New York Yankees and Sunburn

Hello All!!

I can't believe I've already been here a month!! On September 1st it was officially one month in Guyana. This means that we have exactly 22 months to go. Our commitment is 24 months but we already completed a month of training in the states before we left - therefore we are technically in Guyana exactly 23 months. (coming back July 2012) Anyway. This week has been crazy but good.

I may have mentioned here already that people here always were sports gear from the States. I never go anywhere without seeing someone wearing a NYY hat. I have made an outlandish claim that the Yankee's probably make all of their money by exploiting developing nations by selling their gear to them. The thing is everyone here really loves cricket - but I never see any sort of cricket team gear. Oh well. Anyway.

This week work went well. On tuesday at the hospital I had to give out surveys to all of the individuals who would come in for a variety of reasons to our program. This was good and made the day go by fast. The survey was put together by the government and all programs have to have all of their patients fill it out. I got to talk one on one with a lot of people after as they were waiting for their appointment and I really enjoyed hearing peoples stories.

At mercy wings things are still going well - but I also do feel some stress. I feel as if part of that is because of me still having a hard time with understanding everything everyone says. I have a very type A personality so I like things to be organized but I need to learn to relax and realize that everything will get done as it needs to get done. Not everyone needs to do everything in advance :)
I guess all three of us are starting to encounter our different crosses. We've had some really interesting talks about things that have gone on and at least we have each other to process things with.
I've also noticed that all of my girls always have headaches and feel sick. At least one of them comes to school with a fever almost every day and they never seem well. Even my girls who wouldn't try and pull something over me have gotten sick at least once. I guess that is really frustrating for a number of reasons - one because they only eat high sugar foods. Now this is no different than the students in America! Very few of them eat breakfast - and then instead of eating breakfast they drink pop and eat pastries at "snack" time. Then at lunch time they drink another pop. I think this is a problem all over the world and wish that there was an increase in desire for proper nutrition. At first its easy to judge and wonder why they don't eat healthier - but at the same time... its everywhere! I asked all of the students at sports what they had ate for breakfast that morning and only one of them said oatmeal. All of the other foods were either - a glucose packet - nothing - or the one random kid who told me he had a pop and a hot dog - (For those of you who know me - I think hot dogs are the grossest thing ever - personal preferance)!!! So once someone figures out how to get American students to eat a proper breakfast let me know so I can get everyone here to do it as well!! :)
Anyway. On Thursday we went to the Guyanese education fair. That was good - one of my girls has a 6 month old so I held the baby for her while she was walking around and it fell asleep. It was super cute. All of my students were amazing that when the music started to play I knew all of the words to songs like - "Airplane" and "You belong with me" by taylor swift. I think I showed a little bit of how young I am to them. But oh well :) After the fair one of my students lives near where I did so I asked if I could walk with him to the bus park to catch a 40. One of the other teachers was with us and she suggested we walk the long way so that I could see a particular street. Eventually we split off as the teacher had to go a different way and I was walking with two of my boys and it was kind of funny because they started to say "Miss - are you afraid"? "you don't need to be afraid because you're with us - and well I know people". I laughed I wasn't actually afraid I guess I just really don't like walking in a crowd of people. When we were walking we were talking and one boy goes to me "Miss - You're guyanese now - because God made us all and you are now in Guyana so that means you are one of us". He is very sweet and it made me laugh a little bit. I would say that if you came to a day of school you would think the students are "brown nosers" but I've really learned that they are always like that with teachers and hold a lot of respect for the teachers even when they misbehave. This was interesting because it really showed me that the culture is a lot about respecting others.
Anyway. On thursday night some of the boys from the boys home (those who have left the orphanage and are between 16-26ish) came and took us to Guy-expo which was like the equivalent to a carnival with craft booths and food. We ate dinner with them and it was kind of like having three brothers. They are all very sweet and nice. I would say that they are actually also very aware of our needs. And very over-protective. One guy came up and was standing next to me and one of the boys goes "did he talk to you? Did he touch you? Are you okay?" I had to laugh because he was just standing next to me. But at least they were over protective. It was good to go out and do something. They also speak with us in more "American" English - and then will throw in guyanese words and explain it to us. I think they know more what we understand and what we don't because many of them hung out with the past volunteer Katie and know some of the even more previous volunteers. We also tried a little bit of the rum because they had huge rums booths. Everyone knows how I hate the taste of hard alcohol but from the small taste it kind of tasted like candy. I feel like if I drank more I would enjoy drinking this type of rum. It is made right here in Guyana and is "the best rum in the world" or at least that is what they claim. I would have to argue for someone who doesn't normally drink much the small taste was slightly convincing.
Anyway Saturday night we went to a fundraiser for the hospital which was fun. I sat at Sister Katherine's table which the Bishop was also sitting at. It was interesting to have a conversation with him and he explained to us a little bit more of the Catholic Situation in Guyana. He was a very gentle and humble man and I look forward to being able to see him again. I also found out that there is only one place in the country where they have adoration once a month for a few hours and also there is no where that has a set confession time in the whole country. That was kind of crazy to think about. Sometimes at the Cathedral before sunday night Mass the old Bishop will hear confessions if his health is good. But anyway. It was a good fundraiser with good food and dancing. So at least that was fun.
Well I should get going - as always there is so much more to tell but never enough time. Oh ya - I got my very first sunburn this week! Not bad one month and one sunburn!! :)

Wishing everyone the best,

Ashley