Home Sweet Yoga Studio?

Thursday, June 17, 2010: Day 131

Paul and I almost have the house together.  Medex gave us the old shelving unit from the health center, so we now have a place to put our food.  Paul built two benches out of the extra wood, and we sawed off the two benches that were attached to the table.  Now we have leg room.  Yipee for leg room!  We'll put the two original benches outside, even though it's a risk as our other bench was stolen.  Someone took the top because they wanted a board.  Sad, but true. 

Mangoes are in season, and they're free!

The neighbor kiddos, Lisa and Marlon, came by and discovered our yoga mat.  They grabbed my book of yoga/pilates positions that they found the other day, and did the best to recreate the pictures.  They gave us some laughs.  Marlon grunts while twisting his body around.  They are two amazing kids.

the ultimate fly catcher living in our fly catcher

Two Year Anniversary!

Monday, June 14, 2010: Day 128

Paul and I have been married for two years!  It has gone by so quickly, but at the same time I have a hard time remembering what it was like before I knew him.  I had a frustrating day at work, but Paul was very encouraging and helped me stay focused.  We enjoyed our evening with our creation of spaghetti and soy chunks, as well as a bottle of wine we brought from Georgetown.  Two years here seems like a long time, but the past two years have gone by fast.  Our service here will be over so fast; I have to make sure to enjoy it.

Georgetown

Tuesday, June 8, 2010: Day 122

We flew into Georgetown on Sunday and were overwhelmed by the noise, people, and cars.  We met up with some other volunteers, grabbed burgers and fries at the one burger place, and slept quite nicely in our huge hotel with two beds, a flushing toilet, air conditioning, and a shower big enough to hold four people.

We spent the past two days in a cross-cultural workshop with a wondeful woman from headquarters in Washington D.C., volunteers that came in a year or two ahead of us, and Peace Corps Guyana staff.  We discussed challenged PC Guyana staff face in cross cultural training during our PST (pre-service training).  It was great to hear the feedback from other PC volunteers as well as give our own, and to hear the staff talk about their own struggles.  It's no easy feat getting a group of volunteers ready to take on community development with the help of people from another culture. 

We saw a great illustration for anyone working with someone from a different background.  It's a dual iceberg illustrating how below the surface where the icebergs hit, we clash.  It's exactly how Paul and I have been feeling.  Now only is it difficult for us to learn and understand another culture, but for our village to do the same with us.  It made me want to be a part of training next spring with Guy 23.

Mining for Gold

Friday, June 4, 2010: Day 116

Early evening Paul and I rushed down to the creek in order to do laundry and bathe before it got dark.  We were making good time, and I was scrubbing clothes when I heard, "Uh-oh."  While rinsing clothes in the creek, Paul's ring slipped off his finger and sank to the sandy bottom.  Uh oh is right!  Quickly we recruited the three little girls bathing to come over and help.  They started dunking their heads under water, raking the sandy bottom and looking for anything shiny.  We searched and searched, but the water is tinted brown and was relatively high that day, and the sandy bottom is full of rocks.  They're incredibly tricky and kept feeling like a ring.  Paul had given up and gone back to rinsing clothes when my raking hand grabbed something round that this time wasn't a rock.  I'd found it!

Paul caught this with his camera

Yes, it's just a piece of jewelry, and it is replacable, but its from a very special day with an important memory, and I'm just thankful we found it before it came nothing more than fish food.

a frequent visitor to our house

new baby donkey in the village

Food Security

It has been estimated that sometime in the 2 years, before our Peace Corps service is completed, our planet will reach a population over 7 billion people. It is also estimated that once the planet reaches 10 billion people it will not, pending climate change and a few other factors, be a possible to grow or raise enough food to feed everyone. Of course the wealthier countries will continue to have an unequal distribution of the food supply while the poorer nations, like Guyana will struggle to survive.
Our village is feeling a bit of the pinch at the momement.
We get our supplies from Lethem, the most western "city" in Guyana, and from Brazil. However, truck shipments can only come through the roads during the dry season or a light rain season, and since we have been experiencing one of the wettest years in sometime the village hasn't recieved a shipment of food for at least 3 months. Which means that all the shops in the village are out of oats, flour, sugar, rice and a few other important foods. Yikes!
We have been away from the village for a little over two weeks now and the fear is that we will be returning to a worse situation than the one we left. The trucks are estimated to be able to come across the mountain roads sometime in early september, but even then its just an estimate. Many of the shop owners have been trying to get goods onto planes and bring them in but they have been forced to raise their prices. Supply and demand.
What about crops? All the rain has rotten them out. The main food is cassava which is a large tuber root that is grated into chunks and made into bread. Because it is a root and many of the farms lie on flood planes they have all died out.
To sum this post up: the shops are out of food, the food on the farms has rotted out and Peace Corps gives us money so we can get food. All of this can be a dangerous combination. Which is why PC pulled us into the office a few days ago and asked us to guard our food and to keep them updated on any possible "food riots."

Greatest Find Ever!

I found a copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in the Peace Corps lounge!  Wahoo!  Guess what's going back to my village with me?!?

I brought a collection of all Jane Austen's books, but Harry Potter would have been a good idea.  I've been craving it since I got here, both the movies and the books.  Strange?  Maybe.  Sometimes it's just nice to have something fun, light, easy, and a reminder of home.  I've also been craving chocolate though.

So yes, I'm quite proud of myself for finding it. I also found some Michael Buble, Ray LaMontagne, and Etta James in the music box.  What a good day.

A Five Senses of Our Village

How do we answer the question, "What is it like there?".  Well, I decided to pull out one of my teaching tools and go about it through a five senses approach.  Without further ado, if you lived in our village, you would:

SEE:
* green, and lots of it
* 270 degree view of mountains
* mud huts and thatched roofs
* an occassional ATV
* kids in school uniforms
* lightning bugs, which are called candle bugs here
* lightning storms
* every star on a clear night
* water falls (there are seven)
* savannah grasses
* rainbows & rainclouds
* blue skies
* horses running (it's beautiful when they're all together)
* women with babies in slings
* men fishing
* children bathing in rivers

HEAR:
* parrots singing
* donkeys
* soca and foha (Brazilian music)
* sun bees
* roosters
* chickens
* mosquitos
* thunder
* nothingness
* generators starting at about 6:00 P.M.
* rain on zinc roofs
* "Good Morning Miss" followed by "Good Afternoon Miss" followed by "Good Evening Miss" (you get the idea)

SMELL:
* cassava bread
* farine (a hard crumb like thing made out of cassava)
* casseri (a sweet drink made out of cassava and red potatoes)
* deet (unfortunately necessary)
* dirt - it's everywhere and inescapable
* fresh clean air!
* donkey poop
* sunscreen (especially if you're Alyssa)

TASTE:
* rice, beans, chickpeas (always one of them)
* popcorn (our prized snack)
* mango
* passion fruit
* paw-paw
* peanut butter everyday
* avocados (called pears here)
* organic coffee (they grow here! wahoo!)
* hot pepper, if you're not careful
* curry spices

FEEL:
* mosquito and kabura bites (vicious little things)
* rain
* sun
* the breeze
* sunburns (if you're not careful)
* cold river water
* sand on your feet
* chiggers (yuck)

Official Quinlivan Peace Corps House Tour

Next Steps

We have been spending the last 3 months integrating into our community, getting to know people and observing the happenings in the village. After all of our observations, Peace Corps asked us to compile a report which we hope to use for future site development and projects. The report seemed tedious at times but after we were done with the compilations we were able to put our future goals and next steps at our site on paper. We thought we would shared all these with you to see if maybe you had suggestions, ways you could help or just to let you know the things you could pray for in our village.

These are in order of priority, or what we will accomplish on a daily basis to what we wish to accomplish over our service.

Health (Paul)
1.) Weekly health talks in the annex; along with continued work in the Health Center.
2.) Create and implement school curriculum for health and nutrition
3.) Aid in re-developing school garden for food and practical experience.
4.) Home visits for general health, youth, malaria and HIV/AIDS outreach.
5.) Mentor, or lead, youth group in sports, health, life skills, woodworking, crafts, etc.
6.) Teach computer classes

Others: Promote micro enterprise through crafts, promote a coffee growers initiative and try to sell coffee to GT, Malaria/HIV outreach to outlying villages

Education (Alyssa)
1.) Teacher training in literacy, phonics, math, reading, writing, classroom management
2.) Help run the resource center, working with the coordinator to keep the center open more and encourage more of the community to use the available resources.
3.) Lead small group sessions during school day for students struggling in math, reading and writing.
4.) Create visual aids for teachers to use.
5.) Assist in mentoring/ leading youth group.
6.) Support the women's group in meeting consistently, sharing and learning new skills
7.) Help to create a play structure and/or outdoor activities at the school for both play and teaching physical eduction.

You Done Broke It!

June 1, 2010: Day 115

The morning was difficult.  The latrine is so flooded (however, thankfully not overflowing) that there are at least 30 mosquitoes flying out of the hole every time I wave my hand over it, which I do before my behind goes over it.  We still don't have water coming from our pipe, and though time down by the creek is good to talk with people, it would be nice to have options.  The headmistress isn't back from her one day workshop that ended 5 days ago, so I haven't been able to plan much of anything.  Still no mail.  Grrrrr.

Due to the difficult morning, I decided to stay home and work on our Community Diagnostic Report while Paul headed off to work.  I'm really glad I did.  Our neighbor came by with 2 eggs for us, probably partially as a peace offering seeing as her baby chicks are often in our yard.  I told her they don't bother us, knowing she's afraid we'll pelt, hurt, or kill them if they are, as many people do.

That's when she asked the million dollar question of "How old are you?"  I answered, and knowing her next question followed up with, "But no babies yet."  After they find out I'm 27, they always ask why Paul and I don't have kids yet.  Most women here are done or have several already by the time they are my age. I told her we want to have babies after we go home.  She then asked if we are doing family planning.  Great!  This is something we're trying to talk more about in the village!  She's twenty-five and has two kids aged 4 and 7.  She told me about how she wanted to do family planning but had her first baby, and then wanted to have an abortion when she became pregnant with her second.  Breakthrough!  Someone brought up the subject, and now it's fair game.

Talking with her really boosted my spirits.  We're ready to get going and make some progress.  I got myself to go to school in the afternoon which proved to be another good interaction.  After school, we went down to the creek to bathe, and our neighbor kids, Lisa & Marlon, came too.  They're really funny kids, and Lisa is like a little mother.  She even talks like one.  Paul went to pick a flower and Lisa was trying to tell him how when he yanked it and pulled just the top off.  That's when Lisa, in her mother voice, said, "You done broke it."  I do like that kid.

5/24/10 - 5/31/10

May 24, 2010: Day 107: Evil Pessimism

I took the morning off of school to work on a big report for the Peace Corps called the Community Diagnostic Report.  Basically it's a report that forces you to get out and learn about your community while integrating and getting to know people.  It seemed daunting at first, but it really is great and has been incredibly helpful.

Looking at all the questions we need to answer brought me down though.  Our village is beautiful.  It is filled with incredibly kind people, but it has a lot of needs and problems.  I started wondering, yet again, what can I do that's sustainable?  What should I do and where should I start?  Everyday I feel like I learn more that makes me both more discouraged and excited.  I don't know what to do with this mix of emotions other than verbally vomit them onto Paul.  The poor guy.  He's such a trooper.

Sometimes I think about how I am just one person seeing many problems, many of which I have never personally experienced or even seen.  I want so much for this village and am brainstorming all these great ideas at the same time that I'm also thinking some things are hopeless.  How can I focus on wanting more books in the resource center when I can't even solve the fact that some kids repeatedly are without pencils.  How can working with remedial students and doing teacher training help if I can't get either to regularly attend school?  How can we teach kids about good nutrition when their options at home are limited to two items?  Why teach kids to wash their hands and face if they're using dirty water or there's no place to wash?

Goodness me.  These are those moments when I have to remind myself why I came here, and that there are very few problems that can be fixed in a day, let alone one year. 

May 26, 2010: Day 109: Independence Day

Today is Independence Day, which for many seems like just another day off.  We started it off right with some pancakes and coffee, then took advantage of the cooler weather and time off to work in the garden.  It's really coming along, and now that my knee is feeling better, I'm able to do much more of the weeding and final touches. 

We did something else today that was a first.  We haven't had consistent water in our pipe lately, so rather than waiting and hoping, we grabbed our laundry and bathing suits and headed down to the creek to do some laundry and bathe.  Turns out laundry goes really fast when you have an entire creek to rinse instead of a bucket, and creek bathing is much more refreshing than pouring water from a bucket onto yourself using an empty peanut butter jar.  Go figure!  We've been missing out!

May 29, 2010: Day 112: Pot Bread

One of the nursery school teachers, Ms. Dianne, has become a friend of mine, even though she's the same age as my own mother and has kids my age.  She offerred awhile ago to help me learn how to make pot bread, which is bread baked on the stovetop as we don't have an oven.  She came by this morning to invite me over and I gladly took the opportunity not only to learn bread, but to get out of the garden which is our neverending task. 

I spent the next four hours not only learning how to make bread, but learning about her family, plants she grows, and how to get the mosquitoes to leave our flooding latrine (apparently motor oil works - watch as the environmentalist in us both shrieks!).  Making pot bread is surprisingly easy.  You just make the dough, let it rise, put it in the pot, let it rise some more, put it on the stovetop on low, and turn it halfway through cooking.  Delicious! 

I was sent home with my yummy and warm bread, a paw-paw (papaya), mangoes, pine (pineapple), boulanger (eggplant), shallots, and aloe vera.  The villagers are incredibly generous, even when they have litle themselves.  The always are willing to share.  She also offerred to let me borrow the pot she uses anytime as I don't have one suitable for making the bread.  I need to make sure to take her up on the offer.

May 30, 2010: Day 113: Sunday, Lazy Sunday

We went to one of the local churches in the area which was nice.  As different as it is, it's good to sing same of the songs.  I miss that more than I thought I would. 

We're still not getting water here - something to talk to Peace Corps about - so we took all our laundry back down to the creek.  We washed clothes, towels, sheets, and then ourselves, all the while slapping at the kabura flies. 

As soon as we got home, our wonderful kid neighbor friends, Lisa and Marlon, came over with a handful of flowers for the table.  They are so sweet.  We invited them in, shared some popcorn, and learned more about them and our village - as always.  The kids are open books.  They hung out until dinner because their mom was still a the farm. They read, played with our soccer ball, and watched "Mr. Paul" clear our land with the village weed wacker.  We have lots of tall grass we need to get rid of (to cut down on bugs and the possibility of snakes and rodents) so he was out literally having a blast cutting down grass. I showed Lisa garlic bread and let them share a piece, which was quite a treat.  It's nice to share things from back home.

May 31, 2010: Day 114: Calabash Bowls!

Two girls, Roshell and Kimberly, came by this morning with 2 calabash bowls their father made.  Again, we've let people know that we're interested in local crafts, and the people are eager to show us.  Calabash is a gourd, and to make the bowls they cut it in half, clean out the inside, boil it to turn from green to brown, then lay it in the sun.  My bowl says "MISS" on it, and Paul's is the other half of mine.  They're very nice and we're excited to add them to our Amerindian artifacts.  The bowls are large enough to cover my face, and fit nicely on top of Roshell's baby's head.  :)

Paul and I had a big talk today about why we are here.  Both of us are having one of those days when you want to throw in the towel, and it's hard to remember that tomorrow could be a highlight.  We're realizing that you can't help people that don't want help or change.  We can't continue to hold youth group if only four people come or if no one else takes leadership.  We can't change health habits if no one wants to listen.  There's a lot of relationship building that needs to happen before we can "jump in" to our jobs and projects.  Sometimes it seems impossible. 

We did learn a little more today about the culture of our village and what some people believe.  Many believe in jumbees and kanimas, which are evil spirts and sometimes show themselves in people and animals.  Some kids believe their grandmother died because someone else "blew her", or gave her the evil eye or cursed her.  Another girl came by today and told me how our site has mermaids.  At first I thought maybe she calls something mermaids that we call something else, but as I heard the story I realized that her idea of a mermaid is the same as mine.  They strongly believe in different forces and beings here, and sometimes I'm at a loss as to how to respond.

5/15/10 - 5/23/10

April 15, 2010: Day 98: Sweet Cassava!

Our neighbor and her three kids came by today while we were eating breakfast, carrying sweet cassava sticks to plant in our garden.  Many Amerindian families live off of cassava, and there are two kinds: bitter and sweet.  Most people grow the bitter because you can make alcohol out of it called Cari.  We like the sweet cassava because, when boiled, it tastes like potatoes back home.

Our neighbor chopped the sticks into pieces and filled 20 holes.  She said the cassava will grow into nice plants that will provide shade as well, and in 6 months we can start eating the cassava which is the root of the plant.

All week we worked on promoting the youth group.  We put up fliers, made announcements at the school, and told any youth we could that we're having the first youth meeting in quite awhile.  Fifteen kids showed up.  That's it.  We talked about youth group and what it is and what it can become.  The hope is that the leadership model Paul gives helps the current leaders step it up a notch and find ways to continue the group once we are gone.  Sustainability is Peace Corps goal, but we can't be sustainable if the leaders don't want to lead.

April 16, 2010: Day 99: THE Hike

We hiked to a neighboring village.  All.  Day.  Long.  We left at 6:30 A.M. and arrived at almost 7:00 P.M. exhausted and blistered.  I also hurt my left knee pretty badly.  Our guide was a teenager in the village going to take an exam, and I felt horrible hobbling and slowing him down, but without him we surely would have been lost.  The entire trip was beautiful, but it was up and downhill at 45 degrees sometimes, crossing creeks, walking through tall grass and even rainforest complete with fallen leaves and wood ants that enjoy biting your feet.  Thankfully none of us were injured (terribly), we didn't see any snakes, we never ran out of water, and we made it before it was completely dark.

I'm not going to lie; I did hurt a lot.  I hobbled a good half of the 20+ mile hike - maybe more - just telling myself over and over that the next village has Internet, and Internet means communication with family and friends.  Paul even said he was proud of me, noticing that several times a certain step would cause me to cry out, but that I just kept going.  The fear of snakes and jaguars in the jungle will do that to you.

We met up with friends as soon as we got there, and their faces were one of the greatest sites I've ever seen.  It's amazing the bond we have as volunteers and the comfort you automatically feel in one another's presence.

We did find out that four more people have left our group, taking us from the original 35 down to 28.

May 17, 2010: DAY 100!!: Food

This village we are visiting has far more food than we do, and we've taken advantage.  We splurged.  We got Pepsi, peanut/toffee bars, strawberry candies, and chocolate bars.  Scrambled eggs and sliced bread.  Amazing!  It really is the little things in life.

May 19, 2010: Day 102: Home Again, Home Again

We had to fly back to our village because my knee is still a mess.  This wasn't a big deal except for the fact that our neighbor's dog, Sharlee, had followed us on the 12 hour hike and now had no way home.  The pilot wouldn't let us take Sharlee because she wasn't caged.  I had to get on the plane knowing she was directly under it with no way home unless one of the kids taking their test walked her back (assuming she followed).

Naturally, once the plane took off, I began bawling.  I watched Sharlee, this sweet dog that has become my buddy, take off running from the airstrip, and all I could imagine is her getting attacked by another dog, not having a safe place so sleep, or getting left in this unfamiliar village because she won't follow anyone home. 

We got home, unpacked a bit, and reflected on our trip.  At 7:30, only 6 1/2 hours after we'd flown back in, I was closing up our windows when what do I see?  Sharlee the wonder dog!  She made it all the way back completely by herself!  Needless to say she got a lot of loving and welcome home treats.  We let her sleep in the house that night too. 

Just a disclaimer:  We have not stolen our neighbor's dog.  She knows Sharlee hangs out with us a lot and she doesn't care.  Our neighbor is planning on moving this summer and is glad that Sharlee has a place to stay and feel safe after our neighbor moves. 

May 21, 2010: Day 104: School System Blahs

Paul and I attended a staff meeting at the school today and several things happened:
1. Paul will be teaching some health and nutrition classes starting next school year, as well as restarting the abandoned school garden.
2. Paul will try to implement some adult computer classes in the fall once school is in session.
3. The teachers are untrained and wanting to learn, so Alyssa will be doing weekly or bi-weekly teacher training starting in the fall.
4. Alyssa will be helping run the Learning Resource Center in the mornings during the school year.
5. The idea of Alyssa working with struggling students on remedial skills in the afternoon was warmly welcomed.
6. One male teacher became defensive when another teacher said they'd like to learn how to use the copy machine and it's not fair that he's the only one that knows how.
7. It was found out that an eighth grade boy stuck his hands into the pants of a girl in his class and nothing was done about it.  (Alyssa had a little bit of an outburst about this, and even though her anger was very righteous, women are not as outspoken here.  Alyssa may or may not have gone a little too far when she said, "If a boy had done that to me I would have elbowed him the face".)
8. One teacher began verbally attacking another teacher and referred to her as a fornicator (actually using that word).  It was done indirectly, almost like tattletaling to the headmistress.

Now for some things that didn't happen at the staff meeting:
1. Discussion about youth week that ends in 6 days and which nothing has been done to celebrate.
2. The program for graduation in a little over one month.
3. Plans for next year's lack of teachers.
4. What will actually be discussed at the PTA meeting next week and how parents will be notified of the meeting.

Later in the evening Paul cooked the beef so I could relax in the hammock with my knee elevated.  When he went to put garlic salt on, the piece that controls the flow came off so we had very salty beef for dinner.

Then, when sitting down to write letters home, I dropped the top piece of the kero lamp on the concrete floor, causing it to shatter into many small pieces.

May 22, 2010: Day 105: A Typical Saturday for the Quinlivans

My day started out like yesterday ended.  I woke up before Paul and got in the hammock to relax only to watch a fat brown mouse run up the wall from behind the stove.  Then, just when finishing breakfast, I dropped the sugar container that we just filled with 2 lbs of sugar all over the counter and floor.  I'm really thankful my parents didn't name me Grace.

Paul headed over the youth meeting but only four boys showed up so they played some games.  He worked hard the rest of the day ni the garden, securing the top of the chicken wire with waddle (tree pieces/huge sticks) going horizontally all around the fence.

I did my good deed for the day.  I rescued a drowning lizard from our dish washing bucket.  He was frantically trying to get out, and was starting to roll onto his back in the water when I found him. 

The kabura flies are insane right now.  Bug spray doesn't really help.  They must be excited for new blood this year because any exposed skin we have is covered in their bites.  Anytime someone in the village asks us how the kabura flies are, we just say that their bellies are full.  Only two more months until they're gone.

May 23, 2010: Day 106: Underwater Basket Weaving

Well, not really....everything but the underwater part. 

Out in the bush (i.e. forest) there is a type of vine the locals call neebi, or bush rope.  It's incredibly strong and can be stripped and split to make strong tying rope or even baskets and furniture.  Paul has made it known that we want to learn some indigenous crafts, so our neighbor kids invited us over to learn how to make baskets with neebi.  We took the neebi someone gave us to their house and for the next few hours had their father show us, step by step, how to weave a basket.  Amazing. 

First we all sat around and stripped the neebi, which is apparently easier to do with fresh and moist neebi than the dry stuff we had.  He started a square shaped one, weaving the stripped and split neebi first into a square, then bringing up the four sides to give it shape.  The kids watched closely, helping with whatever they could.  Paul finished the basket later on his own, and we want to try one on our own next time, including a round shaped one.  For now our, or rather Paul's, accomplishment is sitting on our kitchen table filled with rocks the kids collected for us.