around the old aluminum plant, there are savannahs and flood plains that creeks cut through. Trees grow in all shapes, twisting around each other, creating both dense and sparse jungly areas; sometimes growing from the creek other times from the creek's banks. White sand hills emerge from jungle-like plains and small horse trails lead from populous places to more remote areas. Roads that were used before the highway was built come into focus, in use still, but rarely. It's surely a treat. I am excited for our trail and I hope all who participate can appreciate it as much as we do.

Happy Weddinged Day to Us!

Two years ago today Tim and I got weddinged, barefoot, under the redwoods of Northern California. We were surrounded by the wisdom and love from our friends and family (literally and figuratively, thanks to the stones with chalk messages sketched by everyone). True to Tibbs form we drank local and home-brew beer, homemade sangria and grubbed on local tacos and Pogue's famous mango-guac. We played lawn games, napped on an arted-out picnic blanket and got dizzy trying to smash the bride's and groom's Mexican pinatas. There were sock monkeys on the cake/tart and the sun was shining. I could not have envisioned a more perfect wedding day.

Two years later we are loving our life, adventuring in the Peace Corps, looking forward to traveling South American ten months from now and then settling back into California near our families and friends. We are grateful for the everlasting love that we share, not only with each other, but with those of you who surround us with constant support. Today we are full of joy and TONS of love!