Jack's Travels 25 September 2007 01:25

Hello everybody! I realise of course that this is only a comment on a post, but I didn't have time to ask for permission to become a blogger (sorry Carmen perhaps It could be arranged for when I next get to a computer? [Carmen: No problem, the invitation has been sent and I've made a new posting from your comment])

This is the first of (I hope) many updates for you upon my progress in Guyana.

It's now one month into my time here in Guyana, and one week into my time here in Aishalton. After leaving Britain on Thursday the 23rd of August I flew to Georgetown in Guyana where I spent a week acclimatising and seeing the local sites, then i got an 18 hours bus through the rain forest to a small border town called Lethem. We stayed there for a week, as the bureaucracy here is thicker then treacle, and then, as we were running out of money we decided to take a trip to Brazil, It started early Sunday evening. We went to the immigration services in Lethem on Sunday night and , after a nice chat with the officer called Pugsey, we got our passports stamped - we had officially left Guyana. We then caught a motorboat up the river (the Essequibo) and into Brazil. We trudged up the other side until we reached the immigration and customs service there, and got stamped into Brazil for three days (nodding benignly at the lady who was spouting some unintelligible Portuguese at us!) We then went back across the river and illegally entered Guyana. We spent a lovely day at a fast moving creek (to fast to swim against but it was nice to brace your feet against the bridge pontoon legs and face the water) And had a lovely meal of rice, chicken and black eyed peas. unfortunately the water was surrounded by Caborrah flies (no idea how you spell their name by the way) and so the next day we all looked like we had chicken pox due to the number of itchy bloody bites we had. Anyway we gt up at 5am on Monday and trudged about 3 miles to the river once more, we crossed to the Brazilian side and then caught a 2 hour bus from Bonfim (the border town) to Boa Vista (the provincial capitol of the least populated province of Brazil) We tried to get our money out of the cash machine in Banco Real, but no success, so we tried to find a cashier to talk to. unfortunately I was being slightly slow and so walked straight through a metal detector with a metal watch on, a penknife in my bag and a metal camera !not good! anyway the security guard spoke some English (thank God) and we were directed to Banco Do Brazil . The bank was massive, with about 20 machines all along one wall. but they didn't work, after about an hour of trying to speak to someone in English (and him to me in Portuguese, we managed to get some money -Luckily Rob suggested we try one last time or else we would have been a little bit screwed!!) We decided we'd had enough of this country and so went to get a taxi back to the bus stop. The driver shouted something about not taking us because we were English, and so we walked....and walked...... for about 2 hours in the boiling midday sun. Finally found the bus stop, got some nice wine and caught the bus back to Guyana. The bus was beasty, about the height of the LLew Jones double decker, but just one layer, with masses of legroom and AC!!! Amazing! Anyway it was a nice relief to be back in Lethem where they speak English-ish! Then finally after another week of waiting for the government here to shift it, we got bored again and we got chatting to a local farmer ... after about 7 drinks and a modest bribe of G$6000 (Guyanese dollars) {about a weeks salary} he agreed to take us down on his tractor to Aishalton!and so here we are. the journey down here was a little bit epic also - the tractor driver we bribed promised us that he'd pick us up at 4:00 Am , and he was early .... well at least by Guyanese standards... He turned up at 5:00 Am, only after Rob and I had been standing in the cold being eaten by , well everything, for an hour! The tractor ride was 6 hours to Dadenawa ranch (about halfway), that is 6 hours of bottom bruising, bone jolting, joint rattling , excruciating fun. The ride was rough and in places we were in about 3.5 ft of water, but it was awesome. At Dadenawa we loaded all our luggage onto a pontoon raft (made of oil barrels and wooden planks) and crossed the Rupenuni (a large river here) on the other side our luggage went into another trailer, and we (Me , Rob and 5 other) piled into the back of a GTX Toyota Hilux Sporting.... nice wheels..... and the driver (I'm sure he had a deathwish!) drove us the rest of the distance in 2.5 hours including a stop!! We must have hit almost 50 mph where there were no roads at all!! Anyway we're here now, bruised battered, unable to sit down and severely burnt (Rob burnt his knees, his legs now go white...RED...white/brown) but happy.

And then there comes the drawback, teaching...

The school currently has 15 teachers on the payroll, but (including Rob and myself) there are only 5 of us at the school. Of those 10 missing, three are training in Georgetown, one is on maternity leave, the head has Dengue/Malaria still, and the rest just didn't show up. So there are five of us, the acting head is a primary school teacher moved to plug the gap, the other teachers are , a proper teacher moved from Lethem who specialized in Technical Drawing, a female staff member who has only just passed her CXC's (so about 17/18 then) and then Rob and Me who have to teach all the years 3,4 and 5 (9,10 and 11). Teaching was terrifying, my first lesson was so bad! My second was marginally better but I really don't think I'm cut out to be a teacher. Life otherwise is great, good food, good water, good beer... yeah generally good. Oh and sunny... It's a shame we have to teach really!! Ah well we get 7 weeks holiday at the end of the year to LIME!!!

Aishalton has already grown on me, being able to walk barefoot all day every day is lovely (although at midday the sun heats the sand up so much I think I burnt my feet!!) and being able to swim with anacondas every day (I KID YOU NOT!!) is also quite exhilarating! So yes life is good! We've really started to settle in here, although good music is hard to find! Hopefully school will become a secondary project for me so it'll all be good. We are going riding this weekend with a kid from school who has three untrained colts... should be fun! Rob and I have also started setting challenges for ourselves, this week, for example, we are having a 'Farine only week' where we can eat nothing but Farine at mealtimes!! Shocking! (Farine is a local produce made from grated cassava- a poison carrying root which forms a staple Carbohydrate here)

But as with everything good in life there are drawbacks... I really miss everyone at home. Homesickness has never been a problem for me before, but being pulled from the embrace of my community and thrust under the glare of the pupils in a school... it's quite difficult.

I want to thank each and every one of you for the amazing generosity you showed when I left the choir, I must say I have some very, very fond memories of times we shared. I really miss the music and hope to be able to sing with the choir at least once when I get back. Anyway I must go as I have lessons to prepare. I hope this post finds you all in good health, please feel free to contact me as it would be most welcome (especially news about the choir!!) All best wishes. Jack Palmieri xxx