Making Moves!

Hey Guys!

This week flew by as every day was packed full of teaching and lesson planning! We we're happy to jump right back into things after our week in Berbice, and started by planning lessons on puberty and anatomy as well as STI's, contraceptives, and HIV/AIDS. As we were walking out of the Chase Academy on Monday morning, we happened to strike up a conversation with the coach of a table tennis team in partnership with the Red Cross. He was very excited about the topics we cover, and began asking if we could come in to talk to his athletes who often travel for the sport. After continuing meetings with him, this week we are going to begin teaching during after school practices, focusing our teaching on topics such as peer-pressure, goal setting, stress, and time management. We are excited to be partnering up with a new organization that is community-based in addition to teaching in schools.


On Tuesday, we taught our first classes at Reyaz Business Institute. This was an especially interesting class as it was our first on mental health, depression, and coping. We had the entire school divided up into two classes, so it was a new experience teaching to so many kids of all different ages. Many of the children at this school come from an orphanage nearby. Reyaz, the head master of the school, has organized time for us to go to the orphanage and cook dinner with them and spend time getting to know each other better.

This week was also our first time teaching on the National Television Network. Maddy and Anna taught a lesson on healthy diet and nutrition, while Jesse and Ali taught on physical health and fitness. We are really happy that we have this weekly segment to reach not just our peers, but to reach out to the rest of Guyana as it creates the ability to reach people in communities that we are not based out of.

Friday at Ruimveldt was the most wonderful mayhem. We brought a new basketball and soccer ball as well as two buckets of sidewalk chalk. The kids were so excited to draw and play. By the end of the afternoon, there were chalk drawings on every outdoor surface and the chalk had been completely devoured. It was so amazing to watch and see how happy and excited all of the kids were, it always rubs off on us in the best way!

We were also excited to have the Berbice team join us this weekend in Georgetown for a little bit of adventuring and taking in some of the natural beauty that Guyana has to offer. It has been a very busy and fulfilling week and we are excited to have so much in the works for this coming week!

Big hello's to everyone at home, stay tuned for more adventures!
Jesse, Ali, Anna, and Maddy

Final post

Hello everyone, 

So the time has finally come for us to say goodbye to the country we have called home for the last 2 months and return to our normal lives back in Canada. But before we leave, we wanted to write one last post to update you on the last few days and to express how thankful we are to everyone who has supported us along the way and has made this journey possible.

Sydney rolling out the roti
dough. 

Ever since we learned how to make boulanger choka and roti, we have been bragging to Ms. Toney that we can cook Guyanese food. So, to show off our skills we decided to cook her a meal on Wednesday evening at the West Ruimveldt David Rose Centre. Leslie made her delicious Mango bora salad, and everyone helped to make roti with boulanger choka! It was so great to do something as a whole team for once since Joe and Alyssa have returned to Georgetown as their project is Berbice has come to a finish. We were so happy with the result of this team bonding session, and Ms. Toney gave us her stamp of approval. 

One last picture of the team with Ms. Toney. 

This morning (Thursday), we woke up rather sad, knowing that today will mark the last day of our stay in Guyana. So we tired to make the most of it. Perhaps, the most exciting part of our day was appearing on the "NTN: This Morning" television show to discuss QHO and our work in Guyana. We were all so nervous as none of us had ever been on television before. Mr. Hussein, the headmaster of R.B.I. who arranged all this, interviewed us for about 30 minutes during which we discussed topics including our work in Guyana, the history of QHO, Queen's University, topics we feel are the most sensitive to youth, and even our favourite Guyanese foods. This was by far one of the most interesting experiences we have had in Guyana so far and we are so happy that we could get QHO this much publicity. Mr. Hussein even mentioned how he would like to dedicate one show per week to next year's team so that they can discuss our curriculum on television. This would certainly be an excellent way for QHO Guyana to expand and venture out into new areas in order to reach out to more community members and new demographics. 

After the television show we all headed back to our guesthouse to finish packing. You'd be surprised how much junk one accumulates over the span of 2 months! We spent the rest of the afternoon visiting places we had wanted to visit on our last day, including the Starbroek Market, the sea wall, St. George's Cathedral, and the Promenade Gardens. We had such a nice time walking around Georgetown one last time  and appreciating the beauty of Guyana and its culture. 

Beth, Arash, and Leslie at the sea wall on our
last day in Guyana. 

It would be an understatement if we said that this experience has just been great. There are no words that can describe how we feel about Guyana, project, and the people we have met through our journey. It has been an absolute privilege to  travel to this beautiful country, experience the culture, teach the students, but also be taught! We have always said to our students that our presence in Guyana is not a one way road. We have learnt so much from them the same way they have learnt from us. We are now returning to our country much wiser, more cultured, and more knowledgable than when we first arrived on May 6th. We would like to thank everyone who has supported us through our journey including Ms. Toney, Omeshwar Shirkisun, the staff at Rima's Guesthouse, our families, our QHO family, and our sponsors. As Dr. Seuss has so eloquently put it, we are not crying because it is over, instead we are smiling because it happened. 

It has been unreal! 

The Guyana 2012 project (Arash, Joe, Alyssa, Sydney, Beth, and Leslie) 

Goodbyes

Hello everyone, 

Arash here. We can't believe that after almost 8 weeks, our stay in Guyana is coming to a close. Throughout these 8 weeks we have become better friends, learnt a great deal about the society and culture in Guyana, and have gained a new perspective on many of the challenges we face in life. This experience will certainly be one that we will cherish for the rest of our lives! 

During our last week here, we tried our best to experience and learn about the Guyanese culture as much as we could. That is why we asked the ladies working at our guesthouse to teach us some traditional Guyanese dishes. We had quite the tutorial and learned how to make boulanger choka, chicken curry, and roti. I must admit that making roti requires a lot of skills and a high threshold for pain as the roti needs to be clapped fresh off the pan with bare hands.

Beth and Arash with a "unique" coconut tree
in Letter Kenny. 

This past weekend, Beth and I decided to go to Berbice and visit Joe and Alyssa. It was so great to get out of Georgetown and to see other parts of this beautiful country. The road to Berbice was very scenic, being dominated by cane fields and coconut tress. Letter Kenny, where Joe and Alyssa were staying, is very different than Georgetown. It is much smaller, quieter, and has its own unique culture. After our arrival on Saturday afternoon, the four of us visited a women's shelter near Letter Kenny. The shelter houses women ranging from 4 to 17 years old who are homeless or orphaned. This was Joe and Alyssa's first time visiting the shelter and the purpose of our visit was to create a new connection so that next year's PEs can start teaching there once they arrive in Berbice. We spent the afternoon playing many games with the kids including monkey in the middle, cricket, duck duck goose, soccer etc. We all had so much fun and I am sure that next year's team will absolutely love teaching at the shelter. 

Playing "Dog and Bone" with the kids at the women's shelter.

Boulanger choka with roti!

On Sunday, before Beth and I returned to Georgetown, we decided to cook for Joe and Alyssa and show them how to make boulanger choka and roti. Surprisingly, we managed and the the food was delicious (though not as good as the one the ladies at Rima make). Later that afternoon we said goodbye to Joe and Alyssa and returned back to Georgetown. During our trip to Berbice, Beth and I were able to see how the Berbice project works and the great job Joe and Alyssa have done. Given that it is a pilot project, Joe and Alyssa have managed to make many new connections and partnerships and have made QHO a household name. I am sure that next year, under Beth and Joe's direction, the project will further grow and will be able to reach out to more community members. 

The cricket bat we presented to
Valmiki Vidyalaya school as a
thank you.

On Monday morning, we traveled to Lusignan to hold our last lesson at the Valmiki Vidyalaya school. It was very sad saying goodbye to our students as they were very respectful and receptive to our lessons. Many of the students even brought us gifts and gave us personal speeches and thank you's. Later that afternoon, we set out to find some manatees as we could not find any at the Guyana National Zoo. This was another attempt to get the most out of our stay in Guyana. Luckily, we were able to spot a few manatees at the National Park and had the best time playing with them. 

Leslie and one of her students at Valmiki
Vidyalaya. 

Cakes Leslie and Sydney made for
our "QHO Graduation" party at
Valmiki Vidyalaya. 

On Tuesday, Sydney and I did our last lesson on Mental Health at the Reyaz Business Institute (R.B.I.) and said goodbye to our students there. This was a bitter sweet moment for us as we were very sad to leave but we were happy that we got the opportunity to teach our largest class of approximately 130 students who learned so much from us. We were both presented with R.B.I. hats and speeches from the class prefects. It was so great to hear how much of an influence we had on these students' lives in the 5 shorts weeks we were there. The headmaster of the school, Mr. Rayez Hussein, thanked us many times and has even invited us to make an appearance on his morning television show tomorrow. We are so excited that QHO is getting so much publicity this year and cannot wait to talk about QHO's history in Guyana and what we have been up to the past 8 weeks on his show. 

A section of Sydney and Arash's class at R.B.I.

Finally, today, Beth and I taught our last lesson as PEs to our Grade 5-6 class at Monar Educational Institute. It was during this lesson that it finally hit me that our job as PEs is done. But I am so grateful that I have had the opportunity to be a part of this great journey and reach out to so many people. There is so much to look forward to in the upcoming year as many of us will move on to new positions within the executive team and we are excited to see the Guyana project further grow and excel within this upcoming year. 

Arash and Beth's students at Monar Educational Institute with
their certificates. 

Cheers until next time, 

The Guyana 2012 PEs

The Final Week!

Hey Everyone!

We are officially in our final week here in Georgetown. Only one more week to finish up classes, strengthen already made connections, create new connections for work next year and find updated resources for our students. We plan on being very busy this next couple of days doing more administrative QHO work since our teaching is coming to a close.

We have thoroughly enjoyed teaching, and the praise we have gotten for our skills has been more than appreciated. The hospitality and generosity of everyone here has been more than we could have ever asked for and this is definitely going to make leaving that much more difficult.

The Guyana Project at Kaieteur Falls.

Sunday was our only day off this week and we were lucky enough to have the opportunity to travel to Kaieteur Falls. For those of you who don't know, Kaieteur Falls is the largest single drop waterfall in the world (approx. 4x the size of Niagra Falls). It was a beautiful site, breathtaking and seemingly indescribable. Words can't do this place justice and neither can the photos.

That evening Ms. Toney invited us to a Sweet 16 Party. Sweet 16 parties in Guyana are very different from those in Canada. Everyone is semi-formal and there is tons of food and drinks for all guests to enjoy. The party was held at one of the Community Centres we frequent, and it was fun to see the transformation from centre to party room!

Leslie and Sydney's Dangers of Smoking Lesson!

On Monday morning we taught a Substance Abuse lesson to the children of Valmiki Vidyalaya, a school which is about a 30 minute drive from Georgetown in a town called Lusignan. We are always thrilled to start our week off here and we had a really receptive lesson with the students about the dangers of drugs, alcohol and smoking.

Tuesday, Beth and Leslie ended two classes. The first was a Grade 7 and 8 class at Valmiki Vidyalaya in Georgetown. We taught our Mental Health lesson and then gave out certificates to the students. We were touched when the Headmaster gave us a heartwarming speech thanking us for our presence and reinforcing how important the work we are doing here is. We had students give us individual thank you speeches as well and present us with a lovely token of their appreciation - a beautiful piece of artwork for each of us. We also solidified our newly-strong connection with the school and we are so excited for the new team to start working there as soon as they arrive in Georgetown next year. Lucky for us, we have a huge opportunity to expand the project there as the school is expanding next year, so we will be able to reach that many more students.

The Grade 7 and 8's of Valmiki Vidyalaya with their QHO graduation certificates. 

Leslie and Beth with our Form 1 Graduates at Chase Academy.

After finishing up there, Beth and Leslie headed to Chase's Academy to finish up with the Form 1's. They were also very sad to see us leave and gave us a lovely thank you speech as well. We concluded our curriculum with a lesson on Mental Health and then gave them their certificate to commemorate their hard work throughout our 7 weeks with them. Arash and Sydney taught Substances to Reyaz Business Institute (RBI), which is comprised of about 120 students (they teach all Form's at one time). The headmaster there, Mr. Husein, extended an invitation to us as Peer Educators to appear on his television show, which airs in the mornings, in order to discuss our work in Georgetown and the foundations of our organization. It is very exciting that we are getting so much media coverage, and hopefully will encourage other schools and organizations to want to work with QHO in future years!

Tuesday evening Ms. Toney had another surprise for us. She took us to the West Ruimveldt Community Centre to hang out with some of the youth there. The youth participate in a variety of dance classes after school and we were given a private lesson in a traditional Afro-Guyanese Dance, one that is performed during a wedding ceremony. The dance is called Kwe-Kwe (pronouced "Kway-Kway"). We sure did learn a lot and looked a little bit silly next to the actual dancers. After, we got to hang out with them and talk about the differences and similarities between Canada and Guyana, and we even showed them some of our Canadian dance moves! It was both fun and rewarding to be able to spend an evening with youth and see what their lives and activities are like outside of school.

Sydney participating in the traditional Afro-Guyanese dance, known as the Kwe-Kwe!

Leslie and Sydney's Form 2 Graduates at Chase Academy.

Wednesday led to Sydney and Leslie finishing another class at Chase, this time the Form 2's. We have taught every Form at Chase so it is sad that our time there is coming to an end. That afternoon, Beth and Leslie travelled back to Lusignan and did a session with the teachers at Valmiki Vidyalaya. We were so grateful that the headmaster extended this invitation to us and we were also overwhelmed with the positive comments that emerged from the teachers regarding our organization, curriculum and our teaching skills. They were extremely happy that we were able to bring this type of education to their students as it is something that is taboo to their culture to be discussed at home. Beth and Leslie discussed for 2 hours what our curriculum consists of and how we focus on teaching younger & older children a variety of topics. We also discussed Canadian eduction and it's similarities and differences with Guyanese education. It was educational for both parties and we are so glad to have made this connection. This is a school we most definitely will be returning to next year, and for now the faculty has a copy of both our Resource Manual and Activity Book; as they plan to implement the curriculum during the year while we are gone.

That evening at the East Ruimveldt Community Centre we played another game of Cricket and tried to encourage all of the children to come out and play. We had children of all ages engaged and it was fun to see that they could work together and have great teamwork to set up and execute an activity. We played a game of boys vs. girls and although the boys took the cake, it was a close game! This is a place we have been twice a week every week since our arrival in Georgetown, so it is inevitable that leaving there will be one of the greatest challenges we face.

This week we are excited to explore Georgetown, forge new connections, and look for new opportunities for next year! Project has been so successful this year with making it sustainable, reaching a large number of students and creating and strengthening partnerships with schools and headmasters. We are all looking forward to what lies ahead for the Guyana 2013 project.

Cheers for now,
Georgetown Team (Leslie, Beth, Arash & Sydney).

6 Weeks In... 2 More To Go

Greetings from Georgetown.

Joe, Sydney & Alyssa walking along 63 Beach.

The last couple days have been super busy. Last weekend, Sydney and Leslie travelled to Berbice to see how their Project works and to hang out with Joe and Alyssa. We attended GUYSUCO Training College and saw them teach an extremely informative mental health lesson on Friday evening. Saturday, we were fortunate enough to have just the right amount of spare time to go and visit the only swimmable beach in Guyana; 63 Beach. It was lovely and the water in this part of the Atlantic Ocean was so warm – we could even see Suriname from our spot on the beach! On Sunday, we were lucky enough to go with Joe and Alyssa to see how the Letter Kenny Youth Friendly Space works and got to hang out with some of the local kids there and engage in a Monkey-in-the-Middle game. Emanuel, one of the men who runs the Space, then took us on a walk around neighboring villages and it was lovely to see yet another part of this beautiful country.

Joe, Alyssa & Sydney playing Monkey-in-the-Middle at the Letter Kenny Youth Friendly Space in Berbice.

We continued our curriculum at Valmiki Vidyalaya Hindu School on Monday and set up a time for Beth and Leslie to go and teach the teachers our material so that our lessons can be continued to be taught after we leave – perhaps one of the most important goals QHO has. We were thrilled that the headmaster asked us to do this and can't wait to donate all of the resources QHO has compiled. 

We are now starting to finish up our curriculum with many classes and we have decided as a team to give out certificates to students and schools for completing a Queen's Health Outreach Course. As a special treat for the students, we have also decided to bring in treats and prizes on the last day as a QHO Graduation Party!

Arash and Leslie finishing up the curriculum at Community College.

Arash and Leslie completed their curriculum at Community College. We presented each student with a QHO certificate for completing the entire curriclum and gave them lollipops! They seemed to be quite happy that we were there and their Headmaster, Mr. Amsterdam, gave us many Thank-Yous for coming to teach his students.

Sydney starting off the "QHO Graduation" Party.

Chase Academy has included our material as its own course at the school, known as “Moral Education”. We teach a total of 5 classes there; Form 1, Form 2, Form 3 and two Form 4 classes. Since it is a required subject for the students to learn, we were asked to prepare a short Quiz based on the material we had already taught them as a way for the over seeing teacher to generate a mark for them. This week was the week we were administering the quiz and we are feverishly busy now trying to get them all marked (we really feel like teachers!). On Tuesday afternoon Ms. Toney took us to the Masjid in Allboystown. The Masjid is new to the community. The Imam who runs it wants to transform the space into an all purpose community centre by trying to recruit gym equipment, ping pong tables, as well as desks for after-school programs. The Masjid also runs a medical outreach program that includes dental and physical checkups for the members of the community. On Thursday, Beth went to help out with the medical outreach day by doing some of the administrative work required for visiting a doctor.

That evening, Ms. Toney surprised us once again and took us to a Guyanese dance class at the West Ruimveldt Centre where we learnt an African dance. We were all soooo nervous but it turned out to be so much fun and we really enjoyed ourselves. Wednesday was another day of surprises from Ms. Toney, as she took us to yet another dance class where we learnt “Ballroom Dancing” aka Salsa. We quickly caught on and had lots of fun doing it.

Arash and Leslie's Form 1 & 2's at Royal Academy.

Friday was our last day at both Sophia Primary school and Royal Academy. It is really hard to say goodbye to our students but it is something we knew would have to happen eventually. We brought in  chips and pop and had a last class “party” with the kids. They all asked us to come back next year and said that they would miss having us here. The four of us got a wonderful appraisal from the Headmaster at Royal Academy sincerely thanking us for taking the time to volunteer and teach the students. It is so lovely to be so well received from the community.

Sydney and Beth's Form 3 & 4's at Royal Academy.

This morning, we all enjoyed ourselves at the East Ruimveldt Community centre where we set up a cricket game for the kids to play on this beautiful and sunny Saturday. Sydney is proving to be quite the cricket player now – she is awesome at batting and the kids love teaching her more and more since she is the best player out of all 4 of us. We are now patiently awaiting Joe and Alyssa’s arrival from Berbice as they have to come to Georgetown for the night to take care of some logistical matters that they can’t tend to back in Berbice.

Sydney the Cricket Superstar!

Only 13 more days of project left and time is flying! More updates to come as we finish up the 2012 Guyana Project.

Love from the Georgetown Team: Leslie, Beth, Sydney & Arash

Georgetown update

Hello everyone, 

It has been a while since our last update and we are sorry for that. The Georgetown team has been extremely busy the past week or so participating in various ceremonies commemorating Independence Day as well as teaching at several new schools that Ms. Toney has added to our schedule. 

We'll start off by telling you folks about Guyana's 46th Independence Day (May 26th) and the ceremonies we participated in. On Thursday May 24th, Ms. Toney invited us to the opening ceremony of the Independence Day Exhibition at the Guyana National Museum. There, we watched a performance of steel pans, met the Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport, Dr. Frank Anthony, and learnt a great deal about Guyana's history and its fight for independence. Later that day, we visited the Ruimveldt Children's Aid Centre, worked with the children, and made a deal with Ms. Patsy (lady who prepares the meals for the children) to provide us with traditional Guyanese recipes in exchange for washing all the dishes! We think it's a fair deal and so far we have learnt to make channa, chicken cook-up, salt fish and bake, and pinwheel; the list keeps getting bigger and bigger with each visit!

Cultural dance at the Independence celebrations at
National Park

On Friday evening, after our regular teaching sessions, we headed down to National Park to take part in the celebrations for Independence Day. There we heard the president of Guyana, Mr. Donald Ramotar give a speech to the people of Guyana, watched several cultural dance performances, the marching band, the flag-raising ceremony, and some fireworks. Going to these celebrations, we thought Guyana would be just like Canada on Canada Day in that people would be wearing their country's colours in pride. Little did we know, that things are a bit different here and instead people show up in their fanciest outfits. Wish we knew this before we decided to wear our Guyana t-shirts, belts, and ribbons...we looked quite foolish and stood out like sore thumbs! All in all, it was a really enriching experience to be a part of the celebrations at National Park since it was the first time the four of us had been completely immersed in the Guyanese culture and witnessed such celebrations. Continuing with the festivities, on Saturday (Independence Day), we went to a cultural party hosted by the R.B.I. school as Ms. Toney's "special" guests. At the school, we were treated with the utmost respect and the principal of the school even asked us to get up in front of the mic and introduce ourselves to the children. It was so nice to see the relationship that the principal and teachers had with the students and to hear stories of how these people have been vital figures in the students' lives.

Matching Guyana gear!

"May Pole" dance by youth in Sophia in celebration of
Independence Day. 

On Monday, we started off the new week by going to a new school called Valmiki Vidyalaya. Valmiki Vidalaya is a Hindu school located approximately 30 minutes from Georgetown. We had a fantastic time teaching grades 5 and 6 since the students were extremely well behaved, attentive, and polite. Also, the headmaster at the school was very welcoming and really liked what QHO is doing in Guyana. He even asked us to do a two hour teaching session with the teachers of the school and to leave behind a teaching manual so that they can continue to teach the students after we leave Guyana. This makes us exceptionally happy as this is exactly what QHO is all about. We want to make sure that our curriculum is sustainable because without sustainability, our efforts become much less effective. 

On Tuesday, Sydney and Arash met up with Ms. Toney to go over our schedule and to add a few new schools to our empty slots. Some new schools we will be visiting are R.B.I., Monar, and Valmiki Vidyalaya (a second location within Georgetown). The addition of these 3 new schools has really filled up our schedule, but we are super stoked to go to these new schools and interact with more students. Ms. Toney also got us to participate in a campaign she has designed for World Challenge Day. She has created a campaign called "I Will Say No To..." that targets the youth of Guyana by asking them about the issues that they think affects youth and youth development in Guyana. Through this campaign, which has started right here in Georgetown and will travel across the nation to all 10 regions, Ms. Toney wants to get a better understanding of the issues that the ministry needs to focus on, be it sexual abuse, drugs, violence, etc. 

"I Will Say No To..." campaign for World Challenge Day. 

In preparation for this campaign, we spent the rest of our Tuesday helping Ms. Toney by drawing 4 maps of Guyana on large pieces of fabric. The idea behind the maps is to take them to different schools, and to get students to write the issues they think are important within the map. Once this is done, the prevalence of issues on the maps would be analysed to figure out what issues need more attention from the ministry. So when we weren't teaching on Wednesday, we helped Ms. Toney visit different schools to get students to sign on to her campaign. The first day of the campaign was very successful and we got some great responses from students. All 4 maps were filled with a variety of issues (we definitely need to make more maps). The nice thing about this campaign is that not only does it help Ms. Toney and the ministry, but it also helps us target the topics we need to focus on in our lessons in order to cater our curriculum more properly. 

Finally, this past weekend we had the opportunity to head up to the Essequibo community with Ms. Toney and visited a few different settlements. But seeing as how this post is already so long, we'll need to do another post on our trip. So keep checking back within the next few days because we will be telling you all about our adventures and experiences in Essequibo.

Until then,

The Georgetown Crew 

Surprise!

Time for some Georgetown updates!

"Mother May I," a game the kids taught us

After our busy day on Friday, we had another busy day with 2 teaching sessions and games afterwards at a couple community centres. In the morning after the lesson, we attempted to play cricket with the kids. Arash hit the ball a few times, and seemed to be the one who got to do the most, while the rest of us stood in the outfield and were still confused about the game. Maybe next time we’ll catch on.

At the community centres, our lessons are more like discussion groups. We usually sit in a circle and talk about issues more than we lecture to students, because there are many ages and abilities in the groups. The students are very engaged, and often even end up teaching eachother – and teaching us! We’ve learned lots of new fruits and vegetables, like cashew fruit, pawpaw (papaya), star apple, mamey, callilou (spinach) and many others.  In the afternoon, the children at the Sophia Youth Friendly Space brought us guinep, a small fruit similar in size and texture to a lychee, but with a meatier fruit and a seed inside. The kids are so amazing, always wanting us to experience Guyana, often through asking us to play cricket and games, but also by giving us delicious food.

Between the first and second teaching sessions, Ms Toney gave us some methai, a sweet, crunchy deep fried breadstick, and “cool downs” (Guyanese freezies). After a break for lunch, Ms Toney drove us out to Sophia outskirts, where we then took our first Guyanese bus the rest of the way to the centre, so that we wouldn’t hurt her car too badly on the washed out roads like we did to the poor man in the cab the day before. Busses here are the size of large minivans with an extra row of seats. The bus was pretty fun, but we were glad to have Ms Toney to show us where to get on and off.

Leslie's 10 steps to condom use

On Sunday we were writing in our journals and making up some activities for the lessons next week when we got a call from the Berbice team saying that Omeshwar, the social worker from the Ministry of Culture Youth and Sport for the region that the Berbice team is in, would be in Georgetown and wanted to meet us. We said we would love to meet him, BUT the sneaky, sneaky Berbice team actually fabricated Omeshwars whereabouts to make sure we would be around on our day off so that THEY could visit us! Next thing we know, Joe, Alyssa and Jamie have surprised us at our door. We had an amazing day with them, exploring Georgetown by going to a new, delicious Brazilian restaurant and then going to the Sea Wall in the evening, a popular Sunday night hangout spot for locals.

         On Monday morning, before the Berbice team left, Jamie showed us a store called Nigel’s that has anything you could want or need. We were so happy to discover it and be able to get some much-needed snacks for our busy days like Fridays and Saturdays. Thanks Jamie!!!

         We taught a couple lessons, and then headed off to Lifeline. After Lifeline, we went to an unreal restaurant, Ali Babba’s, where we had – wait for it – SHAWARMAS! Doesn’t get better than that, folks.

         Tuesday we had some more teaching, and we stocked up at the Guyana Stores on clothing and ribbons to get ready for Guyana Independence Day this Saturday! We all got shirts and belts, and Arash even got a pair of Guyana shorts. Tuesday night is our only evening off, so we went for a long run along the Sea Wall. Our running goal is to get to Suriname (just kidding, it’s 200km away).

         We’re all getting along super well, so lucky to have such an awesome team!

-Beth, Arash, Sydney, and Leslie

All On Our Own

Hi everyone,

Arash here! Today marks the 14th day since our arrival to Georgetown and also the second day we are completely on our own. Kelly left Georgetown for Toronto yesterday morning as her trip was cut short due to the recent flooding in Lethem. So, it is now completely up to us to explore the town, make new contacts, and represent QHO to the best of our abilities. I should mention however that Jamie is still in Berbice and will be coming to visit us here in Georgetown next week before she heads home.

Wednesday was a relatively busy day for the Georgetown PEs. Sydney and Leslie started off the day by teaching a lesson on nutrition, fitness, and disease in the morning, while Sydney and myself taught the same lesson to another class in the afternoon. Then, later that day, we all traveled to East Ruimveldt (one of the low-income communities surrounding Georgetown) to hold a homework help session at the East Ruimveldt Community Centre. We were greeted by Ms. Donna, the social worker in charge of the East Ruimveldt area, and lots of kids who were beyond excited to see us return. We definitely recognized many familiar faces from our session the previous week, which is always a good sign! We helped the kids with anything from math and spelling to social studies and art. During this time, Sydney and I decided to give the older kids who didn't have any homework, an introduction to our upcoming lesson on Sexual Health. This was very welcomed by the students and other community members who joined in to listen, and also solidified the need for our curriculum. Once everyone had finished their homework, we decided to go outside and play, which included giving a lot of piggy-back rides to the kids.

On Thursday, since a lot of our classes were canceled due to the CXC testing (a test which must be completed by students in order to get a job in Guyana) going on in schools, we all headed to a local GRPA (Guyana Responsible Parenthood Association) to get some information on resources we could provide to our students when we teach them about sexual health, contraceptives, and STI’s. Leslie and Beth even put on a brave face and signed up and got tested for HIV so that they could get a sense of how HIV testing works in Guyana and to be able to provide the students with the details. Overall, visiting the GRPA was very successful and provided us with a lot of insight about the process of getting tested for STI’s and HIV, as well as the stigma associated with it. Later that day, Leslie and I taught our regular class at community college, after which we all went out for dinner with Kelly on her last night in Guyana.

Friday brought about a relatively hectic day for us in Georgetown. We started the day by teaching at a new school Ms. Toney had arranged for us, the Sophia Primary School. Getting to this new school however was a mission and a half! The Sophia Primary School is located in the Sophia community, which is around 20 minutes outside of Georgetown. However, due to the heavy rain we had experienced the past two days, many of the roads were washed away and were left with huge ditches and potholes. Against all odds, we made it to the school and taught our lesson. After, we met up with Ms. Toney so that she could provide us with the times and locations of some new schools that we will be teaching at. The addition of these new schools to our schedule has made us quite busy, but we are excited and very eager to reach out to as many people as possible during our stay in Guyana. After our meeting with Ms. Toney, we made our way to the Royal Academy school, taught our students there, then headed to the Ruimveldt Children’s Home. The Ruimveldt Children’s Home is a place where children can hang out after school, get help with their homework, and eat some food. There we met Ms. December who was in charge of the kids for the day and was beyond happy to have us. During our hour stay, we hung out with the kids, I re-tried to learn “how to dougie” (watch the video), and helped Ms. December and the staff with serving the kids' food, and the clean up that followed. We all loved our experience at the Ruimveldt Children’s Home and will be going back every Thursday and Friday. 

Until next time, 

The Georgetown Crew! 

Georgetown - Can't believe it's already been 10 days...

Hey everyone,

Beth and Arash checking in! We can't believe that this is only the second week of our stay here in Georgetown, Guyana, as we feel like we have already done so much and experienced a lot of the culture that Guyana has to offer. But most importantly, we have all become accustomed to the ways of the city and feel very much at home.

For our first week in Guyana, we mostly taught as a group of 4 in order to become familiarized with the school system here, and to be able to get Kelly's feedback on our lessons and our teaching. However, for this week and for the rest of our stay here, we have split up the schedule so that we only teach in groups of two and that we get to work with each other.

We started off the week with a lesson that Beth and Sydney taught, and lets just say that we thought we were doing the teaching, but the students definitely taught us a lesson in classroom management. We quickly realized that the overwhelming number of teenage boys would rather have cracked jokes than listen to our lesson on communication. However, when we read over the question box questions we were surprised to see that the students were definitely paying attention because we got lots of relevant, insightful questions. Arash and Leslie taught at the same time, teaching a great lesson to a smaller group on physical health. The poster they made resembling a giant nutrition label was a huge hit, and really helped a lot of the students grasp the concepts of healthy eating, and the importance of essential nutrients. As more time goes by, we're realizing that an advantage of being here for 8 weeks is that we can get to know the classroom dynamic and tailor each lesson to best suit the students' needs.

That afternoon we all went to Lifeline for our first time to tutor students. There was a mix of ages between 5-12 years, but since there were 5 of us (Kelly was there too) we got the job done.

Early Tuesday morning, Kelly left Georgetown to join up with the Berbice team. This was a very last minute decision, as she and Jamie were supposed to travel to Lethem (past project location) to drop off teaching manuals for the community so that our curriculum can still be taught thus maintaining sustainability. However, the extreme flooding of the region rendered it unsafe for PDs to travel there as they could have become stranded. After much deliberation, Kelly and Jamie decided that it was in everyone's best interest to call their contacts in Lethem and mail them the QHO resources instead.

For the PEs, Tuesday brought a very productive day (likely due to the coffee we enjoyed at breakfast!). Leslie and Beth taught a lesson on physical health to an extremely attentive class. While Leslie and Beth were teaching, Sydney and Arash went above and beyond by exploring the town (and the internet) for local resources that correspond to the material in our curriculum. They visited a local health institute, where they were given up to date resources that we can now provide to students. They even figured out where we can get HIV/AIDS testing, so that we are able to answer our students' questions about the testing process!

After a long day of teaching and walking all over town, we practiced what we preached by going for a long run! We found an awesome route by the sea wall; the breeze by the sea makes the running in the heat and humidity much more bearable.

We're about to snuggle up and watch a movie (but not actually snuggle because it's too hot) then have an early night before our morning classes tomorrow.

Until next time!

The Georgetown Team

Georgetown Update

Hi Everyone!

Leslie here. We are early risers in Georgetown as the sun rises around 5:30am! It is awesome because we get all of our lessons prepared early in the morning, and collect all of our teaching supplies so we're ready to go.

We have lots to update you on, as we were super busy this weekend. Friday we all taught at Royal Academy. Myself and Arash taught the From 1 and 2's and Beth and Sydney taught the Form 3 and 4's. Arash and I had a great time teaching the communication lesson, and we were soon promised a cricket lesson in return. Arash also learnt a popular Guyanese dance move; dougie-ing. Its fun that we can teach them valuable information, and they can teach us things about their culture that we would otherwise never be exposed to. Beth and Sydney really enjoyed their class, they also taught a communication lesson and their students were very much engaged and excited to participate. Upon leaving the school, we were all given fresh cool refreshments from the students and set off on our walk home.

On the way home, we stopped at a local fruit market. We picked up selected fruits to munch on as snacks and easy breakfasts before classes. The bananas here are about half the size in Canada, and are very sweet - almost tasting like a pineapple. We also bought a lot of grapes and apples. Fruit here is delicious and very easy to come by.

Saturday was probably one of the most exciting days we've had here yet. In the morning we travelled to one of the low income communities where we were greeted by a bunch of children from the East Ruimveldt community. The social worker that works at the Community Centre, Ms. Donna, was beyond enthused that we were there and the kids were super happy to be spending their Saturday mornings with us. Ms. Donna reiterated the importance of our presence in the community and assured us our work would be cherished and remembered. After our lesson, we took the children outside where we learnt a variety of Guyanese games. The first, a variety of Duck Duck Goose, involved running at top speeds around a circle before the other got back to their spot. There is a unique song that is sung along to it, and after a few rounds of practice, we all got the hang of it. Another game "Fish, Fish in a Dish", got all the children excited and they were happy to teach us their favourite pastimes. The kids were sad to see us go, but happy to know that we would return on Wednesday afternoons for Homework Help and then every Saturday as well for a Health lesson.

Playing a Communication Activity in the East Ruimveldt Community Centre. 

Saturday afternoon, our social worker Ms. Toney took us to the Sophia Youth Friendly Space. Sophia is another low income area of Georgetown. All the kids were happy to see Ms. Toney arrive and quickly showed up on bikes and with their siblings. Beth and I did a session with the younger kids (aged 3-7years) and Arash and Sydney taught a lesson to the older children (8-14years). After the lessons were done, we played a lot of hide and go seek, another Guyanese game called "Blind Eye" and lastly we watched a traditional dance that the girls do in May around a May-Pole in celebration of Independence Day (on May 26th). We were exhausted after our 6 day teaching week and we all went to sleep and rested up on Sunday.

Sydney & Arash's Lesson at the Sophia Youth Friendly Space

We are looking forward to visiting all of our classes again this week and seeing the children again! Now, we get to start our lessons on Physical Health: Hygiene, Nutrition, Fitness and Disease.

Cheers for now,

Leslie, Sydney, Beth and Arash.

Georgetown - Project Director update

Hey everyone! Kelly here.

I have now been back in Guyana for 10 days! It has been such an incredible experience to return to Guyana this year as one of the Project Directors. Having spent 8 weeks teaching here last year, it's been so great to reunite with old friends, recognize former students (oh, how I've missed being called "Miss Kelly"!), eat at my favourite restaurants, and be able to confidently navigate the streets of Georgetown right from the start (I'm not as directionally-challenged as many have accused me of being). It's also been a lot of fun passing along all of my knowledge to this year's Peer Educators!

Walking to Chase Academy!

This morning we were all woken up by a torrential downpour outside, and we scrambled to close the heavy windows in our rooms so that our belongings wouldn't get soaked. Fortunately, the rain ended quickly, and we were able to put our umbrellas away during our walk to Chase Academy, where the 4 Georgetown PEs taught a lesson about hygiene, nutrition, and disease to a Form 4 (Grade 10) class. I have been observing the PEs in all of their teaching sessions this week, and it has been amazing to see the vast improvement in their teaching even between their first lesson on Monday and now. They're still getting used to understanding their students' accents, but I've assured them that in a few weeks they'll be pros at it.

For lunch, I let the PEs lead the way to Shanta's, a little restaurant close to home that serves awesome pumpkin curry and roti. The PEs were at first confused as to which direction to turn at which streets, but with my help they mastered the path from Rima Guest House to Shanta's, which I'm sure they will visit often during their time here.

Last night I created a simple map of Georgetown, with restaurants, schools, hospitals, and other important locations highlighted, which will be helpful for the PEs as they slowly familiarize themselves with the city. There's lots of empty space on it, which they can fill in as they discover new places that I never explored last year!

A map of Georgetown that I drew for the Gtown PEs, with important buildings and locations.

In the afternoon, the PEs split up to teach at different schools. Beth and Sydney taught at Chase, while Arash and Leslie taught at Community College. This marks the first time that they taught in pairs instead of a group of 4 since they've been in Guyana. They all did an awesome job, and were super excited to read through the comments and questions written by their students at the end of class.

I have thoroughly enjoyed all of my Project Director duties this week, including introducing the PEs to Ms. Toney (our main contact at the Ministry of Culture, Youth, and Sport), setting up a meeting at Lifeline, observing the PEs as they teach in various schools, giving advice on lesson plans, and showing them everything Georgetown has to offer. Yesterday I got to witness the PEs buy their very first bags of juice at Juice Power!

Georgetown PEs holding bags of juice from Juice Power, after a day full of teaching sessions and meetings!

Being back in Guyana brings back so many memories from last year. I can't even express how special my experience as a PE last year was, and I'm so happy that I get to guide this year's PEs and help make the project even better than before. I have full confidence that the PEs will do an amazing job this year. I have watched them improve as teachers over the past 7 months, from their very first time teaching during their interviews last October to handling rowdy students in their teaching session this afternoon. Sometimes I wish that I could be a PE again this year and join them!

- Kelly

Georgetown - First teaching day!

Our new friend who told us to bring back his
picture to Canada to show our friends! 

Hey everyone, 

This is the Georgetown team! It's the second day and we already feel like we have done tons. We started off today by walking around town and visiting a few marketplaces. It would be an understatement if I said that we were not overwhelmed by the large number of people and vendors that were crowding the streets. 

Although our pre-departure training warned us of looking both ways before crossing the street since in Guyana cars drive on the opposite side of the road, we were surprised to see how important that rule really is! The first place we visited today were the Guyana stores, which in some ways is equivalent to the Walmart of North America. We then made our way to Starbroek Marketplace, which was in a beautiful building with any kind of merchandise you could possibly think of. The Georgetown team then had to split up from Jamie, Joe, and Alyssa as we had to head back home to prepare for our first teaching session. On the way, we visited the City Mall which houses the only escalator in Guyana. We also got some traditional food on the way, consisting of Roti, pumpkin, chicken, and potato curry, and Dahl. I should say that the food here is truly delicious and we cannot get enough of it. Beth's favourite food was the pumpkin curry with Roti and she says that she will eat it everyday! We will see by the end of eight weeks...

Us on the only escalator in Guyana (more exciting than you would think) 

The Georgetown family outside Rima right before our first
lesson. 

After lunch, we met up with Ms. Toney at the Ministry of Culture, Youth, and Sport. Ms. Toney is a social worker and the acting director of the Ministry. She is in charge of all the youth in Guyana. She has been working hard to create a teaching schedule for us which she will drop off tonight! After having a meeting with her, we were off to our first teaching session at Community College where we taught a lesson on goal setting and leadership to a class of students ranging from age 12 to 14. Community college was a one room school house which was divided into 4 classrooms by chalkboards. This was a challenge seeing as  it was hard to block out the noises from the other kids...not the perfect teaching situation for our first lesson. Also, since this was our first lesson, we were super nervous. However, once we stepped into the room and started teaching, all of our anxiety went away and teaching became a natural thing as we had been preparing and practicing for so many months. It was also interesting to see how teaching styles differ in Guyana from that in Canada. For example, as we entered the class, all the students stood up to greet us and wouldn't sit back down until we told them to. As well, they would stand up every time they responded to our questions. However, these students were highly disciplined, polite, and respectful, which is something we could definitely use more of back home at Queen's. 

The ride to Community College...EXCITED!

After we finished teaching, we made our way back to the Rima Guesthouse and started to reflect on our experiences in Guyana thus far. We have thoroughly enjoyed the traditional foods that are offered here in Guyana and have started to get used to the intense heat and humidity which makes things extra sticky! Leslie and Sydney learned an important lesson last night about the rain in Guyana: move all important items away from the windows when it's raining and the window is wide open! When the rain comes on it is sudden and very heavy, but it is so welcomed because it really cools everything down.

All in all, we still cannot believe that after 8 months of preparations we are finally here in Guyana and cannot wait to share more experiences with each other and with you!

We be limin' til next time!

Arash, Beth, Sydney and Leslie