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

Lethem Rodeo

For Easter break, many volunteers planned to go down to Region 9, at the bottom of the country bordering Brazil for the annual Rodeo! I went with two other volunteers, Carly and Emily, to the biggest ranch in Guyana, Dadanawa Ranch. It is almost three hours outside the main town in Region 9 called Lethem and pretty much in the middle of nowhere. We passed really small Amerindian villages but other than that it was open savannah as far as the eye could see! The ranch is famous because it made the infamous road to Georgetown from Lethem by driving cattle all the way there. The vaqueros would take hundreds of cattle and take almost a month hacking away at the jungle and losing 85% of the cattle along the way. Crazy. We spent a couple days on the ranch watching the cattle being sorted for rodeo, walking the savannah, and killing cows....

Carly, Emily and me!

The first morning, the ranch asked if we wanted to come with them to kill a cow out in the savannah because they had run out of meat and needed to prepare the tasso, or jerky for their ride with the cattle to rodeo. We said of course we'd like to come! Then on the way they jokingly asked if any of us wanted to try killing it and I said of course! I know this sounds morbid or crazy but it was a very interesting experience. Being in the middle of nowhere with this Amerindian tribe who raise these cows and depend on this meat to survive felt like an opportunity to experience something most people don't get to experience. They lassoed the cow, brought it down, handed me a knife and pointed at its neck. Here. It was a small blunt knife so I had to keep trying to puncture it when finally a different guy handed me a longer sharper knife. This made it easier, obviously. I blacked out during the whole thing and don't really remember it because I was so nervous. 

Then the Amerindians lay down some leaves and started skinning it right there. We all tried skinning it and then they started cutting it up. They were very precise and methodical, cutting different parts and preparing different sections for different people. It was amazing to watch. One lady emptied all the stomachs and even took that to be used later. Afterwards nothing was leftover expect the grass from its stomach. It was quite an experience!

They then took all the meat and hung it in to be dried. Some ladies ran over when we arrived and they hacked off some chunks for dinner that night and a next guy came to get the skin to take to the tannery. Nothing wasted!

Sunsets on the ranch

After the cattle had all been sorted, the vaqueros started the two day journey driving them to Lethem. It was very cool to watch the vaqueros circling them, cracking whips to get them in line and shouting different things to keep them moving, "Yahoooo!"

When we arrived in Lethem, we stayed at a volunteer's house who lives there, with about 10 other volunteers. We were definitely cozy and crowded but it was fun to all be there together. The sad part was the night before Rodeo was going to start, we were all at a pageant to open Rodeo and we got robbed. They broke into the volunteer's house when we were all gone and went through everything. I had money, my solar charger and my Peace Corps satellite phone stolen, but others had MacBooks, iPhones, cameras and more stolen. It was a long night and we were all exhausted by the end but thankfully no one was hurt and they didn't take passports or bank cards which would have been the biggest hassle. Our Safety and Security Manager had to fly down and start investigating with the police. It was sucky. 

We were able to go to the Rodeo! All of the cattle used during the events were all from the ranch we stayed at, and some of the vaqueros participated in the events. It was awesome to cheer for them and recognize some of the big bulls, lol.

"Say yes and you'll figure it out afterwards." - Tina Fey

Trinidad!

 During February, a group of us decided to take a little vacation and head to Trinidad for their famous Carnival festival. (Caribbean Mardi Gras) We rented a huge house through Airbnb and flew the quick, hour long flight over to begin the festivities. The house was a 5 minute walk from the beach, Trinidad is so clean and everyone is so welcoming and nice! We had a great time. Our first event for Carnival was the jouvert party, where different bands dance to "bring in the sun" and start Carnival. We had to be in Port of Spain at 3am to join our band, the Nasty Devils. Then we started down the street with the other bands, each with their own theme, playing their own music and separated by big trucks in front and behind us. The truck at the back of us was our drink truck and they gave us a tumbler so we could just run back and have it refilled and rejoin the party! We were all a little worried about staying awake until 3 and then basically dancing and drinking until 9am but it was so fun. SO FUN. They had colored water that they would periodically spray on us. We just danced our little hearts out and had the greatest time. 9am came quickly and we made our way back to our house where we were all super exhausted and slept that day away. 

 Jouvert gals, Sam, Carly, Emily, Me and Karin

(Notice how clean we look!)

Carly and Me after dancing for 6 hours straight! Still smiling!

Our dirty feet...my shoes still aren't the same

Emily and Me after making it back to the house, exhausted!

(Notice how dirty we look!)

After we had recovered from Jouvert it was Carnival time! We headed back to Port of Spain and went to the main street called The Avenue. We saw tons of beautiful floats, dancers and costumes and again, had a great time. We danced, we hung out and everyone was so friendly!

Stilts!

Carly, Emily, Sam, Me and Lee loving the floats!

We had a great time, obviously, and it was great to take a little break from Peace Corps and Guyana life!  

"Where you invest your love, you invest your life." Mumford and Sons

Kaieteur Falls Trek

We did it! We hiked to the top of Kaieteur Falls! Kaieteur is the highest single drop waterfall in the world. It's also the most famous and widely known "attraction" in Guyana. Way back during training a group of us had talked to past volunteers and heard that you could trek there over 5 days and hike to the top. So we all planned this trip way back in March for New Years and patiently waited 10 months until our amazing trip.  

December 29 came and we all stayed a night together in Georgetown and prepared for the company we made our reservations with to pick us up at 6 the next morning. The first day was a very long bus ride south. It was very bumpy and looooong but we made it to the village of Mahdia around 2. There we switched to a truck where the four of us in the pic down below got to stand in the back and hold on for our lives as it raced in the rain to our next mode of transportation.

Next, we piled into this boat and headed up the Potaro River for another hour to the little village of Amotuk. This was a chilly boat ride...

Amotuk! This is where we slept the first night. We strung up our hammocks, ate some dinner and passed out! I froze, it was seriously so cold. (Probs only like 70 degrees, but here thats cold!)

The next morning we woke up and got into another boat to head further upriver. It was much more enjoyable this day without rain and was much warmer.

The Amerindians in this region believe in the healing powers of this river, the Potaro. It's said it can cure you of anything and make you look younger so of course we jumped right in for a quick dip.

Our guide, Tony, who is from the Amerindian tribe that lives on Kaieteur, took us to his waterfall, which he appropriately calls Tony's Waterfall. Sidenote: everyone else had hiking boots except for me and one other girl. I was hiking in Birks and she had on sandals. Everyone with boots were instructed to take them off and keep their socks on so they could have good grip while scaling these slippery rocks. So the sandals gals went barefoot and slid a lot...I got a couple good scrapes and cuts but we made it to the top of this waterfall and stood underneath. It was really fun but very hard!

That night (New Years Eve, or what Guyanese call Old Years!) we stayed in Kaieteur National Forest in a really nice A frame. We played card games, mafia and hung out until midnight. We all thought it was pretty special to be sharing this Old Years night together and to be spending the first day of 2018 hiking to the top of Kaieteur. 

The PCV Crew. Brittany, Dorie, Taylor, Kelsi, Jami and Me! 

The next morning Taylor and Dorie were walking down to the river when they screamed and sprinted back. The guide who stayed with us that night along with Tony, Stanley, ran out with a stick and started killing it. Then he brought it back and of course I had to Britney Spears it! I can't remember what kind it was but it was def poisonous.

New Years Day we were hiking the infamous OMG hill because it goes straight up to the top of the falls! We took some breaks, bathed in the river cuz we were pretty hot but kept on going up the hill.

This is the whole crew! Including two of Kelsi's friends from home.

Jami, Evan, Kelsi, Me, Dorie, Taylor, Brittany and Tim!

With our handmade walking sticks Tony made for all of us!

We made it to the top! 

It was so beautiful.

We got to spend two nights in a guesthouse at the top of the falls literally a 5 minute walk from the edge. It was great. We could just walk down whenever we wanted and were able to see it at sunrise, sunset and the whole time in between! At sunset there are these birds called switfs, that swoop down speed speed and fly behind the waterfall to sleep for the night. We spent one of the evenings watching them fly in and it was very interesting! The pic below is Kelsi and I watching the swifts fly behind the waterfall.

 On one of the days, Stanley took us to his village, Menzies, about a 30 minute walk from our guesthouse. It's right on the river so we went to get into the water to bathe and the current was SO strong. Like whatever you're thinking, triple it. There was a little boat landing that we could stand on and not be taken but the second you went out a little it just took you. Stanley and I swam a little upstream and were holding onto some branches to catch our breath and stay in one place when he asked if I wanted to swim across the river. Of course I said yes! He told me to swim diagonal and just swim as fast as I could. I didn't think about it and just focused on following him and didn't pause at all. About 3/4 of the way across I felt like my lungs were going to burst. I think it's the hardest I've ever swam. We made it across and I heard everyone back on the other side cheer! We had gone a little downstream so we got out in the bush and walked further up before getting back in. Stanley gave me more guidance and told me where we were aiming for again. Thankfully it was easier to swim back or else I would have just been taken down to the falls and byeeeee! It was so hard but felt so good after!

This was definitely the best experience I've had in Guyana. Seeing the interior and being with volunteers adventuring in the jungle was just amazing. I can't wait to do more exploring in this country!

We flew home on a 12 seater airplane. It was so small and so fun! We basically retraced our path and flew past, Kaiteur, Tony's Waterfall, and all the rivers and villages we had passed. 

"Hello, can I help you with something? If not, please step aside because I'm about to kick the shit out of life." - Where'd You Go, Bernadette?