2 Weeks In

Hello from Guyana, everybody!

I did make it safely, all body parts and luggage intact. Guyana is a beautiful country, exactly like a lot of the pictures you see on Google. It's definitely part of the Caribbean, I don't think its fallen below 70 degrees since I've been here. What I've seen of the jungle is very thick, it's almost impassable in most places.

I'm living in a little town called Timehri which is near Cheddi Jagan Airport which is where I'm currently posting this from. The airport is the only place near my house that has internet so hopefully I can get down here about once a week.

Right now I'm just training with the Peace Corps during the week. The training is mostly acclimatization stuff and learning how to interact with people. Some of the regulations and norms are very strange. For example, women are not allowed to show their calves if their wearing pants or capris but calves are okay if you're wearing a skirt. Things are a little more conservative here and it's going to take some getting used to.

This is my house:

Its at the bottom of a very steep hill that I have to climb every day to get to training. Behind it is super thick jungle.

Here's the view from my back porch, pretty dang cool.

Here's a few pictures of us training:

This one was taken at Splashmins, a resort that was our first training site. The cool guy on the left is Eben, my roommate there. He's a sick songwriter/guitarist, Kurt you should meet this guy. That idiot behind him is Rob.

Also at Splashmins this is the view from where we ate breakfast every morning.

And here's my host family:

The girl on the left is my host sister, Ja'El. The other girl is her friend, who's name I can't remember.

From left to right its OC, Murica, and Appollonia.

I don't have a picture of my host mom, Carol, but I will soon.

In summation, I'm having a good time overall. It's been a little bit of a culture shock but I'm adjusting a little more every day. Survive and advance. I just have to take it one day at a time. Last week I counted out how many days until I would be done and now I can't stop thinking about it. This is my 14th day in Guyana and there's 805 left. It's not a bad thing to count down, I think. It keeps me mindful of the fact that as bad as things get here there's still a limit to how long they will be that way. And I'll admit I've had some bad days. But I've also had some good ones. Like anything else, its's cyclical, there's ups and downs. You just have to enjoy the highs and power through the lows and know that tomorrow will be better. 

That's enough storytelling and philosophizing for now. I've been keeping a journal as much as I can and I had planned on using it to supplement my blog but I forgot it today so I'm free writing most of this. Next time will be way better. Until then, have a good one.