Packing up, Leaving events
on Kate in Guyana (Guyana), 15/Jul/2010 12:53, 34 days ago
I am starting to feel sad about leaving the many good friends that I have made here. It feels a bit more final when you start putting things in the case. We can only have one case with 20 kg, so we have to leave a lot of stuff behind. People here are grateful for clothes - my landlady runs two old peoples' homes, and they always need things, if only for rags. Pensioners here only have the equivalent of 18 pounds a month, so they have to rely on local relations for handouts, or remittances from family overseas (over half of all Guyanese live overseas). I'm giving my bike to a new volunteer who needs to learn to ride it. I've helped her to scoot along on it, but she still needs to get both feet onto the pedals. We enjoy our challenges on VSO! Books go to the VSO Office, where they have a library.Yesterday after work we went down to meet a choir friend at their church so that we could use the piano a bit just before their choir practice. St Andrews Kirk is the oldest church in continuous use in Guyana. It was also our last quiz night, we were one point behind the winners. Monday was a farewell meal for a group of volunteers at an organiser's family house. That was lovely as we enjoyed chatting to family members with young children as well as the auntie of the house who was a highly educated lady with interesting conversation.Today we have a meeting with the director at work. I have to dress up smartly and shake hands and avoid sounding off about issues. This is hard for me as I have difficulty keeping my mouth shut! I am learning to be more accepting and have good grace.Tomorrow we have a lunch at work as well as an early evening visit to our American friend to play a few hands of bridge, and enjoy her fine snacks!We leave for our week's holiday in the Caribbean on Saturday very early. I may get to put more things on the blog while on the holiday, but we are planning to be in a fairly remote area. I will access email tomorrow Friday, but then may not be able to read it again until Saturday 23 July when I will be in London, God willing.