Yesterday I got together with my sign language class for a ‘silent snack’…..it is very much as it sounds really, we had a snack and we had it in silence. Our only main means of communication was is sign. A few people from the deaf community came along as well so we could polish our skills even further. The snack was set in a very traditional Guyanese restaurant called ‘Pizza Hut’; some of you may know it! Anyway a small veggie pizza and a few misunderstanding later we all ended up having a pleasant afternoon entertaining the other patrons in the restaurant; seeing people communicate freely in Sign Language is still not that common place, historically there have unfortunately been lots of persons who are deaf or who have other disabilities who don’t fully integrate into the educational systems or society as a whole. Following the snack Camilla and I went along to the deaf support group meeting. Camilla is supporting the organisation of International Week of the Disabled; 2nd – 8th December, and as such was providing the group with an update of the activities which have been planned. The group finished off with a variety of games, we got stuck in with a game of dominoes with a couple of our young friends…..

After a half hearted attempt to save money this weekend I was easily persuaded to go to another concert last night; INFERNO!!! Before going we were treated to a free meal from one of Camilla’s neighbours who was celebrating the completion of her house. By the looks of it she had cooked enough to feed the whole street, and some, so we thought it only polite that we obliged and indulged. As per normal the (soon to be extinct by the amount they eat in Guyana) traditional chicken played a big part of the parcel but for me the accompanying rice and Dahl, together with a few sweets were enough to keep me satisfied… so after our fill and a few pre-road rums we set of to the concert. It was held fairly locally to our houses, which meant a 60$ trip (15p) to one of the local cricket grounds (GCC Ground: Bourda, for those of you that a have a map!) Artists included some local up and coming artists as well as people such as , ‘Munga’, ‘Brick and Lace’ (one (or two) for the boys apparently!), Mims, and Baby Cham…I have to say this concert was my favourite out of the two we have seen to date. It was slightly smaller but as such had a slightly more intensive and buzzy atmosphere. Events like this give you an idea of how much smaller things are out here, although it seemed fairly busy and crowded we still only had about 4 people in front of us when we were buying our tickets on the door last minute!

This week I have also picked up my uniforms for work (pictures to be added at a later time…. I know you are dying to see them!). I decided to follow my Guyanese colleagues and have a couple of “suits” made for work, although not compulsory I thought it best that I look willing! The design is based on similar SLT uniforms, which you would see in the UK, with the maroon trim on a white jacket and matching trousers. It sounds a little clinical but to be honest I am already bored of my wardrobe and the sooner that I can distinguish between ‘work’ and ‘play’ clothes the better…it makes you seem like you have more somehow! Anyway the suits where made by a nice lady called Sueann. I had the responsibility of buying the fabric after she measured me and told me how much, I thought I had done a reasonable job but the fabric I had bought for the tops was a little thin, but being the professional she is she managed to make do! I quite like it but it is quite thin so not ideal for a more tailored fit….(oh and it is a little see through so any small parcels containing little white vests wouldn’t go a miss!) yes I do promise a picture!

I have also made my first resources. The much spoken about and greatly missed laminator has been replaced with cardboard and sticky tape, which actually works quite well. I am looking forward to trying them out next week in clinic with a couple of (starting to be my favourite) children; both (probably) have autism and are great fun. One little boy is very amused by pulling out all the plugs in the office and shouting out “blackout!”. We get quite a lot of “blackouts” here when the electricity fails so I guess he is fairly familiar with them and the entertainment that they bring! In Georgetown we are reasonably lucky as they don’t tend to last more than a couple of hours; we do get a couple a week though on average (I have to say however, that since writing this I have had 2 and am now getting very hot and relying on a soon to be dead battery). Blackouts are the only times when I am slightly less impressed with my state of the art power water pump, which during blackouts doesn’t work. Very annoying if you were just about to jump in the cold shower and refresh in the heat, even more annoying when you are half way through washing your hair (has only happened once to date thank god)…in this situation your only choice, unless you want to keep suds in your hair for a couple of hours, is to get the bottled ‘freeze your head off ‘cause it is so cold’ water from the fridge, which literally feels like you are going to freeze your brain. Fear not, however, I have now come up with the slightly ingenious (obvious) plan of keeping a bucket of water filled up for such emergencies.

Work wise this week I travelled to region 5; New Amsterdam and Port Mourant (again for the benefit of those of you that have a map). It was a fairly long day, I was picked up at 6, we had an hour or so drive to the river and ferry, which we crossed in about ½ hour and then a drive at the other end. We visited a special school and talked with the head teacher. As a result we are hopefully going to run a workshop in the new year for teachers and parents. I was really impressed with the general ethos of the school, the school seemed to have good leadership and the head seemed to be very motivated. It is worth noting that even in this good school only 2 teachers, one being the head, were actually qualified. This obviously has huge implications for development of school learning programmes and the teaching strategies being used, particularly in special schools. It is a difficult one to address in terms of development work since many teachers are very poorly paid and have little motivation for the job (but they need the income so they stick at it for the sake of simply ‘having a job’), therefore part of the work is simply to enthuse people and demonstrate the learning capacities that all children, with or without disabilities have. Several classes, in other schools, are simply not covered all day or every day, and in these classes you just see the children sitting around and not doing very much (I am yet to understand the phenomenon that even though this is the case, the children appear much better behaved than those I would see in similar situations in the UK…mmmmm). So although our meeting was relatively short we still only managed to get home at 8 o’clock. This was explained by the 3 and a bit hours we had to wait to get onto one of the ferries for our return journey….it was a weird system which I didn’t quite understand, there were definitely some cheats amongst the travellers, but I am being to realise that sometimes this is just how it is and it is best to just go with the flow….a bag of fried plantain with sour though helped keep the tummy rumbles at bay and in truth it was not so bad.

I am also pleased to announce that I have received my two long awaited parcels from home, including my mango and pineapple cutters from Lakeland! I know…… “sad”, but if I am expected to eat all this fruit stuff then I have to get into it somehow don’t I! I also received the computer disks and some other bits including an old Nokia phone, yep I thought a good idea to replace the one I inherited from the last volunteer but stupid me didn’t think of the tax that would be added at the post office (added to all parcels but usually not very much) needless to say I could of bought a nicer phone here for as much as I was charged. I also have to pay to get it unlocked to use on the local network!! You have to laugh really. So this story is not intended to put you off sending me nice parcels from time to time (I am sure that some of you have already but they are just stuck in the post right?!) but just be aware that certain things, which I guess hold value (?)(later note: things which are electrical, so yep I am going to have to say "thanks, but no thanks" to that new fancy microwave you were thinking of sending) cost me a relative fortune to pick up! Little fun things are all good though so send freely if you wish! Camilla and I are starting a Christmas ‘pile’, financial from our end but also hopefully to include some ‘Christmassy’ items from home too, crackers, sparklers, mini decorations etc. . . (you get the idea!). Oh and before you shout that I am being a little pre-mature with the Christmas celebrations we switched on the town lights in the week….mind you I guess some places have done similar at home already?

Well on that note I think I should sign off. In the ‘writing blog guidelines’ it advises that you keep entries short and sweet…..well if you are still reading now I guess you don’t mind too much eh? Love to everyone…I am trying to keep in touch on a personal level too with the odd email etc. but as you know I still rely on going into internet places to use the internet and my money seems to go so quickly. I may though soon be closer to getting a landline which means I may be able to internet at home, which will be much much better. So as I say big love to everyone, hello to nana, I hope you are still enjoying the second hand delivery of the blog from mum and dad. Lots of love xxx

PS love also to the Israel footie team ( I think that we like them now don’t we? Or have I got that completely wrong?)