Hi all! Though I'm not sure if there is anyone to say hi to still, seeing as I haven't posted on here since I got to my project. Ooops, sorry about that, I have planned to plenty of times, but the internet is so painfully slow, that I give up and use the small amount of time I spend on the internet contacting friends and family.
So it's now 7 months in, and we're in our second last week of the Easter tern, time had been flying by recently, I feel like it was only just Christmas!
Seeing as I haven't posted since I got to Shulinab, below is a blog post which I wrote out on paper soon after getting here, but just didn't get round to putting up:
Since my last post I travelled down to Lethem from Georgetown in a 12 seater plane, stayed one night there with the rest of the region 9 lot (in a supposedly haunted guest house), then got driven down to Shulinab, where we have been for the past 3 weeks. (Well, 7 months now).
We had a few days to get ourselves sorted and settled into the community before school started. We spent most of that time meeting people and walking around the village. Everyone has been so lovely and welcoming to us, and they are all happy to help us if we need.
On the first day of school I was quite nervous, especially after finding out that my pupils of my grade 9 class will be between 13 and 16 (turning 17!), so not that much younger than me. The pupils here are really respectful and lovely. I'm really enjoying teaching at the moment, but there is a lot of paperwork! Most evenings we spend lesson planning, because things have to change often depending on how well the previous lesson went. Octavia and I both teach under the mango trees in the school compound, as the school has a zinc roof and it gets extremely hot inside. The mango season has just finished, but in the first week mangos were dropping all around the place - making a great breaktime snack. Luckily none have fallen on my head as of yet! Though I do get a lot of ants and spiders falling onto me / my desk during the day, which is not overally pleasent, but you get used to it.
On the first weekend after our first week teaching it was the Heritage celebrations in Shulinab, as September is Amerindian Heritage month. Tave and I both tried our hand at archery, shooting the homemade water turtle. On the Saturday we were taken to a nearby creek by a fellow teacher and some of his friends, where we had a lovely, refreshing swim in the water. In the evening it was the last night of the village Heritage celebrations, where skits, songs and dances were performed. Most of the skits were in Macushi (the local language), but we enjoyed them anyway. We then spent the rest of the evening dancing with lots of people. On the Sunday, after a walk through the village we met a man who offered to take us horse riding, so that evening we went for a horseride in the moonlight, which was beautiful.
The pupils have started athletic sports at school in the afternoon, preparing for the interhouse and interschools competitions. The weeks are starting to go by really quickly, but it feels like I've been here and been teaching for a long time. I can't believe I left home just over a month ago.
We haven't heard much from the other projects as we have no phone signal, and limited internet access, but from what we've heard, everyone seems to be doing well and enjoying their projects. we saw the Aishalton boys last Saturday as they were going up to Lethem for supplies, and stopped by to say hello. It was lovely to hear about their project and how they are getting on.
I'm loving living here, and I think Tave and I have both naturally adapted to life here. I'm loving sleeping in a hammock, I think I'm going to need to find a place to hang one up when I get home.
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