Site placement and final preparations

Summer is nearly over, and the last three months seemed to fly by. I can't believe that the time to leave for Guyana is nearly here! The reality of my looming departure finally struck me when I got my site placement a couple of days ago: I'll be teaching Biology, Integrated Science, or Chemistry at Berbice High School in New Amsterdam, a small town 2 hours outside of Georgetown by road (mom no longer has to fear making an arduous journey by plane, boat, or donkey to visit!). I'll be living with two other WT volunteers on the compound of another school located a few miles away. There's a notebook (!) of information about this site from the previous volunteers that I look forward to reading when I get to Georgetown. In the meantime I looked at the website for the alumni association of my school, which looks nice but is mostly blank... Nevertheless I was able to find out that the school was founded in 1916 and was originally a religious school for boys before it was turned over to government control in the 60s.

New Amsterdam,
(Nieuw Amsterdam in Dutch), located in the East Berbice-Corentyne Region, is one of the largest towns in Guyana, sixty-two miles from the capital, Georgetown. It is located on the Atlantic Ocean coast at the mouth of the Berbice River and has a population of approximately 33,000 people.

The main schools in New Amsterdam are Berbice High School, Berbice Educational Institute, Vryman's Erven Secondary, Tutorial Academy, and New Amsterdam Multi-Lateral High School (opened in 1975). The town is fairly small consisting of three main roads with about a dozen cross streets. It has a Mayor and a thriving market. From New Amsterdam you can get to Crabwood Creek (about 45 miles away) via the Corentyne or to the East Canje area of Berbice. A road also leads up the Berbice river bank to the town of Mara about 25 miles away.

There are several hotels in the town: Church View Guest House, Astor Hotel, Parkway Hotel and Little Rock.

I've got plenty of last minute preparations, but things are really starting to come together. After struggling with the maximum luggage allowance during my trip to France a couple of years ago, I'm determined to travel light this time around and restrict myself to one suitcase and one carry on. This is a little unsettling; the prospect of taking half the amount of stuff for twice the length of time makes me feel like I'm going to forget something important, but I'll probably be thankful later.