I'm official!!!

Finally, it's official. I'm a real Peace Corps Volunteer. We had our swearing in yesterday afternoon. We also had a fantastic party afterwards--lots of tasty food and tons of dancing.


The Whole Group: "Guy17"


Cheers to a good roommate


The Mocha Crew


Melane is the one in the pants.


Tomorrow I leave for my site. I'm excited and anxious and sad. Excited because I'm ready to learn about my community and settle in. All this packing and moving around gets tiring. I'm anxious because I'll be starting my new job, and I don't feel completely qualified. I'm sad because I'm leaving my wonderful host mom, and I won't get to see my Guy 17 group as often. In spite of all this feelings, I'm ready!

Site Visit

Well my week in Parika was a little overwhelming. I think it was the first time since I've been here that I felt that way. My new host family is awesome, but I think the fact that there's 6 other people living in the same compound (as opposed to 2 others) is a bit hectic by default. Trying to juggle two meals at almost every breakfast, lunch, and dinner was a little hard on my stomach and body. I'm staying in a bottom flat. It's awesome in that I have a refrigerator, microwave, and tv. Also my host family above me has a washer, and the family behind me has internet access, which I can use. I definitely have the hook up.

I'll be working at the health center as a health educator. Each day is for a different set of people, and I'll tailor my talks to that particular day. For example, Wednesday was chronic diseases, so there were a lot of older folks with diabetes. My nurse introduced me to the group in the waiting room where I spent time visiting with them. But instead of casual conversation, they started asking questions about what they should and should not eat. I had no idea and felt a little flusterd. I said I would get back to them. We learned a little bit about diabetes in training, but looking through my notes it just says "diet and exercise". But what kind of diet is the question.

That same day I was fortunate enough to see a baby being born. It was a very strange experience watching the baby come out of the vagina. It sort of seemed animalistic. Afterwards I felt queasy because of the blood and because the nurse had to sew her up. Reflecting on the birth, I think, wow, how simple yet majestic it is to create life.

Two days before I saw a diabetic whose foot was infected and being eaten away. I was so gross. They didn't have a surgical knife to cut away the dead skin, so they just cleaned it up put paw paw (papaya) shavings on it and wrapped it up. Supposedly the paw paw helps bring the skin together making the wound heal faster.

Parika is a small city in comparison to the village I live in now. It has all the necessities like a bank, post office, police station, etc all in close proxcimity on the main road. The best part is the market, which is ginormous and a lot of variety. I tasted a sue-ma-too (I'm spelling it phonetically). It's similar to passion fruit in that it has the same looking seeds and slime; it just tastes different. The community is very mixed and has a lot of mixed people--like me. For example my host mom is Afro and Indo while my host dad is Afro and Amerindian.

Although I was overwhelmed, Parika seems like a great place.

My Site

I found out my site!!! I'm going to this city called Parika in Region 3. It's about an hour away from Georgetown. I had no idea where they were going to place me, but this is a nice surprise. There was a recent volunteer that just left. We met him a few times, and he has done great things for Parika. A lot of people speak very positively about him, and it looks like I have some big shoes to fill. I don't know exactly what I'll be doing, but we start our site visit tomorrow.

This week has been really facisnating. We learned a lot about HIV/AIDS in Guyana. For example, transmission through drug use is not a serious problem here. The biggest concern is transmission through sex. Another interesting thing we learned is that many young girls will have anal sex as a way to preserve "their virginity." Along with learning specific concerns for Guyana, we learned about different techniques we can use to discuss the issue. Today we participated in a very powerful activity in which we roled played as those who tested positive and negative for HIV. The group expressed lots of emotion and tears, and it gave us a glimpse of what life is like as a person infected and affected by HIV.

Volunteer Visit

This past week I went to Berbice to visit a Peace Corp Volunteer to see what life is like. I felt the experience was lacking because my host doesn't like her job at the Health Center. She feels like a staff member, and she hasn't gotten involved in any kind of secondary project. I felt a lot of negativety, and I hope my experience is better. I did take some valuable things away that I can share with the APCD concerning my site placement.

1. I want to be busy, so I don't think an Amerindian village would be ideal for me.
2. I'd like to have access to a big city.
3. If I'm assigned to a health clinic, I want to work with family planning.
4. If I'm assigned to a clinic, I want there to be an NGO in the area.
5. I'd like to be in a mixed community.
6. I don't want too many PCVs in my area.

I also learned that reaching out to youth may be more productive than reaching out to the adult population, and I should establish my role clearly in the beginning especially if I work in a clinic.

Now on to the more social aspects of the week. We went to a beach in New Amesterdam. It was nice, but I have to say that the water is a muddy brown, so it doesn't look the cleanest. We hung out with other volunteers and trainees. And btw, all their h0uses were nice and big. One morning we had pumpkin pancakes; they were absolutely delicious. We had a stir fry of okroes (okra), onion, garlic, and tomatoes. We tried to make roti, but they came out more like tortillas. Another night we had an herbed black bean and sweet potato hash; that was also super yummy. Oh yeah, I tried this new friut called "cashew" (yes, like the nut but it's a fruit). It's about the size of a kiwi, it's redish pink, and it taste like roses (yes, I said roses). And another thing, did you know that there's lots of different types of bananas? There's like 5 different kinds here. They all pretty much look the same execpt they vary in size and slightly in flavor. Lastly, we watched Walk the Line, and played Scrabble and Scategories. All in all it was a chill week.