Saturday, November 25, 2006

School Pictures

My roommate’s family came to visit us recently. Nevermind that we didn’t have running water the entire time they were here, they still had a blast. Even better was that her mother brought her a camera so now I have some pictures to share. Enjoy.


This is Mother Pie, who sells snacks across the street from the school. She just poured Sprite into a plastic bag- that’s how they sell and drink it here. Mother Pie also likes to throw around the F-word in front of the children.


The school children are so precious. This is Troy from Form 2. Anyone want to adopt him? He always helps us sweep up the library. Actually we never sweep, we make the school children do it. We have a morning and afternoon cleaning rotation and the children have to be the janitors.


Meet some members of the football team (soccer). John, the kid in the middle, loves Beckham and carries a picture of him on his belt everywhere he goes.



The Form 5 boys sit 3 to a bench in class. Only Form 5 students get to wear ties. These are the class prefects- yes, just like in Harry Potter. Except they don’t set such a good example because they go around writing their names on the walls of the school building.

You've Got Mail

Recently we did a pen pal exchange with some 8th graders from the U.S. Since 8th graders in the U.S. write at a much higher level than the ones here, we took the brightest classes and asked them to respond. All the children were really excited to be writing to someone in the States and immediately wrote “I love you” in the center of big red hearts, including the boys. It was best friends forever in the making. Here are a few examples of the beginnings of a new found friendship:


Dear Best Friend,

My name is [student] I am a 12 year old and I am a boy. The instrument I would like to ploy is the drums we have tress and Animals some of the trees we have is coconut, oworer and Jamoon. Some of the Animol we have are snack, Donkey. I love to do moth what is your subject. I con speak Sponish. I am 12 year old. When are you writing the letter please send your oddress and your telephone number. My telephone xxx-xxxx. All you have to do is this 011-592-xxx-xxxx. Call me as soon as possible.

Your new best friend,
[student]

P.S. My name is [student] a.k.a. Juicy Big. I will be sending a Crismos card for you with my photo of me. Please send a card for me of your. Do you believe in Jesus. Tell me in your next letter. Are you Cristton yes or no? Bye.
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Dear Jecquine,

Hello, and how are you? My name is [student] and I am 12 years old. I live in Guyana. ! was born and raised here. It’s kind of crazy here too because in Georgetown buses on the park comes there to drop off passingers and collect other passingers and theres a lot of pushing and wildness when you get there. So let me tell you about myself. The school I attend is Soesdyke Community High School. At our school we have half day everyday because our school is overcrowded with children. My favourite subject is maths and English. I have six animals five dogs one kitten. My favourite hobbies are playing games with my cosins, swimming with my family, climing trees whit my cosins and playing hide and seek with them. We have as much stuff as you have in the United States. Thank you for writing me.

Sincerely your new best friend,
[student]

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Dear Student,

How are you. as for me I am fine. I have black and white eyes and black hiere and I have fear skin and I wear black boots [sneakers] and black socks and I wear green shirt and white vest [tank top] and cakey [khaki] pants. My father works a weedieg muchen [weeding machine] and my mother like to cook everyday. My father like to weed everyday. I like to play football and cricket and I like frie rice and macoronie. I love to play every night. My father like to weed every night.
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Dear Jack,

My name is [student]. I am a boy. I am 11 years old. In Guyana it have a lot of water a 2 waterfals it has a rainforis and a lot of animals like lion, snakes, monkeys, fish, shark and wimon. My favorite game is cricket. I no you dont now what is cricket does play with a ball, a bat, and two, wicket and I look after a farm I mine docks, chick, pigs and sheeps, I would like for you to come to Guyana and sea. Call me and you would no more about mor. Tel xxx-xxxx. Friend Good by.

Sincerely,
[student]

Saturday, November 18, 2006

Signs

You Know You Teach at a Community High in a Third World Country When…

10. The head of department calls you in Friday afternoon and tells you that final exams will be next week and you need to turn in your test on Monday.

9. Final exams occur three weeks before school is out. During the last two weeks the children will not be doing anything.

8. The children throw their garbage out the window from the second story.

7. A student declares that she is attending a “cowboy school” since the children are “lawless.”

6. It rained in the morning and therefore school had to close early because all the teachers and students decided to stay home.

5. There is a lack of furniture in all the classes. The Headmaster walks into a chaotic classroom and tries to get the children’s attention by shouting, “Those who can be sit need to be seated.”

4. There is seldom running water at school and during a staff meeting a teacher announces that our school is the town pissery.

3. The head of your department comes into the back area of the school where your classes are held, sees the pandemonium, turns to you and says, “I wouldn’t teach here,” then walks off.

2. When you reprimand a child for doing something inappropriate, another child hands you a whip and requests that you lash the disobedient one.

1. You hear a teacher yell, “Hello?! Who gave you permission to jump out the window?”

The Food Network-ing

In Guyana, many of the expatriates and prominent Guyanese citizens flock together. Once you meet one person, they introduce you to friends within their social network.

A couple months ago, I met an influential writer and consultant. He happened to know the Martha Stewart of Guyana (minus the litigious history and rumored malevolent nature) who has a program on national television called “Kayleigh's Kitchen.” The show is filmed straight from her magnificent kitchen and features guests who assist her with cooking. The best part about being a guest is that you get to eat all the food when she’s done cooking and all you really do is stand there and nod. The number of times you nod is proportionate to the amount of bites you get to have in the end.

This week Kayleigh needed guests on her show so our writer friend set us up with an appearance. It was such a special activity to be able to participate in. The kitchen was even nicer in real life than on TV, as was Kayleigh. While we were cooking I noticed two things that made the event so luxurious compared to cooking in our kitchen: 1) I was not sweating profusely, which would have made me a fat sweaty person on tv, which would have looked really shady being on a cooking show, 2) my legs were not being attacked by a million bugs and mosquitoes. I was also beside myself with joy when I used her bathroom and realized I didn’t have to fill up a bucket to flush the toilet.

During the filming of the show, I helped make homemade meatballs for the pasta, my roommate helped with the BBQ chicken pizza, and we all fixed ourselves a knickerbocker glory: a bowl of jello, fruit, ice cream, homemade whipped cream, chocolate syrup, and white chocolate shavings. It was heavenly.

Once we were done, the camera man promised to make us a copy of the program. It wasn’t until then that I realized the camera adds 10 pounds, which is exactly what I needed on a program showing me eating.

Friday, November 10, 2006

Addressing the Situation

Last week there was a staff meeting at 10 am. I was informed about it at 10:04 am. There was a very grave problem and we had to convene during class time in order to address it. It was the 9th week of school and apparently we did not know how many students were enrolled at the Community High. The registers were a complete mess with some students listed in two different classes and some students missing registration numbers. Everything had to be redone, starting from decorating the cover.

This week I was flipping through a couple revised registers and I couldn’t help but notice the (correct) postal addresses of some of these students. Following Guyanese fashion, the students live in the vaguest areas in the country, some with only the name of the village listed. I’m not quite sure how the Postman delivers them mail. Here’s a few addresses taken directly from the registers:

Fire Station Area, [Village]
Squatting Area, [Village]
First Hill, [Highway]
12 Docks Area, [Village]
Public Road, [Village]
Back Road, [Village]
157 Prison Area, [Village]
Plot 3, [Village]



Animal House

Blogger's Note: My camera has been out of commission since Orientation when I allowed my Nalgene to leak all over it. (And it’s people like me that are responsible for educating the youth of Guyana.) However, I have been able to collect a few pictures from other volunteers, so here is a rare post with pictures. Enjoy.
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Unfortunately there will be no posts about monkeys breaking in my house and eating my food, but that is not to say there are a lack of animals and insects around my accommodation. Here is a list of a few unwelcome creatures that have decided to live with us, sorted by “Non-Terrorizing Creatures” and “Terrorizing Creatures”

Non-Terrorizing Creatures
Armies of Ants and Flies
Where to be found: Crawling or flying around our kitchen, over countertops, and on our food. The amount in our kitchen alone rival the total amount currently living in the state of Texas.

Worms
Where to be found: On my bed, out of the tap we bathe from, in our fruits and almost in our bellies.

Geckos
Where to be found: Crawling over the ceiling and often turning my pillow into its toilet. We’ve named him Ignatius.

Mosquitoes
Where to be found: Biting me

Live Creole Chicken
Where to be found: Brought over to our house by our neighbor. It was later stuffed into a rice bag and sealed shut. When questioned about the rice bag, the response was, “Because chicken goes with rice.”

Baby Sloth
Where to be found: Found on a tree and brought over to our house by our neighbor. I didn’t know what a sloth looked like until this point in my life.



I'm feeding Bam Bam delicious leaves. He ate more veggies that day than I did that week.

Birds
Where to be found: Flying in our house from outside and not leaving.


Terrorizing Creatures
Daddy Longlegs and other big scary spiders
Where to be found: Hanging out in the kitchen. Good thing I don’t have to compete with it for food.

Bats
Where to be found: Flying into our house and swooping around the living room. He doesn’t leave when you ask him to.

Roaches

Where to be found: Flying around the house. One crawled on my foot and now I’m going to have to burn it and come back to the states with only one leg.

Wasps and Bees
Where to be found: Buzzing through the house terrorizing us.



Here's a picture of a monkey for all those eager to see one. I met Jack at an Amerindian village, and similiar to the school children, he doesn't listen to you unless you have food in your hand.

Friday, November 03, 2006

Guy's Gone Wild

Once a year Guyana hosts GuyExpo, a huge exposition showcasing pretty much everything the country has to offer. Booths clustered under tents feature hand crafted products, eco-tourism education, furniture, electronics, and more. It’s a huge fair complete with booty-shaking concerts, exhilarating rides, fried foods, and booths giving away samples.

The exposition lasted 4 days and it was all anyone could talk about. I attended on Sunday with some volunteers, along with what seemed to be the rest of the country.

We walked around familiarizing ourselves with the grounds and snacking on free food along the way. At one crafter’s stand, we were looking at earrings made of out coconut shells and wood from the local trees. One of the volunteers had just purchased a pair and was showing me the intricate detailing, but couldn’t recall the name of the tree it originated from.

Volunteer: What tree is this?
Crafter: Dat’s five.
Volunteer: No, what tree did you say this is this from? Tree?
Crafter: Not tree hundred, dat’s five hundred.
Volunteer: Yes I know, I paid for it already. But what tree is made from?
Crafter: No, you pay five, not tree.

The back and forth continued a few more times before a Guyanese person said the word “tree” and the crafter understood our English.

The evening was spent eating delicious Guyanese food and drinks and enjoying the concert. By the time the exposition was over, there was a sea of empty beer bottles littered all over the grounds and obstructing the walkways. The remains of what looked like a landfill seemed more like artwork and evidence of a fabulously good time.

No Write Answers

I recently gave a mid-term test to my 8th graders about population and human resources. Of course many of them couldn’t write or spell something comprehensible. I think I may have them draw their answers on the next test. For the few that could write, these were some of the answers I got.

Question: Define human resources.
Correct Answer: The physical power and mental ability of the people
Student’s Answer: Human resourcs are people who are human resourcs.
Student’s Answer: Human resources are the thinks around you want you canot see
Student’s Answer: I am blak and you are wite so I am mo rich den you.

Question: What natural physical feature causes Guyana to be sparsely populated?
Correct Answer: The Rainforest
Student’s Answer: Me makes Guyanana density
Student’s Answer: All the killings
Student’s Answer: The chine (Chinese)
Student’s Answer: Because some of the people are black.

Question: What are two ways a population can grow?
Correct Answer: Through births or immigration
Student’s Answer: Talking to somebody and makeing frieinds
Student’s Answer: By people and trees
Student’s Answer: Two ways tha we can grow a population is by working together and plant

What three ethnic groups were brought to Guyana as indentured laborers?
Correct Answer: Portuguese, East Indians, Chinese
Student’s Answer: Indenmdent (Independence Day), May Day, and Laber Day

Question: What area in Guyana do the Amerindians mainly live?
Correct Answer: The interior
Student’s Answer: They live in Amerindia