Site visit made!

Wow....what a busy week we trainees had.  We traveled to Georgetown a week ago and prepared ourselves to meet and work with our counterparts.  Of course, we had our "down time" to enjoy the Kings Plaza swimming pool and air conditioning.

We had our training in a lovely place called the Grand Coastal Hotel.  The conference facilities were great and the food was amazing.  I would recommend this place to anyone coming to Georgetown, Guyana. Here is a group picture with most of us and our counterparts on the stairwell in the courtyard.

We all packed up and rode along with our counterparts to our new sites on Thursday.  I was so excited to see my new school and Ms. Ray first had me drop my luggage off at my new home, meet Maggy the owner and quickly take a brief walk to the school.  The children had spotted our arrival by mini bus and many were waiting in the road to watch us walk to school.  I was greeted with signs, a welcoming statement, songs and invited to eat lunch with the children. 

 Lucky for me that on Thursdays, the local church makes lunch for the school.  It was my introduction to "chunks".  Can't say I would order it on a menu, but it makes a good staple.

After about an hour at the school, I was whisked back to the home where I found local neighbors gathered to give me a welcome along with refreshments. 

Maggy is from Guyana but currently resides with her husband in the Netherlands.  She left the next morning after being in Guyana a couple of weeks to line everything up nicely for me!

The new home is immaculate.  It is fully furnished for me and I need only a fan.  There is a spare bedroom for guests.  However, I will need to set it up.  Presently, it will be used to ZUMBA! There is a washing machine that needs a little "minding" as it runs, but I am grateful to have it! I had my meals arranged while I was there for 3 nights, but it will be nice to be able to cook for myself again.  There wasn't much there in terms of cooking as it was brought in to me.  However, I did manage to do a quick rice pudding with some fresh pineapple!  Different, but good! Here are some photos of my new home for 2 years:

 Bedroom

 Living room from entry with kitchen in back.

That is Jenny fixing my fish dinner.  She is officially my Host Mom although she lives down the street a few houses.  Her mother lives in the other direction just a few houses away.  I will have a Peace Corps Volunteer upstairs as my neighbor.  Nyssa arrived last year and is also a non teacher in a teacher role.  She does her teaching nearby and needs to travel about 20 minutes.  Lucky for me, she is also my mentor.  I am glad to have a mentor that is not from the field.  A photo of her will be upcoming.....

Friday was spent in New Amsterdam.  That is the closest city, about 15 minutes drive from home.  We were tasked with opening a bank account and quite the task that turned out to be.  I had hoped to shop a bit and then return to the school to visit more.  However, I spent 4 hours in the bank!  I can say it is done and that I will never need to open another bank account in Guyana!  What a process! After a relaxing Saturday we trainees boarded a mini bus today (Sunday) and headed back to our training sites, about a 3 hour trip with all the pick ups and drop offs.  I will try to stay present and enjoy the moment these last few days of training!

Later!