Tim and I have finally identified our most recent emotional stage in our PC service. We have been experiencing a strange combo of enui, mild laziness mixed with confidence and competence. This all felt familiar but we didn't figure it out until about a week ago: senioritis. We both remembered feeling this way as we prepared to graduate high school, and agin in our senior year of college. Yep. We have self-diagnosed ourselves with a classic case of senioritis. In Peace Corps, with 6 months to go, we feel like we rule the proverbial school. To stretch the metaphor, we are familiar with our teachers, classes and know all the cool places to hang out on campus. We know that this is the best, most fun and most productive time in our service, but we know how much we can procrastinate and still write an A paper. We aren't skipping classes, but we might be daydreaming in AP History more than we did last year. We are looking ahead with excitement and mild terror to what lies ahead, after Peace Corps. And we are making sure to spend quality time with our friends, knowing that soon we will be going our own ways and may not be in each other's lives in the same way again.
The prescription for Peace Corps Senioritis is this: try to live enjoying each moment to the fullest yet acknowledge that the next step is eminent and take steps and make plans to get there smoothly. The making plans part is easy, I am almost ready to turn in my law school applications (just waiting on one more letter of recommendation) and Tim doesn't have to worry about job hunting until 2012. At the same time, we have been taking advantage of every opportunity to enjoy the rich culture of Guyana while we still can. Hanging out with local friends, staying later at work to gaff with coworkers and adventuring to other locales. This past weekend we spent at St. Cuthbert's Mission to join in their annual Amerindian Heritage celebration.
St. Cuthbert's is possibly one of our favorite places in Guyana. We were lucky enough to spend a few weeks there last spring while helping with the newbie group training. The Mission, as it is called for short, is pne of the largest and olderst Amerindian settlements. About 1300 people live in the village, set off the Linden highway. The families there are so welcoming and generous. When we arrived for Heritage we spent some time visiting with the families who had hosted us during training, remarking on how much bigger their children had gotten and complimenting improvements in their homes. Then we headed out to sample the array of classic Amerindian foods for sale at the many booths that people had set up in the main village centre. There was cassava bread, wild meat like labba and bush hog, pepper pot, classic Guyanese dishes like cook up and fry rice, and of course the famous delicacy: tocuma. Tocuma is a grub that lives in rotten coconut trees and is apparently delicious when eaten live, or fried in oil. Tim and I were resolved to try them but by the time we got to the booth it was all sold out. Bummer, no squirmy worms for us.
We spent the day watching cultural performances, poems, songs and dances and then trekked down to the creek to take a swim. The cold black water was refreshing and fortified us for a busy afternoon of socializing with host families, drinking piewari (locally made alcoholic beverages made from cassava) from calabash bowls, and buying hand-woven, palm frond crafts. I payed for and picked up a HUGE basket that I had ordered when I visited in the spring. I am not sure how I will get it home, but I can't wait to have it in my house to hold blankets and pillows or clothes. Eventually we will use the basket for it's indented purpose, a baby, but that won't be for a while yet.
Heritage night was full of dancing, catching up with friends, another evening dip in the creek and a nighttime speed boat ride down the river with a PCV's host dad. On the midnight ride we spotted the red, shiny eyes of a caiman along the river bank and an owl perched in a tree. It was very, very fun! Now we are back in Linden in good spirits, with more priceless memories to put in our “yearbook”.
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