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on Kate in Guyana (Guyana), 07/Dec/2009 14:45, 34 days ago
I have a busy week ahead. Today we are doing the first training session at one of the seven special schools in Guyana, hopefully this will give me a start in working with those teachers in sharing good practice, or perhaps developing good practice. I would like to set up a way for ideas to be shared with teachers in other special schools, hopefully tobuild the confidence and motivation of teachers. I will need to follow VSO's advice to have big ears and a small mouth, so that I listen to what is needed and not impose my own clever scheme which may not work with the local culture.Then Tuesday and Wednesday I am off to the other unit for the blind which is up country. It takes about an hour and a half by minibus. I will stay over on Tuesday night at a guest house there. Again I need to listen to their needs and find ways that I can share skills with them.Over the weekend I had a first game of bridge - the new VSO wanted to learn. I think that will be a good little group as we are none of us inclined to be too serious, there is plenty of time to chat.I saw the person from the Rotary Club on last week, so hopefully that will push forward my appeal to them for funding for a Braille embosser. She invited a couple of us to their Christmas concert which we went to last night. It was a bit of an elegant event, with jazz and blues backing group and a succession of lady singers - it seems funny to have songs about mistletoe and snow flakes when it is still 30 degrees and so humid!This week is a big choir event supporting the cathedral choir for the enthronement of the new Anglican Bishop of Guyana. We are singing at the big service on Sunday. I've really enjoyed the experience of going to the practices every Saturday over the last few weeks. There are people from the five anglican churches in Georgetown all joining in - a choir of fifty ish.