40ish Days in Guyana

Well, I’ve been here for 40ish days now, hence the title. Since then I’ve learned a few important things that I’ll share just now.

·         Just Now (I’ll devote an entire post to this later)

·         My family knew who Ken Jennings was. There’s a woman on Jeopardy who’s won for 20 days straight, I think. Murica said that she was going to break Ken’s record.

·         You want to talk about shrinkage? Take a cold shower every day for 30 days. They’ve gone back up into my body.

·         My sister, Ja’El, legitimately thought Run DMC’s name was Ron DMC. Hilarious.

·         On Monday we were talking about Guyana and Guyanese culture and comparing them to the US. The teacher asked our class to sing our national anthem. So we all did, it was an incredibly patriotic moment in a country far, far away.

·         Every night my family and I watch the 8 o’clock movie on the Guyana Learning Channel. They show math and Spanish lessons during the day. Last night it was Muppets take Manhattan, before that it was The Great Muppet Caper so pretty quality films. Usually it’s a kid’s movie and if there’s more than one they do the whole series before moving on. There’s a bunch of Muppet movies so I’ll be an expert by the time I come home.

·         Commercials seem to be run by someone pushing buttons on a dvd player. At a commercial break the screen will pause on a graphic then a play logo will pop up like someone pushed play.

That’s most of the new things that I’ve learned. I’ve tried a lot of different fruits and vegetables. Corailla is pretty good, and never eat a sugar apple.

On Friday, I get my final site placement. It basically determines the next two years of my life so I’m simultaneously excited and scared. No matter what happens though I’m sure it will be a great experience. Staying positive is something you learn pretty quickly out here. If you’re not framing things positively, you won’t survive here very long. Not that things are bleak or bad but this place can get overwhelming fast. Still riding that high of being in South America. I’ll definitely post this weekend to let you all know where I’m going since I’m sure you’re all on the edge of your seats.

Home Inspection Photos

Here's some structural photos of my house. These are mostly for my dad, but you all can enjoy them as well. It's actually a little scary.

A Day in the Life

Hey everyone, just checking in again. Every Sunday I come to the airport for the air conditioning and wi fi, the perfect storm to do a little more blogging.

I realized that while I showed you a bunch of pictures you all don't have a very good idea of what I'm actually doing out here. Every morning I wake up about 5:30am and I go for a run with another volunteer, Mark. We usually run until 6:15ish then head home to get ready for training. I go home and hang out on the porch for a little and dry off since by that time I'm sweating up a storm since it's usually around 70 degrees by that time. Then I take a cold shower and have a little breakfast, usually some fruit and toast with juice. After breakfast I brush my teeth, spit off the porch, and head out for the day.

The training area, called Red Ground, is an interesting place. It's some old, wooden bleachers attached to a small building consisting of two rooms, an upstairs and down. The bleachers overlook a large dirt field covered in red dust, hence Red Ground. Kids usually come and play soccer here after school which conveniently coincides with the end of our day. There's also a small canteen nearby that serves snacks and cold drinks that are a nice treat after training.

Training consists of a range of topics. A lot of it is working within Peace Corps and Guyana, basically how not to be a loud, crass American. Some of it is technical information like how diabetes and hypertension work as well as topics like breastfeeding and gardening. That takes up a majority of the day right there and were usually done by 5. It's all fairly mundane and routine right now.

We're all focused on our permanent assignment right now. On June 13th we'll know where we'll be for the rest of our tour. It looks like I'm destined for a more coastal region that is generally a little more developed than an interior hinterland region. Initially it wasn't my first choice but since I've gotten here I've realized that its not necessarily about where I end up but who I end up with. I decided I'd really prefer a smaller community than a larger one and that's really been the only thing I've asked for. Another volunteer, Allie, from the group before ours told us about her placement. She said she lives in a community of about 400 people on a lake and the health center she works at is right next door.

I'll admit the novelty has worn off and my zeal is starting to flag a little. I was doing laundry today and got really annoyed with how long it was taking, it usually takes about 2 hours. Then I looked up and could see the thick jungle in my backyard and realized that I'm in South America, I've only known this family for 3 weeks, and I've only known all my friends for 4 weeks. This is truly an epic and unparalleled experience. I'll probably never have this experience or this moment ever again and I should truly treasure it.

The Homestead

Hi Everyone! Just checking in on my lazy Sunday and updating you all. Since you didn't get to see too much of my house I took a few photos this morning and now you can see them.

Here's a few pictures of my room. It's not much bigger than the bed that's in it. Probably should have cleaned up first. Meh. That's also my fancy mosquito net Peace Corps issued me.

 This is my trusty water filter. I asked the doctor if I could pee into it and achieve 100% efficiency with my water. The doc said it was fine but I've been too scared to try it.

These are my front steps. The rules are that you take your shoes off and leave them on the stairs. Then you wipe your feet off on the mat inside the door. No shoes in the house!

This is the living room area. The house is about 2/3rds teal and the other third is blue. I think the other 1/3rd was built on at some point. The floor is wood and covered in 3 different kinds of contact paper. There are holes in the contact paper where there's gaps between the planks and you can see the ground through the floor. Also, the walls don't go all the way up to the ceiling so there's no such thing as privacy really. My room has a door but the other rooms just have curtains. That's my room on the end there.

In addition to the lack of complete walls, the roof doesn't fully attach to the walls so there's about a six inch gap between the roof and the walls. It definitely helps with ventilation but now the mosquitoes can help themselves.

This is the kitchen area, also a little messy.

 Who's that handsome devil?

There he is washing his clothes. He's really good at it despite what his host family says.

 This is the color of the water that comes out of the tap. It looks clear coming out but in a glass or a bucket, it's not to appealing. Peace Corps says don't drink it but I haven't had any problems yet.

 This is the bathroom and shower area.

Here's the shower area. Yep. There's no hot water. Don't even ask. But to be fair it hasn't dropped below about 70 degrees since I've been here.

 Here's the toilet. Sometimes toads get in and will hop on you while you're pooping. True story.

 Here's the sink area.

But, here's the view behind the bathroom. Definitely worth it. It's just a thick jungle that goes on for miles.

That's my house. That's how I live now. It ain't glamorous but it's home. There's a lot to tell you about but I don't want to bore you all with this post. I'll just tell you one cool thing that happened this week.

My first day at the clinic I was watching the nurse weigh and measure infants to make sure they were healthy. I had been watching her fill out the paperwork but not intently. Then, all of a sudden, she asks me to take over. I was hesitant to say the least but I jumped in there and Jerrell, you know him from an earlier post, and I measured and weighed a few kids while the nurse was gone. When she came back she checked our work and everything was perfect. So now there's some kids out there who have my handwriting and initials in their file. And they'll have that forever. I've already impacted someone's life in a positive, albeit small, way.

Kind of a cool moment.

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.

Welcome to Miami

I made it to Miami last night. It's super hot here and the humidity is pretty high and apparently it's only worse in Guyana. On the first flight to Dallas there was something wrong with the speaker that the flight attendants and captains were talking on. Every time they turned it on there was an incredibly loud farting noise. When it first happened for a split second I thought the elderly lady next to me had just shit herself. Glad that wasn't the case.

At the gate before I left for Miami I overheard two guys talking about the Peace Corps. I stealthily approached them and eavesdropped a little bit longer before introducing myself. I met the rest of the group today and they're all pretty cool. And actually some of our members are older and the group as a whole is a lot older than I expected.

This is a test picture I took of my brother before I left, he's trying to look like a dog.

This is a picture of my roommate during staging in Miami. His name is Jerrell.

Well, that's all for now. We're all leaving tomorrow at 10:30 but the flight doesn't leave until 4 so I'm sure I'll try to post something before then. I'm definitely having a lot of emotions and not totally sure of myself. I just keep telling myself that this will be a good thing. Once I get there and get in the groove of things I'll be able to figure this whole thing out. 

This stage of my life has the chance to be a defining moment for the rest of my life and I don't want to miss a thing. I'm just trying to stay open and stay positive and try to have as many varied experiences as I can. I just have to keep saying yes and, hopefully, good things will happen.

This is Tim's blog for his Peace Corps service in Guyana. I'm leaving tomorrow, April 27th for Miami then heading to Guyana on Monday via Port of Spain. Kind of big deal leaving everything I've ever known behind and entering an entirely new environment and country. I've been contemplating it for a long time now and it's finally come to fruition. It's time to face the music and I have to admit that I'm not entirely sure that I am ready. But the one thing that I am sure of is that I will wake up tomorrow and deal with it. I think that may end up being how I typify this journey, just taking it one day at a time and dealing with problems and issues as they come. I have no assumptions about how anyone or anything will be. I anticipate learning everything again from the ground up and just doing the best that I can and hoping that will be enough. I think that's the most that anyone can do, take it one day at a time and do your best. As I go forth I intend to keep this singular quote in mind and hope it provides me some guidance.

"Take it easy, but take it and you'll win."
-Mr. Oldham

Thank you all for the well wishes, thoughts and prayers. Hopefully I'll emerge unscathed and find myself a better person from what I expect to be an entirely life changing event.