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.