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...

Cock of the Rock

Today we had an early start, leaving at 6 am, to do quite a long walk along a jungle trail to get to the cave where the cock of the rock bird nests. This bird is very dramatic, being bright orange/red with a big crest on its head. We had a guide from the local village, who was very knowledgable about trees and their uses and birds. He was able to imitate the sounds of birds that he heard, which helps attract them to come closer. But it is still pretty difficult to see anything as the trees are so thick. Anyway, we did see lots of stuff along the way, including green and red macaw, swallow tailed kites, woodcreepers, woodpeckers, and we heard the screaming piha, which is a very loud caller but is a boring grey colour so is very hard to see. We also saw some amazing butterflies, including this bright electric blue one which I´ve seen at the other trip. It took three hours to get to the cave, but we were rewarded by seeing the cock of the rock, including going in the cave (below a massive rock) where they were nesting high up on the wall, among bats. The really interesting part is listening to how the local amerindian guide talks about the jungle trees and animals and shows such a close knowledge of the whole place. Afterwards we went to the village shop where the guide came from, where they had just butchered a cow, so there was a massive pile of raw meat on the table. I was asking what happened next, thinking that they would be distributing it around the village so that it would get used quickly, but they said they would be packing it up to go in the freezer - so that shut me up. However they do not have electricity in the afternoon here at all, so that does not sound too great. This afternoon was rest time - hit the hammock.
Tomorrow we are going on another early trip to canoe to two oxbow lakes where there is good birding, but also we may be lucky and see monkeys or giant river otters. I´d like to see monkeys as I haven´t seen any yet. We have been told to cover up and use insect repellent - they only warn you after you have booked! We have a boatman to do the canoeing, but I´ve asked to take a turn. They say that the boat will go round in circles, so I´m hoping to show a bit of expertise to control that.
Cheers Kate

Savannah

First day of my holiday. We travelled overnight from 9 pm to 9 am. The first excitement was that the windscreen blew out - it was pretty dramatic, but it was actually a temporary windscreen which was plastic. We drove along for quite a time with a howling gale coming through the front of the bus, but then we were transferred to another bus in the middle of nowhere. In fact a howling gale is quite a relief because it is so hot, even at night. After that we kept getting out every hour or so, either at a truck stop for cups of tea and loos, or because it was a police check point or customs. All the time it was dark we were travelling through the jungle, but there was a full moon, so you could watch the trees go by. I thought they would be massive trees, but it was mainly small trees with just the occasional giant. The road deteriorated into a dust road for most of the journey, which was dire in parts, with the bus barely managing 10 miles an hour, but other places was fairly smooth. Eventually it got light, and we had a ferry across a river which was a great dawn experience. Shortly afterwards we emerged from the jungle into the savannah which was quite a relief.
The lodge where we are staying is pretty luxurious, lovely food. In fact they had a volunteer from Canada who is doing a critique of food service in local tourist sites staying today, so we probably had even better food than usual! They have a little swimming pool, and quite an extensive kitchen garden, beautifully set out with raised beds just like a proper organic place. They try to be self sufficient in food as it is in the middle of nowhere.
In late afternoon we had a guide to take us on a nature trail, which was climbing up a hill nearby, so that was great as we could see right across the savannah. He was playing bird calls on his mobile phone which attracted some birds in. I suppose that is cheating, but is apparently quite a common way of making sure tourists do actually see something.
Tomorrow (6 am) we are off on quite a long but flat walk to a place where you are more or less guaranteed to see a coq of the rock, which is Guyana´s national bird. The day after (5.30 am) we are going to do a river trip by dug out canoe. There are cayman and giant river otters.
Sorry to make you all jealous...
Cheers Kate

Off on the trip tonight

Tonight I'll be on the overnight bus towards Lethem. It takes about 10 to 12 hours, partly on tarmac road, then on a dirt road. They wake you up every few hours and get you off the bus for security checks. So that all sounds pretty dire. We are staying three nights at Rockview Lodge which is an eco-lodge in the centre of Guyana, among mountains and good wildlife spotting country hopefully. There are various trips included in the package.
Then on to Lethem for three nights for the rodeo, which is literally a cowboy weekend. The first event is Friday night when there is a rowdy karioke night at the hotel. Apparently last year an american guy won it, and the local people were a bit angry about that and so it all got a bit out of hand. Let's hope the locals are better at singing this year!
Hope to get some good photos, and give you the lowdown next week.
Cheers
Kate

Out of contact from 26 March to 6 April

I only get internet access at work, so please don't expect postings to this blog after Friday 26 until Tuesday 6 April. This also applies to email, but I may be able to beg to use someone else's email to catch up at some point. Cheers