The past two month in Laluni!

Wow can't believe I've already lived in Laluni longer than I lived in Mainstay! It's been a crazy couple months with lots of learning curves and challenges but also lots of laughs! I am getting used to not having electricity or running water and it is becoming second nature to cook our meals by kerosene lamp light. It is rainy season so it's been raining nonstop, which is actually really nice because it fills all of our rain barrels and we have plenty of water! It's also bringing out tons of animals! I've seen two anacondas, saw jaguar tracks where it had eaten three sheep, tons of huge spiders, baboons and freakin bats galore! I hate bats. Jungle livin! 

 This is like my best friend in Laluni, Ryan, a couple days a week I go on a walk with him and another girl and we play soccer, ride bikes and he asks me lots of questions! "Miss why can't you drink our water, you have special American water??" 

 This was one of the snakes I saw! It's stomach burst open cuz it ate a bag of live chickens!

 I have been spending most of my time in the library, painting it, organizing it and labeling it so the kids can use it! It's been a lot of work but really fun!

 I painted the bookcases pink, walls blue and floor grey!

 Another walk with Ryan and Amesha!

 Two first graders watching me paint!

 6th Grade boys helping me wash the walls before painting the final wall blue!

 Laluni library is open for reading!

 The past volunteer who lived in Laluni, Eben, had a dog, who has now adopted me! I give him the leftover jelly in my coconuts. #caribbeandog

 I was invited to a BBQ one day and these are two students who went to pick up the chickens for dinner! 

 Priya, the 6th grade teacher at my school, and Cindy, the 4th grade teacher and my counterpart with the PC!

Since the library has opened, I made a log where I write down the student's name, grade and what book they borrowed and they can borrow it for a day. The kids were so excited and they ask me every day, so I can borrow another one right? And I can do it again tomorrow? They are so confused but so excited! A lot of them can't read but they are just excited to look at the pictures. It's really sweet. I also had to teach a library intro class, on how to treat the books, how to put them on the shelves, and where to put them back. It's pretty crazy to think about these kids not growing up going to the library every week like I did with my mom and knowing how it works. But it also feels awesome to be the one introducing it to them and sharing my love of reading with them! 

"A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies, the man who never reads lives only one." - George R.R. Martin

Mainstay Video!

We had to do a presentation on the part of Region 2 we were living in for training. It was part of our training for PACA, Participatory Analysis for Community Action, where we learn different tools for integration and helping our communities. The five of us at Mainstay decided to make a video and have a little fun with it! Enjoy :-) 

Culture Day, Host Family Appreciation, and Swear in!

Hello! Finally have a day in Georgetown to catch up on things! Here is a wrap up from training in Region 2! On one Saturday we had a Culture Day where you had to come dressed as the culture your host family was, bring traditional food and each group spoke about the history of their specific culture. It was really fun and interesting. The three main groups were Amerindians, Indo-Guyanese and Afro-Guyanese. My group was Amerindian so our host moms gave us these costumes to wear, from the Primary School. We made Pepper Pot, a traditional Amerindian dish made of cow face, and Cassava bread, a hard bread made from cassava or a yucca type root. We did a little dance that the kids from the school taught us and it was just a ton of fun! 

 With our moms!

We also had a Host Family Appreciation day where we made a slide show with a bunch of pictures from the past two months, made food for our families and played lots of different games. It was really nice!

 Three of my favorite volunteers, Dorie, Kelsi and Christle!

My "Mom," Sunita Pearson!

 The whole Pearson family!

The next day was our Swear in Ceremony! It was more emotional that I expected and really amazing. It had sort of felt like camp for the past couple months being in Mainstay and going to training every day. Now we were becoming real volunteers and going out into our sites to begin our 2 year service! So scary yet so exciting! The Minister of Education and Minister of Health spoke, the US Ambassador spoke and finally our PC Guyana Director spoke. It was really nice, then we were each called up to receive a pin and certificate for finishing training. 

The other volunteers from Mainstay and I decided we wanted to do something special since we all had such a great and special bond with Mainstay. Since they are known for their "tigers," really jaguars, we decided to have special dresses and a shirt for John made. We were the talk of the ceremony!

 Sam, Rachael, Me, Karin and John rocking our tiger dresses and shirt!

 Host sister Lorianne and Mom Sunita!

 Dorie, Kelsi and Christle

 Loving life!

Mainstay tigers!

Receiving my certificate and pin and becoming a Peace Corps Volunteer!

"It seemed like a long time and also it seemed like my trip had just begun, like I was only now digging into whatever it was I was out here to do." -Wild