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. 

Rituals and Routines

Our lives are full of rituals. Sometimes we call them routines or habits. Regardless of what we say, everyone has them. It could be as simple as getting up, making breakfast, going to work (or school). Or it could be more specific: eating the same thing every day or having a special meal or a certain TV show you watch, etc. The combinations could be endless, but take a minute and analyze yourself. What are your rituals?

What are our rituals? When we lived in San Diego we had our rituals, but I never really thought to call them that. Truth be told, I never really thought about it much. It was just what we did. But recently I've been contemplating this concept of ritual. What is it? In catholicism and other versions of christianity the mass is an old ritual (modified a bit through the ages). In Judaism, there is temple and Shabbat, and other rituals for special occasions. In Islam there are the five prayers a day (Salat), Ramadan and ritual fasting (Sawm), among others. In Paganism there are rituals like dancing the spiral dance, celebrating a full moon, and so many others; one's imagination is the only limitation. Is there power in these rituals? Is there power in the collective consciousness of so many people (or simply a single person) ritualizing the same thing? Or are they just habits? Routine? I could go on and on about my own experiences with rituals throughout my stint as a bad catholic, but that could be for another day. For now lets look at our rituals as we've created them. Because that is what rituals are: things we've created to celebrate and remember. Whether that something is a new day, or the end of a work day, or even a special occasions.

Back in San Diego our rituals were pretty simple. We'd wake up, shower, make breakfast (usually toast, peanut butter, and lots of coffee), then head off to our work. And when we'd finally settle in for the night the ritual was dinner (if we cooked that day), and TIVO! We had certain shows we watched on any given night (Heroes, Top Model, Project Runway, Top Chef, Lost, Iron Chef America, Survivor, etc.) Granted the TV show changed depending on the night (and I cannot remember them all), but they were constant depending on the day of the week. Then we'd head off to bed to start it all over again.

Here we've developed our own rituals. We get up at pretty much the same time everyday, exercise, shower, make breakfast (here it's coffee, two pieces of toast one with egg and cheese the other with peanut butter), read for a little, then head off to our respective jobs. In the afternoon, we settle in and recently its been two (or more) episodes of Sex and the City then one episode of Battlestar Galactica (thanks Mom-in-law for loaning us the DVDs, they are being well used!), shower, read, then bed.

Is it bad to have such routines? Does it reduce our lives to simple habits? Are we becoming an old married couple? Will our entire lives be spent on these rituals (old and new)? I am not sure. But I will say this: it's awesome to come home and know what to expect. It makes the days go so much faster. And, even at work, I find myself day-dreaming about hanging out with Chelsea, relaxing on our not-so-comfortable couch, and watching our shows. It's a great thing! Moreover, when we celebrate these rituals we're celebrating everyday we wake, we sleep, and we live.

Perhaps they're just routines, and we, as humans, like routines and are creatures of habit, but by ritualizing these things, we empower and remind ourselves to celebrate.