'Red Earth' town and the start of work
on Derek and Trudy (Guyana), 03/Mar/2008 18:22, 34 days ago
We have now been in Bartica since Wednesday 27th February and today we started work fully by visiting the largest primary school - St John The Baptist - in the town and by planning the visits to other schools in the area , including ones up the Mazaruni and the Cuyuni rivers. Ian is introducing us and he has been ( with Tess the other VSO volunteer in the town) a huge help and support throughout the first few days . The accommodation is in the teacher's block inside the secondary school site and it is not good. We are seeking an upgrade - the present house is too small for our work needs e.g. in the jobs we have taken on we need to be able to entertain work colleagues. Nevertheless Ian, tess and local people have made us feel very welcome and our very active social life to date has kept our spirits up!Getting here by boat up the Essesquibo was exhilarating and the first walk into the rain forest on staurday ( with a swim in the Mazaruni thrown in) was the first of I hope many future excursions in to the 'bush-...this is some place for wildlife - and for cows, donkeys, goats, dogs and cats wandering about.The community is gradually re-establishing its self confidence again after the shocking out of the blue incident of 17th February. This is a town that services the many small scale diamond and gold mining operations in the bush and therefore has many bars and clubs. They have been far from full lately but nevertheless we have met some interesting people - Malcom the pork knocker ( a term for a person who mines in the bush ), Dr. George the Cuban doctor, Assim the extrovert, ebullient, charming Bartican whose family has several retail outlets) We have also been in a meeting with the Minister of Education discussing the effects of the 17th february on the children, so life is far from dull. We have a lot of work ahead of us...standards of literacy are not good and headteachers and teachers need lots of support and encouragement if they are going to be more effective in the classroom.