"Welcome to the Land of Many Waters"

The first week of orientation is coming to a close, and I hardly know where to begin!

After meeting the other 14 volunteers at JFK for the pre-departure meeting, we braved the 6 hour red eye flight to Georgetown. For orientation we're staying in the dorms at the teacher's college, Cyril Potter College of Education (CPCE for short) right next to the University of Guyana. I could probably right a blog post entirely about that! We’ve been busy this week with workshops about teaching and on Guyanese culture. It’s the tail end of the rainy season, so it’s been hot and muggy most of the time. The sea breeze makes it less extreme, however, and it can be quite pleasant at night. Surprisingly, I feel cooler when I’m outside at night here that I did in Florida.

Accommodations:

We all have single rooms in the boy’s dorm of the college, but only for the 1st half....due to summer renovations, we'll have to move over to the girl's dorm in a few days. The plumbing has been cantankerous, so we've all learned the fine art of bucket showers (people have been caught soaped up when the water stops in the showers several times), bucket toilet flushing, and outdoor washing (laundry). The accommodations are simple, but honestly it hasn't been a difficult adjustment.


Food:

It's been both strange and wonderful. Strange in the sense that it's unfamiliar, and I still don't know what several dishes I've eaten are called. Also, strange in the sense that certain dishes were served at an unusual time of day (I've definitely never had tuna salad for breakfast until I got here). Even with the unfamiliarity, I've definitely eaten better food in the last week than I did 90% of the time at ND. So far, my favorite dish is roti with chicken curry (roti is a flat, flaky bread....I'm not really sure what to compare it to. Maybe a very thick and doughy tortilla, or very moist naan). I definitely come to appreciate ice a lot since I’ve been here, and the first ice cream cone I ate was marvelous… We’ve been frequent visitors of the ice cream shop since we found out about it.


Orientation:

We've talked a lot in the past week about various aspects of Guyanese culture and the school system. One of the highlights of our formal sessions was the welcoming ceremony hosted by the Ministry of Education, We were filmed and had pictures taken that are to be featured in the news. If I can find the story online, I’ll post it here. We've also been to downtown Georgetown to see which areas to avoid and where the shopping is. Kitty, our security adviser, has come to talk to us a few times and led us through Stabroek market (the place to avoid) and Bourda market (the safe shopping) so we could get a feel for the city. He also went with us to a Guyanese dance club Saturday night so that we could get a feel for the social scene, have whining (ie Guyanese dancing) lessons, and enjoy some reggae and soca music. We also visited a local Guyanese water park yesterday (ie, a lake with speedboats and kayaks available for hire), which was a nice change of pace.

I’m truly enjoying my stay in Georgetown. The group has already become like one big, unusual family as we adjust to the new environment.