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