The first 2 weeks

Well, this blog thing has been left empty for a while now, so I suppose I had better contribute to it to give an indication as to what I am doing here, as a few of my friends in the UK are still convinced that I am locked away in my house in Devon and only breaking cover to nip to the Spa for a packet of Monster Munch and Jaffa Cakes. This is really not the case, although a packet of Pickled Onion flavour would go down a treat right about now.

It is pretty important to add first off that there will be some spelling mistakes, grammatical errors and things in this blog which will make you think ‘...and this guy taught children how to write?’ I can only apologise. If I miss the occasional capital letter, or put a comma where a semi colon should be then don’t judge me, I am not a bad person. I know what I mean, you know what I mean, so let’s get over it...

Righto, so – where am I? Well, I flew out of the UK on Feb 10^th and into Georgetown, Guyana where I had a two week induction course with VSO. The course introduced us to what VSO are doing in Guyana and what they hope to achieve in the future. It also concentrated on local culture and customs, the roles of the different programmes in the country, learning how to understand Creolese (the local dialect) and how to cook with the wide array of foods found in the local market. It was pretty thorough.

I won’t bang on about everything which we did in those two weeks. The 4 other volunteers and I had a great time, learning from the already established volunteers and getting used to Georgetown. The heat, the noise, the smells, the rain, the busses, the taxies (both of which you take your life in your hands when you travel – the basic rule is that you drive as fast as you can, on the opposite side of the road, with your stereo on full, beeping your horn at anyone who might get in your way. Oh, and not slowing down for them, or the wild dogs/cows/pigs/goats/horses which wander freely around you. You are now fully trained as a Georgetown bus driver – best of luck, yeah?)

During the fortnight we were able to help another volunteer as she prepared for the Mashramani festival, or ‘Mash’, which is an annual festival that celebrates Guyana becoming a Republic in 1970. It centres around a huge carnival style procession around the streets of Georgetown, with music and dancing and general merriment. Her project was to create a float celebrating 10 years of International Volunteering, with the Georgetown Society for the Blind playing steel pans and members of the different groups which VSO helps following behind.

A float was made, costumes were created and glitter got everywhere. This whole process took about a week, with plenty of late nights and bleary eyes. Oh, and of course a few beers. When Mash came, the whole day was exhausting, loud and very very hot, but well worth it as in the end as our float won 'Best Semi Costume for a Medium Sized Band' by the Ministry of Culture. I am still finding glitter all over the place.

Soon enough it was time to move on to Bartica, the town I will be living and working in for the next year. To get to Bartica you have to take a bus from Georgetown to a town called Parika, which slightly resembled that place in Pirates of the Caribbean called Tortuga. You know, the crazy place. Well, it did in my head anyway, minus the fighting and being sick. It is a bustling port which serves speedboats heading up the Essequibo River towards Bartica. As soon as you arrive you are fought over by guys to carry bags to the waiting boats. Problem is, they don’t know where you are going, and neither do you really. You just keep saying ‘Yeah, I’m going to Bartica, please can you give me my bag back...?’ So I followed these guys down a narrow passageway and made it to the beach and a waiting speedboat. The captain looked at me, and at my bags, and decided that I had to pay double. That was super.

The journey itself from Parika to Bartica takes around an hour, and it is an hour of sitting in a cramped boat, getting dripped on from the roof, doing a zillion miles an hour over waves with 10% oxygen and 90% diesel fumes circulating around you. It was pretty entertaining to be honest, I felt like I was going back in time.

So, I am now in my home, in my town, with a job to do. Pretty scary really. So far I have spent most of my time liberating frogs, cockroaches and geckos from my house. Still not quite found that spider I saw on my first night. I have a feeling that he is behind my wardrobe, but judging from the size of him, he could probably run faster than me, then kill me. He can stay there for all I care.