What it really looks like in Guyana: the long-awaited pictures

David's host niece, Makayla

David's host sister, Michelle

Picking okra with David's host mom, Verna

David's living room 

David's Kitchen

Cutting down a banana tree

Most of David's the classes David teaches are held in a large room with 5 different classes of students separated only by chalkboards.  David often takes the kids out to the bleachers to teach his class, as it is far more conducive to learning than in the cramped room.  

Collecting eggs in the backyard

Wakes in Guyana typically consist of dominoes playing, card games, and alcohol.

Spending time with Peace Corps volunteers on the Guyana coast 

The newborn baby nephew at David's original host family's house in Timehri.

A gift from David's Timehri family: Authentic Amerindian Jewelry!

The savannah near Kwakwani

Old Year’s Night in Suriname

We ventured out of Kwakwani to celebrate New Year’s Eve (called Old Year’s Night here) in the neighboring country of Suriname.  On December 31^st, after over 13 hours of travel on several different busses, we met up with a group of about 12 other Peace Corps volunteers near the country border and took a 25-minute ferry to Suriname.  After my experience on Christmas, I decided to go into this trip with absolutely no expectations- which definitely proved to be the right move, because the night was nothing like any New Year’s Eve I had ever before experienced.

The group had been told that tons of people would be celebrating Old Year’s all over on the streets of downtown Paramaribo (The capital of Suriname).  Much to our surprise, by the time we made it to Paramaribo around 8:30 p.m., it seemed as though the festivities had already ended.  All of the shops were closed and the only people on the streets were the people cleaning up the evidence (tons of beer bottles and confetti) of a huge party that had occurred on the streets before our arrival.

We later found out that the way Old Year’s actually works in Suriname is that people celebrate all day, go home around 8pm to get ready to go to Church at midnight, and then go out again to celebrate around 1 a.m.  We kept ourselves entertained at the hotel for a few hours and ended up hanging out at the roof top swimming pool just before midnight.  Unlike in the states, there are no laws in Suriname regulating fireworks, so it was pretty cool watching the fireworks being set off all over the city.  In fact, we got to watch the coolest fireworks show I have ever seen from the roof of the hotel.  This particular firework show lasted probably 20 minutes and the fireworks were being launched in the parking lot immediately next to the hotel, so we were literally eye-level with the colorful bursts.  I don’t know how safe it was for us to be so close to fireworks, but it was an absolutely incredible experience! 

We spent New Year’s Day in Suriname as well, though the only place open was a McDonalds across the street from the hotel. Going into this restaurant with a group of Peace Corps volunteers who haven’t eaten American fast food since beginning their service in Guyana was hilarious.  I’ve never seen anyone get so excited about the prospect of eating a Big Mac and French fries.   Other than McDonalds, we walked around the downtown area and tried to see what we could of the city.  While we really didn’t get to do much exploring because the city was shut down, it was fun to spend time with the other volunteers.  Overall, I really enjoyed the trip to Suriname because it gave me an opportunity to get to know the people with whom David is spending two years in Guyana.

On the ferry to Suriname

Christmas in Guyana

Christmas is a BIG deal here.  From what I understand, the Christmas festivities started about couple of weeks before I arrived. It began with something similar to similar to our idea of “spring cleaning” in which David’s family did a thorough scrubbing of their entire house.  When I arrived, all of the furniture was stacked in a corner of the main room and covered with sheets. 

A few days before Christmas, the neighborhood community put on a Christmas show complete with a nativity skit, tree lighting, singing, dancing, and Santa Claus giving out gifts to all of the children in the village.  David played Joseph in the nativity skit, and he of course did a great job.  In fact, he was the only person in the entire skit to remember his lines! 

The day before Christmas was spent putting the house back together, putting down new floors (the floors here are kind of like wallpaper- big sheets of decorative plastic that they tape to the ground), hanging new drapes, and cooking. 

There are two special dishes made for Christmas—Pepper Pot and Black Cake.  David describes Pepper Pot as the Guyanese version of tsimmus.  It is essentially a huge pot of meat stew that is cooked for an extended period of time until the meat is tender and juicy. I unfortunately had a hard time consuming this dish, as I went to the butcher to pick up the meat with David’s host sister, and was fairly overwhelmed by the lack of sanitation of it all.  (I’m sure it was just fine to eat, but I am squeamish about eating meat that has been sitting out 90-degree temperatures for extended periods of time).  Unsurprisingly, this didn’t stop David from consuming hoards of the dish for days.  Black cake is the second special food cooked for Christmas, and is essentially a dark fruitcake made with candied fruits, cherries, 5 finger, other rum-soaked fruits, more rum, burnt sugar and malt drink.  As with all of the food here, there is LOTS of sugar in all of it.

With all of the work put into decoration of the house and preparation of the food, I expected that the extended family would come together on Christmas day to celebrate.  Oddly enough, Christmas day was the most laid back and uneventful day of my entire time here.  No one came over, and the immediate family sat inside watching old Christmas movies and eating here and there (meals here are not eaten together here, everyone just makes up a plate of food when they’re hungry).  Though it was nothing like I expected, I actually really enjoyed the day relaxing and hanging out with David’s host family.

Setting up for the nativity skit

The Christmas show

Santa giving gifts to the children

Kaylie's First 2 Weeks

I have experienced so many great things during my first two weeks here in Guyana that I cannot possibly fit into a blog post, so I’ve decided to highlight some of the things that have stood out most during my first couple of weeks in Guyana.

 David’s host family: David’s host family is absolutely amazing.  David lives with a host mom (Verna), 2 host siblings (Mikey & Michelle), and a 6-year-old host niece (Michelle’s daughter, Makayla). The family is absolutely amazing—they are so welcoming and friendly, and I feel so comfortable and at home here.  I’ve spent a lot of my time here playing with Makayla and her friends/cousins who are constantly over at the house. 

 The language barrier: In theory, the language spoken here in Guyana is English.  In practice, the language actually spoken here is called Creolese—a mumbled, altered, and highly distorted version of what we consider “English.”  The weirdest part of this language barrier is that the people here can understand just about everything I say, but I understand almost nothing.  This results in many awkward interactions in which I have to ask people to repeat things over and over, and even then I don’t fully understand what is being said.  David is helping me out by explaining common phrases, ways certain pronouns are utilized (and others not at all), etc.  I’ve found that kids are the best to learn from because they’re much more willing to repeat things and speak more slowly for me, so I’m spending lots of time learning from Makayla and her friends.  Every day I understand the people here more and more, but the language barrier has been one of the most difficult parts of immersing myself into the culture and community here in Guyana.

 Guyanese Funerals: A man in David's site passed away a week ago, and I had the opportunity to experience a funeral here. David warned me ahead of time that funerals here are much different than in the states, but despite his warnings, the funeral experience was quite jarring.  While the service itself is not unlike the ones stateside (prayers, eulogies, etc.), the way that the family of the deceased acts during the service is quite different from what I’m used to.  (David has confirmed that the funeral I attended is an accurate depiction of all of the funerals he has attended throughout his 9 months here in Guyana—he’s been to dozens).  Many times throughout the service and internment, the daughters, wife, and several mistresses of the deceased broke out into hysterics—they were literally screaming and crying at the top of their lungs, thrashing around and running to the casket.  The women even went so far as to try to take the body out of the casket so it wouldn’t be buried.  In no way do I mean to discredit the family’s grief, I simply find the exaggerated display of sorry to be an interesting contrast to the funerals to which I’m accustomed.

The stars:  I never really realized how much I loved looking at stars until I came here.  The lack of light pollution here really makes for unbelievable views of the night sky.  I really wish I could take a picture of what I’m talking about to share with you all, because I cannot put into words how unbelievably gorgeous the stars are here.

A few other interesting things to note:

•  “Just now” means anytime between the recent past and some time in the near future.  The most common way it is used is to describe something that will be done soon (i.e. I’ll come home just now).
•  When I meet people and tell them I’m from the states, they often try to impress me with their knowledge of the USA by telling me that there are 52 states (and insisting that I am incorrect when I correct them and tell them that there are 50).  I have yet to come across someone who can tell me what the 51^st and 52^nd states are (I’ve even asked if they’re referring to Puerto Rico and Guam, but they say no).
• The popular music here is a mixture of reggae, soca, dance hall, chutney, gospel, and a collection of 80s and 90s music from people like Whitney Houston, Michel Bolton, Michael Jackson, etc.