Back home!

Back home after the trip to Tobago. Yesterday we were swimming on the beach at Pigeon Point, which is where all the film stars go - white sand, palm trees, pelicans diving (and sand flies).
Guyana is like the 1940s, Tobago is like the 1960s, so coming back to the UK is a bit surreal. They say it is hot and humid here, but I felt cold this morning for the first time for a year.
Signing off the blog. Thanks for reading!

Postcard Tuesday

Adventure day - caught a bus over to Speyside and found the recommended "Red Man" to take us snorkelling - he also took us to land on the island of Little Tobago, passing Goat Island on the way where Ian Fleming used to live. Little Tobago is a nature reserve, we saw frigatebirds, pelcans, brown boobies, laughing gulls, terns and brown noddies! The snorkelling was real fun - we floated around above Angel Reef, spotting blue, yellow, red and black fish darting in and out among cushions of coral and trees of coral with white tips. It was difficult to get back home as no buses showed up but we were advised to flag down route taxis which have a P registration. They charge just double the bus fare. We got back to find that there was fruit available here for the first time - unlike Guyana where there is fruit on every corner. Someone should start a business shipping it over here!

Postcard Monday

Early swim at the nearest beach where the Beatles went. We tried in vain to find a bank that would change our remaining Guyanese currency. Strolled around the Botanical Gardesn, enjoying the peaceful trimmed neatness and parkland benches. Then caught the scheduled bus which was on time, clean, luxurious, safely driven and cost 40 pence to go to the other end of Tobago. Our apartment is beautiful, set up on a hill overlooking the sea and the rainforest. We need a bit of beauty to act as an antidote to Guyana. This place is a bit like Cornwall but hotter - with hair pin bends, pretty fishing villages and hidden beaches. We walked along a well used track to Pirates Bay for a swim. Here tourism is the second biggest industry after fishing, so the place is set up with trails, signs, benches and cafes. We had a great evening meal - tuna steaks, rice and loads of different vegetables (veg is hard to buy here, but fish is plentiful).

Postcard Monday

Postcard Monday

Postcard Sunday

Despite dire warnings that no tickets were available, we queued for stand-by tickets for the slow cargo boat to Tobago. We were relieved to get on, although amazed that there was masses of space so all the warnings were pointless. Six hours on the boat in the company of a dozen lorry drivers, passing Trinidad's misty hills and islands, rounging the western point close to the Venezualan coast, then along the north coast and across to Tobago. We spotted some dolphins and pelicans on the way.

Postcard Sunday

Postcard from Tobago - Saturday

Saturday
Taxi at 3 am, then a good flight to Tinidad. We went on a personalised tour by land rover all round the Northern Range of mountains including Asa Wright Nature Centre which has a grand house with a veranda overlooking bird feeders attracting hummingbirds, brilliant coloured small birds as well as agouti which are rodents about five times the size of a squirrel. We also had an adventure hike along trails and across streams to a huge waterfall for swimming. We stayed at a massive family house (our guide's mum) with myriad trees and shady verandas. She knew about architecture and took me on a tour of the good old and bad new buildings in Port of Spain.
Trinidad itself is a big shock after Guyana, it is like stettping from the 1950s to the 1980s. There are six lane highways, shopping malls, high rise blocks and a state of the art performing arts centre which looks like Sydney Opera House. It was built by the former president to show off to foreign leaders, but with zero consultation about what was required. The new president of Trinidad and Tobago seems to have been elected as a reaction to the bad behaviour of the last on who was "involved in all kind of stupidness".

Postcard from Tobago

Packing up, Leaving events

I am starting to feel sad about leaving the many good friends that I have made here. It feels a bit more final when you start putting things in the case. We can only have one case with 20 kg, so we have to leave a lot of stuff behind. People here are grateful for clothes - my landlady runs two old peoples' homes, and they always need things, if only for rags. Pensioners here only have the equivalent of 18 pounds a month, so they have to rely on local relations for handouts, or remittances from family overseas (over half of all Guyanese live overseas). I'm giving my bike to a new volunteer who needs to learn to ride it. I've helped her to scoot along on it, but she still needs to get both feet onto the pedals. We enjoy our challenges on VSO! Books go to the VSO Office, where they have a library.
Yesterday after work we went down to meet a choir friend at their church so that we could use the piano a bit just before their choir practice. St Andrews Kirk is the oldest church in continuous use in Guyana. It was also our last quiz night, we were one point behind the winners. Monday was a farewell meal for a group of volunteers at an organiser's family house. That was lovely as we enjoyed chatting to family members with young children as well as the auntie of the house who was a highly educated lady with interesting conversation.
Today we have a meeting with the director at work. I have to dress up smartly and shake hands and avoid sounding off about issues. This is hard for me as I have difficulty keeping my mouth shut! I am learning to be more accepting and have good grace.
Tomorrow we have a lunch at work as well as an early evening visit to our American friend to play a few hands of bridge, and enjoy her fine snacks!
We leave for our week's holiday in the Caribbean on Saturday very early. I may get to put more things on the blog while on the holiday, but we are planning to be in a fairly remote area. I will access email tomorrow Friday, but then may not be able to read it again until Saturday 23 July when I will be in London, God willing.

Leaving Do 2

Dancing at the leaving do.

Leaving Do

Yesterday was a special day as my landlady had a Yard Party for us. This is a picture of me reading my poem.

End game

Definitely getting on the end game now. I am still going round chasing up the last of the assignments for the visual impairment module. It is the last day of the summer term today, so I hope to get most of them, although one teacher preferred to come in on Monday and do the whole thing then - which means I probably will have to be her blind subject, wandering about with a blindfold... I had some good news yesterday, one of the teachers does sewing and showed me a tracing wheel which works really well as a pin wheel for making tactile diagrams. So we now have a low cost local version, using a piece of polystyrene as a mat (cut from the bottom of a fast food box).
My downstairs VSO friend is taking a few of us for a meal tonight - I have cooked her loads of dinners so this is her way of repaying. This will be a posh job, I will put on my long frock! But we can't be too late as tomorrow morning we have a birding trip with our local friend, so we are getting picked up at 5.15 am! On Sunday my landlady has a yard party (with caterers) at lunchtime, which is to celebrate her return to Guyana after being overseas for a long trip, and two of us leaving. I will read my poem there, it is easier than making a speech. I will also organise a bit of dancing - before we get stuck into the lunch. Monday night is a leaving meal for the World Teach volunteers to which I am invited.
I read my poem at choir last night, and told them how much I have appreciated their friendship and support - they have really been a family to me.

Poem

How do you Like our Beautiful Country?

It’s a difficult question without a doubt
It’s taken eleven months to find out
But now I’m leaving, I can reflect
I’m looking back with rose tinted specs
So forget the mosquitoes, rubbish and fuss
And the awful drivers on the minibus

Botanical Gardens with buttressed trees
Toucan calling in the morning breeze
Falcons hunting from the NCN tower
Kingfisher dives by lily flower
Caciques that squawk, humming birds flit
Cayman – just one foot long, I’ll admit!

Blue sky after a day of rain
Sea wall walks – saw a pelican again
Lily leaf offerings set afloat
Demarara view of a docking boat
Shady elegance along Main Street
Pineapple with ice cream today for a treat

Chatting in the yard with our landlady who
Says, “Find a little something you can do
Bring some teachers that you can train
They’ll come for the lunch at NCERD again
Who knows how things will turn out
When you’ve been here some months and found your way about.”

Special school visits by bus, ferry, bike
To listen to needs and find what they’d like
Working in the office, countless mugs of tea
Studying and working to discover how we
Can do training for inclusion, so we will
Banish despair and make hope possible.

My friends in the choir – you gave me a song
To sing in my heart when the hours were long
You let me sit beside you to struggle with the alto
Of ambitious cantatas, the harmony of calypso
You gave me insight into how you cope
With your Guyanese life, with faith and hope.

Soft lights of Diwali and Christmas dining
Meeting the Minister. music and wining
New Year fireworks as people stand
Mashramani parades and costume band
Muslim kasidas, Phagwah paint sprayed
Will it wash out? No, I’m afraid!

Dear VSO friends, if we’re smiling or we’re mad
You’ve put up with my worries, which can’t be bad
You’ve listened to my woes, you’ve cut my hair
You’ve suffered my cooking and the shortage of beer
So I thank all you people, as in God’s hand
I can now find the beauty in this land.

Caricom Day

Yesterday was yet another public holiday - Caricom Day. Guyana is part of the Caribbean first and foremost. Guyanese medics train in Cuba. Many Guyanese work in Trinidad as they can earn so much more. We also hear about links and agreements with many other countries, still the UK, but increasingly Canada. Large numbers of better qualified Guyanese are accepted for immigation to Canada, mainly in Toronto. The top schools are well supported by alumni organisations there. There are also doctors here from China who run the new hospital at Linden, and we read about aid and agreements with China to improve drainage and sea defences. But everyday the overwhelming influnence is from the US: the TV, the huge 4x4 vehicles which are so unsuitable for the small side roads here, the fast food outlets including a drive thru Kentucky Fried Chicken.
I'm getting a bit nostalgic about Guyana now we are closer to leaving. I've been cleaning up the flat and finding ways to answer the big question ... "So how do like our beautiful country?". I'm writing a poem about how it has taken me 11 months to answer it. The poem will be coming to this page soon!

Looking forward to leaving...

Two of my good friends are leaving this week. Yesterday one of them had a low key party, and was then going to start packing before getting a taxi at 8 am this morning. I think I will get my packing done a bit earlier than that! Another is leaving on Saturday. We are two weeks from leaving so there are various leaving things coming up. My downstairs friend is taking a few of us out to dinner at a posh place because I have cooked her lots of dinners, she is also leaving on the 17 July, but is coming back at the end of August. My landlady is going to do a leisurely outdoor afternoon event for us, with caterers doing the food. A local friend is organising a day trip on another day, so all in all things are hotting up.
At work I am getting the filing of paperwork sorted, then I will sort out the computer files. I'm still glad to be visiting schools to support ten staff doing the visual impairment module. One teacher finished her assignment today. For her tactile diagram she made a diagram of a big fish with real fish scales stuck on. The scales were from a massive fish, they were an inch across! If I have any time left over I will spend it doing a bit more work on my Maths Tactile Manual.

Course, Concert and Cake

I am pleased today to get most of the assignments handed back, so I have getting a sense of completion which is great. Next I am doing support for the half module option in visual impairment which is only being done by a few teachers, so it is more manageable.
Recently at work we have been running around to get the final accounts done for our training. We got Unicef funding so we had to do the accounting ourselves. My local counterpart was in charge, which left me to stand at the photocopier for ages getting copies of travel claims and receipts.
We have written a report on the training which I finished today including challenges and recommendations. I came up with three challenges. We were told to run a distance learning course, but some of the teachers who work in special schools do not have the academic ability to learn by this method. So I am recommending that additional training should be done with them to teach them the content. The second challenge is that the motivation to study is low. We are recommending that teachers get salary points for successful completion of the course. The third challenge is that there is no replacement for me when I leave, and I have been doing this full time for the last four months or so. So who will write the modules, produce them, go round the schools to support the teachers, organise the training days?
We had quite a quiet weekend. Yesterday we went to a concert run by a visual impairment cultural association - there were one or two good items, but otherwise it was rather an endurance test, including starting 50 minutes late - but that is not a surprise in Guyana. Last night I cooked a meal for a group of us including our VSO Australian friend who we visited in Mabaruma. She cooked us such a lovely meal in a pretty appalling kitchen, so I wanted to make a special meal for her. I did pancakes with lots of bits and pieces. But I think the pineapple and cinnamon cake was the best bit. Pineapples are dead cheap at the moment, you can get a small one for 30 pence. The main problem is that they make your teeth jump unless they are really ripe.
Tomorrow is police check day, it takes about four hours of standing in queues I understand...

Two good things

One of the challenges of working here is that reluctance of some Guyanese to share skills. Even though a local person is running training they are unlikely to want a trainee to get really good at things in case their position is usurped. They are even more reluctant to allow an outsider like me to come anywhere near in case that becomes uncomfortable for them. But things this week have resolved a bit in that it seems there is a need for training in JAWS (speech software) and there are people (including some users who are blind) who could do the training. So even though I'll no longer be here, one of my achievements could be to get this moving.
Another good thing is that the Disability Act has finally finally been ratified by the President. So there may be a bit more action now. On our blackboard at work I have written my motto (I can't remember where it came from) : To be truly radical we need to make hope possible and not despair convincing.

Good bits

As we get nearer to leaving we're making sure we appreciate some of the good bits of Guyana - so Saturday morning we had an early walk round the Botanical Gardens. Even after all our visits we can still find a completely new bird we haven't seen before, plus lots of old favourites. Whether you know the names or not they are so flamboyant as to be memorable.
We've done a bit of star spotting - the Southern Cross is familiar now low in the sky, and we see Orion high overhead (instead of on the horizon as in the UK).
The sea wall is always good for stretching the eyes and the mind on days when it is not too hot. At the end is a jetty where you can get a view down the Demarara River and spot the massive ships in the docks.
Last night we went to an amateur theatre show in honour of fathers. It had good variety acts, singing dancing and skits, as well as eulogies to five local fathers, read by daughters or wives. Then they were serenaded and had a smoochy dance on stage - very sentimental and Guyanese.
At work I have clear tasks to get done, marking assignments and chasing the missing ones. Then I have three weekd to support teachers doing the visual impairment option. I have a few more than expected so it'll keep me busy. On Friday I got interviewed for the TV, so now I have done all types of media.

Training Week

Having a busy week doing training days - today is the last one, so that will be quite a relief. We have had very good attendance this week so that is encouraging. We had sessions on teaching reading, teaching children of low ability, positive ways to manage behaviour. We had a massive discussion on Wednesday about corporal punishment in schools, which is still allowed here.
I've been supporting the teachers to get even better marks on their assignment this time round. So sitting through break and lunch pointing out where they could get a few extras. They are very proud and want to do well.