The Relationship Project

We were recently asked to write an article for our in country volunteer newspaper. Here is what I (Paul) submitted. Tell me what you think:

Anyone who has spent a significant amount of time with my wife and I has heard us talk about relationship. I’m sure that at times we mention it so much that people wish they had ear plugs, or a gun. I’m not talking about a physical relationship or familial relationship, both of which are healthy in the right context, but a general friendship based in a strong relational connection with another.

            Relationship is the reason my wife and I joined the Peace Corps. I’m sure it is the reason many of us did as well. We are all smart, talented people. If any of us wanted anything different we could have signed up to work for any handful of reputable NGOs, who spend a few weeks or months meeting community needs through projects, often without really building solid relationship. Many of these projects fail to be sustainable. Sustainability requires a solid relationship, which requires time. Our two years may go by fast but it is enough time to create these relationships.

            All of us spend our service doing one thing or another. Some of us try and teach people how not to poop worms, while others teach people how to spell poop and worms. No matter what our “project” is it requires a significant amount of relationship. This requires dedication, communication and most of all trust. People need a reason to listen to us. Relationship gives it to them.

            I would go as far to say that our job here is to build solid relationships with community members. I know, I know, we must teach people about phonics and STIs while having quantifiable goals; and that relationship quality is hardly quantifiable. But aren’t those non-quantifiable times in your life always the most meaningful and memorable? Why shouldn’t it be the same for our communities?

            Now Peace Corps staff, I don’t say this to mean that tangible projects and reports about them are not significant, but to say that the relationships we build are the foundation or backbone of these projects. Without them everything we do is destined to fail. Through relationships we learn to understand each other. And how can we help change the world, let alone a country if we don’t understand one another?

            With that I say get outside, make a friend and next time you want to watch a movie alone go gaff with a neighbor. Relationships remain even when our projects fail or our grants fall through. Laugh, love and live with Guyana and let it change you so you can help change it. And if Peace Corps ask what you have been doing, just tell them you are, “working on the relationship project.”

Merry Christmas

MERRY CHRISTMAS!  

We love you all :)

Austin H - This One is For You

Austin,

We didn't even teach them this.  They already knew it.  Thought you'd enjoy!

PQ and AQ

Salara (Coconut Roll)

1 tbsp. dry yeast
¼ cup warm water
¼ cup sugar
1 cup milk
¼ cup shortening
3 cups flour
1 beaten egg
1 tbsp. butter
1 egg white

Filling:
1 cup shredded coconut
½ cup sugar
½ tsp. cinnamon
½ tsp. vanilla
5 drops red food coloring

1. Dissolve yeast in warm water.  Sprinkle with 1 tsp. of sugar.  Mix and let stand.
2. Warm milk.  Combine shortening and sugar.  Add flour and egg.  Knead to make a moderately stiff dough.  Shape into a ball.
3. Place dough in a greased bowl and cover.  Let rise until double in size, about 1 hour.  Punch dough down and divide in half.  Roll each half into a 12 inch by 8 inch rectangle and brush with melted butter.
4. Combine all filling ingredients and let stand for 1 hour.
5. Sprinkle half the filling mixture on each rectangle of dough.  Roll up lengthwise and seal edge.
6. Cover and let rise until double in bulk.
7. Brush rolls with beaten egg white.  Bake at 375 degrees for 20-30 minutes.  Cut into slices and serve.

Bags

Because the only way for us to get to our site is by plane, getting supplies is extremely difficult. Our village has seven different shops but getting things like eggs, whole wheat flour, baked beans, tuna, tomato sauce, popcorn, and oatmeal…literally the list could go on for at least a page. On top of the fact that things are difficult to get anything in the shops is often 2 to 3 times more expensive because shop keepers have to pay freight to put supplies on the plane and get it too us (freight is roughly $.75 USD per pound) and then make a little profit on top. Thus we are forced to get all of the hard to get items in Georgetown and get them sent in. Even paying for the freight it still makes practical and financial sense (man, I wish the people in our village knew how much the shop keepers rip them off).

So every three months we come in to Georgetown, connect with all of you, pick up our living allowance(a little over $200 USD per person per month) and roughly 400 pounds of food, project resources and random trinkets we feel like we need and bring them back home. See picture for how much of a hassle it can be.

Guyanese French Toast

1-2 onions, chopped fine
Shallots
1-2 cloves of garlic
6 eggs
Splash of milk
Bread
Margarine

1. Beat onion, garlic, and shallots into eggs. Add a splash of milk and beat a little more until frothy.

2. Dredge slices of bread through mixture.

3. Place on hot, greased pan. Brown on each side.

Floats/Bakes

Ingredients
¼ cup warm water
½ tsp. sugar
1 tsp. dry yeast
2 cups flour
1/3 cup butter or margarine
½ cup warm water
oil for deep frying

1. Pour warm water into a bowl and sprinkle with sugar and yeast.  Stir to dissolve.  Set aside.
2. Mix flour and butter until crumbly.
3. Add dissolved yeast to flour mixture to make a soft dough.  Cover and leave in a warm place until mixture doubles in size, about 1 hour.
4. Cut dough into pieces, roll into small balls 1 ½ inches in diameter.  Let rise again for 35 minutes.
5. Heat oil.  Roll out dough balls and fry in hot oil until golden brown.  Drain on paper towels.

Makes 12 bakes

Gotta Love Exoskeletons

I know I�ve explained in detail the annoyance of not only having centipedes but killing them as well.  They just won�t die.  You chop and you chop and all three pieces keep wiggling around your feet.

In early September, Paul and I went to one of the shops to watch a movie in the evening and came back when it was dark.  Paul went into the other room and asked for me to bring the Baygon (remember � the magical bug killing spray) and a cutlass.  He had seen a black leg and thought it was a tarantula as we�ve had one in the house before.  I come in and see Paul�s headlamp directed toward a black leg sticking out of a crack at the base of the mud wall. 

It looks like a tarantula.  We spray.  It comes out of the crack.  It�s not a tarantula.  It�s a scorpion, and it dies.  The cutlass cracked that exoskeleton quick and it didn�t take long for it to curl up, nothing more than a harmless mass of what once could have been quite painful.

It was only a matter of time before we saw one so I wasn�t too surprised.  In fact, I was more surprised at how unaffected I was in finding a scorpion in my house.  All I muttered was, �Oh, scorpion,� and that was that.

My Friend Miss Cleonise

Her real name is Leolyn, but many people don't go by their real name here.  I call her Cleonise.  She let me bake my bread on her coals so I wouldn’t have to use up my gas.  She hoed our garden when we were out of town.  She is the one that showed us how to garden to begin with.  She’s given us numerous vegetables and fruits, as well as cocoa bean.  She came by just to check in and say hello.

She moved to Brazil and I cried.

Her three kids were our little buddies, and the buddies of many others as well.

This is the youngest.  You may remember her attempting to
chop a piece of wood in the chicken coop blog.

Group shot with all the kiddos that came to say goodbye

They said I was too tall to stand up in the picture with them so they gave me a chair to sit in!
The other woman is Auntie Barbara.  She's three months pregnant which means I get to see the baby.  Wahoo!  Cleonise said I'll have to take her place in helping with the birth.  I'm not too sure about that.

Cleonise with her niece and nephews (Auntie Barbara's other four kids).

They’re drinking coffee Brazilian style: little cups and lots of sugar.

We miss her and the kids terribly.  It's hard to make friends here with all the cultural differences but with us it was never difficult.  She's not one I will ever forget.