Going Interior

March is the month of adventures for me.  First I went to Region 9 with Mom, and most recently I went 75 miles up the Canje River to visit my counterpart’s family.  The boat trip took about 8 hours, which we spent the time drinking rum and gaffing (talking).  We got in very late and didn’t do much besides fall into our beds.  The next morning I had my first opportunity to really look around and see what I got myself into.  Firstly it appeared I was staying in a tree house.  It was actually a house on stilts but it felt very much like a tree house.  There was no door and a very uneven frightening set of steps attached to the house to which I went down backwards every time ignoring the teasing from the family!

  The scenery before me was breathtaking.  There was nature for as far as the eyes could see, and the only thing you hear is nature sounds, bugs and howler monkeys.  This was such a change from the city life I was used to.  I wasn’t given much time to setting as we were on a working farm and there was stuff to do.  Firstly was brushing teeth in the river, then off to gather food for breakfast. 

After that it was hammock time and then off to fish for a late lunch early dinner.  Before we could fish we needed to make the rods.  This consisted of cutting down bamboo and tying a string onto it.  Naturally I didn’t catch a fish, but luckily the others did and we had plenty to eat.  It was an early night as we were planning a big hike the next day. 

The hike was more of a brisk walk through the forest and into the Savannah.  Now as a naturally clumsy person I am accustom to tripping over everything but it did seem to worry Delva (Lucie’s mom), who repeated the phrase “take your time” repeatedly to me.  Little did she know I would have tripped over a blade of grass if given the chance.  I managed to make it through the hike unscathed.  We reached the river in the Savannah that we were going to fish in and it was basically hidden under algae.  But this didn’t deter the boys from hopping in and setting up a net to catch the fish.  After that was set up, they got out and walked up (down?) river a bit then hopped back in and essentially herded fish into the net.  The whole process took less than an hour and we were headed back fish in hand.  It was decided that we did not have enough fish so we stopped to do some traditional fishing.  This time I did catch a fish and promptly gave up my pole.  Fishing isn’t really my thing.  That night we had a feast of fish, and wild rabbit that Pops caught earlier in the day. 

We had some visitors the next day, some neighbors stopped by to hangout.  I took the kids and a parent to the waterside to go over how and when to wash our hands, they seem to enjoy it!  Then we had another neighbor come by and let us play with her son Mighty.  He was a cutie and loved to eat fresh fruit.  We went out and picked some produce for home and started packing up.  I found out that red beans grow in large pea pods this kind of blew my mind, but to be fair I had never really thought about where beans came from.  

Beans!

I’m sure mom would be disappointed if I didn’t mention the bathroom situation.  There was two bathrooms, and I use that term lightly.  They consisted of a structure with three walls and no door.  The bathroom that you went poo in had a lovely board across it with a hole in the middle you squatted over.  The other one just had boards on the ground and you just sort of squatted down.  Now what made that situation unique was that area also doubled as the shower if you didn’t want to bathe in the river.  Also it had no door and was in the middle of the camp…  Nudity was not an issue there but I was a little concerned that I would blind the locals if they saw my white butt.  I somehow survived the bathroom situation and will be eternally grateful for my flush toilet and closed shower!

The next day was bittersweet.  I was happy to go home but I knew that this was a once in a lifetime opportunity.  I had such great experiences and did things I never imagined I would do. I think that is was Peace Corps is all about, to experience a different life, and to step out of your comfort zone. And now it’s back to my normal routine of school, workshops and maybe planning a vacation that doesn’t require a mosquito net.  

Vacation with Mom!

The problem with vacationing with a Mother who is a great photographer is that you take very few pictures…  So I will post the pictures I have, and beg Mom to post hers soon!

For those of you who don’t know Mom came to visit me here in Guyana.  It had been the longest I had gone without seeing her.  But like all adventures with my Mom there was no time to sit back and reconnect.  We started out with a quick flight in a terrifyingly small plane to see Kaieteur Falls. 

View from the plane!

Mom and I!

The falls!

  The falls is the largest single drop falls in the world (I think).  It was magnificent. 

The next day we continued our journey to Guyana’s interior by boarding yet another small plane headed to Region 9, Karanambu.  Karanambu is famous for rehabilitating Giant River Otters, however there were none there now.  It was the most primitive place we stayed and probably the most fantastic. Karanambu is located in the savannas about two hours from the rain forest.  We were picked up at the airstrip by a truck and hopped in back for a 15 minute ride to the homestead.  We were the only two guest there, a theme that followed us through our journey.  Here we saw tons of animals, the most fantastic was the Giant Anteater.  The Giant Anteater is mostly a nocturnal animal so we started our journey early in the morning as the sun was rising.  We hopped into the truck with about 4 extra guys, who’s jobs we later figured out was to run after the anteater and corral it closer to us.  We ended up spotting two along with some foxes.  We spent a lot of time on the Rupununi River looking for caiman, birds, and other wildlife.  

Where the otters use to live!

The "airport"

Our room!

Our guides pushing our truck to jump start it

Anteater vs Man

After Karanambu we headed to the Iwokrama Rain Forest.  It was a spectacular place!  Our cabin looked over the Essiquibo River, right in the middle of the rain forest.  There we saw plenty of monkeys and birds!  We even got to hear a howler monkeys call for 10-15 minutes.  We also saw the famous Cock of the Rock bird.  Our best finds were when we were driving in and out of the rain forest.  While driving in we got to see a family of Giant River Otters playing.  Then on the way out we got to see a Harpy Eagle!!! 

Mom listening to the Howler Monkey

Our friend

I promise there is a Harpy Eagle in there

Otter!!

Our next location was in Annai at the Rock View Lodge.  Rockview is located in the savannah and is a beautiful little oasis.  I think the highlight of Rock View was the owner and his brother.  Collen is an expat from England, he came to Guyana as a VSO (England’s version of Peace Corps) in the 60’sand never left.  His brother just recently joined him and together they are a delightfully British duo. Our schedule for each day included tea time and drinks with the duo!  We went to Surama a neighboring town to experience Amerindian life and try to spot more wildlife.  We didn’t see much at Rockview but the experience was worth it!  

Checking in at the Annai airport

After all this we headed to New Amsterdam to show Mom my life.  Mom took pictures of me doing laundry, buying things at the market, hanging out with other volunteers, my school, interacting with the teachers ect.  So for all those people who wanted to see what my day to day life is like Mom has your pictures!  She did get to experience the joy of the wifi not working for days for no reason! 

All in all it was a great exhausting trip!  It was amazing to see my Mom and get to hang out with her.  I am eternally grateful to her for all of her support throughout my Peace Corps journey.  She is an amazing Mom and friend and I can’t wait to see her again!

You got blackout?

Blackouts are common in Guyana, they happen at any time of day or night and can last for a minute to all day.  At first when I asked around for the cause of the blackout (I was thinking down power lines or storms) I didn’t really get a direct answer.  “They just happen.”  “It happens when too many people are using the current.”  Or more commonly I got “me no no”.  But I persisted and finally got an answer that seems plausible from the unlikely source of 4 teenagers.  They told me it was because the pump/generator thing that pumps the current ran out of oil.  Now this seems likely but then my question is why does there seem to be oil on hand some days and others it takes 6-9 hours to locate the oil?  I should stop trying to figure out the logistics in this country and go with the flow as the locals do but it’s hard!

So what do you do in a blackout?  Well if it happens during the day, you go outside lay in the hammock and read a book.  It’s important to have an actual book because who knows how long the blackout will last and you don’t want to drain your phone battery.  Or you can do your shopping, or go lime (hangout) on the street.  It is also paramount that you text all of your friends to see if they have blackout too.  Your going to want someone to commiserate with, or if they are close go hang out at their house for a couple of hours.

Now a night blackout requires some other tools. Because there are no street lights a blackout at night means pitch black, you can't see your hand in front of you face black.  So you are going to want a headlamp and another light source if you have it.  The headlamp will free up your hands for your mosquito zapper and anything else you want to arm yourself with. The other light will help chase away the things that go bump in the night.  Next you want a good working knowledge of your light switches, because you are going to want to turn your lights off and seal yourself in your net.  There’s not many things more frustrating than tucking in your net, the lights coming on and you forgot to flip a switch.  You are also going to want to remember to turn on your fan in case the power does come on.  It’s also a good idea to plug in your phone in case the power comes on in the middle of the night.  The last thing is a hand held fan, postcard or something to fan yourself with.  Then you just lay in bed completely still so you don’t exert any energy, when it gets too bad fan yourself, and pray to the current gods that the power comes on soon.