Birthday and Site Change

May was a hard month. That's probably why it's taken me three months to get to writing this blog. I had an incident happen in my site that caused me to break down in a way that I've never broken down in my life. I had multiple panic attacks and couldn't stop crying. It was scary and I didn't feel like myself. I had to spend a couple weeks in town where staff decided it was no longer safe for me to return to my site. It was a really hard decision that I didn't have to make but I still feel incredibly guilty over. Then staff told me I might need to get Interrupted Service (Where I go home with Peace Corps' support and full benefits) because they were preparing for the next group to come (Guy 31) and didn't have enough sites for me right now. I was very upset. I did not want to leave Guyana this way. So much of my service had been out of my control that now I couldn't even decide when and how I went home? I told them I would serve anywhere, put me in any region, in any situation, but I'm not ready to leave and especially like this. That was a Friday and the next day just happened to be my birthday. My mom, who definitely wins the award for Best Mom, paid for two nights at the Marriot so I could have a nice weekend and get away from all the drama. My friends, who definitely win the award for Best Friends, came from all over to stay with me and spend the weekend with me. It was so fun and I am so lucky. Thankfully staff was able to find me a next site and I was moved to Region 2, where we trained originally. (Mainstay is in Region 2) I was so relieved and I'm so glad to be finishing my service.

Birthday cake and birthday balloons in bed! Kelsi, Carly and Sam surprised me!

lots of candles...

Birthday drinks!

Car and Me!

Kels and Me

The Greatest.

"No matter what happens, all will be well." - Oprah's Mantra

MST and Mabaruma!

During April, we hit our one year in service mark! Because of this, we had our MST Conference, or Mid-Service Conference. It was three days long in Georgetown and really nice to see the rest of GUY 30 again! We had a trivia tournament the first night and my team won the Golden Coconut! It was so fun and a great way to start off our conference.

Winning Team!! From Top: Taylor, Me 

Bottom: Cristina, Jami and Kelsi

 During the conference Peace Corps staff asked my counterpart and me to go on TV with our Country Director, Kury, because we won the Counterpart Awards for the Education Sector. Miss Cindy, my counterpart, and I were suuuuper nervous. We talked about the work we've been doing in Laluni and how we've built our working and personal relationship and it flowed pretty easily. The host of the show was very nice and Kury was great at setting us up for answers. It came on that night and all the volunteers watched it at the hotel and told us we did a great job. It really warmed my heart that they were all supporting and encouraging me.

National Superstar!

Me "watching myself" on TV

Another conference down and one to go!

Straight from MST, Carly, Kelsi and I went with Sam to her site in Region 1 in Mabaruma! We boarded a really small plane and made the one hour beautiful journey! It was beautiful and fun fact we went over the Jonestown site, although you can't really tell.

At Sam's host family's house with her pet monkey Jack!

Taking a boat ride to Shell Beach for the night!

Taking a walk with the local Amerindian tribe in Shell Beach!

We loved swimming in the ocean and walking along the shelly beach

Shell Beach is where turtles swim up to lay their eggs, we went on a late night walk to check on the hatchlings and make sure that if there were turtles on land, they weren't stuck or hurt. That is the main job of the tribe living on Shell Beach, protecting the turtles and their habitats. Unfortunately we didn't see any turtles but it was still a great adventure.

Walking through Mabaruma with Sam!

Tiny plane back! It was a great trip up to Region 1 to visit Sam and see a little snippet of her life. We were able to be her first volunteer visitors and I hope we can make the trip again to see her! She was a great host!

"Having no regrets is all that she really wants." -1D