Pre-Service Training Deets

Social Media World,

Hello, it’s been a while since I’ve touched base eh? I’ve been placed in my host family in Mainstay village, which is a modernized yet still somewhat remote Amerindian village. The village has about 500 inhabitants and there are SO many kids who live here. My family has 4 kids: Kimberle – 13, Jeremiah – 10, Kindle – 9, and Jaime – 5 and my host mom Naomi.

My host dad is in the interior, which means that he’s in the jungle mining for gold on months on end. I might get to meet him at some point in time before I leave, rumor has it. They are freaky awesome and remind me so much of my siblings back at home.

We don’t have any wifi and the internet data is pretty slow so I don’t get a chance to get on social media very often, but when I do, I promise I'll make it worthwhile.

I am one of 5 volunteers placed here in Mainstay, so of course we became the Mainstay 5 and actually spend quite a bit of time together considering it is very hard to get to the coast to meet up with the other volunteers. They are: Zach, Taylour, Gabrielle, and Kristina! Taylour is the other Health volunteer and the rest of the three are the education volunteers. Taylour and I have already done a health talk in the school and we got to listen to a fetal heartbeat during antenatal care clinic. Also, we were able to observe vaccinations, and dengue protocol. Not bad for the past 5 weeks. 

This was the first night that we were at Mainstay and the kids were displaying their cultural dance. I later learned that two of the kids in the dance troupe are in my family, Kindle and Jerry! 

 This is them playing red light green light, which later became a regular game they played at their school.

This is my backyard with the neighborhood kids, two of the Mainstay 5 (Zach and Gabrielle), and my host siblings!

This is another of the Mainstay 5, Taylour, and I at a cultural event where we all had to dress up as different cultures found in Guyana. If you can't tell, we're Amerindian. =]

My host mom celebrated her birthday with us on February 21st, so we all had cake and toasted! Jerry wants to make it clear that he is embarrassed that I am posting this and that he doesn't have a shirt on (he's the oldest boy, 10).

This is a group of neighborhood kids and my littlest sister Kindle (she's on the top far left).

So I have to start getting used to actually working hard at chores here. I do my laundry by hand and hang it out on the line and have to wash sheets once a week plus on Saturday we all have chores day. We deep clean the house, shower, pit latrine, and sweep inside and outside of the house. Also, this is my backyard! The rest of the green is jungle!