February
3rd-6th
As
I stated before, we are here! When we
arrived at the airport, we were whisked away to a hotel about an hour
away. We loaded up into two vans and as I
crawled in the back seat (the only seat left), I realized the seats on the
aisle had another seat attached that you had to lower down like the desk tables
in middle school! I WAS TRAPPED AND HOT
AND FREAKING OUT! I just tried to breath
and have conversations with my bench mates and as we started driving the wind
made it cooler. It was actually a pretty
pleasant ride even though it was so dark we couldn’t see anything.
At
the hotel, we were assigned new roommates.
I was assigned to room with Chantelle which was awesome! She is so funny and energetic and positive! I seriously don’t know of one person that
could ever dislike her. After our
assignments, we signed the papers for the room and went to grab a snack the
hotel staff had for us. I was famished (seriously…there was a lack of vegetarian
food on the plane) so I was really excited about getting to eat. We were served fruit and cheese straws…I love
cheese straws! A waiter tried to take my
last one as he was clearing but I was able to take it off the plate before he
could dispose of it. As he looked at me
with a confused expression, I explained I absolutely LOVE cheese straws!! A minute later, without me even asking, he
came back out with another plate of cheese straws for me. How nice!!!
I was blown away!! It was late
and we had an early morning, so we went to our rooms to get some sleep!
The
next morning our training began. To say
we were all exhausted would be an understatement and the exhaustion wouldn’t go
away until Sunday when we would have our first opportunity to sleep in. More on that later though. I took my last hot shower that I will have
for 27 months before our first training session in Guyana began. We had initial training on security, money (we
got paid!!), and Guyana overall. We met
our trainers and some PC Guyana staff members.
After lunch, we loaded up the buses (yes, those tiny metal death traps)
and were on our way to Lake Mainstay Resort where we spent 4 days
training. To get there, we had to take
the buses to Parika, get on a ferry (1 ½ hour ride), then drive another 45
minutes to Mainstay which is a beautiful resort on the coast. The little cottages we were assigned to had 2
bedrooms, an ac unit, and living area with a refrigerator, and a bathroom with
running water (rain water so it was cool but water none the less.)
After
dinner we all retired to our rooms and Chantelle and I began our debriefing
sessions in the dark with our headlamps before we crawled into our bug net
covered beds. This was my first time
sleeping with a net and for some reason I was really nervous. Maybe it was because the owner of the resort
told us to keep the lights out and windows closed at night so bugs won’t get in
as well as sand flies which can bite you even though you are under the net
(hence the headlamp debriefings). Scary! He also warned us about the Jaguar that just
casually roams around the island and told us not to worry about it. WHAT???!!!
A Jaguar!!!! Wow…
The
next few days were filled with breakfast, training, lunch, training, dinner,
then beers while downloading movies from other volunteers. There were also snacks during training and a
plethora of fresh juices. One of the
days we had to take a water test in the lake.
Because of mineral deposits, this lake was black…yes, you read that
right. On top of that (those of you who
know me) know my hesitant nature of getting into open water! We had three tests…swimming, floating with a
life jacket, and canoeing. My friend
Molly was a doll and held my hand while we went into the water since I was
having a mild freakout…I mean the water is black!!!! Once we got to the marker though, everyone
went swimming and I was left to fend for myself. I eventually reached the shore and promptly
got the hell out of the water! Molly was
also my canoeing partner which was awesome since she used to be on a rowing
team, then floating was fine except for having to get back into the water and
touch the pagas (what they Guyanese call the slimy stuff on the bottom of the
lake). Needless to say…I earned my
dinner that night!!!
Our
last day was spent touring around our training site (Region 2) and seeing where
we will be holding our trainings (Affiance at the Bacchus library) and living
(I’m in Suddie). That night, we had our
dinner outside on the beach with a bonfire and the residents of Mainstay (the
Ameridians) came to share their culture with us. Children danced and sang and the Toushau (the
village leader) and his wife sang as well.
It was a good last night and a great way to end our training away from
the public. Tomorrow, we meet the host
families we will be living with for the next 10 weeks!!!!!
Waiting for the ferry in Parika
The view from the side of the ferry. These are speed boats.
Me!!!
Our home for three days!
The beach at Lake Mainstay Resort. So peaceful in the morning.
First beer in Guyana...yum.
The following pictures were taken on our tour of the training site.
A jaguar a business owner caught
Chelsea (a quarter of her face), Allycia, Steven, Amber and I taking a selfie on the seawall with the Atlantic Ocean behind us
First monkey sighting on Capoey!!!!
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