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.
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..
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...
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 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!!
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
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.
2007 was a time of decision. I retired from my headship at the end of February and Trudy resigned from her teaching post in December. We are both now V.S.O volunteers working in Guyana for the next 2 years
