Cricket and Curriculum

Here's signing off for this week, as I am off to Linden for the day tomorrow, then from there I'll be going straight on to my weekend trip to Rockstone on the Essequibo River. Let's hope for some fine weather. The 20 20 cricket starts tomorrow, so there is quite a fatalistic notion that it will rain. We are going to the cricket on Monday afternoon, which is England v West Indies. So I expect my next blog will be Tuesday.
We had a busy day at work yesterday - I was assisting in facilitating a workshop for head teachers of special schools about curriculum. At the moment there is no curriculum guide for special schools, they just adapt things from the nursery or primary guides as they see fit. The problem is that the curriculum guides here are extremely prescriptive, and teachers feel they must follow them to the letter, or they will be criticised. So all children are being taught the same thing in the same way at the same level throughout the country. This causes problems for children in mainstream schools getting left behind as you can imagine. We were working yesterday on the idea of having a core curriculum as well as an auxiliary curriculum, for instance having sign language or Braille tuition. A vast amount of expertise and work will be needed to get all this down on paper, but I guess that a start can be made.
I'm still hoping to get the Unicef funding through for the SEN training days which start May 10th, but I've now agreed with my manager that if we don't have funding agreed by Monday 3rd then we will cancel, and try for the June training dates. If not then I'll just keep going round the schools myself, encouraging and cajoling... I enjoy the trips out!

Planning trips

We had a very wet day yesterday - it was hosing it down in hour long blocks with the odd half hour between, just to get your hopes up. So I spent some time looking ahead to our trip to Tobago at the end of July. It's not the kind of holiday that I'm used to! Tobago is small and quiet compared to Trinidad, and the north eastern end even more so. The whole island is only 25 miles long by 5 miles wide, there are buses up and down the coast roads, so we can hop around to rain forest trails, boat trip to wildlife island, snorkelling on reefs, waterfalls, turtle beaches - sounds great.
A bit closer is a trip next weekend to Rockstone - which is a bit more my style, rough and ready. Another volunteer has a boat there on the Essequibo river. You get proper rooms to stay in, but you take all your own food and hire the kitchen. It will be great to have a weekend away, and I'm looking forward to the boating. It is a flat bottomed boat, which is paddled I think. Let's hope the weather is a bit better.
We are trying to get a list of ten good things about Guyana - I think one of them has to be the blue sky in the morning after a day of rain. You can't count the weather generally as it is too hot and humid.

Trips expected and unexpected

Well I had a bit of an unexpected adventure this week. I went out to Linden on Wednesday, and had a really good morning doing some support to the teachers in the two special schools there. I was pleased to get finished quite early, and got on the minibus at the bus park at 12.30. They were just leaving so that was great. The bus set off and seemed to be going in a different direction, but I didn't worry too much as they often go off round the houses to deliver stuff or drop people off for favours. But this was different - we ended up driving down a dirt road, miles and miles through the jungle. By the time I realised that I was on the wrong bus, it was too late for them to turn back. This dirt road was totally devoid of any type of habitation - absolutely nowhere to stop, no traffic, nothing. In the end I had to choose whether to get dropped at the police post and chance getting a lift with some vehicle coming out, or go on to the next village, which was another hour into the bush, then stay over with the bus driver's mother and get a bus out in the early morning. I chose the police post, with the possible prospect of crashing out there for the night. Fortunately a massive lumber truck came by and I hitched a lift out with this very nice Indo-Guyanese driver. It was only two years old, and very luxurious, with bouncy seats - much more comfortable than the cramped minibus. But he went about five to ten mph, and it took three hours to get back to Linden bus park. The right bus was just leaving so that made a pretty long day, 6am to 8pm. You don't know how glad I was to get back to civilisation! In my defence the minibus did say Georgetown Linden on the front, but when you look around you notice they all say the same, wherever they are going...
Anyway the expected trips are going well. I am trying to get to every special school each week. I am never sure how many teachers I will get to talk to, but as long as I talk to someone then I reckon it is worthwhile. I mostly get round on my bike, so I enjoy that despite the boiling hot weather. You just have to keep drinking lots of water. And on the way back I can drop in at the VSO office where they have home made fresh juice in the fridge and newspapers. So that is an excellent recovery spot!

Choir

The concert went well last night - much to my relief. It is the first time we have managed to get the last song right! The concert was started with a steel band playing the hallelujia chorus, which is pretty amazing. I never knew you could play really serious music with steel pans. I think the secret to the concert working was having all the amplification and speakers set up properly so we could hear the accompaniment better. The church was packed out including a few of my friends, so that was good. Some of us went for a pizza afterwards - the first time I've been to that sort of place while in Guyana. It was just like pizza hut, but called mario's.
So this week there is no choir, I've got a few spare slots to have some other jollies - bridge with my american embassy friend tomorrow Tuesday (who does the great snacks) then there is a violin concert at a cafe on Thursday.
At work I'm starting doing support slots at special schools, I did one today where there were loads of teachers, but not many questions. I think I'd be better doing it informally, so I'll go for that next time. Apparently we may hear about whether we can get the UNICEF funding by Thursday, then it will be really full steam ahead...

Rain

Torrential rain yesterday - it may be the start of the rainy season at last. There was quite a bit of flooding - I had to wade through an inch of water to get to the front door. The bike is handy though for getting through shallow water. Fortunately the route from home to work does not really get seriously flooded as it is at the higher point near the sea wall. The land slopes down as you go away from the sea, as this area is below sea level. There are canals and drainage ditches, sluice gates which can open at low tide to let flood water out. But there are problems with drainage ditches getting blocked by weeds and rubbish. Guyanese people have an aversion to rain and cool weather, for me it is rather pleasant - I can still go swimming in the hotel pool in the rain!
At work, lots of things get cancelled if it rains, as some staff at schools can't get in, also some children and parents stay home. So I spent the day yesterday catching up on writing the half module on visual impairment for the special needs course. It is nice to be writing about something which is within my area of expertise for a change.
We have extra choir rehearsals getting ready for the concert on Sunday evening. It is difficult to get it right as we have practised so much using the piano, but now we have to sing to an accompaniment CD, which is difficult to hear, and has faster and slower sections all over the place. If we miss our entry then it is hard to know what to do.

Back to work with a bump

Back to work this week, which has been a bit hard to get my head round after the holiday. I was pleased though that the SEN Course module had been printed so I have been sorting that out. Unfortunately the meeting for the head teachers of special schools which was Thursday and today had to be cancelled as it looked as if the cash would not be available to pay their travel expenses. So I am booking up slots to go round the ten special schools next week to take out the course booklets and hopefully to meet with some of the teachers and explain how they should be getting started on it. I will be happier going out and working directly with teachers, rather than being in the office all the time. The days seem to be very long (8 - 4.30 with one hour for lunch).
The cash situation was made worse as the director was on holiday, so we could not use his clout to get things moving. This is the first time he has taken leave in four years as he feels that there is no-one who can take over while he is away. This is quite a common thing, the printing man said the same thing. Often we know that staff are in work even though they are on leave - they tend to come in late and leave early. Not a healthy situation. One of the other problems for staff on leave is that it is prohibitively expensive to get away to a holiday destination, and there are few options locally, mostly people go to visit family and friends for relaxation.
Choir is revving up for their Easter concert which is next weekend. It seems to be getting better, but it is all very touch and go. We are practising in the church now, but it all gets a bit silly as we are to get there by 8, the place is being used by a steel band till 8.30, or is locked up, then by the time everything is ready we are singing from about 9 to 10.30. This is all Guyana culture, and I have achieved the patience to put up with such slow attitudes. You just have to "take your time" and enjoy having lengthy chats with other folks. I feel I know quite a few of the choir well enough to feel relaxed and able to share their chit chat and jollity. It is amazing how jolly it all seems despite the knowledge of all the constraints that people live with here every day - mind you the choir members are pretty well off middle class educated people on the whole. There is a small group from the choir who sing in a smaller folky group (by ear) and are really good to listen to - they have a concert on Sunday afternoon, so I'll look forward to that.
I've had lots of people staying over with me this week as everyone is in and out of Georgetown to get flights overseas. A great couple who work with Every Child Guyana were here last night. They are working against child abuse, which overlaps with our work in the area of school discipline - corporal punishment is still legal and widespread here - also parent "licks and lashes" are commonplace. I have ceased to be shocked about this now, but it was very hard to come to terms with when we first arrived. At all times when you think about education here you can just think 1940s / 50s Britain and you will get the picture.
Easter holiday Monday was the kite festival here - we reckoned there were between 500 and 1000 kites in the sky, quite a few home made in a hexagon shape, some massive ones about a metre high, and even some mini versions about three inches, and teeny ones which are just a tassle on a string. It is quite a fine sight and rather appropriate for Easter.
Wildlife note: saw my first scorpion in the swimming pool, it was about two and half inches long, with fierce looking pincers on the front end...

Trip to Lethem - Easter

I'm back at work now, but this is about the trip to Lethem at the end of last week.
After the luxury at Rock View, Lethem is a bit of a shock. It's quite a rough place in many ways - the roads are dust roads and full of grit, so sandals were a bad idea, I just ended up with loads of blisters. We stayed with a couple of volunteers who had a big house where we were made very welcome. I cooked a meal for a crowd one evening, and realised how restricted the food options are there - I managed pancakes with bits of this and that, so it worked out ok.
We did a long walk over to Bon Fim which is in Brazil - there is a brand new bridge so that was quite exciting, and nice to see the river far below. Bon Fim was a bit of a disappointment, as we never really found the main part, it was early afternoon and everyone was on hammock duty.
Friday we tried to get a trip out to some waterfalls in the mountains nearby, but it seemed that everyone was busy with getting ready for the rodeo, so we could not arrange it. We walked over to an amerindian village instead which again was deserted, being Good Friday- everyone was off to church.
We walked over to the rodeo site on Friday and found a good ice cream stall - but things didn't start until the evening with a beauty pageant. So Saturday was the big day, with bull riding and bucking bronco. They had a stand with seating, and the whole thing was pretty well organised without big gaps. The events were a spectacle, with the bulls keeping the upper hand. Some of them were quite wild, trying to jump up and over the fencing, so that was a bit more exciting than expected.
The trip back was a bit of a nightmare 13 hours on a dirt road, pouring rain and a coach with no windscreen wipers - it was really great to get back onto tarmac for the last couple of hours. We did see some unexpected wildlife - a tortoise crossing the road, and lots of big 18 inch lizards.

Last day at the lodge

This morning we were meant to be getting a trip in a dugout canoe on the river, but it did not happen as the man´s cousin had borrowed the boat. It was explained that this is all part of the Guyanese culture, as things are often owned in common. We ended up walking along to a more habited place in the rain, then watching some people who were making and firing bricks. The river bank was a good place for watching the birds and the comings and goings of river folk. We were hoping to be able to see monkeys, caymans and giant river otters on this trip, so it was bit of a disappointment.
This afternoon we climbed a quite big hill behind the lodge. At the top were huge boulders, granite?, so we had a good vantage point for looking out over the savannah. The immediate thing that you notice is that the land is not fenced, there are just patches where villages have planted trees and set out houses. The ground here is very poor, white sand and scrubby grass.
Then we had a swim in the pool and yet another scrummy meal. It will be a bit hard getting back to normal tomorrow...