Final post

Hello everyone, 

So the time has finally come for us to say goodbye to the country we have called home for the last 2 months and return to our normal lives back in Canada. But before we leave, we wanted to write one last post to update you on the last few days and to express how thankful we are to everyone who has supported us along the way and has made this journey possible.

Sydney rolling out the roti
dough. 

Ever since we learned how to make boulanger choka and roti, we have been bragging to Ms. Toney that we can cook Guyanese food. So, to show off our skills we decided to cook her a meal on Wednesday evening at the West Ruimveldt David Rose Centre. Leslie made her delicious Mango bora salad, and everyone helped to make roti with boulanger choka! It was so great to do something as a whole team for once since Joe and Alyssa have returned to Georgetown as their project is Berbice has come to a finish. We were so happy with the result of this team bonding session, and Ms. Toney gave us her stamp of approval. 

One last picture of the team with Ms. Toney. 

This morning (Thursday), we woke up rather sad, knowing that today will mark the last day of our stay in Guyana. So we tired to make the most of it. Perhaps, the most exciting part of our day was appearing on the "NTN: This Morning" television show to discuss QHO and our work in Guyana. We were all so nervous as none of us had ever been on television before. Mr. Hussein, the headmaster of R.B.I. who arranged all this, interviewed us for about 30 minutes during which we discussed topics including our work in Guyana, the history of QHO, Queen's University, topics we feel are the most sensitive to youth, and even our favourite Guyanese foods. This was by far one of the most interesting experiences we have had in Guyana so far and we are so happy that we could get QHO this much publicity. Mr. Hussein even mentioned how he would like to dedicate one show per week to next year's team so that they can discuss our curriculum on television. This would certainly be an excellent way for QHO Guyana to expand and venture out into new areas in order to reach out to more community members and new demographics. 

After the television show we all headed back to our guesthouse to finish packing. You'd be surprised how much junk one accumulates over the span of 2 months! We spent the rest of the afternoon visiting places we had wanted to visit on our last day, including the Starbroek Market, the sea wall, St. George's Cathedral, and the Promenade Gardens. We had such a nice time walking around Georgetown one last time  and appreciating the beauty of Guyana and its culture. 

Beth, Arash, and Leslie at the sea wall on our
last day in Guyana. 

It would be an understatement if we said that this experience has just been great. There are no words that can describe how we feel about Guyana, project, and the people we have met through our journey. It has been an absolute privilege to  travel to this beautiful country, experience the culture, teach the students, but also be taught! We have always said to our students that our presence in Guyana is not a one way road. We have learnt so much from them the same way they have learnt from us. We are now returning to our country much wiser, more cultured, and more knowledgable than when we first arrived on May 6th. We would like to thank everyone who has supported us through our journey including Ms. Toney, Omeshwar Shirkisun, the staff at Rima's Guesthouse, our families, our QHO family, and our sponsors. As Dr. Seuss has so eloquently put it, we are not crying because it is over, instead we are smiling because it happened. 

It has been unreal! 

The Guyana 2012 project (Arash, Joe, Alyssa, Sydney, Beth, and Leslie) 

Goodbyes

Hello everyone, 

Arash here. We can't believe that after almost 8 weeks, our stay in Guyana is coming to a close. Throughout these 8 weeks we have become better friends, learnt a great deal about the society and culture in Guyana, and have gained a new perspective on many of the challenges we face in life. This experience will certainly be one that we will cherish for the rest of our lives! 

During our last week here, we tried our best to experience and learn about the Guyanese culture as much as we could. That is why we asked the ladies working at our guesthouse to teach us some traditional Guyanese dishes. We had quite the tutorial and learned how to make boulanger choka, chicken curry, and roti. I must admit that making roti requires a lot of skills and a high threshold for pain as the roti needs to be clapped fresh off the pan with bare hands.

Beth and Arash with a "unique" coconut tree
in Letter Kenny. 

This past weekend, Beth and I decided to go to Berbice and visit Joe and Alyssa. It was so great to get out of Georgetown and to see other parts of this beautiful country. The road to Berbice was very scenic, being dominated by cane fields and coconut tress. Letter Kenny, where Joe and Alyssa were staying, is very different than Georgetown. It is much smaller, quieter, and has its own unique culture. After our arrival on Saturday afternoon, the four of us visited a women's shelter near Letter Kenny. The shelter houses women ranging from 4 to 17 years old who are homeless or orphaned. This was Joe and Alyssa's first time visiting the shelter and the purpose of our visit was to create a new connection so that next year's PEs can start teaching there once they arrive in Berbice. We spent the afternoon playing many games with the kids including monkey in the middle, cricket, duck duck goose, soccer etc. We all had so much fun and I am sure that next year's team will absolutely love teaching at the shelter. 

Playing "Dog and Bone" with the kids at the women's shelter.

Boulanger choka with roti!

On Sunday, before Beth and I returned to Georgetown, we decided to cook for Joe and Alyssa and show them how to make boulanger choka and roti. Surprisingly, we managed and the the food was delicious (though not as good as the one the ladies at Rima make). Later that afternoon we said goodbye to Joe and Alyssa and returned back to Georgetown. During our trip to Berbice, Beth and I were able to see how the Berbice project works and the great job Joe and Alyssa have done. Given that it is a pilot project, Joe and Alyssa have managed to make many new connections and partnerships and have made QHO a household name. I am sure that next year, under Beth and Joe's direction, the project will further grow and will be able to reach out to more community members. 

The cricket bat we presented to
Valmiki Vidyalaya school as a
thank you.

On Monday morning, we traveled to Lusignan to hold our last lesson at the Valmiki Vidyalaya school. It was very sad saying goodbye to our students as they were very respectful and receptive to our lessons. Many of the students even brought us gifts and gave us personal speeches and thank you's. Later that afternoon, we set out to find some manatees as we could not find any at the Guyana National Zoo. This was another attempt to get the most out of our stay in Guyana. Luckily, we were able to spot a few manatees at the National Park and had the best time playing with them. 

Leslie and one of her students at Valmiki
Vidyalaya. 

Cakes Leslie and Sydney made for
our "QHO Graduation" party at
Valmiki Vidyalaya. 

On Tuesday, Sydney and I did our last lesson on Mental Health at the Reyaz Business Institute (R.B.I.) and said goodbye to our students there. This was a bitter sweet moment for us as we were very sad to leave but we were happy that we got the opportunity to teach our largest class of approximately 130 students who learned so much from us. We were both presented with R.B.I. hats and speeches from the class prefects. It was so great to hear how much of an influence we had on these students' lives in the 5 shorts weeks we were there. The headmaster of the school, Mr. Rayez Hussein, thanked us many times and has even invited us to make an appearance on his morning television show tomorrow. We are so excited that QHO is getting so much publicity this year and cannot wait to talk about QHO's history in Guyana and what we have been up to the past 8 weeks on his show. 

A section of Sydney and Arash's class at R.B.I.

Finally, today, Beth and I taught our last lesson as PEs to our Grade 5-6 class at Monar Educational Institute. It was during this lesson that it finally hit me that our job as PEs is done. But I am so grateful that I have had the opportunity to be a part of this great journey and reach out to so many people. There is so much to look forward to in the upcoming year as many of us will move on to new positions within the executive team and we are excited to see the Guyana project further grow and excel within this upcoming year. 

Arash and Beth's students at Monar Educational Institute with
their certificates. 

Cheers until next time, 

The Guyana 2012 PEs

The Final Week!

Hey Everyone!

We are officially in our final week here in Georgetown. Only one more week to finish up classes, strengthen already made connections, create new connections for work next year and find updated resources for our students. We plan on being very busy this next couple of days doing more administrative QHO work since our teaching is coming to a close.

We have thoroughly enjoyed teaching, and the praise we have gotten for our skills has been more than appreciated. The hospitality and generosity of everyone here has been more than we could have ever asked for and this is definitely going to make leaving that much more difficult.

The Guyana Project at Kaieteur Falls.

Sunday was our only day off this week and we were lucky enough to have the opportunity to travel to Kaieteur Falls. For those of you who don't know, Kaieteur Falls is the largest single drop waterfall in the world (approx. 4x the size of Niagra Falls). It was a beautiful site, breathtaking and seemingly indescribable. Words can't do this place justice and neither can the photos.

That evening Ms. Toney invited us to a Sweet 16 Party. Sweet 16 parties in Guyana are very different from those in Canada. Everyone is semi-formal and there is tons of food and drinks for all guests to enjoy. The party was held at one of the Community Centres we frequent, and it was fun to see the transformation from centre to party room!

Leslie and Sydney's Dangers of Smoking Lesson!

On Monday morning we taught a Substance Abuse lesson to the children of Valmiki Vidyalaya, a school which is about a 30 minute drive from Georgetown in a town called Lusignan. We are always thrilled to start our week off here and we had a really receptive lesson with the students about the dangers of drugs, alcohol and smoking.

Tuesday, Beth and Leslie ended two classes. The first was a Grade 7 and 8 class at Valmiki Vidyalaya in Georgetown. We taught our Mental Health lesson and then gave out certificates to the students. We were touched when the Headmaster gave us a heartwarming speech thanking us for our presence and reinforcing how important the work we are doing here is. We had students give us individual thank you speeches as well and present us with a lovely token of their appreciation - a beautiful piece of artwork for each of us. We also solidified our newly-strong connection with the school and we are so excited for the new team to start working there as soon as they arrive in Georgetown next year. Lucky for us, we have a huge opportunity to expand the project there as the school is expanding next year, so we will be able to reach that many more students.

The Grade 7 and 8's of Valmiki Vidyalaya with their QHO graduation certificates. 

Leslie and Beth with our Form 1 Graduates at Chase Academy.

After finishing up there, Beth and Leslie headed to Chase's Academy to finish up with the Form 1's. They were also very sad to see us leave and gave us a lovely thank you speech as well. We concluded our curriculum with a lesson on Mental Health and then gave them their certificate to commemorate their hard work throughout our 7 weeks with them. Arash and Sydney taught Substances to Reyaz Business Institute (RBI), which is comprised of about 120 students (they teach all Form's at one time). The headmaster there, Mr. Husein, extended an invitation to us as Peer Educators to appear on his television show, which airs in the mornings, in order to discuss our work in Georgetown and the foundations of our organization. It is very exciting that we are getting so much media coverage, and hopefully will encourage other schools and organizations to want to work with QHO in future years!

Tuesday evening Ms. Toney had another surprise for us. She took us to the West Ruimveldt Community Centre to hang out with some of the youth there. The youth participate in a variety of dance classes after school and we were given a private lesson in a traditional Afro-Guyanese Dance, one that is performed during a wedding ceremony. The dance is called Kwe-Kwe (pronouced "Kway-Kway"). We sure did learn a lot and looked a little bit silly next to the actual dancers. After, we got to hang out with them and talk about the differences and similarities between Canada and Guyana, and we even showed them some of our Canadian dance moves! It was both fun and rewarding to be able to spend an evening with youth and see what their lives and activities are like outside of school.

Sydney participating in the traditional Afro-Guyanese dance, known as the Kwe-Kwe!

Leslie and Sydney's Form 2 Graduates at Chase Academy.

Wednesday led to Sydney and Leslie finishing another class at Chase, this time the Form 2's. We have taught every Form at Chase so it is sad that our time there is coming to an end. That afternoon, Beth and Leslie travelled back to Lusignan and did a session with the teachers at Valmiki Vidyalaya. We were so grateful that the headmaster extended this invitation to us and we were also overwhelmed with the positive comments that emerged from the teachers regarding our organization, curriculum and our teaching skills. They were extremely happy that we were able to bring this type of education to their students as it is something that is taboo to their culture to be discussed at home. Beth and Leslie discussed for 2 hours what our curriculum consists of and how we focus on teaching younger & older children a variety of topics. We also discussed Canadian eduction and it's similarities and differences with Guyanese education. It was educational for both parties and we are so glad to have made this connection. This is a school we most definitely will be returning to next year, and for now the faculty has a copy of both our Resource Manual and Activity Book; as they plan to implement the curriculum during the year while we are gone.

That evening at the East Ruimveldt Community Centre we played another game of Cricket and tried to encourage all of the children to come out and play. We had children of all ages engaged and it was fun to see that they could work together and have great teamwork to set up and execute an activity. We played a game of boys vs. girls and although the boys took the cake, it was a close game! This is a place we have been twice a week every week since our arrival in Georgetown, so it is inevitable that leaving there will be one of the greatest challenges we face.

This week we are excited to explore Georgetown, forge new connections, and look for new opportunities for next year! Project has been so successful this year with making it sustainable, reaching a large number of students and creating and strengthening partnerships with schools and headmasters. We are all looking forward to what lies ahead for the Guyana 2013 project.

Cheers for now,
Georgetown Team (Leslie, Beth, Arash & Sydney).

6 Weeks In... 2 More To Go

Greetings from Georgetown.

Joe, Sydney & Alyssa walking along 63 Beach.

The last couple days have been super busy. Last weekend, Sydney and Leslie travelled to Berbice to see how their Project works and to hang out with Joe and Alyssa. We attended GUYSUCO Training College and saw them teach an extremely informative mental health lesson on Friday evening. Saturday, we were fortunate enough to have just the right amount of spare time to go and visit the only swimmable beach in Guyana; 63 Beach. It was lovely and the water in this part of the Atlantic Ocean was so warm – we could even see Suriname from our spot on the beach! On Sunday, we were lucky enough to go with Joe and Alyssa to see how the Letter Kenny Youth Friendly Space works and got to hang out with some of the local kids there and engage in a Monkey-in-the-Middle game. Emanuel, one of the men who runs the Space, then took us on a walk around neighboring villages and it was lovely to see yet another part of this beautiful country.

Joe, Alyssa & Sydney playing Monkey-in-the-Middle at the Letter Kenny Youth Friendly Space in Berbice.

We continued our curriculum at Valmiki Vidyalaya Hindu School on Monday and set up a time for Beth and Leslie to go and teach the teachers our material so that our lessons can be continued to be taught after we leave – perhaps one of the most important goals QHO has. We were thrilled that the headmaster asked us to do this and can't wait to donate all of the resources QHO has compiled. 

We are now starting to finish up our curriculum with many classes and we have decided as a team to give out certificates to students and schools for completing a Queen's Health Outreach Course. As a special treat for the students, we have also decided to bring in treats and prizes on the last day as a QHO Graduation Party!

Arash and Leslie finishing up the curriculum at Community College.

Arash and Leslie completed their curriculum at Community College. We presented each student with a QHO certificate for completing the entire curriclum and gave them lollipops! They seemed to be quite happy that we were there and their Headmaster, Mr. Amsterdam, gave us many Thank-Yous for coming to teach his students.

Sydney starting off the "QHO Graduation" Party.

Chase Academy has included our material as its own course at the school, known as “Moral Education”. We teach a total of 5 classes there; Form 1, Form 2, Form 3 and two Form 4 classes. Since it is a required subject for the students to learn, we were asked to prepare a short Quiz based on the material we had already taught them as a way for the over seeing teacher to generate a mark for them. This week was the week we were administering the quiz and we are feverishly busy now trying to get them all marked (we really feel like teachers!). On Tuesday afternoon Ms. Toney took us to the Masjid in Allboystown. The Masjid is new to the community. The Imam who runs it wants to transform the space into an all purpose community centre by trying to recruit gym equipment, ping pong tables, as well as desks for after-school programs. The Masjid also runs a medical outreach program that includes dental and physical checkups for the members of the community. On Thursday, Beth went to help out with the medical outreach day by doing some of the administrative work required for visiting a doctor.

That evening, Ms. Toney surprised us once again and took us to a Guyanese dance class at the West Ruimveldt Centre where we learnt an African dance. We were all soooo nervous but it turned out to be so much fun and we really enjoyed ourselves. Wednesday was another day of surprises from Ms. Toney, as she took us to yet another dance class where we learnt “Ballroom Dancing” aka Salsa. We quickly caught on and had lots of fun doing it.

Arash and Leslie's Form 1 & 2's at Royal Academy.

Friday was our last day at both Sophia Primary school and Royal Academy. It is really hard to say goodbye to our students but it is something we knew would have to happen eventually. We brought in  chips and pop and had a last class “party” with the kids. They all asked us to come back next year and said that they would miss having us here. The four of us got a wonderful appraisal from the Headmaster at Royal Academy sincerely thanking us for taking the time to volunteer and teach the students. It is so lovely to be so well received from the community.

Sydney and Beth's Form 3 & 4's at Royal Academy.

This morning, we all enjoyed ourselves at the East Ruimveldt Community centre where we set up a cricket game for the kids to play on this beautiful and sunny Saturday. Sydney is proving to be quite the cricket player now – she is awesome at batting and the kids love teaching her more and more since she is the best player out of all 4 of us. We are now patiently awaiting Joe and Alyssa’s arrival from Berbice as they have to come to Georgetown for the night to take care of some logistical matters that they can’t tend to back in Berbice.

Sydney the Cricket Superstar!

Only 13 more days of project left and time is flying! More updates to come as we finish up the 2012 Guyana Project.

Love from the Georgetown Team: Leslie, Beth, Sydney & Arash

Essequibo Adventures & A Press Release !

Hey All!

Leslie here. We have been really busy the past week and a half and that is the reason for our lack of blogs! But we promise to start blogging more often to ensure that everyone back at home is up to date with our work.

This past weekend Ms. Toney took us to Essequibo for 2 days. As mentioned previously, she is the Youth Director for all of Guyana and thus has to travel to a variety of regions (not just Georgetown) to ensure the proper functioning of her programs. She decided to make this both an educational and work weekend for us as well. We took what may have been the scariest boat ride for some of us, others were enjoying the waves and turns. Essequibo is only boat accessible and the dock is about an hour away from Georgetown. The boat ride was only about 40 minutes but the boat itself was a rickety wooden motor boat. It was very exciting for us and Beth and I quickly decided that the front row was the best seats for action!

Beth, Myself and Sydney on the very bumpy but fun boat ride to Essequibo!

The Georgetown Team enjoying the Black Lake before Sunset.

 Upon arriving in Essequibo we were greeted by Alex, Ms. Toney's Youth Director for the town and our "tour guide" for the remainder of our adventures. As we usually get Sundays as our only day off during the week, this weekend we had our day off on Saturday and worked Sunday. Saturday we toured the town, had lunch, and then went to Mainstay Resort where we could swim in a black water lake and hang out on the white sand beach. Everyone was very relaxed and happy, including Ms. Toney.

The small boat that took 10 of us to Capoey Lake, a beautiful boat ride.

On Sunday, we went straight to work at 7am. Alex took us on another boat ride to a community in Capoey Lake where they are completely isolated apart from boat access. Children of the community take these similar boats to and from school everyday and that is how everyone travels here. We quickly learnt that the boats go rain or shine, as on our ride back we were being splashed both from the lake and the sky.

The community has no electricity and works off of very few solar panels that were donated from the government. We walked around the community enjoying the natural beauty and meeting the local children. As well, we were able to visit some of their Community Centres and see how their Youth Programs work. The local villagers were so kind and allowed us to taste many of their locally grown fruits, including a coconut! It was the first time any of us had drank coconut water straight from the coconut and it was a delicious treat on such a hot day.

Fresh Coconuts, a courtesy given to us from the Amerindian Villagers.

 Once we were finished at Capoey Lake we went to "Sunday Funday" in town. This is a day organized by Youth workers for children to come and compete in traditional Guyanese games. Somehow, Beth and Sydney got recruited to a Cricket team as well as a Circle Tennis team (a new game, that none of us thoroughly understand quite yet). It was really fun to see
youth from the whole community come together and hang out on this beautiful Sunday afternoon. Of course, it was accompanied by our favourite form of music here: steel drums. Kids from a local school performed for an hour and they served as the back drop of music for the festivities during the day. Once we finished with "Sunday Funday" we headed back home to Georgetown on another interesting boat ride. The weekend exhausted us, gave us many new mosquito bites and provided us with new valuable information about Amerindian communities. It was nice to experience other parts of the country and see how what the youth are like in various regions. Definitely and educational and memorable weekend!

Sydney and Beth playing (or rather, learning) how to play cricket at Sunday Funday.

We were lucky enough this year that Scotiabank Guyana decided to sponsor us and donate to our project. Jenny, our correspondent at the bank, was thrilled to have us here and learn about our curriculum. She is in the process of setting up a press release all about us, the history of QHO and QHO in Guyana, as well as our work here in Georgetown and Berbice. On Wednesday, she came to Sydney and I's Form 2 class at Chase where she spoke on behalf of Scotiabank. She was also generous enough to drop off some piggy banks that we were able to use as prizes to the students who answered correct questions, this proved to be an awesome incentive for class participation! The students were really engaged in our STI/HIV/Healthy Relationship lesson and were excited to have their picture taken for Scotiabank! We are so grateful to Jenny and Scotiabank's donation, every little bit of help counts to bring us back here every year and keep us a sustainable organization!

Sydney and myself teaching STI and HIV awareness on Scotiabank Day at Chase!

This teaching week we started implementing our Mental Health lessons. There proves to be a lack of knowledge on this topic here in Georgetown so we are all very excited to have discussions with the kids and educate them on these very important and relevant topics.

Until our next post,

Cheers from the Georgetown Team; Leslie, Sydney, Arash and Beth.

Things are picking up in Berbice!

Long overdue greetings from Berbice!

Alyssa with the children at the Youth Friendly Space.

       We are very excited to report that things have really started picking up here in Berbice. Jamie left us on last Monday after a weekend of Guyanese Independence celebrations. Before getting into the things that we have been up to since Jamie left I suppose we should catch up to where we left off. On Friday the 25th, we went with Omeshwar to the flag raising ceremony in New Amsterdam, which was an evening of speeches and "cultural items" which included singing, poetry, drumming and a variety of entertaining acts. I personally enjoyed the address by the Regional Chairman, which was a very inspiring speech about Guyana breaking the bonds of its colonial masters and Guyanese people working together to develop their country rather than depend on hand outs from developed countries. I suppose obviously Joe is writing this but all in all it was a very interesting and eye-opening evening. Saturday afternoon after lunch we went to join Omeshwar at an Independence cricket tournament. We ended up getting to enjoy some very entertaining cricket and met some very interesting people. It was a very busy weekend full of celebrating with Omeshwar and we really felt at home and proud to be in Guyana during this time of celebration.

Doing some artwork as part of our values lesson.

      As I said, Jamie left Berbice on Sunday and we decided to accompany her to Georgetown so that she wouldn't have to travel alone. After stocking up on some groceries that we can't find in Berbice, we returned home with just Alyssa and myself for the first time. As we sat down to plan our lessons for the week, we really wanted to make an effort to seek out more teaching opportunities. We met with Omeshwar on Tuesday morning and went over some of our concerns, explaining that if there was more work for us we would be thrilled to do it. It was a very constructive meeting and we decided that one of the initiatives we would undertake was doing more outreach in the neighbourhoods around the Youth Friendly Space. While the Youth Friendly Space has been wonderful we agreed that we could be reaching more people in the community. So that afternoon we walked round Letter Kenny with Emanuel and some of the children from the space, going door to door explaining what we do at the space and inviting youth to come join us. This was a great step as we have seen an increase in attendance since doing the outreach. We also have plans to design a brochure to hand out to the other communities around the space advertising the services and facilities available. It has been very promising and the children are wonderful to do lessons with and play games. Our next goal is to attract older youth to the space so we can approach some of the more sensitive topics in our curriculum.

The Youth Friendly Space starting to fill up.

     Other than that, we have begun teaching everyday at a Business College next to the Berbice campus of the University of Guyana. The youth are between the ages of 12-20 years old and have been very receptive in our first two lessons with them. They are a little bit shy but are definitely beginning to open up with us more each day. We are still trying to negotiate a time to go to the Children's Shelter in New Amsterdam but have to settle some of the details. Guysuco training college, where we teach about 120 guys between the age of 17-20 years old is still going very well and we are having a great time with them. They have been very responsive and seem to be taking a lot from our sessions with them. Other than that we will continue to try and find more opportunities to teach as well as helping Omeshwar hand out condoms and do outreach in the community.
     We have just rounded the halfway mark of our project here and things are getting very busy and exciting here. We also made a conscious decision to keep ourselves as busy as possible and have been getting up early to exercise and do chores before starting our days. As well, we have been cooking some of the most delicious meals and eating probably more healthy than either of us ever have. Stay tuned for a blog entry soon including some of the delicious meals that we have made since we have been here. We have to head back to Letter Kenny and prepare to head to the Youth Friendly Space for the afternoon so until next time, cheers from the Berbice team.

Alyssa and Joe

Georgetown update

Hello everyone, 

It has been a while since our last update and we are sorry for that. The Georgetown team has been extremely busy the past week or so participating in various ceremonies commemorating Independence Day as well as teaching at several new schools that Ms. Toney has added to our schedule. 

We'll start off by telling you folks about Guyana's 46th Independence Day (May 26th) and the ceremonies we participated in. On Thursday May 24th, Ms. Toney invited us to the opening ceremony of the Independence Day Exhibition at the Guyana National Museum. There, we watched a performance of steel pans, met the Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport, Dr. Frank Anthony, and learnt a great deal about Guyana's history and its fight for independence. Later that day, we visited the Ruimveldt Children's Aid Centre, worked with the children, and made a deal with Ms. Patsy (lady who prepares the meals for the children) to provide us with traditional Guyanese recipes in exchange for washing all the dishes! We think it's a fair deal and so far we have learnt to make channa, chicken cook-up, salt fish and bake, and pinwheel; the list keeps getting bigger and bigger with each visit!

Cultural dance at the Independence celebrations at
National Park

On Friday evening, after our regular teaching sessions, we headed down to National Park to take part in the celebrations for Independence Day. There we heard the president of Guyana, Mr. Donald Ramotar give a speech to the people of Guyana, watched several cultural dance performances, the marching band, the flag-raising ceremony, and some fireworks. Going to these celebrations, we thought Guyana would be just like Canada on Canada Day in that people would be wearing their country's colours in pride. Little did we know, that things are a bit different here and instead people show up in their fanciest outfits. Wish we knew this before we decided to wear our Guyana t-shirts, belts, and ribbons...we looked quite foolish and stood out like sore thumbs! All in all, it was a really enriching experience to be a part of the celebrations at National Park since it was the first time the four of us had been completely immersed in the Guyanese culture and witnessed such celebrations. Continuing with the festivities, on Saturday (Independence Day), we went to a cultural party hosted by the R.B.I. school as Ms. Toney's "special" guests. At the school, we were treated with the utmost respect and the principal of the school even asked us to get up in front of the mic and introduce ourselves to the children. It was so nice to see the relationship that the principal and teachers had with the students and to hear stories of how these people have been vital figures in the students' lives.

Matching Guyana gear!

"May Pole" dance by youth in Sophia in celebration of
Independence Day. 

On Monday, we started off the new week by going to a new school called Valmiki Vidyalaya. Valmiki Vidalaya is a Hindu school located approximately 30 minutes from Georgetown. We had a fantastic time teaching grades 5 and 6 since the students were extremely well behaved, attentive, and polite. Also, the headmaster at the school was very welcoming and really liked what QHO is doing in Guyana. He even asked us to do a two hour teaching session with the teachers of the school and to leave behind a teaching manual so that they can continue to teach the students after we leave Guyana. This makes us exceptionally happy as this is exactly what QHO is all about. We want to make sure that our curriculum is sustainable because without sustainability, our efforts become much less effective. 

On Tuesday, Sydney and Arash met up with Ms. Toney to go over our schedule and to add a few new schools to our empty slots. Some new schools we will be visiting are R.B.I., Monar, and Valmiki Vidyalaya (a second location within Georgetown). The addition of these 3 new schools has really filled up our schedule, but we are super stoked to go to these new schools and interact with more students. Ms. Toney also got us to participate in a campaign she has designed for World Challenge Day. She has created a campaign called "I Will Say No To..." that targets the youth of Guyana by asking them about the issues that they think affects youth and youth development in Guyana. Through this campaign, which has started right here in Georgetown and will travel across the nation to all 10 regions, Ms. Toney wants to get a better understanding of the issues that the ministry needs to focus on, be it sexual abuse, drugs, violence, etc. 

"I Will Say No To..." campaign for World Challenge Day. 

In preparation for this campaign, we spent the rest of our Tuesday helping Ms. Toney by drawing 4 maps of Guyana on large pieces of fabric. The idea behind the maps is to take them to different schools, and to get students to write the issues they think are important within the map. Once this is done, the prevalence of issues on the maps would be analysed to figure out what issues need more attention from the ministry. So when we weren't teaching on Wednesday, we helped Ms. Toney visit different schools to get students to sign on to her campaign. The first day of the campaign was very successful and we got some great responses from students. All 4 maps were filled with a variety of issues (we definitely need to make more maps). The nice thing about this campaign is that not only does it help Ms. Toney and the ministry, but it also helps us target the topics we need to focus on in our lessons in order to cater our curriculum more properly. 

Finally, this past weekend we had the opportunity to head up to the Essequibo community with Ms. Toney and visited a few different settlements. But seeing as how this post is already so long, we'll need to do another post on our trip. So keep checking back within the next few days because we will be telling you all about our adventures and experiences in Essequibo.

Until then,

The Georgetown Crew 

Hello!

Playing 'electric fence' at Youth Friendly Space.

       Berbice team here, writing a very much delayed blog entry! A lot has happened in this past week. We have been continuously teaching at the Letter Kenny Youth Friendly Space, finishing off our communications topics and moving on to physical health topics. The kids there have definitely warmed up to us! Since it is an after school program we try and make the lessons as fun and engaging as possible, as well as being informative.They all love playing games, both the ones that we teach them and ones they teach us like cricket or "dog and bone".
 

Preparing to teach at Guysuco training college.

     
       As well as the Youth Friendly Space, we have also been teaching weekly at Guysuco Training College. Like we've mentioned before, these are mostly young men aged 18-22 so we have been catering our lessons to what we think would most benefit their age. We taught a 2 hour lesson on STIs and HIV/AIDS, and another on smoking and substances and both went really well! The students seem really receptive and after talking with a couple of them one on one, they have given us great ideas on what they would like to learn about, so we hope to incorporate that into our future lessons.

Graduation ceremony. 

       Yesterday, we had the honor of partaking in a graduation ceremony with some of Omeshwar's students. Seventeen of the students from our first class that we taught at the IT and office administration training college had finished the program and so the ceremony took place yesterday afternoon (Wednesday 23). It was a really nice ceremony and to our surprise they asked one of us to present an award to one of the students. It was really awesome though to see the students moving on to the next chapter of their lives. After the reception, we met a man who is a special needs teacher in region 6 and does outreach work with disabled persons in the area. We spoke with him briefly about the work he does in the area and we are hoping to meet with him again to reach the youth that he works with.
    Other than that, we have planned with Omeshwar to visit a children's shelter today and are planning on playing some fun games that relate to health. This weekend is Guyanese Independence and we have been invited to attend a number of ceremonies and apparently perform a cultural item....no idea what that means or entails but we shall see.
    Lastly, in terms of our day-to-day lives here we are enjoying ourselves immensely. There have been some aspects that have been difficult to adjust to, such as the black-outs and our frequent loss of running water but we have done our best to be flexible and adapt. As much as it has been trying at times it has been a very humbling experience and a great opportunity to experience the reality of the way many people live around the world. Not only that, but it has been very eye-opening to realize how fortunate we are at home to never have to wonder whether we will have electricity or running water when we want to cook or shower. Having said that, I think we have adjusted very well and are not overly bothered by these minor set backs.
    Well we have to run because it is time to go meet the children at the shelter so until next time, cheers!

The sunset from our veranda in Letter Kenny. 

Alyssa and Joe

Surprise!

Time for some Georgetown updates!

"Mother May I," a game the kids taught us

After our busy day on Friday, we had another busy day with 2 teaching sessions and games afterwards at a couple community centres. In the morning after the lesson, we attempted to play cricket with the kids. Arash hit the ball a few times, and seemed to be the one who got to do the most, while the rest of us stood in the outfield and were still confused about the game. Maybe next time we’ll catch on.

At the community centres, our lessons are more like discussion groups. We usually sit in a circle and talk about issues more than we lecture to students, because there are many ages and abilities in the groups. The students are very engaged, and often even end up teaching eachother – and teaching us! We’ve learned lots of new fruits and vegetables, like cashew fruit, pawpaw (papaya), star apple, mamey, callilou (spinach) and many others.  In the afternoon, the children at the Sophia Youth Friendly Space brought us guinep, a small fruit similar in size and texture to a lychee, but with a meatier fruit and a seed inside. The kids are so amazing, always wanting us to experience Guyana, often through asking us to play cricket and games, but also by giving us delicious food.

Between the first and second teaching sessions, Ms Toney gave us some methai, a sweet, crunchy deep fried breadstick, and “cool downs” (Guyanese freezies). After a break for lunch, Ms Toney drove us out to Sophia outskirts, where we then took our first Guyanese bus the rest of the way to the centre, so that we wouldn’t hurt her car too badly on the washed out roads like we did to the poor man in the cab the day before. Busses here are the size of large minivans with an extra row of seats. The bus was pretty fun, but we were glad to have Ms Toney to show us where to get on and off.

Leslie's 10 steps to condom use

On Sunday we were writing in our journals and making up some activities for the lessons next week when we got a call from the Berbice team saying that Omeshwar, the social worker from the Ministry of Culture Youth and Sport for the region that the Berbice team is in, would be in Georgetown and wanted to meet us. We said we would love to meet him, BUT the sneaky, sneaky Berbice team actually fabricated Omeshwars whereabouts to make sure we would be around on our day off so that THEY could visit us! Next thing we know, Joe, Alyssa and Jamie have surprised us at our door. We had an amazing day with them, exploring Georgetown by going to a new, delicious Brazilian restaurant and then going to the Sea Wall in the evening, a popular Sunday night hangout spot for locals.

         On Monday morning, before the Berbice team left, Jamie showed us a store called Nigel’s that has anything you could want or need. We were so happy to discover it and be able to get some much-needed snacks for our busy days like Fridays and Saturdays. Thanks Jamie!!!

         We taught a couple lessons, and then headed off to Lifeline. After Lifeline, we went to an unreal restaurant, Ali Babba’s, where we had – wait for it – SHAWARMAS! Doesn’t get better than that, folks.

         Tuesday we had some more teaching, and we stocked up at the Guyana Stores on clothing and ribbons to get ready for Guyana Independence Day this Saturday! We all got shirts and belts, and Arash even got a pair of Guyana shorts. Tuesday night is our only evening off, so we went for a long run along the Sea Wall. Our running goal is to get to Suriname (just kidding, it’s 200km away).

         We’re all getting along super well, so lucky to have such an awesome team!

-Beth, Arash, Sydney, and Leslie

All On Our Own

Hi everyone,

Arash here! Today marks the 14th day since our arrival to Georgetown and also the second day we are completely on our own. Kelly left Georgetown for Toronto yesterday morning as her trip was cut short due to the recent flooding in Lethem. So, it is now completely up to us to explore the town, make new contacts, and represent QHO to the best of our abilities. I should mention however that Jamie is still in Berbice and will be coming to visit us here in Georgetown next week before she heads home.

Wednesday was a relatively busy day for the Georgetown PEs. Sydney and Leslie started off the day by teaching a lesson on nutrition, fitness, and disease in the morning, while Sydney and myself taught the same lesson to another class in the afternoon. Then, later that day, we all traveled to East Ruimveldt (one of the low-income communities surrounding Georgetown) to hold a homework help session at the East Ruimveldt Community Centre. We were greeted by Ms. Donna, the social worker in charge of the East Ruimveldt area, and lots of kids who were beyond excited to see us return. We definitely recognized many familiar faces from our session the previous week, which is always a good sign! We helped the kids with anything from math and spelling to social studies and art. During this time, Sydney and I decided to give the older kids who didn't have any homework, an introduction to our upcoming lesson on Sexual Health. This was very welcomed by the students and other community members who joined in to listen, and also solidified the need for our curriculum. Once everyone had finished their homework, we decided to go outside and play, which included giving a lot of piggy-back rides to the kids.

On Thursday, since a lot of our classes were canceled due to the CXC testing (a test which must be completed by students in order to get a job in Guyana) going on in schools, we all headed to a local GRPA (Guyana Responsible Parenthood Association) to get some information on resources we could provide to our students when we teach them about sexual health, contraceptives, and STI’s. Leslie and Beth even put on a brave face and signed up and got tested for HIV so that they could get a sense of how HIV testing works in Guyana and to be able to provide the students with the details. Overall, visiting the GRPA was very successful and provided us with a lot of insight about the process of getting tested for STI’s and HIV, as well as the stigma associated with it. Later that day, Leslie and I taught our regular class at community college, after which we all went out for dinner with Kelly on her last night in Guyana.

Friday brought about a relatively hectic day for us in Georgetown. We started the day by teaching at a new school Ms. Toney had arranged for us, the Sophia Primary School. Getting to this new school however was a mission and a half! The Sophia Primary School is located in the Sophia community, which is around 20 minutes outside of Georgetown. However, due to the heavy rain we had experienced the past two days, many of the roads were washed away and were left with huge ditches and potholes. Against all odds, we made it to the school and taught our lesson. After, we met up with Ms. Toney so that she could provide us with the times and locations of some new schools that we will be teaching at. The addition of these new schools to our schedule has made us quite busy, but we are excited and very eager to reach out to as many people as possible during our stay in Guyana. After our meeting with Ms. Toney, we made our way to the Royal Academy school, taught our students there, then headed to the Ruimveldt Children’s Home. The Ruimveldt Children’s Home is a place where children can hang out after school, get help with their homework, and eat some food. There we met Ms. December who was in charge of the kids for the day and was beyond happy to have us. During our hour stay, we hung out with the kids, I re-tried to learn “how to dougie” (watch the video), and helped Ms. December and the staff with serving the kids' food, and the clean up that followed. We all loved our experience at the Ruimveldt Children’s Home and will be going back every Thursday and Friday. 

Until next time, 

The Georgetown Crew! 

Georgetown - Can't believe it's already been 10 days...

Hey everyone,

Beth and Arash checking in! We can't believe that this is only the second week of our stay here in Georgetown, Guyana, as we feel like we have already done so much and experienced a lot of the culture that Guyana has to offer. But most importantly, we have all become accustomed to the ways of the city and feel very much at home.

For our first week in Guyana, we mostly taught as a group of 4 in order to become familiarized with the school system here, and to be able to get Kelly's feedback on our lessons and our teaching. However, for this week and for the rest of our stay here, we have split up the schedule so that we only teach in groups of two and that we get to work with each other.

We started off the week with a lesson that Beth and Sydney taught, and lets just say that we thought we were doing the teaching, but the students definitely taught us a lesson in classroom management. We quickly realized that the overwhelming number of teenage boys would rather have cracked jokes than listen to our lesson on communication. However, when we read over the question box questions we were surprised to see that the students were definitely paying attention because we got lots of relevant, insightful questions. Arash and Leslie taught at the same time, teaching a great lesson to a smaller group on physical health. The poster they made resembling a giant nutrition label was a huge hit, and really helped a lot of the students grasp the concepts of healthy eating, and the importance of essential nutrients. As more time goes by, we're realizing that an advantage of being here for 8 weeks is that we can get to know the classroom dynamic and tailor each lesson to best suit the students' needs.

That afternoon we all went to Lifeline for our first time to tutor students. There was a mix of ages between 5-12 years, but since there were 5 of us (Kelly was there too) we got the job done.

Early Tuesday morning, Kelly left Georgetown to join up with the Berbice team. This was a very last minute decision, as she and Jamie were supposed to travel to Lethem (past project location) to drop off teaching manuals for the community so that our curriculum can still be taught thus maintaining sustainability. However, the extreme flooding of the region rendered it unsafe for PDs to travel there as they could have become stranded. After much deliberation, Kelly and Jamie decided that it was in everyone's best interest to call their contacts in Lethem and mail them the QHO resources instead.

For the PEs, Tuesday brought a very productive day (likely due to the coffee we enjoyed at breakfast!). Leslie and Beth taught a lesson on physical health to an extremely attentive class. While Leslie and Beth were teaching, Sydney and Arash went above and beyond by exploring the town (and the internet) for local resources that correspond to the material in our curriculum. They visited a local health institute, where they were given up to date resources that we can now provide to students. They even figured out where we can get HIV/AIDS testing, so that we are able to answer our students' questions about the testing process!

After a long day of teaching and walking all over town, we practiced what we preached by going for a long run! We found an awesome route by the sea wall; the breeze by the sea makes the running in the heat and humidity much more bearable.

We're about to snuggle up and watch a movie (but not actually snuggle because it's too hot) then have an early night before our morning classes tomorrow.

Until next time!

The Georgetown Team

Georgetown Update

Hi Everyone!

Leslie here. We are early risers in Georgetown as the sun rises around 5:30am! It is awesome because we get all of our lessons prepared early in the morning, and collect all of our teaching supplies so we're ready to go.

We have lots to update you on, as we were super busy this weekend. Friday we all taught at Royal Academy. Myself and Arash taught the From 1 and 2's and Beth and Sydney taught the Form 3 and 4's. Arash and I had a great time teaching the communication lesson, and we were soon promised a cricket lesson in return. Arash also learnt a popular Guyanese dance move; dougie-ing. Its fun that we can teach them valuable information, and they can teach us things about their culture that we would otherwise never be exposed to. Beth and Sydney really enjoyed their class, they also taught a communication lesson and their students were very much engaged and excited to participate. Upon leaving the school, we were all given fresh cool refreshments from the students and set off on our walk home.

On the way home, we stopped at a local fruit market. We picked up selected fruits to munch on as snacks and easy breakfasts before classes. The bananas here are about half the size in Canada, and are very sweet - almost tasting like a pineapple. We also bought a lot of grapes and apples. Fruit here is delicious and very easy to come by.

Saturday was probably one of the most exciting days we've had here yet. In the morning we travelled to one of the low income communities where we were greeted by a bunch of children from the East Ruimveldt community. The social worker that works at the Community Centre, Ms. Donna, was beyond enthused that we were there and the kids were super happy to be spending their Saturday mornings with us. Ms. Donna reiterated the importance of our presence in the community and assured us our work would be cherished and remembered. After our lesson, we took the children outside where we learnt a variety of Guyanese games. The first, a variety of Duck Duck Goose, involved running at top speeds around a circle before the other got back to their spot. There is a unique song that is sung along to it, and after a few rounds of practice, we all got the hang of it. Another game "Fish, Fish in a Dish", got all the children excited and they were happy to teach us their favourite pastimes. The kids were sad to see us go, but happy to know that we would return on Wednesday afternoons for Homework Help and then every Saturday as well for a Health lesson.

Playing a Communication Activity in the East Ruimveldt Community Centre. 

Saturday afternoon, our social worker Ms. Toney took us to the Sophia Youth Friendly Space. Sophia is another low income area of Georgetown. All the kids were happy to see Ms. Toney arrive and quickly showed up on bikes and with their siblings. Beth and I did a session with the younger kids (aged 3-7years) and Arash and Sydney taught a lesson to the older children (8-14years). After the lessons were done, we played a lot of hide and go seek, another Guyanese game called "Blind Eye" and lastly we watched a traditional dance that the girls do in May around a May-Pole in celebration of Independence Day (on May 26th). We were exhausted after our 6 day teaching week and we all went to sleep and rested up on Sunday.

Sydney & Arash's Lesson at the Sophia Youth Friendly Space

We are looking forward to visiting all of our classes again this week and seeing the children again! Now, we get to start our lessons on Physical Health: Hygiene, Nutrition, Fitness and Disease.

Cheers for now,

Leslie, Sydney, Beth and Arash.