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.

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.