Culture, theft, bikes and training

On Friday I went to a Hindu cultural evening which included a fantastic drumming group, musicians and dancing. I went with the new VSO who originates from Northern India, so she was able to explain what it was all about, as it was all in Hindi language.
During Friday night my downstairs neighbour had her laptop stolen - hooked out of the window by loosening the metal grill and passing it between the grill and the woodwork. She was out at the time. It is always upsetting when these things happen, but she does not follow security advice that we are given. She leaves her computer stuff on a table in full view right next to the downstairs window. Laptops are a major target - which is mainly why I don't have one, and rely on computers at work.
Sunday I attempted to teach the new VSO how to ride a bike - which she had never tried before. She managed pretty well, and got as far as scooting, balancing and starting with one foot on the pedal. Not quite got to the two pedal stage yet. I'm really glad to have had the bike because it gets you places quickly so I don't get so hot and sticky, also it makes it much easier to get around independently at night.
This week at work I'll be agreeing the plan for the next lot of training days which are in week beginning 14 June. I'm also going round the special schools giving support on Assignment 2, which is to do a case study on a child, plan how to adapt teaching for them, then try it out.
On Thursday this week we are off on our trip up river to Mabaruma, so I'll be out of email contact until Monday.

Looking forward

I am looking forward quite a bit now, trying to get the next steps organised. Next weekend we are off to Mabaruma which is in the north of Guyana. One of my close VSO friends got transferred up there, so it will be great to catch up with her again. It is a big wildlife area and good for walking, so I'm hoping to see all that elusive wildlife, even perhaps monkeys. We are going overland by speedboat and minibus, and stopping a night with another VSO on the way. Then we can catch a plane back, which will be my first flight in Guyana. Apparently the forest looks like brocolli from above.
I have got a flight sorted out which allows me to stop over in Trinidad for six nights at no extra cost. VSO get flights a lot cheaper as we are classed as missionaries (how many of us we can live up to such a claim?). We are going to get a boat over to Tobago and stay at the quiet, wildlife end of the island for a few nights in a self catering place. The tourist stuff talks of fantastic beaches, snorkelling, forests, waterfalls. We are going to spend the last night at the busy end so we are ready to get the flight back to Trinidad. Then arriving back in the UK on 24 July.
I'm also applying for jobs or hours at the College for next year.

New volunteers and getting used to change

We have three new volunteers which makes some new opportunities to meet up. We had a social on Friday evening at the rooftop bar. It actually poured with rain, so we had to be indoors, but it was still good to meet them as well as catching up with the other volunteers. There are not many now who have been here longer than we have, we are becoming the old hands. I was talking to a friend last night who started in November, and she is just feeling more settled. I reckon that it takes six months, that is about the time that I felt I lived here. Another volunteer was talking about the feeling that VSO is cutting a chunk out of your life, and that feeling lasts for quite a while, but then that changes into feeling that this is your life. I suppose it is all about acceptance of change. We had loads of training about that before we came out here, but it is a lot different when you are inside it.
Went to a dance performance on Saturday night, which was everything from five year olds to adults, and everything from ballet to break dancing, but it was a good varied evening with some good music. On Friday this week there is a Hindu event there, and one of the new volunteers (who is a sikh from Glasgow) will come with us - so we'll get a bit of interpretation hopefully.

Jobs, teachers, jollies.

I have just finished applying for a job at the College where I used to work in the UK - so it feels like I am getting closer to finishing here. The job is for an ICT teacher, which would be a bit of a change, but it would be a challenge, although a different one from the challenges here. I have to get a police check before I go. Another volunteer says that she got a police check from a different country that said "she is not a thief, and as far as we know has not murdered anyone". Hopefully the police checks here will be a bit closer to what is expected in the UK.
At work this week I've been chasing up the last of the assignments. I enjoy the bit where I go out into schools and meet with teachers. It's usually a few teachers at a time, and I now know them well enough that they will talk with me freely. There is a big range of ability among the teachers here. They get allocated to schools by the education department, who tend to send the more able teachers to the better schools - the special schools are the bottom of the pile. Also teachers are so poorly paid that they would not consider doing any work outside teaching hours. So reading a booklet may be beyond what they can do while they are supervising children with disabilities, as you can imagine.
A couple of jollies over the weekend - a gathering at a rooftop bar (sea views) to welcome the new lot of volunteers tonight - and a dance performance on Saturday. We find dance is fairly safe as you get music as well as a spectacle, but you don't have to try to understand jokes in the local creolese dialect.

Training and potluck

Last week was so busy that I did not get to do my second blog entry of the week. We ran training on Monday Wednesday and Friday. I was leading the days, although managing not to do too many sessions myself - but it is still quite a strain to hold it all together. Anyway it went well. We had more teachers attending on each day through the week, so the Monday lot can't have thought it was too bad! I got loads of assignments in, and spent Saturday marking them all (I'll take a day off sometime in lieu). This week I'lll be chasing up the missing one by the deadline on Friday. One of my main aims was to facilitate the teachers to share good practice. We gave up calling it that after Monday, and called it shopping instead. So half the group were vendors, and half shoppers. The vendors set up shop to talk to the shoppers about the activity they did for their assignment, and the shoppers paid by giving positive comments and asking questions. Then we swopped around in the afternoon. Teachers here don't like sharing ideas, so it was an achievement to get it to work.
There was a film festival last week showing European films for free so I enjoyed going to some of them.
The weekend was busy, with England winning the twenty 20 cricket, and I ran the potluck supper for the new VSO volunteers to meet the others last night, which went well.
Next excitement is that we are planning a trip to Mabaruma which is a great nature place up the coast, with a massive speedboat trip up a small river, and a flight back. Should be fun!

Canoeing and Training

On Sunday I went for a paddle in a dug out canoe - I was really pleased to have the authentic experience. It belongs to the VSO who I went boating with last weekend. She had it made locally (it cost her sixty pounds). She keeps it on the Demarara River, so it's quite close to Georgetown for a day trip - one hour on a minibus. The canoe is stored at the landing stage for a tourist site, and the trip she does is the same journey they do. This means that there are a few speed boats going by which means there is an option for rescue if we got stuck! First there's a long paddle across the big river, which yesterday was a very smooth crossing- then along the shore up to a small creek, which is then similar to the River Lugg size, only no rapids and bigger trees. We were going up on the tide but the timings were not quite right for the turn, so we had to come down against it. It was a great day for canoeing, cloudy so not hot. The canoe was similar to a canadian, but a bit less stable.
We did our first Training today, we had seventeen teachers instead of thirty expected, but maybe that was just as well on our first day. I arrived to find that the ceiling had been taken down in the room we were to use, so that was a good start. On the whole though it went well, in good humour, despite the snacks arriving an hour and a half late (not my fault).

Funding at last

We finally have funding to run our workshops next week, also for our three days in June. This is great news, as it has all been such a last minute job, you never know if it will run or not. It has been a bit stressful. Now I have been booking up who will come on which day, and getting all the paperwork sorted out. It feels much better when I can actually get on with it.
All the teachers from special schools (90) are coming, and bringing their first assignment from the course. The assignment includes that they need to try out a new activity with their class, and evaluate it. I have used the Reflect Plan Do Review method that we did last year at work. I was astonished that some of the teachers did not seem able to understand what I meant by an activity. They think that teaching is about writing on the blackboard. We have a long road to travel!
The main thing that I want to do on the course is to get them to share good practice. Teachers here are always criticised and blamed, so I want to try to get them to talk in pairs and small groups about activities they have tried, then they can take them back to their own school, and hopefully spread some new ideas around. In the process I hope they will learn to work together and support each other. Then in the future who knows what will develop. Ninety teachers all pulling in the same direction should be able to get some things changed for the better for kids with special needs?

Boating and Twenty 20

Had a great weekend at Rockview. It is on the Esseauibo River, which at this point is about a half mile wide, but there are huge islands which make it narrower. Another VSO has a flat bottomed boat there, which you paddle like a Canadian canoe, so that was great. We went upstream, as the current is a bit strong to venture down where there is faster moving water leading to rapids. We hoped to see monkeys, we heard howler monkeys but didn't see them. They have a spooky howl which reverberates around very early in the morning. We hunted for cayman - in the day and at night with a torch. We went into backwaters and swampy bits - I think I saw one slipping along about three feet long. We did have good views of red and greeen macaws, night hawks, toucans. I'd say there is more wildlife to be seen on the River Lugg! We are spoilt by watching too many wildlife programmes on the TV, we expect to see something around every corner.
We went to the Twenty 20 cricket yesterday, West Indies v England. It was in a huge stadium, all very well set up and organised. It rained a few times so the match was a bit messed up, but there was an exciting ending - they had to get 30 runs off 22 balls. The crowd went potty as the West Indies hit a good four and a single to win.