Botanical Gardens

This is the biggest and most interesting tree in the Botanical Gardens. It has loads of epiphyte plants growing on the branches. I often walk in the Botanical Gardens early in the morning which is the best time for spotting birds. I've seen macaws, toucans, jacanas which walk on water lily leaves, humming birds, woodpeckers, kites, shrikes of various types. I saw a cayman last week (a foot long crocodile). I go armed with binoculars and an umbrella (for the sun and to feel brave). The style of the gardens is decaying colonial. Families go there on a Sunday afternoon. The gardens are not that big, but you can walk through and then up the street to the sea wall and walk along to see what fish people are catching on the foreshore. I saw frigate birds with the big red pouches last week there. On the shore I've also been collecting shells, pebbles, sticks etc for using for maths games for the visually impaired pupils.

Pool

This is the pool at the posh hotel which is right next door to where we work. I go to swim at 7 am before work, and sometimes at lunchtime as well. We join the pool as a family group for a month at a time. The month rate is twice the day rate! There are quite a few volunteers who are members so it makes a good place to meet up and have a chat. Some volunteers buy food at the hotel, but I am more careful with my money and have managed so far to survive on my allowance, which is about 30 pounds a week. Last night I went to a poetry reading and art display in a gallery that was free. It is interesting to listen to the local intelligensia (he was into the philosophy of shadows) and it was also a great opportunity for people watching.

More about the flat: We have a three bedrooms, two balconies and two bathrooms, and a big open plan kitchen/dining area, lounge. We have the biggest and best flat but then we do share it. We can have friends to stay whenever which is handy for volunteers who are visiting from the regions. Then we can visit them out in the regions to make affordable weekend trips away.

Cheers

This is my flatmate and I at home. This was the first meal that I cooked for VSO friends in the flat - chilli and pasta.

It's before I had my hair cut!

House

We live in the upstairs flat of this house. It is unusual as it has a front garden. It has a kind of broad leaved grass which only grows when it rains, then they cut it with a machete. There is a small back garden as well which is mainly huge trees so is very shady. My landlady gives us bananas, mangos and breadfruit off the tree - the mangos are delicious, far better than the ones from the market, but the breadfruit are fairly disgusting to eat, a cross between glue and potato. Another volunteer is moving into the flat below us, and we have a peace corps volunteer in the house at the back - I go and chat to her when we have evening power cuts - she sits outside then because it is too hot inside without the fan going. Our flat is cooler as it is upstairs, and we get a cool cool breeze through the side windows.

Weekend at the Sea, Maths with the Blind

I'm glad to have found a way that I can get photos on the blog at last, but it takes an hour to load, so I have to do it when I know I am going to be in the office for a bit.
I had a good weekend break, staying in Corriverton on the coast near the border with Suriname. We swam in the sea at the only passable beach in Guyana - it felt like a proper little holiday. The sea was pretty clear and a sandy beach - you just have to look out of broken glass. The journey there is by minibus - you have to wait for the bus to fill up before you can leave - that took an hour- then three hours travel including a puncture stop (only 10 minutes). The trick with the travel here is to view it all as part of the entertainment, but it can get a bit wearing - hot, crowded, noisy music, terrible driving and no loo stops. It helps to have a good travelling companion, my Australian friend is both wise to the tricks of the trade as well as full of stories to help pass the time.
I have got a routine of working down at the Unit for the Blind where I demonstrate some activities and games for maths with the pupils, with staff observing and learning as we go. Then I'm writing it all up as a resource to go on the website. I'm trying to help them become empowered to be more creative by following up their ideas. I've got agreement to go down to the other Unit for the Blind In Linden for a week to run training for them. Then a lot of the things are equally useful for other special needs, so I'm hoping to do training in the other special schools. I can also run training in mainstream and for education officials to sensitise them about the potential of pupils with special needs. I can broaden out my work to anyone who will listen! There was cartoon in the paper today which went a bit like this:
"I had to do a presentation to day where I was pretending I knew what I was talking about"
"Oh, did it go alright?"
"Yes, luckily the audience were only pretending to listen"
A lot of training which is done here is like this. We are trying to make all our training sessions interactive and participatory so that helps to educate the people who run training.
Cheers
Kate

Diwali

This is one of the floats in the Diwali motorcade. The girl is dressed as Lakshi, who is the goddess of happiness and prosperity. She has her raised right hand painted with symbols, and sits perfectly still as she glides past - no looking round and no smiles. The roadside is thronged with people watching, there are police directing the traffic, and in the distance the sound of people setting off firecrackers as they wait for the procession to come past.

Birthday

Just about to cut the cake for my birthday. This is at my VSO friend's house - she cooked a meal for a few of us then we went out to see the Diwali parade. This is the first time I've come across a teapot in Guyana!

You can also note that I've had my hair all cut short - I couldn't stand the heat any more.

Entertainment

Lots going on this weekend - Friday was Diwali, the Hindu Festival of Lights. There was a massive motorcade - cars and lorries with strings of coloured lights and depictions of Laksmi, the goddess of happiness and prosperity, and Lord Ganesh, the god of luck. Meanwhile there are firecrackers (illegal) being set off all over the place, many under cars so they set off the car alarm just to add to the general mayhem. On Saturday night the Hindu households burn diahs which are small cndles all round their house and entrance - the lights are a symbol of knowledge and wisdom.
Saturday I had a birthday party with VSOs as well as some of my new friends from choir. I did an entertainment party where people brought along a song, a game or whatever - we had some fun with that. I got them doing some dancing (Zemer Atik) in the kitchen, we had some calypso singing, cheerleading, Dingbats and poems.
On Sunday I sang with the choir as part of a concert for pensioners. It turned out to be pensioners of the government (over 55 - so I'd qualify). Believe it or not they sang their song at the beginning: "We are Pensioners of the Government" to the tune of D'ye Ken John Peel. It was a bit like a Flanders and Swann song, but sung in earnest. If you get the local style of speech, the accent comes on the last syllable of the word - pensionERS, governMENT - then it fits the tune pretty well!
Nature notes: I am taking to walking in the Botanical Gardens on a Saturday morning, and this week saw a crocodile - OK just a cayman actually, which was a foot long, and a toucan flying around, with a white and red beak.

Workshop today

Today I was involved in my first training workshop. We were asked to do a general session about special needs to a group of Primary Teachers Grade 6 (top class). The three of us worked together and set up a participatory workshop in the style recommended by VSO. We did some things about disability awareness, causes of difficulties in learning to read, vision and hearing testing, teaching in different styles, adapting expectations to the needs of the child. It was very interesting as we all three have very different approaches, but all in all it went off well. We will be developing the ideas so that we can do similar for people at any level in the education system. The whole system is based on teaching the same thing at the same level at the same time, so there needs to be a root and branch change - it is difficult to see that happening within the reality of the education system here, along with current constraints financially. Still all we can do is to attempt to be models of good practice, and not be critical. Tricky though...
I am hoping to get my first project proposal in soon which is to get (charity) funding for a Braille embosser and use it to produce materials for people wanting to learn Grade 1 Braille, and to learn to read.
Cheers
Kate

Seawall in Georgetown

I hope this has a picture attached

Paralympics Guyana

I didn't go away this weekend after all, the trip to the decent beach is set up for two weeks time.
On Sunday I went along to the first Paralympics in Guyana. I have been visiting special schools and many of them were there, along with some adult Disabled Persons Organisations. I knew one of the headteachers, so I was drafted in to walk as part of the "march past" which sounds rather grand, but at least made a proper start to the proceedings. The Minister of Sport was there and made a nice (short) speech, including that they are expecting the Disability Bill to get passed this quarter. When that happens then there can be legal challenges to discriminatory practices, so there may be more action taken. The set up of the Paralympics was good, having a sporting feel to it rather than a paternalistic feel. Generally there is a lot of good work going on with disability organisations here. My job is to translate some of that into action in the creaky education system, where the curriculum is aimed at the most able child, everyone learns the same thing on the same day, and teachers would be criticised for doing anything different. Ho hum.
On Saturday morning early I cycled a few miles along the coast to visit my Australian friend and we walked further up along the sea wall - watching people fishing who were walking through the water with nets as well as using boats - and saw massive black frigate birds with red throat pouches. We walked as far as the next village which has an extensive market with live ducks and chickens, butchery stalls for goat and pork, and at least 50 types of fish, most of them still flapping on the stalls.
We also had some torrential downpours yesterday along with a massive thunder storm which was quite exciting - the house shook - the power failed - but at least that made the lightning show more impressive.
Work is difficult today, we have observed some unpleasantness/unfairness towards other staff so we are feeling unsettled ourselves. It is difficult being an outsider, but also an advantage perhaps.

Bit of positive

Today I met the colleague who I will be working with. She is enthusiastic and positive about what we have been doing so far. We will meet once a week until she really starts work on 1 November.
I'm also finding out about how much Braille stuff there is around here. I went to Guyana Society for the Blind today. It's a place where people do a bit cane seating or woodwork. They have a load of donated Braille books from Canada which are still in the boxes. Some are in French. They are dated 1988. They also have some antique Bibles and other books similarly ancient. Talking to a few people there made me realise the interest in learning more about Braille, but there is no one to teach them. So that all gives more backing to my idea of trying to set up a Braille printing machine here so that an unskilled user can produce Braille in Grade 1 at least for people to learn and practise the basics, along with a basic guide for teaching Grade 1.
I've got a trip set up for Saturday - Sunday to go to the only decent beach in Guyana, so I should be able to get a swim in the sea.
Cheers
Kate

Leisure and Reflection

On Thursday one of the VSOs went home - she was in a very remote area of the hinterland and was struggling with the isolation and lack of progress with her placement. It makes me glad to be in Georgetown. It is only about the size of Hereford, but has enough amenities to give some options. Also there are loads of VSos, Peace Corps, and Teach First vols, so there is a range of people to talk to, of many ages, nationalities and interests.
On Saturday I went for a long early walk through the Botanical Gardens, bird spotting, then way along the seawall - there were a couple of blokes bringing in some catfish from nes strung from poles on the shore. Big fish - up to 18 inches long. I met my Australian VSO friend walking there so we went off to explore a few cool (air conditioned) supermarkets.
Saturday evening another friend and I went along to the GuyExpo 2009, which is about promoting local business in a low carbon environment. The President of Guyana is trying to negotiate terms to get and international agreement in return for forest conservation. Guyana will certainly need to do something to get some extra cash as it will be in deep water literally if sea levels rise. They'll need lots of pumps as all the populated area is below sea level.
Sunday was a birthday bash for a few vols, a trip to a blackwater creek resort - that is a place where you can swim in a stream and pools and relax in benabs (thatched huts). The local soil is white sand. The black water is because of the iron content - it is like swimming in strong tea. It rained which was great as it cooled things down. Some of the vols had just done the big tourist trip to Kaiteur Falls, you can go overland for 5 days, then fly back.
Today I am feeling a bit less than enthusiastic about my placement, so don't be surprised if I only last a year, not two. I feel then that I can pace myself better. The education system is in a dire state, but the people I work with are focussed very much on the able. It is a bit like swimming through treacle. Still I hope to focus mainly on getting some improvement for the visually impaired where I feel I can have most impact. The baseline of current provision is so low that I can't fail to do some good.
Cheers for now,
Kate