Celebrating Sara

Tim, about to swing into the creek

The awesome peeps who came out to celebrate Sara

This weekend we had a hootenanny to celebrate Sara and say goodbye to her before she leaves Guyana next week. Some amazing Volunteers came to Linden to visit and we “proper enjoyed ourselves” with some of our best Guyanese friends and neighbors. We cooked some amazing food; curry, salad, pasta salad, fruit salad and a pancake feast. On Saturday we walked to the creek near my house and did some swimming and jumping off trees into the cool black water. It was sunny and hot as we walked to the creek but it quickly got cloudy and, as we were swimming, it began to rain. At that moment, looking around at the jungle surrounding us and the huge drops of water splashing in the beautiful creek, being surrounded by fun-loving, like-minded friends, I felt so blessed to be in the Peace Corps and very nostalgic for this experience that is rapidly coming to a close.

After our creek adventure, we relaxed with peppermint hot cocoa (thanks Emily and friends!) and because of the rainy weather, actually felt cool-ish for once in Guyana. Then we met up with our friends at our favorite local restaurant and bar for a goodbye party for Sara. We surprised her with a catered dinner of all her favorite Guyanese food: greens cookup, plantain chips and baked chicken. And of course Banks beer. We danced the night away and laughed until our faces hurt.

Sara got early COS (Close of Service) to go home next weekend since all her projects are finished. I will miss her dearly! Sara has been like the sister I never had during our time in Peace Corps. Even in training we lived close to each other and our host families were related so we shared many laughs during our first 2 months in country as we got accustomed to Guyana in Essequibo. I was so excited when we got assigned to Linden together because I knew Sara would be a good influence on me and help me get back into shape. Almost every morning for the last two years Sara and I have worked out together, walking, running, yoga-ing and trying to get ‘cut like Kate’ (the sexy, fit character from the epic TV show ‘Lost’). We have shared our joys and pain, laughing so hard we cried and cried on each other’s shoulders. We have spent hours watching movies, sharing music, cooking, cleaning, gardening, hiking and adventuring throughout Guyana and Barbados. Together we have swam with sea turtles and watched them lay their eggs, danced to Caribbean music, fended off pushy Guyanese men and watched toucans soar over our own neighborhood in this urban jungle. I have so much respect for Sara and am so grateful she came into my life. She is one of the kindest people I know, and is so reliable and trustworthy. She is so strong to have gone through some of the challenges she has faced in her life and so brave to be facing an exciting, uncertain future. I have no doubt that we will be friends for a very, very long time!

Sara, I will miss you terribly in these last few months but I am SO freakin’ proud of you and so excited to hear of your adventures integrating back into America. I know you will land on your feet back home, because you are a strong, capable and amazing woman. I just have a feeling that so many unbelievable things are in store for you in 2012. I’m so thankful to have shared this journey with you and I can’t wait to continue sharing in your life as we move into the next adventure, starting of course with nachos and margaritas when I join you Stateside!

Lots of love for our friend Sara

Too much fun!

Creek time!

COS: Starting the Process of Coming Home

In the first week of January we, along with all our fellow Guy22 PCVs attended our Close of Service (COS) Conference. This was our last training conference as a Peace Corps Volunteer. It was also the last time we will be seeing many of our PCV friends and the last time we were all together as a group. The week was a blend of fun, nostalgia, stress and anticipation. We were at Splashmin’s, a blackwater resort about 40 minutes outside of Linden, and got to enjoy the hot showers, good food and freedom to swim in the blackwater lake every day. We spent the days in sessions, discussing logistics to going home (our official COS date is April 4^th), readjustment allowance, plane tickets, health insurance, and all the millions of forms we have to fill out prior to leaving Guyana. That was slightly stressful to think about all that we have to do in the short time remaining in our service.

But then there was also a free day when we didn’t have sessions. We spent the day near the water, spent some quality time with good friends, took a little boat ride, and I (Tim) even played some Ultimate Frisbee, which I really enjoyed (I forgot how fun that game is) even though I spent the next few days with sore legs and a sore back, but it did give me an opportunity to complain that I was ollllld.

After the conference, we had to go to Town to get medical clearances and fill out several close of service forms. Now though we are back on track and ready to complete our projects.

It is a very exciting and nerve-wracking time. We just purchased our plane tickets out of the country (exciting!) so the South America trip is a reality. But before we go on our jaunt through Andes, to the Incan Trails, Bolivian lakes, Chilean beaches, and Argentinian wine country (more details to follow) we have our work here to finish. We have to say goodbye to all the friends we’ve made, complete our projects, fill out more PC forms, take a foreign service officers exam, and perhaps travel once more through the jungles and rivers of this beautiful, unique country. There are still difficulties and challenges ahead of us, but “just now” (a proper just now, mind you) we’ll be gone.

There are lessons we’ll take away, stories to share, and more adventures to be had…but all of those can be written for another day.

Tim and Paulette, our PC Training Manager

Awesome PCV friends on a boat at Splashmins

PCLP (Peace Corps Life Partners) in the blackwater

Our friend Cassie entertains us all at COS spinning a fire hula hoop!

Happy New Year!!!!

We hope that everyone had a safe and happy holiday season and are as pumped up about 2012 as we are!!!!

Well, Tim and I left behind 2011 with a bang and rang in the New Year surrounded by some of the most amazing, wonderful, fun and creative people we have ever encountered. Thanks to all our Peace Corps Volunteer friends who have become like a family to us in 2011. We love you guys and truly hope we will be able to sustain our friendships for a long time to come.

The week before NYE, Tim and I traveled to New Amsterdam for a long overdue visit with the Region 5 folks. We spent almost a week playing addictive card games, strolling through a new city, cooking excellent food and enjoying a chillaxed day at the one and only clean, sandy beach in Guyana. Then we all packed up and headed into G/town. We had booked 3 rooms at a hotel with hot showers and a swimming pool so that we could all be together on NYE and the night worked out so perfectly. The hotel hosted a party, with an open bar and dinner at midnight so we ate and drank to our hearts content for FREE (free is a big deal when you are a PCV). We danced the night away and laughed until our faces hurt.

Now we are home for a quick minute before we have to head back out of site tomorrow for our final Peace Corps conference (Close of Service/COS). It is weird to think that our time in Guyana is so rapidly approaching. From talking to other Guy 22 PCVs this last week, I think we are all very excited for the unknown adventures that await us in 2012 but also a little scared to be leaving our routine in Guyana and heading back to the relentless grind in the USofA.

Tim and I have a foggy picture of what 2012 is shaping up to be. I have gotten 4 acceptances from law schools, still no word from the Dream school, hopefully more to come soon. So far, things are looking good on that front. We will be making more solid plans to travel after COS and have a better idea of our ETA in America soon.

In terms of the dreaded new year’s resolutions, we both are resolved to leave behind our criticalness in 2011 and make 2012 a year without judgement of each other, others and ourselves. We are committed to making family and friends a priority in the new year and are dedicated to maintaining relationships with our loved ones. That’s the plan. Now here are the pictures:

Pina Coladas at the beach. Paradise

The countryside in Berbice, Guyana

Beautiful Berbice Bridge at night

2012!!!

Sara, my dear sister and friend, I will miss you SO much!

Tim and Megan being goobers! Check out Heather's moves in the background

Holidays in Guyana

Merry Christmas All! Here is a quick look into the Christmas Season in Guyana:

Tim and I have both, along with all our colleagues and friends, wrapped up our projects and work until the new year. Now we are in the full swing of the holiday season here in Guyana. Christmas feels different here for many reasons. Even though it is our second Christmas here, we still aren’t with our families so that always feels a little strange. The weather is still hot, muggy and sunny, which isn’t much like holidays back home. But the spirit of the season remains the same. Even in Guyana, people are eager to make their houses nice for their family and friends, putting up Christmas lights and decorations. Everyone makes plans to visit each other and share food, drinks and good company. So that’s what we plan to do this holiday.

Today we are going over to a neighbor’s house to spend the day. We prepped yesterday by heading over to fellow PCV, Tka’s house and learning how to make Jamaican meat patties which we are bringing over to our neighbor’s to share today. Tomorrow we are heading to New Amsterdam to visit with some other PCV friends and take a mini-vacation into a river village near them for some relaxation, nature and fun. Then we hope to ring in the new year in Georgetown before heading off to our Close of Service Conference (COS), the last workshop we will have as Peace Corps Volunteers. It is crazy to think how far we have come.

But in the here and now we are enjoying being together, sharing a last Christmas in Guyana. Check out some pictures from our holiday treat baking, visiting Georgetown and other crazy holiday adventures.

Sara baking yummy Christmas cookies at Tka's to give away to family and friends (I thiefed some....)

Holiday decorations in the clinic at work

Our Halloween tree in November gets Christmas presents that Mom brought from America! Thanks Mom!

A very scary, huge, white Santa give Season's Greetings to everyone in Georgetown. TIG!

For Christmas, I fixed Tim's shabby old copy of The Brothers Karamazov. Resourceful PCV with duct tape. Yay!

Starbroek Market in G/town was so busy the weekend before Christmas. So many people shopping and selling. 'Scuse me little veggie sales girl!

Selling tons of imported goods. Box cake anyone?

Local, Guyanese holiday necessities: sorrel, hot pepper, thyme and tubers.

Homemade Jamaican meat patties! Yum

15 Weeks to Go

We’ve been thinking a lot about leaving Guyana since we only have 15 weeks left here. As with most things in Peace Corps, we have very mixed emotions about leaving this beautiful country that has become our home. We decided to make a list of things we will miss very much about Guyana and also note the things we can say we won’t be missing at all. This is by no means a complete list, we are sure there are things we forgot about but here is what we have for now anyway. Here goes:

Things we will miss:

• Easy and cheap access to fresh tropical fruits: mango, pine, papaya, passion fruit and weird stuff you have probably never heard of (awaro, five finger, ginip, star apple, dounce) etc.

• Living on the river, admiring the beauty as we cross it everyday
• The beautiful, expansive skies: brilliant, fiery sunsets and sunrises and nights with millions of glittering stars

• Greeting everyone with a friendly, “Good morning/afternoon/night”
• Always being able to predict the weather. Let me guess: hot and muggy! Correct again!
• Loud Caribbean music blasting from mobile carts on the roads
• Food: plantain chips, cookup, roti, pepper pot, dahl puri
• The sounds of the jungle morning, noon and night: birds, frogs, bugs, roosters
• Evening thunder and rain storms

• Knowing our neighbors, shop keepers and a general a sense of community
• Getting everywhere by public transportation; mini buses, cars, and the freedom of not relying on anyone else to get anywhere because we can walk most everywhere!
• The flora of the jungle
• The fauna of our urban jungle: cows, sheep, chickens, dogs and cats that run (seemingly) wild all around the streets and yards of the entire country
• The “just now” attitude, island time, taking it easy, nah takin’ worries and time to relax and chill
• Having most of our “adult” responsibilities (bills, rent, medical care, etc) taken care of by Peace Corps and not having to worry about those things, peace of mind, job security
• Guyanese hospitality
• Random events that make us smile and laugh: seeing a 6’6 black man driving a supped up car with a Celine Dion CD blaring from the stereo or almost stepping on a mamma sheep as she gives birth to twins in the side of the busy market road
• Having luxurious free time to read (Tim has read over 150 books) and watch movies/TV
• Cheap and delicious Guyanese rum
• Getting DVDs of movies just released in theaters in the USA for $100 Guyana dollars (50₵)
• Dark, super-sweet, local Guyanese sugar
• The smell of sun dried laundry
• Being able to make our own work schedules and, at times, when work is slow, being allowed to show up, “show my face” then leave work to take care of personal business
• Our coworkers, neighbors and friends who all know and love us and watch our backs

Things we won’t miss and are glad don’t always exist in California:

• Mosquitoes
• Cold showers
• Men sipping, being called white gyal or bai/whitey/Barbie/baby/sweetie/sexy
• Animals (and animal dung) on the public roadways and in our yard
• Homesickness
• Incessant, unavoidable heat
• Our grammar degenerating into a poor version of Creolese (“I wan fuh go ah the market”, “watch at this ting” “me nah know” “how baby today? He goin a’right?”)
• Long, hot and uncomfortable mini bus rides
• The “just now” attitude, showing up late or not at all, little to no accountability
• Turtle slow internet connection
• Being judged and told we are going to hell because I (Chelsea) am not baptized and we are not Christian then almost forcibly dragged to church services to save our souls, being told by total strangers that I (Chelsea) am a sinner for wearing pants when the Bible says women should not wear pants…
• Only having three choices of bland Caribbean beer (Banks, Carib, Stag)
• Not having an oven
• Hand washing all our clothes
• Being asked very personal questions by strangers when we first meet them (are you married, do you have kids?, why not? how old are you? would you like a Guyanese boy/girlfriend?)
• The smell of garbage/dead things rotting in the trenches
• Humidity
• Being the victim of the Guyanese habit of stating the obvious (when Chelsea is bloated: “you gettin’ thick, you must be getting a baby”, when she is out in the weather without an umbrella: “white gyal you takin’ too much sun/rain”, when she is exercising: “you takin a walk”. Why yes, I am thank you!).
• People assuming that we are rich/privileged/religious/ New Yorkers because we are white
• Having no anonymity at all: leaving our site to go across the entire country and still being identified by strangers then having people in our own site tell us how they have heard of our exploits (probably from said strangers) in the far-off town upon our return
• Having to bring our own toilet paper and hand sanitizer everywhere we go because there is never any guarantee that there will be a well-stocked bathroom

Election Stay-cation

Almost immediately after my mom and bro left, life for us Tibbses in Guyana took an interesting turn for two reasons:

1. We got an awesome ROOMIE! Our PCV friend, Cassie, moved into the spare bedroom in our apartment. She had been stationed in a remote site in the savannah of Guyana, near Brazil, but needed to leave her site for her own important reasons. She still wanted to be able to finish out the rest of our service however, so we asked her to come live with us and, along with Peace Corps staff, we helped find her a temporary assignment in our hometown! We excitedly opened up our space to Cassie. She is a smart, funny, free-spirited woman with an amazing capacity for love and laughter. We have been enjoying hearing of her adventures in remote Amerindian villages. She taught us how to make wine out of local fruits (by fermenting it in sugar, leaving it in bottles to get “strong” in the sun for a week or so, straining it and voila!) and we have had many fun game nights since she moved in. Despite the fun we’ve been having, it has been an adjustment to have another person in the house. We now share a tiny, super mini dorm fridge amongst three of us, same goes for filtered water, dishes and chores. It is a challenge for all of us to adjust but the three of us get along very well, enjoy each other’s company and still manage to give each other space so ultimately it is a positive change.

Cassie and I being silly with Wax vampire teeth!

2. Occurring almost simultaneously with the addition of another to the Linden Crew, were the highly anticipated Guyanese National Presidential Elections. Elections in Guyana happen every five years. People get the opportunity to vote for a party (rather than candidates) for the presidency. It is a proportional representation system so, depending on the number of votes each party gets, seats in the parliament are assigned (more votes for your party = more seats your party gets). Historically, race plays a large factor in politics, with the Afro-Guyanese siding with a particular party and the Indo-Guyanese with another. People here debate how true that is today but, in the past, things have gotten pretty heated amongst the different parties (riots, theft, arson and mild civil unrest) so Peace Corps had to prepare us for the worst. Here wha' happen:

The election was on Monday, November 28th and, starting on Sunday we were officially put on “alert”. Now PC has all sorts of rules for us to keep us safe from any turmoil that might occur including, but not limited to: avoiding any political conversations, demonstrations and public gatherings (basically staying in our house), keeping ours phone on, charged and full of credit at all times and having a go-bag packed and being ready to evacuate at any time. With this sort of preparedness we were almost excited for something to happen in our usually quiet urban jungle paradise. So, Tim, Cassie, the rest of the Linden Crew and I stayed indoors as instructed, slept in, did laundry and long-avoided chores, made fruit wine and delicious meals, played cards and watched an entire season of Gossip Girl.

We were on official “alert” mode (i.e. election stay-cation) until the elections results were finally announced on Wednesday evening. Yep, you read that right, it took 2 ½ days to count and verify elections results. Hand counting ballots takes time. Not quite as easy as the fancy system with almost instant results in the USA. It was a trio to watch the news and hear the hubbub of gossip from our friends while we waited for the results. All was quiet, almost eerily so, but still no unrest, no excitement. Even when the results were announced (the majority party stayed in power in the presidency but the coalition parties have the numbers in parliament) almost all stayed civil and cool. Except for one small demonstration-turned riot-with rubber bullets all was very democratic, peaceful. I think there is more contention at an Occupy demonstration than there was in this election in the developing country we live in. Go figure! All in all it made our stay-action seem a little foolish but I actually rather appreciated the forced down time. It was relaxing and much needed.

Passion fruit, Cherry, Pine, and Star fruit wines brewing

We hit the ground running back at work after the elections. Cassie started her new job, I finish with the first of two six-week infant nutrition workshops this week and Tim just wrapped up his professional development sessions with his remedial teachers. Now, as December speeds by, we join our neighbors and friends getting excited for Christmas and holidays from school and work. We promise to blog about “winter” holidays in Guyana just now. Until then, blessings from all of us.