Peer Educators Arrive Tomorrow!

New Youth Friendly Space in New Amsterdam

So the last few days have been extremely eventful and full of running around from one appointment to the next, as well as exploring around the city to reacquaint ourselves with our surroundings. As we had more or less anticipated, things sometimes take a little longer to get moving than we had hoped but we got our phones all activated and met with our wonderful contact from the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport, Ms. Glenna Toney. It was so nice to see such a familiar face and she has already begun to prepare a busy teaching schedule for our peer educators to begin next week. We have spent a great deal of time exploring around Georgetown as well when we are not meeting with our partners, looking for new restaurants, grocery stores, markets, etc. as well as regaining our bearings around the city. Rima Guesthouse where the four Georgetown peer educators lived last year and the year before, has been extremely accommodating and we have finalized all of the dates for when everyone will be staying here.

View from the veranda in Letter Kenny

Yesterday, we took a car in the afternoon to Berbice in Region 6, which is the site of our second location on the Guyana project. We met with our partner in Region 6, Omeshwar Sirikishun, and spent the night in the house that we rented last year for two months in the village of Letter Kenny. We had a very productive day with him and made great progress with plans for our second year in Berbice. We have lined up a whole bunch of teaching opportunities and met with a few of the directors of the centers to discuss plans for project. It was very promising and I'm excited to see the Berbice project continue to grow this year. There have also been some improvements to the house and a lot has changed in the community so it was really amazing to be there again.

We are now back in Georgetown and eagerly awaiting the arrival of our peer educators in the morning! We're just putting the finishing touches on all of our preparations for the PEs' arrival tomorrow but are gonna head to bed soon because we're too excited to function right now. Next time you hear from us, the PEs will be in their new home for the next two months!

Cheers,

Beth and Joe