As you can imagine, I have lots of catching up to do.
Let me back up for a sec to the flight out. First on the flight from CLT to DC I ran into Andy Hayden (a classmate from high school) so we chatted it up and caught up on random people which helped pass the time. Then after a lovely layover in DC (lunch with Stine and Gio), I waited for 2 hours in Dulles for the flight crew to arrive. As luck would have, an Irishman with his two sons were strandad as well so being of the same motherland, we naturally hit it off. When I finally arrived in JFK 2 hours late, there was no porter to be found to help me with my bag which by the way I come to find out I am the lightest packer of the group!! But my new found Irish friends helped me out. Fast forward to cehck in. We come to find out that the airline does not accept backpacks or dufflebags to check in. So basically we're all screwed. Somehow after much back and forth, they allow our bags and we just barely make it on the plane.
Since our arrival here, we have received a warm welcome from everyone. We're staying at the local community college while we go through orientation. We've been getting briefings on health and security from the Peace Corp nurse/security advisor. We've also met with a lot of people from the ministry of education.. Some of the topics include the problems they're facing, profile of a guyanese student, etc. All useful stuff to prepare us for the challenges ahead.
Today the group visited the school where I will be for the next year- Friendship Junior Secondary. Oh my gosh, Charlotte Catholic is a far cry from here. I mean, I knew I had it good there, but wow... When we walked into the "library" what we saw was a stack of dusty books under a windowsill and a few bookstands (see the pic). This is smaller than the library I had in elementary school or my own collection of books. According to a previous email the field needed work for reclaiming. The understatement of the year. This field where the kids are supposed to have PE has tall tall rough grass. It'll take a good tiller?? or something to clear it and then plant grass. Basically all the school grounds is crap. Its ugly, trash, etc. Hopefully Magda and I can do some beautification. Our house though is fairly nice. It's on the school compound so that's easy enough. Brand new, wired and pipes but still needs electricity and water to run through them...hopefully by the time school starts.
Must run but wanted to give you a brief glimpse. Cheers and Love.
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