Choir and Meeting with Eyecare Guyana

Two of us VSOs went along to a local choir for the first time last night, it was a real hoot. Turn up at a local secondary school hall, help get out the chairs and sit around. The woman conducting is very entertaining, laughing all the time but also very clear and strict about what she wants which is great. There were about 25 people, with a good number in all the four parts. But they were glad to have more altos. We did some Handel, Spirituals, Gospel, locally written songs, and the standard was really high, quite a challenge for me. We did some rhythmic work as clapping to accompany a song. We were sat in front of the basses, some of whom took solos and that was a real inspirational sound. They were all local people, of a mix of ages, very friendly. They said they would make sure we got home safely, and we were given a lift with someone who was the head of a special school, where I will be going to visit soon, so that was good. The choir meets on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so I am looking forward to going again. I asked someone there to help me find a local dance group that I could join, so I'm hoping to get that sorted as well.

Yesterday I also went to meet someone from Eyecare Guyana. They have a little office in Georgetown. They do advocacy, campaigning for funding for free glasses for people who can't afford them, and give rehabilitation training eg they give out long canes which are provided by a charity, along with training. The canes are good for indoors, but the external environment around here is absolutely dire for anyone with low vision, no kerbs, loads of open holes into drains, changes of level, broken concrete paths, street vendors, insane traffic and so on. This chap says that the school system is managing to get a few kids with visual impairment through their equivalent of GCSE English, History etc, by using amanuenses, but have no way of doing maths or science diagrams and stuff. So he suggests that I could set up a programme for training new teachers, as well as CPD for existing teachers. I also found out today from the maths people here that they do not make any adaptions to booklets, exam papers etc, not even photo enlarging, so there is a lot to be done. It is great to feel I have found some work that I can get involved in.
Cheers, Kate