Two events took place this week…one really random but good the other I should have expected and known there was going to be some fiasco and frustration.
The first random event was being asked to fill in for an older PCV discussing the topic Risky Behavior at a secondary school (high school). I was asked to do this Monday morning and thought I would be teaching on Wednesday, turns out, after getting a call Monday evening I would need to be at the school ready to teach at 9am Tuesday morning. Luckily the volunteer emailed me her outline, I just had to make a few adjustments.
So Tuesday morning I took the bus for the first alone across the river and up the hill to the school. I reached the school office at 8:45am and told the receptionist who I was and what I was doing there. She gave me that look I have grown so familiar to, the look of “What? Who are you? And what are you doing here?” She then said testing was going on all day and she knew nothing about what I was talking about. I told her I would just wait for the person in charge and she would be there just now…not knowing for sure how long that might be. As I was sitting there waiting and reading over my notes a teacher came to ask me what I was there for. I was honest with her and said, “I really don’t know what’s happening, I just got asked to be here at 9am and talk about risky behavior.”
Around 9:20am the facilitator arrived and we walked to the auditorium where there are 40+ kids sitting in desks facing the stage with 2 tables and 4 chairs, it was set up for a panel discussion. The facilitator was not happy with the set up and that our time got cut short due to the testing. I told her it would be fine, we would just make the lecture shorter. After introductions I took over and had the kids write about where they see themselves in 5 years…what are their hopes and dreams? I love this activity especially here because kids don’t really get asked that question; I was so happy and impressed with some of their goals and career choices…surgeons, pilots, dancers, lawyers, teachers, bankers, and basketball players. It was interesting to see that many of them wanted to move out of Guyana to pursue these dreams while others wanted to change Guyana. Then we moved on to talk about risky behavior, self-esteem and assertiveness. We had them play a fact and myth game about HIV and then we gave them a snack.
Overall, I think it went well and I am happy I got to teach and interact with these kids. I think they understood the message we presented and I hope they follow their dreams. At the end of the sessions she had 3 prizes to give out to the kids who participated and who were well behaved. She told me to pick two, so I picked two boys one of which I thought participated well in the HIV game and the other asked good questions and had good insight. Later she told me those boys were the last ones she would have picked…interesting.
P.S. as I was eating my snack a boy came up to me and handed me a strand of my hair (seeing as I shed like crazy here) and he said it was nice. I thought it was so funny.
"What does the word risk mean?"
The other event took place on Thursday. It was the day of our elderly club meeting at the health center and the goal of the day was to have a cooking demonstration to show healthier ways to cook i.e. using less salt and oil. I was really excited for this, as this is one of my project ideas. On Wednesday afternoon I talked with my supervisors to make sure everything was set for Thursday morning and they assured me everything was good to go. So Thursday morning I packed up my blender, knife, cutting board, and grater, shopped by to pick up some vegetables and made it to the health center a little after 8am, ready to wash and prepare my vegetables.
Low and behold, we were not ready to start cooking…we did not have the head for the gas tank, which was suppose to have been resolved days earlier. This really frustrated me and 45 minutes passed by as the nurses tried to call people to see about getting a head. I said I would go get my electric stove, seeing as its super light and potable. So me and another nurse walked to the boat landing, took the boat across the river and walked to my house, which round trip takes about 40 minutes. We returned a little after 10:00, the club members where there and patiently waiting in the waiting room while no preparation took place. Once I started doing things some nurses helped and I’m glad they did because there were about 20 club members there and that’s a lot of food to cook. Meanwhile they liked to point out everything I did wrong/different which started to bother me but I just kept reminding myself that they do things differently and it was a learning experience for me as well.
We ended up making rice with split peas, ground provisions, a veggie stir fry and homemade fruit juice. I used little salt and added ginger powder for seasoning to the veggies. Everyone seemed to enjoy it. We even run out of the stir fry. I am glad over all it was a success but I don’t know how soon I want to hold another cooking demonstration.
Medex giving a health talk to the club
Demonstration of the prepared food
I am glad the week is over and I am going to visit other PCVs for the weekend. It will be good to go somewhere new and see people I have not seen in 2 months. One more month until our week long reconnect!
I just love her!
Rasta sure is growing and she is so much fun to have around! She enjoys climbing on everything, exploring in the yard, playing with toys, cords and occasionally bugs…she is really good at capturing moths and cockroaches. The other day I was in my apartment and I heard her meowing I opened my front door expecting to see her looking up at me but she was nowhere insight but I could still hear her. Then I heard a clinking on my window. She was stuck between the bars, poor kitty.
The other night as I was walking home I saw a big fire right by the front of my house. One might think that seeing a big fire in front of their house would be cause for alarm but here it’s normal. It was our neighbor burning the remains from his tree he cut down a few weeks ago.
