Our House, en el media de la calle

       So inorder to understand our home I need to explain in more detail the general layout of village.
       Our village is separated into three different sections. Section one is a series of about twenty houses that run parallel to our airstrip, plus a dozen or so houses that are scattered between the airstrip and the river and creek about a quarter of a mile away. All of section one is located on a small mountain that is surrounded by much larger mountains. So we are on a mountain in a valley.
       All of our shops are in this section, along with anyone who has some sort of money, which is to say they make at least $200 US a month or more. We are a mere three hour walk from Brazil which means that other than physically being on the Guyanese side of the border, we are basically in Brazil. Everyone, for the most part, speaks Portuguesa and over half the people in section one are Brazilians who came to Guyana in search of diamonds and gold.
       Section two is on the opposite side of the airstrip and on the other side of another creek (which is home to a beautiful waterfall) and then on top of a plateau. Section two spans from the airstrip and then at least as far as your feet could carry you in two hours time.
       Section three is on the North End of the East end of our airstrip and spans out at least 4 hours walking. Section three is obviously by far the most remote section and is home to most of the extreme poverty in our village. We are talking not enough money for shoes ($6 US) let alone a pencil ($.10 US). 
       Anyways back to our home. We live in section one at the top of the airstrip. So we basically live in the most central location of our village on top of the hill.
       Our house is a traditional Amerindian home in our village made with thick sticks cut from the local bush, or jungle, which are used almost like we use rebar back home. The sticks are then stuffed with mud. For the roof a type of palm leaves called eebies are cut from the forest and placed like overlapping shingles to keep the rain out. Roof leaks slightly on one side of the house but I think that is due to the wind blowing the rain in and not from an actual hole in the roof.
       The house is about thirty feet by twenty feet. Inside we have two small bed rooms and a main “living area” which is where we have our table, kitchen area, bookshelf and hammocks. It is exactly what we need and nothing extra that we don't.       
          You may be asking yourself what about a toilet or running water. Our pit latrine, a really deep hole with a roofed and covered structure around it, is located maybe fifty feet away. Twenty feet from that is our “shower” which is really just aluminum covering which we bring a bucket in to. I did attach a piece of wood that sticks into the air so I can hang our solar shower, which I’ve used twice I think. We get water from a pipe that runs from the creek up the mountain to our door step. In the dry season we may be fetching water from another pipe a ways away but for now the pressure is good. Occasionally during heavy rains something will clog the pipe and cut off our water for a day or two, but it will generally work itself out.
       And that is our first house. Enjoy the photos.

Hair!

Alyssa had been complaining for weeks of the sweat that was constantly accumulating on her neck due to the extreme humidity so one day she asked me to cut her hair. Some how, must have been with intervention from providence, I convinced her to let me cut her hair SHORT. I think it looks amazing, but maybe thats because its my own work and the ring on my finger says I have to but i'll let you be the judge. What do you think?

It is Beautiful here! (Oh my goodness, we are actually doing this)

       We finally arrived at our site (like we said before we can’t tell you where our site is but if you use some of the clues we have given you, google maps and your head im sure you can piece things together). We got off the plane and we were greeted by most of the people who live near the airstrip as well has the prominent members of the village, such as our Toushou (or elected mayor) and counsel members.
       Our things, which collectively weighed 444 Lbs, were put onto a truck and carried up hill to our very first home. The Toushou, the Medex (pretty much a lead medic) and the deputy toushou (our counterpart) all welcomed us into our new home as we began to look around and comprehend the incredible blessing of a house that the village had bestowed upon us.
       We will talk about our home in another post.
After awhile they decided to leave and allow us to settle in. We stood there looking at each other for quite sometime, finally realizing that this is where we would be living, working, sleeping, cooking, crying, etc. for the next two years of our lives. We explored some of the finer intricacies of our home, of which there are few, and then set to the large task of building house.
       After while things settled down we decided to just sit and take everything in, so we sat on our door step viewing the rain forest covered mountains merely half a mile away and breathed a sigh of awwww and the absolute majesty of our new home.

Back on the Grid (for two days)

Hello Family and Friends!
We have returned from the great beyond, sort of. After 6 weeks of no phone, internet or electricity, but only a High Frequency radio which doesn't even work well at connecting within our own region we are back online.

 Yesterday we took the grueling 12 hour and at least 16 mile trek to Paramakatoi, our largest neighboring village, to connect with some friends who live in Pk and another local village. We are also taking the time to use the only internet and consistent electricity for miles. The whole experience of reconnecting in extremely strange and foreign. Our friends are the first westerners, or foreigners, that we have seen for quite sometime and the hustle and bustle of a 2,000 person is almost too much to handle. Today we went into the village store to get food for the next few days and the fact that the store had eggs, sliced bread and chocolate threw us into culture shock.We are still living and loving the dream of building community through sustainable relationships.

 More blog posts will come tomorrow but we just wanted to update any of you out there that are just drooling  for some Paul and Alyssa information. Send us an e-mail today or tomorrow and we maybe able to respond tomorrow night.

We're ACTUALLY Leaving

We're leaving tomorrow for our site, for real. 

If either of us gets sick, we're just going to tough it out and make friends with a plastic bag.  We simply cannot spend any more time in a hotel and at the Peace Corps office looking for something to do.  We've watched movies, checked e-mail 100 times, and taken our pick of books from the PC lounge.

We're off.  We love you.  We'll update you when we can, but you have to promise to do the same.

...In Sickness and in Health...

I'm incredibly thankful that Paul and I are serving in the Peace Corps together for several reasons.  That particular vow is one of them. 

Many people told us serving in the Peace Corps would strengthen our marriage.  Caring for one another in violent illness was not what we envisioned, yet it has.  We have been incredibly silly and laughing in the past few days while we were practically bedridden, too weak to do much more than watch tv and make a small meal.

Paul fell ill Thursday, the night before we were to leave to site, which also happened to be his 25th birthday.  After about twenty vomits, the Peace Corps doctor came to our hotel because we couldn't move Paul as he was sick from two ends.  Needless to say, he was having a blast.  The doctor gave him several shots of antibiotics and antivomiting meds, as well as an IV seeing as his complexion was gray, his eyes sunken, and lips pale.  I almost took a picture so he could remember the celebration, but decided against it.

He spent Friday in and out of it, saying random things and making little sense.  Thankfully sleep seemed to be the magic cure because Saturday we were able to go to the Peace Corps office and check Internet in the glorious AC.  Around 6:00 P.M., while hugging the toilet, I became incredibly thankful for deciding against the before mentioned blackmail photo of Paul at his worst.  The Peace Corps nurse came by and shot me up with some antivomiting serum and told us to spend the night in the Peace Corps office.  I woke up Easter morning feeling better, and we were able to go see the kids flying kites Monday.

Today is Tuesday.  We are tired and we are weak, but we are holding down food.  More importantly, we are ready to go to our site which will be Friday.  So, two more days here, than we're off to our site for real....fingers crossed.

Now its Alyssa's Turn

Yesterday afternoon, at least it felt like yesterday afternoon, I had a 103.2 degree tempurature. All this after having "movements" out of both ends for the previous 16 hours. The doctor pumped me up with everything you can possibly imagine, including some anti-biotic that hit a nerve and hurt like nothing I have ever felt before, and two hours later I was weak, stiff and tired but otherwise completely fine.

So today Alyssa and I decided to head into the Peace Corps office to get some internet access and watch a few movies (All of which are pirated). At about 4:30pm when Alyssa and I were begining to talk about getting a car back to our room Alyssa began to feel tired and Achy, and by 5:30pm she was having the same "movements" I had. As I write Alyssa is in the med room sleeping, or at least trying to, while i'm trying to eat the first meal I would have had in almost two days.

We will be fine. Its definately a 24 hour thing but the Peace Corps is keeping us from getting to our site for obvious reasons and its difficult waiting to get to the place we have been working so hard to get to. So we now will not be leaving for our site until the next plane comes Wednesday morning. Until then feel free to contact us as im sure we will need some help passing the time.

Continue to pray for health and safety. I have to suspect that something spiritual is keeping us from getting to where we feel like we need to be.

So We Haven't Left Yet

So, April 1st was Paul's 25th birthday.  We spent the day finishing up our shopping, then all of the people going to the same region we're going to had some pizza at our hotel and enjoyed some time together before we flew out to our various sites. 

We went back to our hotel room, caught the latest episode of "The Office" randomly, and then the worst happened.  Paul became violently ill.  He threw up over 20 times and was a mess...on his birthday...the night before we are finally to leave for our site. 

So we are still here, waiting for him to fully recover and to be medically cleared to go to our site.  He's doing much better today and hasn't thrown up in over 24 hours.  His last fever broke yesterday evening, so we're hoping we'll be cleared for a flight tomorrow.  If not tomorrow, later this week.

We are patient people, that's for sure. 

We're Leaving, On A Jet Plane

Tomorrow morning we leave for our site.  We won't have Internet, so please don't give up on our blog.  Maybe we'll be pleasantly surprised and there will be Internet in one of the neighboring communities....eight hours walking. :)

Letters are welcome.  We'll write back.

Slaying a Chicken

Paul has made it clear that he really wants chickens at site not only for eggs but also for meat.  This presents a problem.  Who is going to kill the chicken?  All I know is it's not going to be me.
Paul asked our host dad to show him how to kill a chicken, and he came through.  Here is a somewhat detailed description from my journal of what happened:

Paul and I came home to the announcement that Allan had bought a chicken so Paul could learn how to kill it.  We were looking for the chicken outside only to find out it was lying in a rice bag on the kitchen floor.

I stood outside, camera ready, but as soon as Allan put his feet on the chicken's feet, had its neck in one hand and a knife in the other, I was done for.  I couldn't watch.  I snapped a really quick photo without really looking and stepped back into the house, then stepped back out to see Allan holding a headless chicken upside down as the blood drained out, the head lying a few feet away.

Then he put the headless chicken in a bucket and poured boiling water over it to loosen the feathers.  He plucked out all the feathers, drained the anus which was another experience in and of itself, then chopped the chicken into bits.  The demolished and destoryed chicken was given to Vesta to prepare. 

I'm pretty sure my facial expressions teetered between disgust and shock during the entire process.  I'm seriously debating going vegetarian in the next two years.  Eggs are good protein and don't require headless chickens or anal cleansings.