General updates

It occurs to me that I don't really give day-to-day info on how things are going down here. I've recently begun writing "Random Rupununi Facts" that are just little things I've learned or noticed since coming to the country and/or Rupununi, which will give you all a better idea of the country and culture down here, but I suppose other daily goings on may be nice to hear about too?

The days after COS were rough, what with the transitioning back into village and Guyanese life. I struggled to keep the librarians busy and the library itself productive. Because rainy season is upon us, it's been cloudy and therefore our solar power has been low. The library takes lower precidence in regards to the power - CH and the guest house are more in need of it where as computers in the library are not as important - so we haven't had grades 1-3 in the library for their Math class like normal.

I've started Story Time back again in the library. Its one of those things every library should have and we haven't, not formally, since I've been here. I told Russian and Lorrie that every day, at 11:30 and 2:30, we're gonna have a story time that whoever can come to.

Tuesday afternoon was our librarian's weekly meeting at my house and it was lighthearted fun as Russian worked with plastic pop bottle caps, writing letters on them to spell words, and Lorrie and two secondary level school girls, Kelly and Melissa, helped make a poster that will highlight a Word of the Week. Just two new things in the library.

The meeting went well; I made popcorn and juice, we had music and we just worked on the projects. Wednesday was a national holiday, Arrival Day, and Headmistress Li had a small event planned for the students for Tuesday day. She wanted each class to get together and make a food from one of the 6 cultures of the country. Good idea, not much planning. Tuesday morning, HM Li came to me, talking about the need for a European food, like pie or fish and chips. Too bad my roommate, Jess, was in Town, because she's from overseas! I somehow ended up a substitute European and spent the morning in CH kitchen, making a pumpkin pie out of a half ripe pumpkin from a student's garden.

PCV Sarah: "What's my role today? PC: "Pie baker!" PCV Sarah: "Ok!" (a separate blog entry is upcoming regarding the Arrival Day event)

Thursday was another Teacher's Meeting and once again, I wanted it to be cancelled. I wasn't prepared, some of the teachers weren't there, a lot of them have on faces of going to a dentist's office.... sigh. It wasn't a complete waste of time, though. We talked a bit about what we will be doing for the rest of the meetings of the term, and then, upon seeing the finished bottlecap letters, I sensed an ice breaker breaking forth and split the teachers into two groups and had them competing to spell words quicker than the other group. They loved it. And it got them talking about how else they could use the bottle caps. And then Miss Eleanor came to me the next day and asked to borrow them for her class. Cool.

Oh, and Monday that week, I went into Lethem for a PCV support 'meeting,' which turned out to be beneficial and trying at the same time, as I've come to expect most meetings down here to be. If anything, I got into Lethem for some shopping, and got quite excited about some new lantern shades which now allows for some substantial light in my house at night.

Ok, so this update is not all chronological, but you get the gist.