It’s been well over a year since I’ve come to Guyana. In
fact, I’ll be wrapping up my time here just now. So you may be wondering what
I’m doing for work and how I’ve settled into a routine during the back half of
my service. Here’s a quick breakdown of my schedule.
Mondays are my catch up day. I’m not teaching today like I
was last year, and there’s no clinic on Mondays. So I’ll spend my day doing
various things like wash (if I haven’t had the opportunity to do it over the
weekend), filling out various reports for PC, and working on various other
tasks for the Gender and Development task force/Camp Glow/Volunteer Advisory
Council/etc. Then in the afternoon I’ll head over to the secondary school as
every Monday (Tuesday and Wednesday) there is the Health Club. It’s a group of
about a dozen to two dozen students who meet (three days a week) for about 45
minutes after school. Along with at least one other teacher we’ll do various
activities based on what the students are interested in, or ideas that the
other teacher and I come up with. In the past, we’ve done anatomy jeopardy,
alternatives to sex, the reproductive systems of men/women, and have more
planned for the coming term. After the club I’ll come home, fill out a quick
report of the club (as it makes my huge trimester reports easier that way) and
by the time I finish that, the sun is starting to set so I’ll go on my
afternoon walk. Then when I come home I’ll help with dinner, bathe, and get
ready for bed, maybe watch an episode of TV on my computer (right now I’m
watching season 2 of The Americans), then off to sleep to do it again the next
day.
Tuesdays are the infant and child clinic. This clinic
focusses on newborns to 5 year olds, making sure they're up to date with all of
their vaccines and growing at a healthy weight, helping mothers learn about
proper feeding and nutrition (exclusive breastfeeding for the first 6 months
then slowly weaning off, etc.) of their children and so on. I’ll help to weigh
and measure the children, prepare the vaccines, and talk with mothers on their
initial intake when they first come to clinic. Not that I was looking into
pediatrics, but now I know I definitely don’t want to be a pediatrician. After
clinic I’ll head over to the secondary school for the second day of the health
club, then home for my report, walk, dinner, etc.
Wednesdays are the antenatal clinic. Here pregnant mothers
are coming in and we make sure they maintain a healthy pregnancy. I’ll help
with weighing and measuring the mothers, check blood pressure and a quick
urinalysis, and help out with initial intakes when women first come to clinic.
After clinic I’m off to the secondary school for the third and last day of
health club for the week, and then home for my report, walk, dinner, etc.
Thursdays are the family planning clinic. Today’s focus is
on women (and men) choosing the right form of contraception for them (pills,
injectables, IUDs, and condoms). I’ll do their intake, take their weight and
blood pressure, set a return date, and keep the clinic records up to date.
Today is also the day when newborns come in. So we’ll create their clinic card,
do their initial weight, height, physical examination, and give the BCG vaccine.
After clinic I’ll come home, relax in the hammock reading a book, go on my
walk, dinner, etc.
Fridays I’m at the secondary school. This year I’m not
teaching, but co-teaching with another teacher who’s using the HFLE curriculum
I developed last year. Another teacher is also teaching HFLE using the
curriculum I developed but she’s scheduled to teach when I’m working at the
clinic so I follow up with her on Fridays to see how she’s doing and what
support I can offer.
Saturdays and Sundays vary depending on what’s going on. If
I’m in my village, I may be doing wash, cleaning up my room, relaxing and
reading, or working on various other tasks. Though I could easily be out for
various things like a Volunteer Advisory Council meeting, Gender and
Development task force meeting, various camps or other projects depending on
what’s going on in the PC community.
I’m supposed to be starting computer classes here in my
village, but I think it’ll be pushed back until after the holidays (which is
pretty normal in Guyana). There’s a private school run by one of the churches
here. They offer continuous education style classes on various topics for
various ages based on what the community needs. About a month or so ago the
government (of Guyana) delivered laptops to all the families here under their
“One Laptop Per Family” program, which has been great, except most people are
using the computers just for movies/music/games. So the Empowerment Center (the
name of the private school) wants to offer computer classes offering basic
computer skills, along with office skills to teach Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint,
and Publisher. They have almost a dozen desktops in their computer lab and
people can bring in their new laptops too (whether they have Microsoft Office
or not, they can use Open Office, a free version). So we’ll see how that goes;
I’m hoping it starts up quickly in the New Year and I could potentially have
classes 5-6 days a week. I’d fit it in after the health clubs on Monday,
Tuesday, and Wednesday, after clinic on Thursday, and after school on Friday.
And all day on Saturday.
That’s just a basic outline of my week, I hope this is a
good companion post to my “Day in the life” I wrote last year.
