Amerindian village
on Kate in Guyana (Guyana), 12/Mar/2010 14:38, 34 days ago
Amerindian Village - a picture from the trip a couple of weeks ago, showing an Amerindian guide explaining about how they use fruits from this tree. This was at an Amerindian village called Santa Mission.Things are going fine. Today we have a meeting this afternoon of the head teachers of special schools, to look at the issues involved at managing schools. There is another VSO who is an education management specialist, so she is leading this. I'm just supporting, and arranging the snacks. Every meeting or training has to have snacks. I think this is a remnant of the days when people really were short of food here, or possibly it is because the food people eat is generally cooked food rather than sandwiches. People eat rice and beans, or roti (flat bread) and curry for lunch. You go to the canteen for a snack and the cheapest is channa (chick pea gloop).My course is all going ahead swimmingly, yesterday I got the distance learning version from my VSO colleague, which makes it all look very professional. I was really pleased with it. So just need to get some more bits sorted, then it can go for printing. Endless permission letters, application forms and notifications sent out this week - I think bureaucracy was invented here. This is because they do not seem to have a system for approval going through meetings. You might expect my boss to take it up to the next levels and get it approved, but that does not happen. You have to go and find the higher managers in person and get them to sign it. They do not have an email system here, and not even pigeon holes, so it is all about walking around. I suppose it is part of the oral culture.Bridge game this evening with my friend from the American Embassy - last time we had cheesecake! Film tomorrow at the Indian Cultural Centre to mark International Women's Day, and a VSO potluck supper for meeting the new vols on Sunday. The position of women here is fairly dire, think 1950s in the UK. Women are expected to be in the home, or perhaps teacher nurse, office or shop. Many women run market stalls selling produce. But there are people fighting that battle, I know some at choir. They are much older women who were well educated, the younger educated people usually migrate overseas. Over half of Guyanese are overseas, many in Canada.