Sit Back, Relax, and Enjoy Guyana

I just realized I completely skipped over September as far as any blog posts.  Part of it is because I have become so busy and the other part is that my life here has become much more normal, or at least normal to me.   Even the cockroaches are starting to bother me less. (I think they have sensed this and are trying to mess with me.  One crawled up my arm while I was cleaning my dishes and another one came out from under a shelf at a store and tried to crawl up my foot. I did a pretty quick ninja kick on that one though and kept on shopping like nothing happened.)  I know if you came here and lived with me for a week, I’m sure you would come up with a whole bunch of things you found different or strange (I can only imagine!).  I still am discovering new things but at a much slower pace than when I first arrived here.  I was visiting another volunteer who lives close to our training site and it really made me see how far I’ve come.   We were so timid and lost when we first arrived and now we are fighting with mini bus conductors charging us extra for a ride.  

Swimming in the conservancy

  
  I am also finding that I am acting much more like myself, instead of trying to tip toe around cultural norms.  There are still some things I would never do or say here, but my co-workers now know I like Soca music (we may or may not have had a wining demonstration in my office-google wining if you want to know), that I have a pretty good sense of humor and laugh at myself a lot, and will voice my opinion if something is bothering me. 

One of my co-workers lives near me and we frequently bike home together. She has taken me under her wing and will take me to the market, to church, or other events. One night, I invited her over for shrimp quesadillas.  She showed up very early (atypical for a Guyanese) all dressed up with her hair done and I was looking like a hot mess (when do I not?)  still covered in flour rolling out dough for tortillas.  It was a comical situation but she had a good time and really enjoyed the quesadillas.  I never thought a 40(?) year old would be one of my best friends here, but so it is.  She told me we have to make chicken quesadillas one time at work.  My plan of getting a Chipotle in Guyana is working; spreading the love of Tex-Mex food one Guyanese at a time!  Muwahaha!!

Quesadillas!

I think the more you learn to relax and feel comfortable in a situation, the more you start to have fun with it.  Like now instead of being freak out, grossed out, or annoyed by people’s comments out on the road, I either ignore them or joke with them.  “What a white girl??!  Where?!”  I am really close to awarding points now for people’s comments.  “White Meat” will always get negative points but a recent comment of “I’ve got some strong dark coffee here and need some milk” might be awarded an 8 or 9.  Of course a courteous, “Hello, Good Morning, How are you doing?” will always get a 10 in my book.  You just never know what people will say.  Like one day some guy was biking near me and kept looking at me.  I was waiting for some strange comment and he smiled real wide.  It was a good smile and he said “I’m sorry but can I ask you a question?”  I said sure and braced myself.  He laughed and said “why do you wear that helmet?”  I laughed too and explained it is Peace Corps policy.  He just laughed again, smiled really wide, and rode on.  For some reason his smile was contagious and I smiled the rest of the way to my destination.  


 

I’ve also come to terms with the fact that I don’t live in a particularly beautiful or exotic part of the country.  I am not out in the jungle like some of my fellow volunteers.  I have categorized my site as a country, inner city.  If you can imagine some run down houses and lots of trash around an inner city area mixed with fields for farming and cows, goats, roosters, and donkeys running around, that is where I live.  It is the 3^rd largest town/city in Guyana and I have access to internet, electricity, running water, most American foods (always at a price though), and various businesses such as clothing stores, bars, clubs, restaurants, banks, there is even a Church’s Chicken.  Some people have houses like ones in America, complete with swimming pools.  While things might seem like I’m still in the States, the culture here is completely different.  That culture and the people definitely make living where I do worthwhile.  The good thing is that some volunteers do live out in the jungle and there are a lot of really awesome places to explore.  So while I might not live out there, I can always visit.  If you ever want to go on a rain forest adventure, come on down! :-)

 

Fishing in the Back Dam with some Kiddos

 

I recently had a discussion with a fellow PCV about being happy here in Guyana.  PCVs experience a lot of ups and downs, so sometimes that answer can change d  I really thought about it though and I would say I am very happy here.  I have enjoyed most of my volunteering experiences in the past and so far, Peace Corps is not an exception.  Part of the reason is that I really like what I do and have flung myself head first into as many things as I can possibly manage.  This is nothing new for me and I am lucky to be in a location where there are many different organizations that I can work with.

Doing sugar and pressure testing with the Cancer Society

 I really enjoy teaching my nursing students (some days are better than others).  Right now I teach Health Promotion, Epidemiology, and Research.  My favorite course is Health Promotion, but I try to make the other classes as fun as I can.  For instance, last week in Epi I was talking about tracking new diseases, such as one that makes people turn into zombies.  My students probably think I am really crazy, but it is worth it sometimes to get a laugh or two.  I am also working on my “mean teacher” capabilities.  I am pretty close in age to my students and am a little more relaxed than some of my co-workers, so the students will sometimes take that too far.  I have busted out “mean teacher” and I was pretty proud of myself when I told a student he was “takin his eyes past me” (This means disrespecting me).  There is a term here called “busin” (think abuse for pronunciation) and people will bust out all sorts of insults like: you don’t have manners or you are being disrespectful, in order to shame or embarrass someone back into the right way to act.  I don’t have those skills yet (and probably would sound stupid saying most of them) but the taking your eyes past me comment was a start and he actually did cut out his actions. 

I still write my weekly health article and am also involved with Mental Health and Cancer Awareness events for this month. 
 

My nursing students participating in Cancer Awareness Week

 
Our PC GAD group (the people that organized Camp GLOW) is also now getting ready for two mini camps, so we are really excited about that.  The other week I attended an Amerindian Heritage Festival in a village where our remote volunteer group had their training.  There was music, food, local crafts, and a ton of people.  I ate Tokoma worms (they tasted kind of like shrimp) and all of us PCVs went swimming in the black water creek. 

About to eat Tokoma Worms!

Walking across a wood slat bridge

mmmm tastes good!

Traditional woven Amerindian Earrings

 This past weekend I also went “bush fishing” for the first time with another PCV and some local children.  All of my neighbors laughed when I came home decently sunburned with NO fish.  I also experienced my first Guyanese funeral (unfortunately my co-worker’s father passed away).  We sat wake for a few nights, which is where people mainly gather outside a person’s house and they play cards and dominoes.  Then a bit later the family of the deceased brings everyone food-kind of the opposite of what we do in the States.  Although I didn’t know my co-worker’s father, it still made me really sad to see her upset, especially at the funeral.  I know grief can elicit all types of reactions, but here it was much more extreme than I have ever seen.  I think at least 3 people “dropped” or fainted and some people burst into screaming fits and had to be held down.  The wife of the deceased went into such a fit while she was passing me and I had NO idea what to do. I moved over so people could put her on the bench and I tried to fan her with my program.  Probably not the most helpful, but that was all I could think of at the time.  It was interesting to experience, but I hope I don’t have to attend many more funerals while I am here. 

As you can see by this loooonnnggg post to catch you all up, I have been keeping myself pretty busy.  I think I will remain that way until the end of the year with our Mini Camp GLOWs, teaching, holiday get togethers, the School of Nursing’s graduation, and finally Barbados!    I know January and February are going to bring a lot of self-reflection and evaluation because it will be close to my 1 year mark and half way through my service.   It’s all so crazy to think about.  I hope everyone at home is enjoying the beautiful fall weather.  My body was expecting the weather to cool down a little and then Guyana decided to crank up the heat and humidity instead.  Rainy season should come again by mid-November so it hopefully will be a bit cooler then.  It is admittedly weird to be craving chili and hot apple cider when it is still 90 degrees outside.  Good bye for now!

-KB