Hello from Guyana!

I'm here! We arrived in Guyana on Saturday morning at about 4am after more than 24hours of travelling and two delayed planes. We're currently staying in Georgetown, the capital city, with our rep and her family who have been kind enough to open their house to us.

We went to the zoo the other day where we saw a whole range of animals - it was completely different from a British zoo. There was a manatee who we could only see the nose of, poking out the water.
I've been woken up by both dogs and cats since I've been here, the dogs next door barking and the family cat walking into our room and meowing in our faces - not really a bad alarm clock.

It's nice here in Georgetown, but I can't wait to get down to my project!

I will have internet for the next few days, so will try to keep people updated as much as I can before I have no contact.

Training!

Between the 5th and the 9th of July I was back up on the Isle of Coll for my training for Project Trust with my partner, everyone else going to Guyana, and the group going to Ghana too. It was a wonderful week I met the most amazing people who I can't wait to spend a year with, I also found out more about my project - such as the fact that I will be sleeping in a hammock for a year! Training really helped give me a more indepth knowledge about things that might happen over the next 12 months and what to do, it was also great to get to know everyone I will be involved with - my desk officer, my partner, and the rest of the country group. It just made me 100x more excited to go! (And maybe a little bit more nervous as I'm starting to see it as a reality!).

It was great to see a couple of people from my selection again, one who's going to Guyana and one who is going to Ghana. It was great to talk about what we had been up to since September with fundraising and everything.  I can't believe that I've actually finished fundraising! I've raised all £5,600! Thank you to everyone who helped along the way, it means so much!!!

I also know my leaving date, and as I'm only just writing about training now, its less than 2 weeks away! Friday the 15th August! This means that at the moment I'm sorting out the last of my injections, starting on malaria tablets and making sure I've got everything I need (which hopefully I will have).

I've already been up north and said goodbye to some relatives, but will be seeing many friends in the next week or so and having to say goodbye to them - it's quite strange to do so as it doesn't seem like I'm really going yet...

This is the Guyana lot (there are 27 of us!) plus desk officer Chris in the middle :)