Derek and Trudy

The Upper Mazaruni Workshops in Kamarang

2010-02-04T04:50:00.000-08:00

It is with excitment and joy and that we took our 4th trip up to Kamarang to conduct the last of the workshops on Writing and Spelling to a group of committed Amerindian teachers who have travelled days to get there. The workshop was full, they arrived a day early and so I was able to help the schools update their School Improvement Plans before the start of the Literacy training.Over the last 9 months we have noticed the increase in daily flights to Kamarang , bringing goods for the community and for the gold miners who come into Kamarang to stock up.

Apart from the enthusiasm and laughter of the teachers and their hard work we are staying in the heart of the most unexplored rainforest in the world. The photos bear testimony to the remoteness and beauty of the forest and its rivers and waterfalls near to the Pakaraima Mountains and the Guiana Shield.

It is true of course that gold mining does cause deforestation in areas but considering serious goldmining has been practiced since 1849 only 4% of theis rainforest ( the size of England) has been destroyed. Nevertheless with the price of gold now at over $1100 US per troy ounce there are more unregistered small and medium mining operations going on all over region 7 and region 8 than ever before. (hence the increase in flights to supply Kamarang). It is why the Day of Action in Bartica on 1st February was so effective because the miners did acknowledged that they do have to be regulated more to increase the government revenue that is needed to improve the infrastructure in the back dam BUT not at the xpense of a 6 months shut down as they wait for their new licences to mine. Wonder at the beauty of this extraordinary country and know why we are going to miss this place dearly.

This is is the sharp end of the hot air abour climate change and Low Carbon Development Strategy

2010-02-03T03:22:00.000-08:00

On 12th December 2007 the Honorable Robert Persaud , the Guyanese Minister of Agriculture sat down with Junior Minister Pat Woolgas ( Department for International Development ) in Bali to discuss the handing over of the Guyanese rainforest ( the size of England ) to the British government for preservation in return for 'carbon credits'.He was acting on behalf of the President of Guyana Bharat Jagdeo. It was headline news in Britiain just before we left for Bartica and I became excited by the Reduction In Deforesrtation and Degredation of forests REDD) policy.
Two years and one month later the Honourable Robert Paersaud ( still Minister of Agriculture and now acting Prime Minister when the PM is out of the country) and the Honourable Robeson Benn Minister responsible for Mining came to Bartica to one of our schools on Saturday 30th January to meet with gold miners to try to cancel a proposed day of action. The Day of Action ( or inaction ...the call was to shut down Bartica for Monday 1st February) was called by a group of gold miners in Bartica becaus of impending new regulations which appeared to suspend mining operations for small and medium sized mining operations for up to 6 monhs as they applied for new mining permits. The Saturday meeting came as a result of a meeting the previous Wednesday 27th January which was attended by about 500 persons. Non political in flavour it outlined the government's intention to impose new mining regulations and indicated the strong feelings that Barticians had ..No wonder...The bulk of activity in the town depends on the money coming in from gold mining and on Monday the town shut down.
The protest march on Monday was trouble free, well organised , non political and bright yellow...the colour of support.Support came from the riverain communities as well as Linden and Mahdia, towns that depend on mining of one sort or another. Amazingly the 6 o'clock news on the government controlled channel showed no footage of the action and tried to portray the day as politically inspired by the opposition party. I saw no one shred of evidence for this view.The schools had few pupils attend and everyone in the town either joined the march around the town or stood by the side and gave their support. l

Christmas In Mississauga, Near Toronto

2010-02-02T12:42:00.000-08:00

From the global warmth of the tropics we decided in our infinite wisdom to fly North to spend Christmas with Trudy's brother and his family. They live just outside Torornto and told us casually as we arrived at the airport that it wasn't as cold as usual for the time of year. The temperature at the time was - 4C. They had brought warm clothes for us,so we clambered into a heated Lexus cruiser and made for the triple glazed draft proof splendour of their spacious house bedecked with Christmas cheer outside.It even had a bar in the basement which was nice.. and a jolly time was had by all throughout the festive season...

Baganara Just Before Christmas

2010-01-07T13:48:00.000-08:00

Just before Christmas we took a trip across the river to the island of Baganara which is the most expensive resort in the country. We went for the day with some friends. Just to say that the soothing feel of luxury oozed gently across the island all day. The weather was perfect, the swimming excellent, the beach as good as the beaches in Barbados and the company convivial. Not what you might expect a volunteer to be able to afford or contemplate doing, but for £15 it was worth it. We even played cricked and my back foot play needs brushing up even though the hands were high and well placed!!! (my judgement!)

. My friend Asim and I enjoy a restful moment on the beach whilst Trudy has her photo taken with her new friend Brad, an American volunteer teacher from Dallas Texas , who is a great guy doing good work in the local secondary school.

The island is alive with over 160 species of birds and on our visit we saw a number of these species including 3 species of hummingbirds.All this and we were the only tourists on the island that day. There has to be some way of developing the eco-tourism in Guyana

Kartabo's Place In Guyanese History.

2009-12-15T06:38:00.000-08:00

Kyk Over-Al is the oldest remaining ruins (c 1617) of colonial occupation in Guyana. A Dutch fort it was built on an island where the Mazaruni joins the Essequibo just South of Bartica and is in sight of the Cuyuni River. Apparently the Dutch the coastland area at that time as unfertile and preferred to trade with the Amerinidain tribes in the area ( mainly Arawaks and Caribs) . Nevertheless they established sugar plantations in Kartabo, where the Cuyuni joins the Mazaruni and used the local Indians as slaves.

There are few reamins of the houses and jetty in Kartabo but you can collect 17th century Dutch tiles on the beach and view the overgrown grave of a Dutch soldier in the grounds of the Primary school.Sugar growing quickly transferred to the coast later on but this tiny settlement of Kartabo was pivotal in the early cololnisation of the country.

It still has something to shout about...It has a 20 kilometres crater on Mars named after it. This was done in 1976 and is the only place in Guyana to have that honour...I wonder how many residents know about this....

Diaspora Projects and Relaxing on the Mazaruni and Essequibo Rivers

2009-12-07T14:33:00.000-08:00

A significant part of our work over the last couple of years is developing the links with short term Guyanese volunteers who now live in Canada and want to use their skills in a worthwhile manner. Bharat Mathoo ( see below) has been a school principal and head of Science in Torornto schools and he brings both teaching and administrative experience and because this is the third time we have met and worked with each other we were able to use his skills in a most effective way...For the first time in many moons primary school pupils visited their secondary school to be taught science in the brand new science lab at Three Miles Secondary School...

We set up the lesson as a ferensic laborartory with the pupils as ferensic scientists solving a crime using chemical indicatos to detect sugar and starch...simple enough you may say but it enables Bharat to embed the scientific method into the minds of the teachers who came with the group or took part in the workshop. Bharat buit strong links with the chairman of the region and in this way he gathered together some important chemicals.He also made contact with the National Centre for Educational Research and Development (NCERD) and trained up a handful of primary school teachers.

Meanwhile his colleague Pete Jailall a primary school teacher and writer/poet worked with teachers on our literacy professional development course and their pupils at the Learning Resources centre. These sessions also involved trudy and they worked very well. Here the teachers saw the literacy hour in action with plenty of interactive teaching and pace and fun.

Peter also lauched a new book o 17 poems for children called 'Our World' at the national Cultural Centre no less and I was very touched to be asked to introduce Peter. There were other writers there including Ian McDonald whose volume of poetry 'Essequibo' written back in 1992 is of particular note.Here is the mighty Essequibo at sunset at the Sharima crossing ...a marvellous site...We have not made much fuss about the rivers here but they are something else Indeed we discovered a sea shanty called 'Essequibo' sung by Martyn Simpson and the lyrics are here below..

The Essequibo River
traditional

Oh the Essequibo River
is the king of rivers all
Oh the Essequibo River
is the king of rivers all

Somebody oh Johnny Somebody oh
Buddy ta na na we are somebody oh
Somebody oh Johnny, somebody oh
Buddy ta na na we are somebody oh

The Essequibo bo'sun
is the king of bo'suns all
Buddy ta na na we are somebody oh

The Essequibo sailor
is the king of sailors all
Buddy ta na na we are somebody oh

The Essequibo captain
is the king of captains all
Buddy ta na na we are somebody oh

The Essequibo Judy
is the queen of Judies all
Buddy ta na na we are somebody oh

The Essequibo River
is the king of rivers all
The Essequibo River
is the king of rivers all

The othe photo is of the Mazaruni River just before it joins up with the Essequibo and it too is a a marvellous stretch of water that has its source in the Guiana Shield highlands close to the Venezuelan and Brazillian border.
I shall miss these rivers badly when I leave.

Kaiteur Overland

2009-10-14T11:48:00.000-07:00

All you computer geeks out there should check out the Kaiteur Falls on Google...the single biggest single drop falls that runs all year in the world (the Angel Falls in Venezuela is bigger but dries up for some time in the year)..Geologists reckon that the Falls has been like this for 250,000 years , that the rocks below are deadly slippery and that only a handful of people have abseiled to the bottom. It took us from Monday to Thursday afternoon to travel by minibus, a 4 x4, a river ferry journey three boat journeys three treks through the rainforest and a 1300 foot climb in 100% humidy at 34 Centigrade carrying rucksacs to get to the top.This was a trip and a half with 10 of our collegues and an Amerindian family who accompanied us throughout. It is rare these days to go somewhere so remote where very few people live and there are fewer tourists.It is even rarer for OAPs to get there like this.

The forest is undisturbed and although all rainforests hold within themselves all manner of flora and fauna ( the pictures are only a small sample) the place is a curiously friendly one to explore. Others more experienced than I have commented on this characteristic of the Guyanese Rainforest in comparison with the hostile flora of the Borneo, Indonesian and Madagascan forests, despite the Guyanese one being the least explored!
Trudy proved to herself that she is fitter than most people whatever age by getting to the top but I have never sweated so much in doing so...It was like being put in a bath before the climb and then climbingbut it was not as arduous as the Roirima trip last year. The Amerindian family especially the youngsters Roo ( a delightful 15 year old girl)David and George and their cousin Reuben made light work of it...bmy goodness they are fit and strong people...epitomised by the granny of the family who climbed with her babay grandson on her back in a homemade sling. We slept in hammocks and ate well if a little monotonously but the company was good and we had many laughs along the way. Abi's brother Matt had only been in the country a week and he was great, Jason typically made light of a troublesome toe and Chris our Peace Corp buddy from Bartica coped well with a nastly cut on the elbow..Well done Michelle for geting the whole thing organised..

The Last Week In August

2009-09-07T05:56:00.000-07:00

The week revolved around the friends we have made. Asim ( seen in the top photo) in the water with his employee and friend Frankie) hosted us for Portknockers's Day at the family firm's bush camp on the edge of the Essequib0...The day celebrates the early days of goldmining and there are various competitions, displays and exhibitions related to mining , and there is plenty of corporate drink flowing from early in the day...the excellent 10 years old rum and Banks and Carib beer as well as traditional miners food...cook up, chicken and rice, labba (meat from a large rodent found in the rainforest), wild deer, fish. Here we have Tyler and Chris and a few of their Peace Corps friends from Georgetown with Trudy entering into the spirit of the day. The day of course is focused around gold and one of the activities was batelling for gold...Here we have a photo of some recently panned gold done during the day.. I may also say that we had another chat with the Prime Minister Samuel Hinds ( following our talks with him at the previous year's porkknocker's day and at the Regatta Day in April.

Trip To The Upper Mazaruni

2009-06-15T05:51:00.000-07:00

A long time has passed since I updated this blog....No internet at home now because Inti the provider was 'stealing' the satellite signal apparently/alledgedly without paying his dues and my work load has been stepping up so it has been more difficult to update the blog.

For 2 weeks at the end of May and beginning of June we were in the Upper Mazaruni region, an Amerindian area populated by the Aracu close to the Venezuelan and Brazilian border.I went up several days before Trudy to visit the headteachers of 7 schools to discuss how they might use a School Improvement Plan grant to best use and to observe the teachers on our Literacy Professional Development course.
This remote area is only accessible by an hour's flight from Ogle Airport in Georgetown and the grass strip I landed on at Paruima was only feet from the steep bank of the River Kamarang.(see above)

Paruima was a surreal experience in many ways...I spent three nights there ( no electriity and a standpipe for water in the middle of the village) but a beatuiful village where litter was rarely seen and the in large part the houses and compunds were very well maintained
Here there was no alcohol but a strong 7th Day Adventist presence which infused the lives of almos all the community. They played sport every evening (football,volley ball,cricket,swimming - both men and women)very well and supported the village activities with zest and without rancour). Yet where is their Amerinindian culture...In their language , of course, which they use between themselves and in Village Council meetings , even on Independence Day there was little evidence. One old boy offered to dress up for me in his costume and dance but I declined (A fee was involved!)
Audrey Robertson the head (See the first picture) is a strong leader and a great force for progress. She has the loyalty and devotion of her staff.

The region has several rivers -the Mazaruni,the Kamarang,the Kako and so I travelled on several boats during the stay. Fuel is over twice the price of that in Bartica and this restricts the movement around the region.
You can see by the picture of the maccaw and the yellow tailed snak that we did ncouter some of the local wildlife but it was the sound of howler monkeys inthe middle of the night in the darkest hour before the dawn that was unforgettable- an eerie wind that comes and goes howling in the centre of the night..

The ODIs West Indies versus England

2009-03-24T10:19:00.000-07:00

There is a widespread, resigned belief that events in Guyana do not start on time and are not as well organised as they could be.. But that has been proved wrong in the case of the two One Day internationals held at Providence over the weekend.

Trudy and I went both days with friends and had a brilliant time..The crowd were noisy,enthusiastic,friendly and knowledgeable. It was a Guyanese /West Indian crowd with a few Brits!! Again the English were put off travelling to Georgetwon because of its reputation as being unsafe ( certainly not justified considewring that Kingston and Port Of Spain were on the tour itinerary) and beacuse it is pricey to get here..The absent fans missed a treat. We shared good humoured banter with those around us all through the two days...What a great place to watch cricket with not a spare seat to be had!
The organisation was spot on - food and drink reasonably priced, washrooms clean and the stewards friendly and well briefed.
As for the the cricker, well it was enthralling.The Guyanese duo Sarwan and Chandrapaul were brilliant on both days and Chandrapaul's 26 off Harmison (5 fours and a 6) will live long in the memory) as indeed will Harmy's comeback on the Sunday and his brilliant catch denied by a no ball!
The weather wasn't bad either!! but too hot on Sunday to be comfortable.
Clearly it made a difference to the whole ambiance of the day that the Windies won on the Sunday(and should have won on the Friday I think) and it did soften my disappointment at the result but make no mistake...the English team played well and hard against a strongly emerging West Indian team ..Anderson was cracking and Strauss played a fine innings on Sunday without the usual back up from one of the middle order.

Cricket was lovely it truly was..

Later, off the field, Trudy met Chandrapaul (see photo) I passed a few words with Michael Holding and Sir I.T. Botham and we had a pleasant evening...I saw the disappointment on the faces of some of the English team who disappeared off early...

Expanding Our Work To The Upper Mazaruni

2009-03-01T03:52:00.000-08:00

This week saw us taking a plane from Georgetown Noth West across hundreds of miles of rain forest to the edge of Region 7 near the Venezuelan border - to a tiny place called Kamarang. Here we were training teachers to teach literacy skills in a more inteactive way ...All the schools here are scattered across an amazing area of rivers and rainforest... and most of the teachers had to travel a fair way to reach Kamarang.
The teachers and children are exclusively Amerindian and are delightful to work with. The teachers are hardworking and so appreciative of us coming..They live a simple life...no cars, restricted food stuffs and electricity for just 4 hours in the evening.
The life is quiet and gentle here,but there is unemployment and men hang about the bars and stores...waiting for Godot!!
We intend to return several times over the next few months but travel is expensive and we have to secure the funding.

The Bartica Learning Resources Centre

2009-02-14T17:14:00.000-08:00

The Learning Resources Centre in Bartica was opened in October 2007 and quickly became the best used in the whole of Guyana.From the photos you can see that it looks pretty well equipped ...but working there every day we know that to develop the work and keep it going long after we leave in 2010 the Centre needs more money . In England it takes about£4 -£5000 per pupil every year to educate them in school. Here £5000 would run the Centre for 18 months including the cost ofthe salary of the support teacher during that time.

Many children who come to the Centre cannot read despite being in school full time. We guess about half the children find reading very difficult. This is because a lot of the teachers are untrained and don't really know how to teach reading and writing well. They themselves have left school at 15 and gone straight into the classroom.

We have to find money for all kinds of projects in order to develop the materials and the equipment in the Centre to make sure that we help and support both children and teachers to improve reading and writing. We have groups of children in the Centre all year round, including the holidays: we have teachers in to train them to teach literacy more effectively and sometimes they bring their classes with them to teah the Literacy hour.
BUT ....This constant use of the centre means that faclities and machines break down and resources run out

At the moment we are constantly asking the Regional Office to fix the supply of water for the toilets (there is no water at present - the outside rainwater tanks are blocked up!!), some panes of glass are missing and the photocopier has to be repaired to work again. A new computer hard disc is waiting to be replaced for the second of the two computers and there are not enough attractive reading books and games as well as paints and paper and Lego equipment to cope with the demands of around 25 children who attend the Centre everyday. There are also the Holiday Reading Courses, the professional development course for teachers and community courses for people who live in Bartica.
YET WE STILL HAVE PLANS TO HAVE MORE PEOPLE USE THE CENTRE ( E.G. Mother and Toddler groups, children who have disabilities - many of these children don't even go to school, people who want to develop hobbies like reading for pleasure, and improve their sewing).
We know that Greenway Middle School in Royston, Hertfordshire has raised some money for the Centre THIS IS BRILLIANT!!! and we are keen to see some photos of the young people who have raised the money to put up in the Centre.
The writer Philip Pullman is also supporting the Centre and so is Volunttary Service Overseas and the Canadian Education Development Agency. Be assured that the money goes directly to helping the children to read!
A BIG THANK YOU TO ALL OF YOU!!

THE WORLD WE HAVE LOST AND FOUND

2009-02-14T03:46:00.000-08:00

It's Valentine's Day and we have been in Guyana for exactly one year.So this is an important milesone for us...from now on it's on the home run and a good time to look on what has happened to us over the last 12 months. We have lost, albeit temporaily, a way of life in England that immersed us for nealry forty years for an entrance into a way of life that all the TV documentaries, trawls through the internet sites or email conversations could not have prepared us for. The assault on the senses and the routines of daily life have absorbed us for 12 months and in somerespects they have let us take part in a world that we have lost in England..small children as young as 4 walking happily to school, secondary school aged boys in shorts playing games of marbles with intensity, playing cricket using a piece of hard wood for a bat, Sundays where few shops open and the majority go to church......I record these examples not because of a longing for an Arcadian past that never existed anyway but as a stark reminder of global inequality in the way peoples live their lives.....
For there surely was a time in Britain when children with severe disabilities ( e.g. blindness, dunbness,deafness, Downes Syndrome) never went to school ....that still happens here..
Where secondary school aged children walked great distances to school and didn't have any lunch...that is a concern we have with youngsters from the Riverain areas,....
Where adults in their 40's and 50's die suddenly from strokes, heart attacks,epileptic fits because the medical facilities and expertise is not in place...

Nevertheless I have had a great time here in Bartica. I love the place despite the many shortcomings - the rubbish, the beakdown of essential services (water and electricity), the lack of urgency to get anything done.. I like the friendliness of the people, the climate, the rainforest, the wonderful rivers, the astounding variety of bird lifethe boat journeys, the absence of traffic lights or risk asssessments or just being able to buy the sweetest imaginable pineapple or the freshest freshwater fish or a chilled jelly coconut from a passing vendor. And of course our interesting, funny, quirky, resi.lient, inventive, energetic colleagues also doing V.S.O.

Now we have established a reliable internet connection hats off to Skype and the internet which has enables us to keep in close contact with the family although I must remeber to dress properly for the occasion...These blasted built in web cams work really well and reveal our lack of clothing sometimes....well it is mighty hot here every day...temperature at the moment around 30 degrees Centigrade...and even at 7.00am it is in the high 20's. They celebrate St. Valentine's Day here very seriously so Happy Valentine's Day to you. Tomorrow we are off up the river to see our friend Ian , walk around his 10 acre rainforest estate and have a barbeque..
'Ah! Such is life!' mused Mr. Grinling

Tobago in the New Year

2009-02-01T13:21:00.000-08:00

New Year's eve was a wash out!! It rained for 7 hours straight form early evening and that flooded out the clubs where we had planned to see the Old Year's Night turn into New year's day. Such a disappointment because people in Bartica do know how to party...Frankie our friend came around to see in the New year in, we watched CNN for a bit and then went to bed. A couple of days later we found out that The Garden bar did reopen on the morning of the 1st January to party but we missed all that because we are not yet in the know of the social scene to that extent....

But our trip to Tobago from the 5th - 10th January was a New Year's treat that went beyond our expectations . We stayed with a an old friend from Oxford days in her beautiful house overlooking the Atlantic Ocean . It was not far from the airport and so we were quickly into holiday mode. Despite being in her early eighties, she retains a zest and enthusiasm for life that is impressive. Her house is big and wooden and full of books and original paintings by Trinidadian artists and we were only too glad to fulfill our part of the deal... to do the cooking. The weather was warm without being oppressive and the house oozed a relaxed style. There was an immaculately maintained swimming pool in the garden which she almost never used now and during the week we were able to visit several lovely beaches and places around the island. It is has a rugged unspoiled hilly coastline and we relished the smooth, sandy, litter free beaches and the clear blue Caribbean sea. The contrast with Guyana was stark... Here was a developed island full of good roads and restaurants and whose taxi drivers had a friendly, infectious manner. Clearly the revenue that Trinidad and Tobago gain from oil and the small size of the country have contributed to their development, but the Guyanese tourism industry could learn some valuable lessons from the way the people in Tobago market and present their tourist attractions.

2008-12-28T03:27:00.001-08:00

The photographs are pretty dreary and do not reflect the kind of Christmas that we had which was very different but a lot of fun...We went to a Christmas Eve party...Brazilian style where a suckling pig ( complete with apple in the mouth was roastedon the barbeque... and we saw in Christmas day at midnight with a toast..
Then on Christmas Day we set off across the river ( accompanied by the one other VSO person wo lives in Bartica -Tess We were invited Christmas Dinner with a reamarkable black American woman Joyce who now lives in Guyana It was a great setting for Christmas Day. We met Tony her English yatching friend and John an American yatchsman and his two kids (his wife was recovering from a bout of typhoid).. A good time was had by all and we drank a very passable Argentinian red wine most of the day...the meal took a long time to prepare...Joyce is not used to having 12 for dinner ( the unknown to us the gas gave out ) but the food was finally cooked and served by early evening. The food was worth waiting for...turkey and all the trimmings and a good time was had by all....
Boxing Day and there we are at our neighbour Carlos's house drinking whiskey and enjoying the live Premier League football... Carlos came from St Lucia originally and a good guy to know...told us how to get cheap international calls and he can get us tickets for the cricket (West Indies versus England in March in Georgetown). Lucia and her friend Blanca from Mexico came to visit us ,

2008-12-12T04:48:00.000-08:00

Some three Sundays ago this little fellow appeared at the bottom of the 'garden' (really a swamp)of our house, the tail end of a creek. The locals were not surprised because they appear and disappear regularly. The caiman was not particularly large , poodled about for a bit and then sauntered off into the middle of the swamp. The animals in the rain forest keep well hidden and you have to know where to look and for us the real delight of where we live is the huge variety of birds. I just bought a two volume book on The Birds of Northern South America and there are over 2,300 species/sub species listed. We have seen and noted about 40 but the more you observe you realise that what you thought was the same species is in fact different. Next February is the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin and what better place to celebrate this important event than in a country like Guyana. That said many of my friends here do not believe in evolution but me and Ian Scott ( another big fan of darwin) are working on that.

2008-12-04T05:42:00.000-08:00

Around Bartica Christmas officially started on 1st November when the first CDs of smaltzy Christmas hits of the last 40 years oozed out of homes around 6.00 am. We in Britain are used to an extended Christmas preparation but in Guyana they have taken it to a new level. However, this is a sign not for buying masses of presents but for cleaning up the house, replacing the worn vinyl and buying new furniture. Temporary stalls have been set up to meet the seasonal demand We too will think about buying some decorations ( plastic, garish, made in China mostly)

Our Education Office is not immune from this ritual and for the last couple of days, we have had the tops of our desks cleaned, new vinyl put on the floor and the room partly repainted. This is not unwelcome because the working environment here is not good. There is no recognizable filing system , 4 of the 7 computers ( including my own do not work at present and were sent away for repair back in July, and letters and documents get lost easily

We like to think that we can overcome such obstacles ( like using our laptop at work -NOT a good idea) but the patience is wearing thin at the end of the term, working in this disorganized environment. It is best to work away from the office but at this time of the term there is little or no work going on in schools to speak of and so we turn our attention to holiday reading course and preparing the programme for next term.

Visit a School on the Cuyuni

2008-10-29T16:57:00.000-07:00

From now on I shall be writing the blog with primary school children in mind. Many schools study the rainforest and there are plnty of excellent books and videos on the subject but it is not common to read a blog from someone who lives on the edge of the greatest unexplored rainforest on the planet and who works with schools in the rainforest.I welcome questions and comments particularly children from Brighton schools and schools in East Sussex and, most particularly to start with, from the pupils in Year 5 at Balfour Junior School because Mrs Parfitt has contacted me directly.
Yesterday I visited an Amerindian school in the rainforest on the banks of the Cuyuni River. I live in Bartica in Guyana which is 45 miles down the Essequibo river (the 3rd largest river in South America). That means that it is a big river!. Bartica is on a peninsula for when the Essequibo reaches Bartica it separates first into the Mazaruni river and then it too separates into the Cuyuni river. Look it up on Google Earth. The school, Batavia Primary School is on the left bank of the Cuyuni a couple of miles up river. The river attracts many gold mining dredges which work around the clock sucking up the sand ,sifting it so that they can extract the gold. These operations do cause damage to the river because they use mercury in the process . However it is the land mining that causes the greatest damage,so use Google to view videos of 'Goldmining in Guyana' to find out more.
Most the pupils at the 79 strong school come by boat , some in their own canoes and they are all Amerindians. I am there today to discuss putting in a solar panel for electric lighting and to see if we can improve the library. Only about half can read and this is my main job - to improve literacy. You can find out about the history of the 9 tribes of Amerindians that live in Guyana on the interet. Many of the children's fathers mine in the forest but some remain to run boats up and down the river or farm in the surrounding area.

On the way back to Bartica we ran into a heavy rain storm and because the river Essequibo is about 2 miles wide around Bartica the water was very choppy. Still we dried up quickly because the temperature was 35 degrees Centigrade and it rains at least once a day evry day!

2008-09-09T10:36:00.000-07:00

We can now conteract the wet steaminess of the afternoon heat by taking to the hammock on the bacony ( as seen above) and the view from the back door not only shows the splendid washing line and the foreign pine trees planted as part of a failed scheme to grow soft wood in the rain forest but it overlooks a swampy area renowned for its caiman activityat night!! The house has its rough patches but it is airy and light during the day time and we can work on making it more comfortable...I get cable TV today ( which I never had in England) and this will allow me, amongst other things, to see premier league games live courtesy of Fox Sport channel ( yes I have sold out).

One of the best features of the new place is that we can have friends around without giving them claustrophobia. We are looking forward to that .

Work is beginning to get more complex ...2 workshops coming up this week ( one in the secondary school) and this at the time when Trudy is going back to England for 3 weeks for the funeral of her Uncle Aubrey. She leaves on friday so I will have to look in at the resources centre every day for that time. Still it does keep us active and busy and time passes swiftly.

Starting A New School Year

2008-09-05T11:23:00.000-07:00

These photos are a small reminder that we are living in a most extraordinary country when it comes to animals and plants. The grey patterend moth (below)is at least 25 centimteres across ( 10 inches). I photographed it coming out of the resources centre early one morning. I thought it was a bird! The beautiful markings made it a breathtaking sight. Some days later I photographed this gorgeous fling beetle (above) on the wall of the resources centre. I reckoned it to be 7 inches long ( about 17 centimeteres). Again the markings are astonishing and we stood looking at it in wonder. Well the frog on theright we saw on the top of Mount Roirama. Its yellow belly contrasted with its jet black upper body and as far as I am aware it is the only frog that is unable to hop ( I may be wrong on this!!- those of you who have been watching the BBC TV programmes 'The Land Of The Jaguar' will know how many new species were discovered during the filming of those programmes. Just yesterday Trudy saw a small crocodile walking across the path near our house and we have rather large bats roosting in the roof of our ne place!!Yes we have moved to a bigger upstairs flat really with 3 bedrooms and a bigger kitchen and bathroom. We are having one or two bits of furniture made and we are going to buy a twin tub washing machine to prevent any more of our clothese being bleached out. Cable TV is on the cards and because we now have a balcony means that we can now put a hammock up and enjoy a relaxing time after work. Schools started back this week but it does take a while for them to get going. Tragically on the night before the first day back 3 girls died in a dormitory fire in the secondary school near the Venezuelan border ( we only have 2 secondary schools in the whole of the region). The dormitory was refurbished not so long ago but it is still an old wooden building without electricity (the generator is broken) and the only sources of light at night are candles it was a disaster waiting to happen ...Imagine the outcry in Britain if such a tragedy happened. But it was not the only deaths on the opening day of the school year . A 9 year old girl downed in the latrine of her primary school in another area of the country. If there was any doubt that this was a developing country in need of outside aid , these two incidents put to rest any debate aboiut the matter.We carried on working with minimal discussion The Ministry is putting pressure on our region to improve our literacy rates but actually the Grade 6 results in Maths and English rose after two previous years of decline!! That is a small glimmer of encouragement but there is masses of work to do yet.

The trip to Venezuela and Mount Roraima

2008-08-08T08:18:00.000-07:00

It is some time since I have written on the this blog. We were on leave from Friday 18th July to 1st August and most of that time was taken up with travelling through Guyana South to Lethem and then through Brazil and Venezuela to St Elaine. This sounds pretty straightforward.it was not.The 350 miles bus trip to Lethen, as an example took 34 hours. We had to stop twice on the road in the middle of the rainforest, firstly to let the water flooding the road to drain into the creek ( 3 hours) and thenlater in the afternoon we broke down because the drive shaft fell off the Mercedes built 52 seater coach as a result of the harsh conditions of the road ( 8.5 hours). Undaunted , we met with our tour operator in Lethem 18 hours late and Frank, a cross between el tel and del boy...charming withit, drove us to the start of the 6 days trek to Mount Roraima and back. Initially we were 8 VSOs and one supremely experienced and pleasant guide Alex, ( from our region in Guyana)his 10 years old son Albero ( who had already climbed the mountain twice before ) and was a delight to have along, but we were joined by a young American woman Courtney who lives in Venezuela, and Irishman David who was climbing the mountain for the second time in a week!!
Roraima is one of the oldest places on the planet ( about 2 billion years old, not 300 billion as i though!!!) , is a tepu flat topped sandstone block that rises above the savannah lands to the South and the rain forest to the North. it was the inspiration for Conan Doyle's Lost World and is a reamrkable place to visit...it has about 1000 species of flora and fauna that are indigenous to it, is almost always wet and cold at night ( 9,270 feet ) and has been uninhabited since the dawn of time.

We made it to the top and back.There were many difficult bits apart from the climb...the river crossings were tricky because the water was high, the loose rocks make it de rigeur that you concentrated every step of the way and way to and from the mountain was up and down. Nevertheless Trudy was a star climbing up the mountain,despite her fears that she wouldn't make it, but we both found it hard going despite our walking around Bartica's hills. However it was a wonderfully supportive group and we had a brilliant experience. Photographs and short video clips will follow.
The journey back from Lethem to Georgetown was just as fraught ( we travelled in a minibus that had an overheating radiator and we had to stop every few miles to top up with water, but we made it back safely. We want to thank the Aussie VSOs Teddy and Vanessa,who live in Lethem, for their hospitality ...they were so welcoming and helpful when we were delayed coming back.

The end of term and looking forward to the Mount Rioraima trek

2008-07-12T12:27:00.000-07:00

saturday 12th July 4.50pm Temperature 33.9c

Schools closed on Friday 4th July and we attended a flurry of graduation ceremonies that were held in Nursery and Primary schools. The dressing up of the pupils as young as 4 in full gowns and mortar boards and the presentation of laminated certificates in transformed child friendly rooms watched by adoring parent(s) all dressed up to the nines took us aback. All that creativity and effort and expense for those ceremonies contrasted starkly, for the most part, with the dullness and lack of initiative of the poorly resourced teaching and learning lessons. (PICTURES TO FOLLOW IN A FEW DAYS)....The Internet connections recently have been bad....
Because the last 3 weeks of term were taken up withese preparations and therefore there was no teaching to speak of we spent our time logginging in data of the grade 2 and 4 tests ( equivalent to the SATs tests) onto a data base for the first time in the region's history so that we have a abaseline of sorts to work from. It is tedious but we think invaluable for the future..

GOOD NEWS...we have secured a bigger house, have insisted that major refurbishments are carried out before we move in, and that has been agreed. technically the house will be ready by the 15th but we will not move in until we have come back from the Mount Roiraima expedition ( 10 day trip in all...see picture for views from the top). Mount Roiraima is on the border with venezuela and we will have to travel into brazil and Venezuela to climb it. It is the highest mountain in Guyana , approximately 9,700 feet and is regarded as one of the olderst and curious places on the planet....300 billion years old ( if you believe in the scientific evidence) and the setting for Conan Doyle's The Lost World..We go on Friday 18th July and it should be a memorable but wet experience....!! Watch this space

The Rainy Season in bartica and at the Kaiteur Falls

2008-06-02T07:12:00.001-07:00

The rainy season in an area that already has a daily fall of rain and humidity above 90% would appear to hold few surprises except but nothing prepared us for the first intense downpour of the season. It lasted about 25 minutes and in that time the hill behind us was awash with rushing torrents that tore down the side of the house in the concrete gulley and out to the ditch trenches at the front of the house, soon filled to overflowing. The noise on the tin roof was deafening and then just as quickly as it appeared, the rain stopped and the intense sun came out. Within the hour the outside eaves of the house were infested with winged flying insects, small and packed in great clouds and they too disappeared as soon as nightfall came. This is the kind of pattern we can expect over the next few weeks and we just hope that they finish the new gulleys at the side of the secondary school before too long , otherwise they will be washed away.

And so to work. We are running joint sessions with classes of children and their teachers and we have held two meetings with the teachers of the immediate region on the fun way to teach word blending and phonics with action and the importance of reading stories to the children every day. The second session was unexpectedly shortened because the regional Director of Education wanted to talk to the group about year plans – and gave us no notice of this change but what she says goes here and that was that. Nevertheless we will follow up the work in schools and press the teachers to buy books from the Guyana Book Foundation and more teachers are coming to use the centre.

The trip to the Kaiteur Falls (the largest single drop waterfall in the world and 4 times the height of Niagara was supposed to take place on the Thursday but the weather conditions for flying were too poor around the falls and we went the next day . That too was delayed for most of the morning and so we were surprised when we got the all clear to take off in the rain. Flying in a 5 seater aircraft in bad weather over one of the most human free areas of the world was an experience. Yet the flight was not all in cloud, the endless rainforest looked reassuring like broccoli and the sun emerged as we flew over the falls and landed. We were the only 5 people to visit the falls that day (average number of visitors per year is 4,000) and we were able to view the Falls close up…very close up in three different spots. It was a memorable experience - truly a little known wonder of the natural world. The yellow frog we saw in the plant was barely one inch long but deadly to its prey and the several unique species of plants that we say were again testament to the remoteness of this pristine rain forested area. Do check out the link to the article on the falls ion the website and apologies to the photos that give little evidence of the overwhelming size of the falls

More thoughts on life in Guyana -South from Bartica

2008-05-06T08:23:00.000-07:00

Last Tuesday I visited 2 schools...one by boat and one by road. I went to see how they were spending their $1,00,000 Guyanese grant(about 2,500GBPS) to improve facilities in the school

Most of the time was taken travelling to and from the schools .Both are small primary schools whose headteachers are recently appointed and committed.

Itaballi is a small settlement on the banks of the Mazaruni and is a crossing point for miners on their way into the 'bush' It's a throw back to the wild west a 24/7 place with bars and girls and that has an impact on the school population..There is limited electricity at the school, poor water supply and the teacher houses nearby have a stove and a bed in them. Their grant was spent on a school fence and increasing the number of black water tanks on the site thereby improving the sanitation. the black rainwater tanks hold about 450 gallons each and are a feature of every building in Guyana. It's the school's only water supply and when that runs dry, it's off to the river to collect the water. Still the head has managed to save some money for extra precious books and these will be bought at the Guyanese Book Foundation in Georgetown who match any funding that schools have. The boat trip there was beautiful and relaxing

Then in the afternoon it was a 28 mile journey South of Bartica along the line road to Winneperu Primary School to see the improvements to the building that they are carrying out. The money is enabling basic improvements to be carried out -a new sanitation block, a school fence around the school, a bigger kitchen, refurbishing the old kitchen and turning it into a library and that is a few steps forward!! ( money from the World bank well spent! and well administered !). Still there is a significant reliance on the local community and PTA to contribute running and labour costs and those contributions vary from school to school.

This road is the main artery South into Region 8. Travel is slow along the road ...we did the journey in 1 hour 40 minutes which was good going , but it can take up to 3 hours. The school has no telephone connection and relies on the local woodmill to take calls. The road is in need of constant upkeep to remain open and here we have a picture of loam being laid on the surface to flatten it out.

One of the most extraordinary features of this journey is that there is unbroaken rainforest on either side of the road. Admittedly there are a couple of tracks off to a small Amerindian settlements but what we are seeing as we travel along is a glimpse into a landscape that has not altered in thousands of years. There is something magical about that ...it's a landscape that carries the memory of itself and does not easily give up its secrets. It broods on the side of the track ,waiting for you to venture in and discover its wildlife,its plantlife,its landscape. it's not flat, the forest is in rolling countryside and it's noisy with the constant sound of insects and birds ( especially parrots) . The rainforest area is vast and I just beginning to realise this...I've to travel up this road to 72 Miles School soon, but that is at leasta a 2 days trip and probably even longer.

Daily Life In Bartica

2008-04-07T07:01:00.000-07:00

April 7th
A bit about the daily life in Bartica..It’s up about 5.45am woken by a combination of cocks crowing, sound systems from Cindy’s Snackette or even the Secondary School Dormitory starting up and then there's the heat of the sun (nearer the equator so the sun is high y 7.30am),…..then put the water to boil up for coffee. If the water supply is on then the cold shower and a shave, otherwise it’a the bucket bath and the collection of water from the tanks just out side the backdoor. Put on the roti plan and make toast ( guava jelly to put on it) and the fresh fruit ( depending on season … a combination of some of the following….pineapple, passion fruit, oranges, water melon, banana, paw paw.. then most days Derek does the washing of clothes by hand ( cold water in buckets outside the back door) to hang out to dry for the eveningThen leave the house and cycle to work ( about10 minutes) to arrive just before 8 o’clock…
(This ritual will change in the coming weeks because we will be in local schools or at the Learning Centre which is close by). Work for Derek finishes about 4.30pm but Trudy stays on at the Learning Centre for another hour to lend books to children who come and like to play games and hear a story from Trudy.. Then it's another welcome cold shower change a cooling drink, eat and then DVD or a little work or a drink with friends to be in bed by around 9.30pm...

Sights not seen often in Preston Village

Man on a motor cycle, driving along with a wheelbarrow on his head

Man riding a bicycle without brakes but stopping deftly by using his right foot on the back tyre…

3 children riding a bike with the front child waving a cutlass( a machete)
Donkeys, goats, chickens, horses, cows , dogs wandering unaccompanied along the roads

Minibus loaded with 20 passengers travelling through small villages on the coast road out of Georgetown at a cool 75mph in a 70Km per hour zone

Eastertime In Region 7

2008-03-28T07:47:00.000-07:00

The Easter weekend has come and gone and we had a good time in Bartica. It's the time of the regatta which turned out to be a beach party watching a series of fast speedboats racing around the bay..it doesn't sound much but with sound systems blaring out funky tumes enough to make your chest vibrate and plenty to eat and drink the Sunday afternoon passed very pleasantly- I recognise the sound was dangerously loud but

in Guyana that is the norm and you have to accept it. Here we are on easter Monday chilling out at the motocross event across the river at Karou Creek...from left to right Frankie the taxi driver, Dr. George a Cuban doctor who loves all things Brazillian, Dr. Marshall another Cuban doctor ( no kidding!) who is into football, Trudy, me, Ian the former VSO who lives in Bartica, Asim the ebullient entrepreneur who seems to know everyone and Simone the partner of Malcom who took the photograph - she is Canadian and he is a gold miner. It was party time for 3 days Guyanese style, and now it's back to work and at present this is in limbo mode...the schools are closed but we have to report in and there is very little we can do.....not that anyone else seems to be doing much...but VSO told us it would take time to get established and to be patient...

We go to recieve our first month's pay in a couple of days ( about $ 225 ) and from our perspective we really begun to earn it yet but it is early days.

Meanwhile we take as normal walking to work passing dogs, goats, donkeys, cows along the road , saying 'Good Morning ' to everyone we pass and it being said back to us - this includes all the children walking to school unaccompanied . We arrive to find there is no power on in the office and that the temperature is above 90 degrees. 'TIG...This is Guyana' ...as Leonardo di Caprio might have said.

This is what we are here for....

2008-03-12T12:59:00.000-07:00

The last week and a half have been spent visiting schools in Bartica and in the riverain area surrounding Bartica. The schools vary in size and effectiveness and in the stunning beauty of their settings but two factors remains a constant on almost all the visits...the delightful, brighteyes, well turned out children and the lack of real learning going on...Ian and Christine before us worked their socks off and you can sometimes see the evidence of their work....a bright, attractive classroom, a harworking committed trainee teacher, a hardworking , intelligent, professional headteacher doing his/her utmost ...but there is still much to do to improve the effectiveness of all the schools. Many of the teachers do not interact with the children and resort to having the children rote learn, copy down stuff from the board and feel that what teaching is...

Travelling to visit the schools by speedboat across the Essequibo and into the Mazaruni is just brilliant and it's at times like these we forget about the intermittent water supply into the house or the cockroaches or the cramped quarters near the school dormitory . for we are on the edge of tropical rainforest and the weekend walks we have undertaken so far have yielded up a tiny part of the exotic bird life, the staggerinly large and beautiful butterflies of irridescent blue, brimstne yellow , bright red and the dense tropical forestation.
So far the weather has been cool for here ( c. 25C ) and very wet and people keep telling us this is the dry season ...We think this is in part due to el Nino but I have never quite worked out what that means. Anyway the 'cool' weather has helped us acclimatise quite well but there are days when we return to the house exhausted and we haven't really done that much.
Our social life continues to be good and we meet more extraordinary 'locals...Peter and Malcolm the gold miners, Dr. George the Cuban doctor, Assim the ebullient retailer, Frankie the man whose wife has died and who has 6 children to support and never seems to stop working....these are people that I feel is part of the reason we are here ...to improve the education system for these good guyanese people

'Red Earth' town and the start of work

2008-03-03T10:22:00.000-08:00

We have now been in Bartica since Wednesday 27th February and today we started work fully by visiting the largest primary school - St John The Baptist - in the town and by planning the visits to other schools in the area , including ones up the Mazaruni and the Cuyuni rivers. Ian is introducing us and he has been ( with Tess the other VSO volunteer in the town) a huge help and support throughout the first few days . The accommodation is in the teacher's block inside the secondary school site and it is not good. We are seeking an upgrade - the present house is too small for our work needs e.g. in the jobs we have taken on we need to be able to entertain work colleagues. Nevertheless Ian, tess and local people have made us feel very welcome and our very active social life to date has kept our spirits up!

Getting here by boat up the Essesquibo was exhilarating and the first walk into the rain forest on staurday ( with a swim in the Mazaruni thrown in) was the first of I hope many future excursions in to the 'bush-...this is some place for wildlife - and for cows, donkeys, goats, dogs and cats wandering about.
The community is gradually re-establishing its self confidence again after the shocking out of the blue incident of 17th February. This is a town that services the many small scale diamond and gold mining operations in the bush and therefore has many bars and clubs. They have been far from full lately but nevertheless we have met some interesting people - Malcom the pork knocker ( a term for a person who mines in the bush ), Dr. George the Cuban doctor, Assim the extrovert, ebullient, charming Bartican whose family has several retail outlets) We have also been in a meeting with the Minister of Education discussing the effects of the 17th february on the children, so life is far from dull. We have a lot of work ahead of us...standards of literacy are not good and headteachers and teachers need lots of support and encouragement if they are going to be more effective in the classroom.

Getting a feel for the place

2008-02-21T14:22:00.000-08:00

Sorry about the lack of pictures at the moment but I'm having problems uploading pictures...I am using a wifi hotspot from the Sports Bar across the street and it comes and goes a bit. We've now been here a week and our in country orientation has been intensive, varied and fascinating. On Saturday the walk around Georgetown shops and streets showed us that beneath the hustle and bustle of a capital city with some wealth on display there were serious difficulties...lack of choice in the shops... many hustlers on the streets, traffic lights which have come within the last year, one set of store escalators in the entire city, garbage everywhere, high unemployment . Yet despite this in the crowded areas the people are friendly, polite for the most part and you walk around in a relaxed way.
The country is mourning the deaths of 13 adults ( including 3 policemen) killed by gunmen on Sunday night It was an attack on the police station in Bartica, regarded as one of the safest, most relaxed places in Guyana. This is the second similiar attack in a month in Guyana (the other attack took place East of Georgetown at the end of January; it is very probable that the same criminal gang carried out these attacks, but in no way were foreign nationals the target. Signs are that they will be caught soon, but many commentators know that this is a symptm of a deeper malaise of a country still in the process of creating a stable civil society not divided along political/racial lines.
Nevertheless Bartica will be our home for the next 2 years and all the VSO staff and volunteers are envious of us living in a quiet harmonious town.

Georgetown on a Saturday afternoon -16th February

2008-02-16T12:10:00.000-08:00

We have made it to Georgetown...the usual long but efficient 16 hour journey at the airport at 12.45am....to be met by no one!!...quick phone calls ...20 minutes later Steve and Camille from the VSO Office arrive..full of apologies.... minor confusions ...arriving at the guesthouse exhausted. We had travelled with Michelle from Galway an occupational therapist and Lucia from London who is here to work with visually impaired people - two remarkable young women who have already packed in a load of travel and work experiences into their lives. Lucia incidentally has no sight!! but her determination and intelligence is a shining beacon to us all.

The VSO Office and volunteers have been so welcoming and helpful ...it was good to meet Stephen and Ian whom I've been emailing for some time now...and now we settle down to 10 days in country training here ...and hey the 20/20 tournament is in full swing...well that is a piece of luck!

One day to go

2008-02-13T00:43:00.000-08:00

It's still pretty manic. So much stuff to pack away and sort out and so many invites from family and friends . Thanks children for the Blanche House night out - excellent!! and the family gettogether on Sunday although the goodbyes were a bit emotional..Better done then than at Gatwick on Thursday. Had a brilliant last get together with my firm friends - I will miss you guys - at the preview of Rob's Camden Town Painters exhibition at the Tate on Monday . What a brilliant achievement. For those of you who can go and see it...the boy done good!! ( And the possibility of a link up with the tate in the months to come!! I also got a email from the amazing Gerrit and Emmy after nearly 10 years of not being in contact..now a promoter of the arts after primary headship

The countdown is well underway

2008-02-07T21:27:00.000-08:00

Deciding which possessions are really important to take is more difficul than I thought and so we are still surrounded by bits and pieces and important choices are still to be made. I must be the local tip's most regular customer at the moment. However we have a tenant to live in the house ( and for the next 2 years we think!) We have had many invites from friends and family over the last few days which has been great and it reinforces the reality that we shall miss all of them. Nevertheless the tickets arrived today and now we know everything is set for next Thursday.