Yesterday was a special day as my landlady had a Yard Party for us. This is a picture of me reading my poem.
Monday, 12 July 2010
Friday, 9 July 2010
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.
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.
Wednesday, 7 July 2010
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.
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.
Tuesday, 6 July 2010
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!
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!
Thursday, 1 July 2010
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.
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.
Monday, 28 June 2010
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...
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...
Friday, 25 June 2010
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.
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)