Tuesday, June 12, 2018

Good Vibes in Week 5



How is it possible that we have been here for five weeks? Our fifth week in Guyana was very eventful, and certainly one to remember. Most of us taught lessons involving contraceptives, which include a demonstration of how to put a condom on a plantain, in our case. No matter the age of the class or the time of the day, there always seemed to be smiles and giggles coming from the students, and a couple of laughs from us as well! Even though it is a bit of a sillier lesson, the students seemed to really engage and remember all of the steps of how to properly use contraceptives.
Our life outside of the classroom was quite exciting this week. Ravi (the owner of the bar below us) taught us how to make fried plantains, a popular side dish in Guyana. Not only were they so delicious, but he gave us about 5 pounds of them, so we were eating plantains all night! On another night, he taught us how to make two types of cake. One was similar to a vanilla cake back home, and the other was made of cornmeal and fresh coconut milk! For our first time baking, and with no measuring cups, we like to think we did a pretty good job!
On Friday evening, all 6 of us got to teach our second lesson to the young men at the Guysuco Training College. Although we thought that teaching contraceptives to 13-year-olds was funny, teaching the same lesson to 20-year-olds was hilarious. Surprisingly, they seemed to enjoy the lesson the most! We coupled the contraceptive talk with a lesson about abuse and consent, and we are thankful that we were able to cover a broad spectrum of topics in only two visits to Guysuco.
Saturday morning was very happy, as our friends from Georgetown came for a visit to Berbice! We showed them the market, and then all 10 of us, along with our friends from the Youth Space made the trek to the Letter Kenny beach. After a full day of laughing, swimming, and spending time in the hot sun, we were all pretty exhausted Saturday night. We introduced the Georgetown gang to our favourite meal, pumpkin curry and roti, and they enjoyed it just as much as we do! On Sunday morning, we had an especially early start, as we wanted to see the sunrise. We threw our hoodies on and were out the door by 5 AM. The sunrise was breathtaking, and even though we have been here for five weeks, we often forget to stop and realize how stunning Guyana really is.
The rest of our Sunday consisted of a visit to the Letter Kenny Mandir with our friends, some much needed naps, and a plethora of games and charades as a group.
Although it was sad to say goodbye to our friends, we know that we will be seeing them in two short weeks!
Until next time,
The Berbice Family <3

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