In My Final Hours

Somehow time got away from me and up until the last moment I was still saying goodbye to people, packing, finishing documents for Peace Corps, and hanging out with good friends, whom I’m going to miss so much.

Thursday night I stayed at Princess’ for the final time and Friday I signed, dotted my I’s, crossed my T’s, and said farewell to Peace Corps. Then Becky, Princess, and I headed to the Linden bus park for the FINAL time and I said, “hallelujah” to my last minibus ride!! Friday night we had a little dinner, which was perfect, just my style. It meant so much to me that Mrs. Gibbons and Dawn come over and brought some channa and macaroni and cheese. We reminisced over memories and talked about all the crazy, good times we’ve shared in Guyana, even the memory of ‘flat bird’ (what a nurse called me in the first month at the health center) was brought up. My eyes were teary all night. After dinner Becky and Princess treated me to ice cream and we got caught in the rain, but it was actually kind of nice. We continued packing and by 2:30am I felt like I wanted to close my eyes and try to sleep for an hour so the 3 of us laid in my bed (my last time under the mosquito net!) but my mind was just racing and my heart was feeling very anxious. At 3:30am I got up, made some coffee, ate a bagel, and then Becky woke up and we talked some more. Around 4:45 a sleepy Tim and Chelsea came down stairs to see me off with hugs and tears. They are going to be the last ones standing in Linden and I’m so proud of them, I will truly miss them, we have been through a lot together.

Rastaman James picked us up at 5am, Becky and Princess came to airport with me, which was so sweet of them. It was a very rainy morning and my last drive down the Linden highway was a bit scary, we hydroplaned a lot, but we made it to the airport safely and in time. My bags were a tad over the allotted weight so we had to move some things around, I was glad I had Princess and Becky there to help me, the airport can be stressful. I hugged Becky and Princess goodbye, again with tears in my eyes and then I was on my own departing Guyana.

Seeing as I hadn’t slept I was tired and once I boarded the plan I closed my eyes and after a few minutes I heard someone say, “Sosebee”, I opened my eyes and there was a ground personnel asking me to please come with him that I had to look at my bag. It was still raining and there were a few employees gathered around my bag they called me over and a man came over and told me he was checking my bag for narcotics. He pretty much ripped open every single thing I had wrapped up and then proceeded to interrogate me, asking me how long I’ve been in Guyana, what I was doing there, who I worked for, and if I had my supervisor’s number. I told him I was a Peace Corps volunteer and told him the name of our country director and then he said, “Oh, I know who is” and said my bag was okay and let me re-board the plane. It was so weird and it really bothered me and of course I cried once more when I returned to my seat. I have had the worst luck at Cheddi Jagan International Airport and boy am I glad to not deal with that airport any longer.

And now, I’m sitting in JFK waiting for my flight to Salt Lake City….

It’s definitely been an emotional roller-coaster ride for me the last few days…I just can’t believe I’m finished and now I’m a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer.
I can’t believe I’m back home and it’s time to embark on a brand new adventure…readjusting to this American life and figuring out what my next step is going to be…it’s definitely an exciting time in my life and I’m ready for whatever life has in store for me next.

Saying goodbye only allows us to say hello again!

Oh, Miss Jillian!

LAST MINIBUS RIDE!!!!

Man, way to go out with a bang, I mean messy hair!

A dear lady made me a goodbye heart cake

My farewell gang--love them!

Mrs. Gibbons and Dawn

I have to thank God for watching over me and keeping me safe over  the past 2 years, especially on all those minibus rides!


I’ll be writing and reflecting more about my time in Guyana and the whole experience once I get some sleep.

My Last Weekend In Linden

My last weekend in Linden was good...a few girls from GUY23 and Becky came to spend the weekend. We spent a rainy Saturday afternoon down by the creek not too far from our house (I don't know why we haven't been swimming there all along) and it was a lot of fun. There was a rope tied to a tree so we could swing into the water.

Becky's first time ever on a rope swing

Cowabunga

We just stayed in the water while it rained

Then we spent the evening at Barrow's, our favorite restaurant. Chelsea, being the amazing person and friend that she is arranged for them to prepare cookup rice and plantain chips (the only things I wanted before leaving Guyana). I'm truly so grateful for everything her and Tim have done for me...they have been like family and I'm really going to miss them.

The night was full of dancing and laughter...it was a great last Saturday night in the place I've called home for the past 21 months.  I am so blessed to have met such great people in Guyana and I'm so thankful for this whole experience.  Guyana and Peace Corps are going to be a part of me for the rest of my life.

The group

Can't wait to hangout with them stateside!

Becky and I were making up new dance moves...this one was hailing a taxi

Right now my heart is full of love and appreciation for everything and everybody here. 

I just can't believe it's all ending in 5 days...it's a very weird, bittersweet feeling.

And this week is going to be very emotional for me.

Christmas

It sure didn't feel like Christmas but it was a good day spent with good friends. Becky and I baked a lot of cookies and made homemade pumpkin cinnamon bread and eggnog.  We watched Elf and Home Alone.  And early Christmas morning Becky and I went to church.  Most of the day we were welcomed to spend time with Guyanese families, which was nice.  Then at night we had our little gift exchange.

Christmas morning gathered around the tree

For breakfast we had our pumpkin cinnamon bread and sparkling cider

On Christmas Eve we were wildly surprised by the presence of Heather Claus....

Heather Claus enjoying homemade eggnog

Who doesn't love mustaches?

We all had to tell Heather Claus what we wanted for Christmas

On Christmas Eve two kids came by Becky's with a monkey. Becky took the monkey and let it climb all over her then she put the monkey on me, which was creepy...hence the face.

All in all, it was a good last Christmas in Guyana

Becky's handmade Nativity

Second Thanksgiving in Linden

We celebrated our 2nd Thanksgiving in Linden with Chelsea's mom and brother and our friends. We had 12 people in total take part in our feast and we had a great day all gathered together...there was a lot of cooking, gaffing, laughing, drinking of wine, and thankfulness going on. As much as I missed being home with my family I was so thankful to be surrounded by my friends in Guyana. I'm seriously so grateful for the people I've met here. As we went around the table sharing our gratitude Chelsea and I got a little teary eyed because we have so much to be grateful for and this whole experience has been life changing and it is sad to know it's coming to an end soon. But I have faith the friends I've made in Peace Corps will be a part of my life for a long time.

Our house got painted!

Turkey cooking in a BBQ...ingenious. So grateful for turkey!

Chelsea's mom decorated our tree for Thanksgiving. It was our gratitude tree, everyone wrote what they were grateful for.

Chels, Becky, me, Princess, & Cassie

Becky celebrated Thanksgiving with us last year too!

Brother Tim

So much yummy food...it was amazing!

Yay for Chelsea's mom and bro!

Rockstone

Chelsea's mom and brother are here visiting for Thanksgiving and today I spent the day with them, our friend Carissa and our neighbor Lisa. We went to Rockstone, an Amerindian village about 45 minutes away from Linden. Chelsea wanted her mom and brother to experience another part of Guyana...a boat ride on the river through the jungle. And that's just what we did. Chelsea arranged our transportation on a mini-bus and a boat man to take us for a tour on the Essequibo river. This part of the river is different than other parts of the river I've seen because it has rapids and rock formations all throughout the river. It was neat to see another part of this beautiful country.

This weekend in Rockstone is the famous fish festival but while we were there not much was going on, they were still setting things up. I guess Sunday is the busy, crazy day of the festival. But to participate in the fish festival festivities I ate curry fish and rice.
It was my first experience eating a whole fish...scales, bones, and head.

Thank goodness the eyes were removed. 

I am so grateful for Tim and Chelsea and Chelsea's mom, for letting me be a part of their visit in Guyana!

5 Girls in Tobago

We started off our vacation by making hand painted T-shirts to wear for our arrival in Tobago. None of us had ever made our own T-shirt before, it felt very spring breakish and they turned out so cute. Since our flight left at 5:30am and we had to leave Princess’s house at 2:30am we thought it best to stay up all night.

We arrived in Trinidad at 6:30am. We heard that a Subway was in the airport and we were so excited when we saw the green and yellow sign. Subway for breakfast was so good! Our flight for Tobago wasn’t until 12:30 but luckily we were able to get on an earlier flight, we were only in the air for 15 minutes and we arrived at our hotel at 10am. Our room wasn’t ready yet so we sat on the back porch of the restaurant, which was attached to the hotel and over looked the bay. We were pretty tired and just wanted to settle into our room and lay out on the beach. But tour guides kept coming up to us and asking if we wanted to book a tour, we told them we were only interested in going snorkeling. One guy came with all his brochures and Princess told him we didn’t have that much money. He ended up making us a deal, he would take us snorkeling and since it was a holiday he invited us to join him and his crew for a cook out dinner on the beach and than swimming at Nylon Pool (a sand bar out in the ocean). We talked it over and even though we were all tired we decided to do it, it would be a good experience to see what the locals do for fun.
When we got on the boat we were a little skeptical but we knew it would be okay. We went snorkeling, the water wasn’t so clear but it was still fun. Then we headed to the beach. We got a few looks from people but for the most part everyone was friendly and welcoming. They were grilling up fresh fish and let us eat it straight from the grill. Then they made duck curry and dumplings, I liked it, the curry was different than the curry in Guyana. Once the sun went down they packed up and we headed back out on the ocean. Nylon Pool was neat because we were in the middle of the ocean and the water came up to our thighs. The local people on the boat were having dance party, which was pretty funny to watch but I think we all thought, “Oh my, how do we get in these situations?” it was a little crazy. At this point we had been up for 40 hours and were beat. Once we got to the room we all passed out.

Grilled fish and duck curry 

We stayed at Miller’s Guest Hour and our room had 3 sets of bunk beds and a kitchen, it was just what we needed and it was nice to be able to cook most of our own meals.

Miller's Guest House

We rented a car for the day and drove around half of the island. It was beautiful and reminded me of Hawaii. The road was narrow and windy. I was excited to try and drive on the left hand side of the road but I waited until the road was not so narrow and curvy. It was weird and I didn’t feel that comfortable with it but I’m glad that I can now say I’ve driven on the opposite side of the road.

We named our car Pepper Ann

Weird to drive on the wrong side of the road

For Princess’s birthday we ended up eating at an Italian restaurant close to the Guest House. The food was amazing, probably the best Italian food I have ever had. The chef, who’s originally from Southern Italy came out to talk to us and gave us free appetizers. We were in food heaven!

During the day we’d pack a lunch and head down to the beach. The beach was pretty isolated and the water was so nice. In the evenings we sat outside, ate dinner, played cards and talked.

On Sunday night food and craft venders were out on the road. It was neat to walk around and look at the local crafts. For dinner we ate shark sandwiches, they were so good.

Monday was Halloween and we spent the day paddle boarding, reading and napping. At night we dressed up as the Spice Girls, making do with what we had and ate at the Italian restaurant again. People actually guessed that we were trying to be the Spice Girls.

We Left Tobago early Tuesday morning and instead of taking a plane back to Trinidad we took a 2 hour ferry ride. We were all impressed with how big and nice the ferry was. Then we had about 8 hours to kill in Trinidad since our flight back to Guyana wasn’t until 8:30pm. We decided to spend our time in a mall because Leighton and Heather really wanted McDonalds. Trinidad was really nice, very developed and modern. Becky and I walked around the mall a little and then ventured out to see what else we could find. We found a supermarket that was just like home and we were impressed by all the big buildings and apartments near the mall. It took us 2 hours to get to the airport because the traffic was really bad. Once at the airport we got Subway again, did a little souvenir shopping, and sadly boarded the plane back to Guyana.

I’m so grateful I got to spend 6 days with good friends on an island in the sun!

Leighton, Me, Becky, Princess, & Heather

Tobago-Preview

There’s just something about an island in the sun that speaks to my heart. I don’t think people understand how much I love islands and blue water. Tobago was amazing! Princess, Becky, Heather, Leighton and I spent 6 days exploring and soaking up another part of the Caribbean. We swam in the emerald colored ocean, ate delicious food, snorkeled, paddle boarded, rented a car, took an epic amount of photos, and laughed until our bellies ached. We had a great adventure together!
This is just a preview into our trip. There is so much to write about and so many pictures to share.
More of Tobago coming soon! 

Becky & Princess bought us these amazing beach hats

Buccoo Bay

view from outside our hotel door

on the boat to go snorkeling

driving around on the left hand side of the road for Princess's birthday

we were swimming and this passed right by us

another part of the island

we took a few photo shoots!