Playing ' Ninja' at the Letter Kenny Youth Friendly Space

Hello again everyone!

We've had a busy past couple of days here in Berbice! Wednesday morning was our first time teaching at the Guyana Business College and we taught a lesson on Values and Goal Setting to a class of 14-16 year olds. The lesson went really well and based on their great feedback and questions we taught another lesson there the following day on Healthy Relationships and Abuse. Although the topic was tough the students were really receptive and participated a lot.  Later on Thursday we went to Massiah Primary School where we were invited to speak at their parent teacher meeting. It was a great opportunity to share with the parents our curriculum and what we do. After the meeting they invited us to come back each Monday morning to teach their grade 6 class. Thursday afternoon we went to the Letter Kenny Youth Friendly Space to play some games with the kids there which was a blast as always.

A student at Vrymen's Erven participating in the 'Abuse Tree' activity

On Friday we headed out to New Amsterdam to teach at the Vrymen's Erven Training Centre (where we taught our first lesson last week). We taught a lesson on Healthy Relationships and Abuse. The students responded particularly well to our 'Abuse Tree' activity which helps to illustrate the roots and cycle of abuse. The class was great and participated a lot asking many thoughtful questions throughout the lesson. Then we headed to our new favourite restaurant, 

Churchview, for some delicious   homemade roti and pumpkin curry. 

Pumpkin Curry and Roti, yum!

After lunch we went to the Smythfield drop-in centre and ran a session on Nutrition with a great group of kids of all ages. The kids had a lot of fun drawing their favourite foods from all of the food groups on their paper plates.

Some of the kids at the Smythfield Drop-In Centre with their plates

Since its one of the rainy seasons here in Guyana we've been getting frequent downpours of rain. This morning however was beautiful and sunny so we went out for a run. After breakfast we came here to the internet cafe to catch up with you guys and now we're off to the Port Mourant market!

A beautiful sunset on our way home from New Amsterdam

Lots of love,
Kate & Kevin :)

Update and Long Awaited Pictures from Berbice!

Hello again everyone!
We've finally figured out how to upload pictures from the compters at the internet cafe so you can look forward to seeing what we're up to!


Us after our first lesson at the Vrymen's Erven Training Centre

Saturday morning we went and explored the market in Port Mourant. There were lots of vendors selling everything from fresh fruit and veggies to household cleaning products. The variety was spectacular and we had a great  time trying out some delicious new fruits and veggies.




Our lesson on Values at No.59 Primary School

Saturday afternoon we went to the Camal Shelter which is a shelter for homeless youth and battered women. There were about 30 people there ranging from age 6 to age 23. We split the group into two smaller groups depending on their age. Kevin learned some fun new games from the younger group and had a discussion with them about the importance of nutrition. Kate led a discussion on values with the older group and then did a lesson on goal setting. Everyone got to come up with and illustrate their own goal on a piece of paper. The whole group got really into this activity and came up with some great goals including career aspirations such as chef, banker and police officer, reading more books, and becoming better at cricket. This was such an amazing group to work with and we couldn't be more excited to be going back there twice a week for the rest of our time here!


Kevin and some of the younger kids at the Camal Shelter

Yesterday we headed back to #59 Village to teach at Newmarket Primary School and No. 59 Primary School. We had a great time teaching a lesson on nutrition to an eager Grade 6 class in the morning and a lesson on peer pressure to another great Grade 6 class in the afternoon! After reading through the annoymous comment cards that we have each class write at the end of each lesson, we were so pleased with positive feedback from the students on our lessons.



Kate with the older group and their goals

Today, we met with Omeshwar, our contact at the Ministry of Culture Youth and Sport to finalize this week's teaching schedule and discuss further teaching opportunities at primary and secondary schools closer to where we are living. This afternoon we will be spending some time at the local youth friendly space in Letter Kenny.



Stay tuned for updates on our lessons at the Guyna Business College, Guysuco Training Centre, and our question answer session at a PTA meeting that we were asked to speak at this coming Thursday!
...we hope you enjoy our pictures!!

Lots of Love from Berbice,
Kate & Kevin :)



Week 1 Complete: Incredible People, Successful Lessons, & Fun Games!

Hi again! Georgetown team here!

Beth, Allie & Janet outside of Sophia Secondary School.

We’ve just finished our first full week of teaching and we cannot believe how smoothly it’s gone! Throughout this week, we’ve met some very inspiring people; the women who run the youth spaces, spending all day selflessly providing a safe place for children; the youth volunteers who act as role models, giving up their free time to lead within the community; and finally the teachers who have so much passion for their students and make many personal sacrifices to contribute to the schools. One of the teachers established a school and continues to fund it with personal money from a side business. Other teachers go beyond teaching in their regular classrooms, volunteering to teach students who cannot afford to go to school. We feel so inspired by these amazing people and are so honoured to be able to work with them.

In the time leading up to our arrival in Guyana, we’ve stressed about our ability to be effective peer educators. So far, our doubts have been put at ease when reading the anonymous question box (slips of paper students fill out at the end of class to give feedback on the lesson; what they’ve learned and any questions they may have). We eagerly read these slips of paper on the cab rides back to Rima’s Guesthouse, and continue to feel fulfilled with the amount of information the students have retained and their motivation to learn more. 

The Ruimveldt Children's Aid Centre where we volunteer after teaching.

On top of teaching structured lessons in schools, we’ve spent much time in youth spaces after school hours. Following a busy week of teaching, we unwound with the children at Ruimveldt Children’s Aid Centre by joining their games day on Friday afternoon. Having met the children on Wednesday, they greeted us upon arrival with many “Good afternoon Miss/Sir’s” (...and a couple of excited “AHHHHS!!”). We were really eager to learn some of their favourite games, and in return Haily taught them her favourite camp game, Huckle Buckle, which the children loved! Although, it did take some time to break into partners (“No, I want to be partners with the Miss!” and “No, let me be partners with the Sir!”). Janet surprised the boys with her basketball skills and gave some pointers on how to do lay-ups. Allie showed off her mosquito bites (“Miss, what’s on your elbow? Miss, what’s on your feet?”) and played on the swings and seesaw with the girls. Adam bonded with the older boys and also took some unreal photos (see below)!

We’ve had a great week and have already started preparations for our lessons and activities next week. We cannot wait to spend more time with all the incredible people and friendly children that we’ve met!

Sending love from Georgetown,

Allie, Adam, Haily & Janet

Hello from Berbice!

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 :)

First Days of Teaching!

Hey again! 

Georgetown team here! 

Before our first class!

We’re all settled in nicely at Rima’s Guesthouse and are beginning to be able to navigate ourselves around Georgetown. Tuesday was our first day of teaching since arriving, and the 4 of us (Allie, Adam, Janet, Haily), all taught together. Our first lesson was at David Rose Secondary School in West Ruimveldt and we could not have asked for a better first class! The students were extremely polite and participated actively in our lesson on values, goal setting and physical activity. It was so awesome to see how excited the kids were to have us there. They also gave us some feedback on what they wanted to learn in future classes.

Chatting with some of the girls at the David Rose after school program.

After class, we moved next door to the David Rose Health Centre, where we worked and played with the children in the after-school program. Janet and Haily led the girls (ages 6-15) in an informal version of the previously taught lesson. In return, the girls helped Janet reach her own goal of becoming a better Guyanese-style dancer by giving her some pointers, which evidently ended up with everyone on the floor laughing. The boys covered similar materials, but largely focused on physical fitness by playing some sports with Adam, while Allie occupied the ones who were too young for the lessons and games. Working at this Youth Space was a great opportunity to informally teach the children, but also relate to them on a more personal level.

Today, Wednesday, we taught in pairs at Sophia Primary School in two grade 6 classes, with about 40 students in each class. Allie and Adam’s class was very enthusiastic and each student created excellent “SMART” goals for themselves. Haily and Janet’s class was excited to create both short-term and long-term goals. Both lessons were very successful and we are looking forward to returning to the school next week to continue our first unit on physical health.

Chompin' on some sugar cane! Yummm

After a brief tour of the exciting Starbrooke market, we travelled to the Ruimveldt Children’s Aid Centre. We ran activities and discussions with kids aged from 4 to 17, and also got to help in preparing dinner. Allie and Haily bonded with the older girls, talking about similarities and differences between Canada and Guyana. The girls also gave us some super helpful insight on the prevalent health issues with youth in their area, that we can integrate into our lesson plans. Adam bonded with the older boys, discussing issues such as violence amongst youth. Janet was busy being trampled by tiny children. They were an amazing group of kids and we can’t wait to go back!

Classic Adam doing lunges (Ruimveldt Children's Aid Centre) 

After a busy day, we returned back home to Rima’s Guesthouse where Joe was waiting for us, having returned from Berbice today. Sadly, we will be saying goodbye to our amazing project directors, Beth and Joe, as they fly out of Georgetown early tomorrow morning. We enjoyed one last dinner out together, complimented with some Karaoke. We are going to miss their guidance, friendly faces and wonderful company, but the torch has been passed and it’s time for us to make this project our own.

It has been great going into the schools and getting to know the kids, and we cannot wait for the lessons to come! Our project directors have prepared us well, and now its up to us to follow through on what we have been preparing for all year!

Lots of Love, 

Allie, Janet, Haily and Adam!

WE'RE HERE!!

Hello everyone!

Can't believe we're here!

We're here! We finally made it to Guyana early on Friday morning after 8 hours of traveling and 7 months of preparation. Although it was raining when we arrived, we instantly noticed the heat and humidity. We were so happy to see the familiar faces of Beth and Joe waiting for our arrival. After the reunion, we piled into a cab and were instantly awakened by the local style of driving. When reached Georgetown, we were warmly welcomed by the wonderful hosts at Rima's Guesthouse.

Once settled in, the Georgetown team got straight to work. We met with Ms Fraser from the Red Cross and discussed how QHO could help contribute to the goals of the organization. We also discussed prevalent health issues amongst Guyanese youth, such as the extensive use of energy drinks, which will be useful for us when we create lesson plans. There appeared to be a lot of opportunity for QHO within the Red Cross, and we hope to partake in some new initiatives with this like-minded organization. After that, we met with Ms. Toney, our contact from the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport. Her enthusiasm was contagious, as she expressed gratitude towards our arrival and the importance of the work that we do. She's been working incredibly hard, creating teaching schedules for us at 8 local schools and a few Youth Friendly Spaces after school and on weekends. We are excited to continue working with Ms. Toney and cannot wait to meet the students she's arranged for us to be working with.

The Berbice team has lots to look forward to once we head to our location. We were slightly delayed in our departure from Georgetown, as Kevin's luggage (or, "Kelvin's" as it was tagged by the airport) was lost on the flight. Luckily, the luggage was found and retrieved just this morning! We were really lucky. But sadly, goodbyes are soon to be said; Kate, Kevin and Joe are heading to Berbice for the remainder of the 8 weeks and are excited to get acquainted with the communities they'll be working with.

Kate, Haily, Allie and Janet enjoying some coconuts at the Bourda market

Since the Guyanese holiday, Arrival Day, falls on Monday, our first teaching day will be Tuesday. We've taken advantage of the downtime to familiarize ourselves with the city. Beth and Joe have introduced us to a number of exciting markets and delicious (and vegetarian!) restaurants. Aside from eating delicious and authentic Guyanese food, we've been very busy exploring the streets of Georgetown, going for morning runs along the sea wall, visiting the zoo, petting manatees at a local park and playing soccer. Each day we are amazed by the friendliness of Guyanese people and their interest in where we come from and what we are doing.

A friendly soccer match at an exercise park

Though we are getting used to the city, we are still adapting to the 41 degree heat. We're slowly learning tactics to deal with the heat and humidity, such as putting baby powder in our shoes (which looks and feels like walking on a cloud).

Currently, we are all recovering from our first few busy days and will be busy creating lesson plans for next week. We are all very excited for what is ahead, and will be sure to let you all know what we are up to.

"The last supper" as a group.

Love,

Adam, Allie, Haily, Janet, Kate & Kevin

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

We're back!

Joe and Beth at the Toronto Airport

Time has passed so quickly this year, and somehow we're here already! Joe and I flew into Guyana this morning from Toronto on a redeye flight and got into Georgetown mid-morning. It was straight down to business for us, trying to activate our old phones and get in touch with some of our community partners who are such a vital part of QHO. They are as happy to have us back as we are to be here, and we couldn't be more excited!

We're enjoying the amazing Guyanese food once more. We had boulanger choka for lunch, and it was infinitely better than the stuff we tried to make back in Canada. Seems like we just don't have the special Guyanese touch.

Its almost surreal how much we feel at home in the first few hours of being back. The streets, the fresh food, the warm air, the welcoming Rima Guesthouse... We can't wait to introduce the peer educators to everything and get started in the classroom.

More updates to come,

Beth

Project is just two weeks away!

Hello again everyone,

I can't believe that just a year ago Beth, myself and the other four peer educators were preparing to embark on our project with Queen's Health Outreach to Guyana. After our amazing two months in Georgetown and Berbice, we returned to Canada and started preparing for this year's project. In October, we hired a new group of six wonderful peer educators and set out to prepare for the upcoming year. After seven months of planning and carrying out fundraisers, practice teaching, watching presentations about various topics related to Guyanese culture and spending a whole lot of time getting to know our team, it is finally just a few weeks until we are all in Guyana!

Just like last year, we will be working in two main areas in Guyana this summer. Beth and I (the two project directors) will be accompanying four peer educators (PEs) to Georgetown, (Adam, Haily, Janet and Allie) and two PEs will be returning to the Berbice region where we started a pilot project last year (Kevin and Kate). We will be using this blog throughout the two month period to report on all of the progress in Guyana and keep people up to date on what is happening on project. We are very excited to continue our partnership with the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport as they have been essential in our success over the last couple of years. There are a lot of exciting prospects for this year and we can't wait to hit the ground running with a schedule chalked full of teaching and working with Guyanese youth.

The next couple of weeks will be very busy with finishing up all of our final pre-departure preparations but the next time you hear from us, we will be in Guyana!

QHO Guyana on our annual QHO retreat

Cheers until then,

-Joe

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)