Camp GLOW 2013

Here's a video that another PCV put together highlighting camp this year. Enjoy!

Camp G.L.O.W. Guyana - 2013! from Matthew Cusimano on Vimeo.

A Day in My Life

A day in THIS guy's life

Around 7am my alarm goes off. And by “alarm” I mean the family of birds living in the circuit breaker box above my head, start chirping. And those birds are pretty accurate, after a few more mornings of checking the time they start chirping I may not use my “real” alarm clock any more. As I lay in bed for a few minutes before I get up I hear my host sister yell, “Makayla! Get up, it’s time for school!” as she tries to get her daughter up for primary school (something I really haven’t heard before, I always got up on time to get to school as a child, my parents never had this problem with me; my two brothers on the other hand…). Since the inside walls to my home only reach up about a two feet past the height of the door all the rooms are open up top so I can easily hear what’s going on in the entire house from my room. By this time my host mom has already gotten up and cooked lunch for the day as well as prepared tea (what Guyanese call breakfast). Even before this time my host brother has been up, fed the pigs, fed the chickens, let the yard fowls out, had tea, and left for work.

My real life cuckoo clock

Tocino and Jamón

Yard fowl

90 hens a layin...

I get up and put on a pair of shorts and walk outside to the pit latrine out back passing Diamond our dog, the two twin cats that hang around the yard, and maybe a fowl or two, with the sun already shining hot on my back. Afterwards I get dressed and ready for work. Tea varies from morning to morning but today it’s a cup of plantain porridge. I mix in a spoonful of powdered milk and a tiny bit of raw Demerara sugar (absolutely the best sugar I’ve ever tasted, beats anything from Mauritius, it’s more than just sweet it has a lot of flavor; you can eat it straight like candy). I grab a hunk of cassava bread (what I envision sailors’ hard tack to be like), dunk it in the porridge, and walk out back and stand on the top step overlooking the whole garden trying to mute my smile so I can at least finish my breakfast. Other mornings it might be a cup of tea (which really means any hot drink like tea (bag), instant coffee, Milo, Ovaltine (I still hear kids screaming “more Ovaltine please!” in my head), or milk (powdered)) which I drink with cold water instead because I try and hold off sweating for at least another half hour), bake (like a savory doughnut), eggs, fried plantains, other types of porridge (plantain, barley, corn, oat, or wheat),  or fresh baked bread with a little peanut butter or homemade guava jam. Then I fill my water bottle (from my PC approved water filter), take my malaria pill (if it’s a Thursday), and pack up my lunch into a compartmental thermos to carry to work. Then it’s down the stairs passing Diamond with a quick “oh don’t you get up just for me,” and I’m off walking to work.

The view off the back porch

Diamond our "guard" dog

New house for 2 years?

It’s about a 15 minute leisurely walk in the hot Guyanese sun (most Guyanese (though it’s really women, I think it’s a gender thing) walk with an umbrella year round to give some shade from the sun and if it’s raining then they’re covered too) to the hospital, on the way saying “good morning” to everyone I pass on the road. Then a few hours at the health center (located in the hospital) of weighing babies, watching kids scream their lungs out getting a vaccine, or talking with pregnant mothers about breastfeeding. Then comes lunchtime.

So excited to make choka out of this balanje

Today I’m having rice with pumpkin stew and a piece of fried fish. Lunch is always a base of rice with other types of stews: burnt sugar chicken, balanje, fish, macaroni and cheese, liver, dal, etc. but ALWAYS with rice. Then after a little bit more at the health center I begin my walk home. I stop and gaff (creolese for chat) with other staff at the hospital as I make my way to the entrance and head home. Another 15 minute easy going walk through the market and back home, the “good morning” changing to “good afternoon,” taking my shoes off and changing into shorts as fast as I can.

The view coming home

My new hangout

I cool off and relax in the hammock or stroll through the garden/farm. Here’s a list of everything I could think of that’s here though I know I’m missing more: mangos, plantains, coconuts, 2 types of bananas (I didn’t know that there were “types” of bananas until I came to Guyana), pine (pineapples), guavas, pawpaw (papaya), cherries, five fingers (star fruit?), pumpkin, squash, cassava, 3 types of peppers (hot), callaloo, carila (bitter melon?), balanje (eggplant), ochro (okra), bora, pear (avocado), thyme, yard fowls running around, 90+ chickens (the eggs should start in December), 8 pigs, and plenty of plants around like aloe, and a bunch more that I have no idea what they are but look nice.

I'm lovin this house

The Garden

More veggies

Plantains in the backyard

Peppers!

Mmmmm coconuts

Then around 5pm I breeze out (creolese for “taking a stroll”) around town for a bit stretching my legs and relaxing my mind from the day; normally I walk for an hour or so. When I come home it’s about time to get dinner started so I help out in the kitchen with anything from chopping vegetables, stirring a pot, to rolling out dough. Tonight is chowmein with chicken. Other nights it’s sausage (hot dog) and eggs, liver, cook-up (it’s like rice and beans with coconut milk and often with a type of meat), fried rice, soup, dried food (a provision stew), bake, etc. and almost always with a cup of hot “tea.” 

One of my neighbors "breezin out"

Host niece and neighbor kids

Want this as your shower view?

Afterwards I hang out with Makayla helping with her “take away cards” (subtraction flash cards), play guitar on the front veranda (balcony), or gaff in the kitchen or on the back step with my host mom, brother, and sister until it’s time to get ready for bed. This is BY FAR my favorite time of the day. I wrap up in my towel and walk outside to the washroom (shower stall), and bucket bathe under the banana trees with the moon and stars for light. With the exception of the bucket part, I can just imagine people stateside willing to pay big bucks for this shower/view while on vacation at a remote tropical resort. By this time it’s finally cooled off outside and the water is so refreshing, definitely a great end to my day. I walk back upstairs grab my toothbrush and brush my teeth off the back step. Then I head into my room, set up my fan (which I recently bought, a great decision), and crawl underneath my mosquito net where I’ll read a book (off the kindle I got from PC) with my headlamp for light. When I either get to a good stopping point or become too tired I roll over and head off to dream land. Although there has been a surge in demon possessions recently amongst the secondary students and the exorcisms (prayer sessions as they say) are being done at the church across from my house so it’s definitely been an experience listening to the blood curling screams as I try and fall asleep. They blast gospel music from a huge speaker system to try and mask the noise, so I really end up falling asleep to a mixture of screams, people shouting prayers, and recorded gospel; it’s great. And that’s just a typical day in my life, and I LOVE IT!

PC Guyana Bulletin

Hey all, the staff at post just started a bulletin highlighting everything that is going on at PC Guyana that they'll be putting out twice a year. Thought you might like to see what we're doing as a whole over here.



DOWNLOAD IT HERE
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-pSgYjtR2BVRzAzVkRmUjdiamc/edit?usp=sharing

Look at Another PCV's Work Here in Guyana!

Hey there,
Check out this video that another volunteer made about an organization trying to help clean up Guyana one city at a time (starting with Georgetown, because it needs it!). It’s a fun easy to watch movie that shares what it’s like in Guyana from an environmental perspective.

Guyana Shines from Matthew Cusimano on Vimeo.

What Do I Do?

Here’s a brief post, but I have internet right now so I thought some of you may like to see this. Here’s the Peace Corps “framework” that the health post here uses to help guide our projects and assignments. Thought it might be interesting to see.

Starting Up While Shutting Down

It's been about a month now since I've been back in site. Have I gotten more sleep as I've hoped to since my last blog post? Yes. But have I been busy still? Definitely! I had about a week or so in the health center working Monday through Friday. In Guyana much like the east coast, I believe (east coast family help me out with this…), school starts in September as opposed to the middle of august like I'm used to; but that's no problem. I wanted to go into the secondary school (high school) to find out if there would be any opportunities to help out with their health classes, maybe come in every once in a while to do a health talk when requested. I had been told both by my PCV colleague assigned to the primary school here in site as well as other members in the community not to go in the first day of school and instead to wait until the second week or so to go in as the first week is beyond hectic. If you think the first week of school is crazy in America, it's easily 200% more wild. The first day of school here means the first day that EVERYONE comes back to school both the students AND teachers. Students have to be registered for school, teachers have to be assigned to grades and subjects to teach, the physical school needs to be opened up, set up, cleaned up, etc. All the prep work that is done ahead of time stateside to get ready for school so "the first day of school" equates to teachers teaching and students learning on day one. That's not the case here; the learning starts weeks after the "first day of school."
I got a bit antsy waiting until the third week to stop by and introduce myself and meet the teachers who would be instructing health, so on Monday of the second week I stopped by. Classes still were not assigned to teachers and a shortage of teachers left classrooms of children unsupervised and untaught. The staff there was really friendly and welcoming when I came in, giving me a tour of the school and orienting me around and explaining how the secondary school functions. After walking around, popping my head in and out of classrooms, I spoke with the HM (Head Mistress) and asked if I could sit in on a class to observe a teacher at the school and see what class is like here.
I was quickly given a "sure one moment" and after a hushed conversation, presumably about the best class to observe, I was escorted to a classroom. As the teacher escorting me and myself walked up to the assigned classroom the entire class stood at once and greeted the teacher "good morning Sir… and welcome to class…" The teacher then explained that, "there is a new teacher at our school and I know you will show him the utmost respect. Alright take it away David" and walked out. There was no other teacher in this classroom to "observe," just 20+ high school students and myself to "teach them" for the next hour. And did I mention I wasn't told anything about what class this was or what I was supposed to teach? No curriculum; nothing.
So that was a fun introduction to the school. I just instinctively had them move all their desks, arranged in perfect rows, to one big circle (that would hopefully eat up a little bit of time). To which they looked at me like I was crazy, as if I wasn't strange enough; a bizarre white American who talks funny. After a minute of silence and dropped jaws I asked them again and when they realized I was serious, started laughing as they rearranged all their desks into a circle. Once they were settled played a basic get to know you game having everyone go around saying their name, where they were from (to find out if they were from my site or a surrounding area), and their favorite food. Pretty basic, easy for most elementary students in the states so I figured it'd translate well.
One big difference between Americans and Guyanese is speaking volume and the value in being an extravert. Whereas (generally speaking of course) Americans tend to speak up and clearly, Guyanese speak VERY softly. It's reinforced in the school system that students should speak softly even when called on through "school rules." If that wasn't bad enough, combine speaking softly with cultural conditioning to not speak directly to a person (looking away, covering ones mouth when talking, speaking into a shoulder, etc.) and just being generally shy. I was bombing big time. To this day I still think back and laugh about the answers given for "what's your favorite food?" Of the students I was able to understand, either through them or their neighbor who would sometimes repeat what they said, favorite foods consisted of fried rice or chow mein, sometimes with baked chicken. Now there are SO MANY foods, amazing delicious foods, in Guyana to choose from. None of them responded with any "Guyanese" foods (in Guyana fried rice and chow mein, though originally Chinese foods, have been integrated into Guyanese cuisine from the amount of Chinese people that have moved to Guyana over the years; think of it as pizza in America, is it really Italian or American today?).
After my hour of babysitting I went back to the HM and asked if I could OBSERVE a class with a teacher in it, making clear that I am not interested in going into a classroom by myself; I won't be able to see how these students behave in class with their own teachers if I was teaching them. The HM consented and another teacher brought me with her to observe her teach a class. At the end of the day I spoke with the HM and said I could come back on Friday as Tuesday through Thursday I was to work at the health center with the various clinics. She looked forward to my return on Friday and promised a more productive day since by Friday all the timetables would be set i.e. all the teachers would finally be assigned which grades and subjects they would be teaching. Sounded good to me. I would know who would be teaching health and when so I could observe them and know when might be times in the future I might be coming in on a Monday or Friday to help out with a particular part of a health class.
The next few days pass and Friday rolls around. When I stop by the school in the morning the HM was delighted to see me, "David I'm so glad you're here, here is your timetable!" She scheduled me to teach the health class BY MYSELF every Monday and Friday with a total of six classes, the whole concept of me coming into ASSIST existing teachers went completely over her head; unintentionally or intentionally I still haven't decided. I guess I should have seen it coming; the teacher shortage along with the overly friendly attitude all to reel me in and lock me down. I'll be honest I'm generally good at thinking on my feet but at that moment I was floored. I had not imagined that I would become a permanent teacher at the high school overnight. I'm a HEALTH volunteer after all, not an education volunteer. I told the HM that I wasn't too sure I would be able to teach for the entire year, how many times can I go over condom use, how to wash their hands, or what to look for if you have pneumonia? I just didn't have the resources to think of a curriculum that would fill up enough classes from September to July. "No problem let me get you the curriculum!"
I was not getting out of this one, she's the type of person who, in addition to selling ice, could sell a freezer to the Eskimos, and make them wonder why they have gone so long without one. So she handed me a ratty book bound by duct tape for the "Ministry of Education, Health and Family Life Education curriculum guide grade 7-9; prepared by: Caribbean Consulting Group (September 2007), adapted by: Ministry of Education Guyana (July 2011)." This "adapted" in 2011 version really meant someone with Word did a "replace all" changing Jamaica to Guyana but leaving the entire curriculum untouched; evident from passages like, "… environmental damage… into the island…" or "… tourism on Dunn River Falls/Negril/Ocho Rio…" For those of you not doing the quick Google search, Guyana is NOT an island, nor does Dunn River Falls, Negril, or Ocho Rio exist in Guyana. And as for the rest of the material, it would be half decent at best with the #1 private school in the country with an entire lesson plan consisting of "have the students research the effects of nicotine on the body" research with what!? Or "take the students on a field trip to a local recycling plant." To get to the next town takes 3-4 hours and that's not even taking into consideration that there really is no local let alone remote recycling plant; they don't exist. This is what I'm working with.
So for the past few weeks I've been spending my waking hours going through the MOE's curriculum to find the ideas that they'd like taught and finding a way to ACTUALLY teach the material, writing an entire year's worth of lesson plans to teach Health and Family Life Education (HFLE) to grades 7 and 8. It's a big task that was thrust on me, one that I definitely wasn't mentally prepared to take on in my second month of service. But you know what? I'm really liking it. I've now taught 2 lessons and they've gone pretty well, I come home at the end of the day with a smile on my face thinking, "hey, I think that I actually got through to some of those kids," it's a great feeling. I'm looking forward to going into the school instead of the dread I initially had when I was thrust into the classroom without any material to go off of. I'm hoping that this curriculum that I put together might do well and possibly help the teachers at this school, teach this often neglected subject, in the future. So though right now I'm swamped trying to put together lesson plans before I have to teach them, reading up on different activities to incorporate, all the while seeing what works and what doesn't work in the classroom here in Guyana. I'm really enjoying the work I'm doing. I'm feeling productive and needed. I can't begin to imagine what the end of this school year will look like, or what will happen at the health center or any other project I might embark on in the next twelve months, but I sure am excited for the ride. Oh and on top of all the reading and writing lesson plans, I moved in with a new host family which I'm really excited about. Tonight I'll be bathing outside under the stars and banana trees!
And while life for me has really been starting up, you all are shutting down?! If you've wondered to yourself, "Self, if the US government shuts down, how will that affect my good friend David living and working in Guyana in the Peace Corps? That's funded directly with federal funds!" Well here's the long and the short of it. Long version can be found HERE and the short version is: "Given the significant tangible and intangible costs that would be incurred in evacuating all Volunteers to their homes of record and the minimal savings in operating costs overseas that would be achieved by doing so, evacuating Volunteers and returning them to their homes of record would only be justified by a much more substantial lapse in appropriations than the agency expects. The agency has, therefore, determined that THE PEACE CORPS IS NOT REQUIRED during a lapse in appropriated funding to take any action TO EVACUATE VOLUNTEERS and return them to their homes of record." So I'll be staying right here in hot Guyana (enjoy the cold nights autumn brings) working at the health center and teaching in the secondary school!
As always feel free to post comments with any questions about things that are on your mind that you would like to know more about, I get an email with every comment straight to my phone, so I'll be able to reply just now.