The most adventurous 48hrs of eating

Our sweet and loving Aaron and Eslyn

More than a year ago, you may have remembered a blog post about our new Amerindian Host Family, Aaron, Eslyn and Moses. Of course that experience was shattered when my appendix decided it no longer liked where it lived and was looking to blow out of the place. 

This past weekend we returned for the first time in over a year to spend some time with our first set of host parents for the Amerindian Heritage Celebrations 2012 in St. Cuthbert's Mission. September is Amerindian Heritage month throughout which each Amerindian village has a celebration. St. Cuthbert's mission has the most noteworthy Amerindian celebration in Guyana every year and it is celebrated the last weekend of September. Soon we would find out why. 

We arrived on Thursday evening and hiked with our small back bags from Region 4 to Region 5 through a dried-up river, the same one we paddled our way out of on that dreadful day. We went over a makeshift log bridge to be not only greeted by the smiling faces of Aaron, Eslyn, Moses but three new additions, Yulani (Aaron and Eslyn's older daughter we had yet to meet), her husband, Owen and their new babygirl Amelia. Our first meal was the most organic locally-grown duck curry we will ever eat (since they mine their own Turkeys, Chickens, and Ducks) and oil roti. We stuffed  our faces, caught up with our family and hit the bed. The next morning preparations for the celebrations were on their way. 

The bridge we cross to get to our host families house.

Baby Amelia.

Piwaree, a local fermented drink from the Cassava root was bubbling and in need for a taste. Nate and I gladly dipped our cups into what could only be described as a bile-looking mixture in an old paint drum and took our first of many tastes. Pretty darn good. It had a smoky-like-white-bitter-wine-kinda-of-tatse.  All we know is that that stuff works, especially on a hot day. The next of our preparations was making festive jewelry out of tree seeds that we scavenged for in Aaron and Eslyn's yard/jungle. Nate bore holes into our little black and orange beads and we strung our beads and pieces of bamboo. Next we killed and prepared a form of "wild meat" that we cooked in coconut milk to sell the next day at the festivities. Unfortunately, due to some poaching laws we can't disclose what "wild meat" we ate. Let's just say we also ate the tripe, liver, eggs and limbs of this animal and it was surprisingly tasty. Next time Nate wants to try this animal in its shell. That night we ate chicken curry, again some of the most organically grown pieces of meat we will probably ever ingest. Later we went to the kick-off event, The Pageant, which was good, but if Nate and I never see a pageant again, it will be too soon. When we arrived back to the house, Aaron and Eslyn had a grand mid-night treat surprise for us-Tacoma worms or "beetle larvae." The tacoma worm used to be an Amerindian staple, especially for those who were hunters or in the timber industry because of their high fat content. The grubs are as large as your thumb and taste like very garlicky lard with a crunching head. We consumed a good amount of said "worm". Don't worry they were cooked. 

The awesomeness that is Piwaree.

Nate making holes into the bead seeds we gathered.

Tacoma worm.

Nate enjoying his worm with some rice, or rather trying to wash it down.

Our host dad, Aaron, holding one of the most poisonous snake in the Americas, The Labaria, like a bad-ass.

The next morning Nate was up by 4am, setting up the space back at the mission. We started our morning cleaning, cooking and prepping for the day of celebrations. We set out in the canoe with the remainder of supplies and the day of eating had begun. We started the day with said "wild meat", then moved onto our first of many bottles of Piwaree, then onto Iguana, and then onto chicken feet that they called "souz," which is a really salty broth with chicken feet in it. You suck on the knuckles, oh my how we have culturally integrated. After all the eating and cultural dances around us, the night party had began. Car lights, flood lights and flash lights covered the square and the Guyanese dancing went into the wee hours of the morning.

 

Nate sporting his festive hand-crafted jewelry.

Our "wild meat and eggs"

Iguana...can you see the skin still on the meat?

Souz!

Next morning we were up again for the "wash down" of the festivities that occurs at the community landing. It felt like a giant tailgate party at the springs. Music and bbq smoke filled the air as people jumped into the water. Nate and I went with Yulani and Owen and Fiona (another daughter of Aaron and Eslyn we had yet to meet) to the landing and set-up our grill and began cooking chicken and potatoes fries that Owen and Yulani would sell for a small profit or really to pay for all the food and beer we had consumed throughout the weekend. Pretty smart. Work to party. After another full-day of eating, drinking, dancing and just hanging-out we arrived back at out host family's house to collapse from the exhaustion of the weekend. We spent a few more hours talking and reminiscing with our host family before we went to sleep only to be up a few hours later to catch our ridiculously early flight back to Mabaruma. 

Using an electric grill as a charcoal grill, hence the need for the logs.

Owen and Yulani.

"Wash Down" is no joke. We carried a stove from the house, through a river on a canoe and up a hill to cook fries!

 

With Fiona.

Moses, our host brother.

 

Amerindian Heritage 2012 will forever be engrained in our minds as the most adventurous eating experience of our life thus far and the time we got to share with yet another group of people who have now become family.

Till next time.

Promoting Healthy Behaviors

The last few months I, together with my right-hand man Nate, have been working on promoting healthy behaviors in a variety of new ways in our region. After the buzz we received on our murals, I was asked to travel on the river to a small, tiny really, health post to do a mural promoting family planning. This health post didn't have electricity, and even though we have done lots of murals, they have all occurred with the help of our handy-dandy projector. If you know me, you know that I have the drawing capabilities of a 2-year old, so this mural was by far one of the hardest artistic challenges thus far in my Peace Corps experience. Nate wasn't able to come with me, as he was planning his incredible event that he recently posted about, so I was on my own. I had a day and half and only a pencil and ruler to draw this rather simple mural using a grid method. I am happy to report that it came out pretty well. But you can be the judge of that. Now remember, I have no artistic ability and this was the first time I drew a picture using the grid method, so don’t be too hard on me.

The family planning mural. 

The second event that Nate and I did was a nutrition booth at our heritage festivities. The booth focused on healthy diets for infants as well as diabetes and hypertensive patients. Nate and I, with the help of Medex Gilkes, one of my Maternal and Child Health co-workers who by the way is awesome, spent all day Saturday and Sunday cooking delicious food that emphasized fruits and vegetables and were prepared with no oil, agi or cubes, which is common in the Guyanese diet. Over 100 people came out and we helped them check their Body Mass Index, distributed healthy diet literature, and gave away free portions of our food prepared with locally available ingredients. The menu was the following: baked chicken, brown rice, fresh cabbage, tomato and cucumber salad, cold bean salad, steamed bora, carrot/pumpkin juice, callaloo (spinach) juice, black-eyed peas punch (yes, black-eyed peas, it tasted like a milk shake…incredible), granola and potato/eddo calaloo crushed baby food. We got cleaned out! Very few people had ever heard of granola and loved it. I’d say this was a rather successful event, which bridge some of the things that Nate and I love the most, cooking, sharing food, and encouraging a healthy, mostly green and organic diet. 

Medex Gilkes gathering people to the booth.

Children daring one another to drink the Calaloo (spinach) juice.

Wearing some Amerindian pride while doing BMI's.

Till next time.

Education Month March and Rally

Children and teachers marching. Ms Zedira Singh did a great job making the banner.

At the beginning of every school year the Guyanese Ministry of Education designates September to be National Education month in order to kick off the back-to-school effort. This year my department decided to host a rally and march under the theme "Transforming the Nation Through Inclusive Education." We had about 100 participants march in a little parade then we had a ceremony with addresses from the district education officers, the president of the Special Education Needs (SEN) teacher association, and yours truly.

At previous rallies, activities have focused more on lectures expounding on the theme for that year. But since I was in charge of planning the event I wanted to design a program that would be fun for the kids. This year they got to decorate a banner with finger paint and play games designed for all ability levels. Their favorite activity was definitely the water-balloon toss which was a first and it straight up blew their minds. Teachers even got into the action. It was a TON of work, but we had a blast!

Love the faces of the students and teacher as they throw the balloons and wait to see if their partner catches it.

School children helping each other decorate the banner.

In Guyana the SEN movement is still in its infancy. There are only 3 "special" schools in the country and those schools, which are well over capacity, only cater to children with sensory-motor disabilities.  One of Ilana and my goals since coming to Region 1 has been to increase awareness of people with disabilities, many of whom are hidden away, and also improve their access to education services.

The good news is that in our region this movement has been steadily growing legs of its own. The SEN teachers divided up all the children with disabilities that we're aware of into caseloads and have started designing individual education plans for each one... a big step in the right direction. Our SEN group has even been getting the attention of outside funding sources like UNICEF who are likely to contribute generous sums to helping our schools better serve all children.

Helping Leron decorate the banner. 

The icing on top was when a little press release that I wrote got picked up by 2 national Guyanese papers (see links below)! Special thanks to Ilana for all her help behind the scenes, in front of the scenes, on the sides of the scenes, under, over, around, between the scenes... thanks!

Guyana Chronicle

Stabroek News

World Map Project

The World Map Project brings people together to create large, colorful maps of the world. It was initiated by a Peace Corps volunteer in1988, and since then volunteers have carried this highly acclaimed program to over 40 countries around the world. Returned volunteers have spread the idea across the U.S. as well. This projects main goal is to promote geography literacy in an engaging way while also building a sense of community among mapmakers. Nate and I and our side-kick volunteer friend, Emily, decided in keeping with our art summer, that we would tackle the World Map Project in our community. The last Peace Corps volunteer that served in Mabaruma helped renovate a beautiful Learning Resource Centre and that was the location of our new mural. We had over 13 children, from 6 to 13 years of age, from the surrounding community come and help draw and paint the mural. In just two days, what was once a blank wall, now displays a pretty big and awesome map. 

Summer Art

This blog post is for you Vern Bergling.

Summers are usually slow, maybe it’s because it’s hot, students are out of school or people are thinking about the vacations they took or are about to take. There is no difference in Guyana, even a remote part of Guyana, like Region 1.  In fact, I think summers are even slower here. This requires us Peace Corps volunteers to find ways to keep us occupied (because vacations are a thing of the past and future, certainly not anything we can afford at the moment). So instead we find projects that are short, meaningful and fun.

We had created murals at the Regional Hospital (Sesame Street) to make it more child-friendly, and as more community health workers (CHWs) came to the hospital to pick up their vaccinations or supplies the more they desired murals of their own on their health post walls. So Emily, a volunteer in White Water, decided she would give her health post a bit of a facelift with some child-friendly health murals. So we did some research and chose messages that were salient in her community. What are the things patients complain about the most? What are the messages we try and impart the most? So we came up with four murals: Washing your hands, which can prevent gastrointestinal infections; Eating healthy food that includes plenty fruits and greens (these are the words we use when speaking to patients in our broken Creolese) to prevent pressure (hypertension) and sugar (diabetes),  as well as child malnutrition; Purifying water before drinking, again to prevent GI and other infections, especially skin infections if they use dirty creek water; and lastly a Human Body mural to be able to point out where certain bones, muscles, organs are when trying to explain a condition or sickness.

It only took two days to draw and paint these murals, but it was a great escape of the day to day boredom that Peace Corps volunteers often deal with. Not only did it keep us occupied, but the clinic looks great and  Emily’s CHW was thrilled to have a brighter and educational space. We even caught patients already peeking into the post to read the murals. Just goes to show, that ART is truly a language that all people speak.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Till next time.