We are happy to say that we finally got to an intenet cafe here in Berbice so that we can keep you posted on what we are up to. After a final lunch all together on Sunday back in Gerogetown, we were sad to be leaving but were excited for what awaited us in Berbice! The three of us (Kevin, Kate, Joe) arrived in Berbice early Sunday evening after a beautiful and scenic two hour drive. We are staying in a great house in Letter Kenny, one of the many towns in Berbice. After dropping our things off there, Joe showed us around the area for a bit. We were immediatley amazed by the beautiful scenery all around us. We walked by the Letter Kenny Youth Friendly Space, which is a close two minutes from our house. The kids were all very excited to see Joe and remembered him fondly from last year. The kids warmed us to us quickly and we spent a few hours there playing cricket with them. It was our first time playing cricket so we were lucky that the kids took it easy on us! After cricket we headed back to the house where Joe cooked up a delicious pasta dinner.
Over the next few days we continued to explore around the area and meet with our partner organization to discuss our teaching schedules. On Tuesday we drove to New Amserdam and met with a few schools and youth friendly spaces there as well. Wednesday morning we had the opportunity to attend a graduation for an information technology program and heard many interesting speaches from the representatives of the Ministry of Finance and Regional Officer of Region 6 (the Berbice region). In the afternoon we said our farewells to Joe who left to go back to Canada with Beth. We were sad to see him go but we are confident that he has prepared us enough so we can continue to develop this new project over the next 2 months and continue to expand our teaching opportuntiies in the region.
Thursday morning we taught our first two lessons at the Vrymen's Erven Training Centre in New Amsterdam. We taught lessons on values and substance abuse to a very attententive and enthusiastic class of young adults. We are excited to continue teaching there each week! In the afternoon we went to the Smythfield Youth Drop-in Centre where we discussed relevent health issues with the kids there and then after played some cricket and basketball.
This morning we explored schools in the #59 village where we built new relaitonships with two primary schools there. The schools were really receptive to our curriculum and welcomed us to come back each Monday to teach in classrooms there. The teacher's were extremely enthusiastic and even asked us to teach a Grade 6 class in the afternoon, which we were excited to do! The class was really great and responded well to our lesson on values. We are excited to go back there every Monday!
We are really happy with all these new developments with the Berbice project and are excited to continue building new partnerships as the weeks go on.
We hope to be able to post some pictures soon (due to limited access to the internet we have had some troubles!)
Until next time!
Kate and Kevin :)
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