Exploring Georgetown Part 2

After an action packed week in Charity being all environmental, it was time to explore again! Today (Sunday), we decided we would visit the Lighthouse, the Umana Yana, Seawall and even get some geocaching done. Tall order I hear you say....well be surprised we managed all that aaaand had a 'ladies that do lunch' moment in a posh hotel!

We started the day by heading towards the Lighthouse, which is based in a suburb of Georgetown call Kingston, our first adventure was finding the bus - you need to head towards city hall and just shout 'Lighthouse' and they will come a'running!

It was a short journey, and we just stopped short of the Prime Minsters residence on Main Street. It was a short 5 minute walk to the Lighthouse, we even went past the USA Peace Corp residence. They definatly had more air con, mod cons and more bars than us Guides!!

We visited the Lighthouse at the request of Sara and myself, I had even got a geocoin with the challenge to visit as many lighthouses in the world as possible. Mission complete for Guyana, next stop United Kingdom!

The Lighthouse itself is built near the mouth of the Demerara River, the original wooden lighthouse was built in 1817 by the Dutch but was replaced by stone in 1830.

Next stop was the Umana Yana, this is Wai Wai for 'meeting place of the people', it is a 55ft tall thatched roof hut (known as a benab) built by the Wai Wai Amerindians in 1972 to host a meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement of Third World Nations. The hut was constructed using traditional methods and tools. It is now used as a venue for art shows to heritage festivals.

In the grounds of the Umana Yana is the African Liberation Monument, this is a sculpture consisting of five greenheart poles which commerates the African Freedom Fighters. It was built in 1974 for the United Nations Commission.

It was now approaching lunchtime, so we went posh like into the Le Meridan - Pegasus Hotel and enjoyed a slap up meal in the air con :)

After lunch we went to the Seawall, this was where the 2010 GOLDies completed their environmental project. We spent an hour playing in the sand and enjoying the emptiness of the beach in comparison to the crazy bustle of Stabroek Market.

On the way back we attempted to find the 'Wilderness Explorer' cache in Georgetown - located near the Promenade Gardens and Independence Park. Unfortunately, it is looked after by someone within a building and that building was closed on Sundays!! We confused the next door neighbours though!

All in all, a lovely day was had and our next day off will be spent at Kaiteur - so watch this space for more Queens Guide Exploration updates!

Lizzy

P.S. just to annoy Sara...OVER and .................OUT :P

Day 2 and 3 in Charity

Day 2 started with morning chores after a very early rise (not sure why Guides everywhere get up at 5am on camp).

After Breakfast Lizzy and Hannah took a group around Charity putting up posters and chatting to the community about the litter pick on Friday. The responses were generally positive although there were some people that said it was so bad they didn't think we would have an effect. Even if one person sees what we are doing it will have made a little difference. Sara, Nikki, Claire and Elizabeth ran sessions for the other group on designing a banner for the litter pick and then creating songs and mini dramas for the girls to perform in the afternoon as well making recycled drums (plastic cups and paper) as they wanted a bit of a fun day after the litter pick. In the afternoon we had a re-using craft session where we made crafts from used materials, these were made to be shown at the litter pick/fun day. The girls made skittles from plastic bottles, photo frames from cereal boxes and plastic cutlery, pompoms from plastic bags, pencil pots from plastic cups, jewelery from scrap paper and candle holders from plastic bottles. They seemed to have a good afternoon making things and being creative and it was good fun working with them.

Our banner

When it was a little cooler we played some games outside, the girls really enjoyed this, they like learning new songs and games and they even taught us some which was great to see that their confidence has grown.

As we have been incredibly hot at night, the six of us attempted to sleep outside on a covered balcony. We rigged up our Mozzy nets and laid out the mattresses, it was quite fun lying outside watching the stars and although still hot was a little cooler.

GOLD team litter picking

On the Friday we had our litter pick. We wanted to make an early start as the sun can get quite strong very quickly. Sarah and Sara were interviewed during the littler pick by the local TV station to ask about Guiding, what we were doing and why? The girls worked very hard and we managed to clear a good section of the main street, definitely noticeable.

After lunch we headed back into town for the girls to show off the performances and crafts at the boardwalk. There had a good laugh and it was great that people actually stopped and watched. The performances were great and afterwards we gave the banner to the local council who will display it which is fab.

This evening we had some some Guyanese food for dinner and we tried Roti and Bakes, quite yummy :)
The girls are heading back this evening as they are catching an early ferry, we are staying another night to finish the cleaning and will catch a slightly later speedboat and meet them the other side of the river to travel back to Georgetown. We had lots of singing as we waved them off.

Traveling back to Georgetown.
After finishing the cleaning we travelled to Supernaan ready to catch the speedboat. This was much quicker and quite exciting as we bounced along the river. We only got wet occasionally and all managed to hold on to our hats.

First day in Charity

We were picked up by the bus and the girls at lunchtime ready for our trip to Charity. First mini problem was the bus wasn’t big enough so we left Sara and Lizzy behind (although not for long as a taxi quickly picked them up). We had to rush slightly to the ferry as we had to catch a ferry across the Essequibo River. On route we went over the Demerara bridge which was quite cool as it is a floating bridge.

Sara had warned up the journey was likely to take anywhere between 3 and 6 hours so we had books, cards and things to do. The ferry journey across the river was really pretty, we passed quite a lot of islands (there are 365 islands, although not all are habited). It was a good journey and we chatted with the girls, most of whom were experiencing this for the first time too.

Our journey was at the quicker end of Sara’s estimation, and we then had a little wait until we were picked up. We weren’t sure how long we had to wait but to keep the girls and ourselves amused we sang a lot of campfire songs. Favourites included, Funky Chicken, Get loose, Princess Pat, Crazy Moose and many many more. We were finally picked up and made the journey to Charity at night, The sky was absolutely beautiful and filled with stars. Arriving at the school in Charity just after 9, we had to unpack, eat and make the beds, quite a busy day. We are staying in a dorm room at a school which had a few more mozzy’s and other wildlife than our flat.

Our first day in Charity started with organising patrols and chores, which were done before breakfast. After breakfast we met we some local health inspectors and workers who showed us around Charity. We met up with some local Guides/Rangers who were joining us everyday to do some research about the area for the environmental project. We chatted to some locals, about the problems and what can be done about it. Most of the locals were really positive and it was interesting to see the effect that the various littering problems. One man we spoke to who worked on a boat on the river had spent quite a lot of money repairing his motor on the boat due to rubbish getting caught in it. In the afternoon we ran sessions back at the school (it is too hot to spend more than a morning outside in the sun). We planned in a little more detail what we wanted to do and then made posters to display around the town. When the sun had gone in a little we played some games with the girls before dinner and bed.

Old style chalk boards

Exploring Georgetown

In the water at Splashmins!!

On Saturday we went to Splashmins Resort (an Eco-Adventure park), in Linden (Soesdyke Highway) which is about a 45 minute drive from the apartment. The park is created from the swamplands of the Madewini Basin, through which flows the Madewini stream.

I think we managed to bring the weather with us and typically on our first day off.....it rained! But as Girlguides we persevered and made it via the very nice air conditioned bus to the resort! Annie, one of the GOLD team here in Guyana, decided to come along with us to show us around.

As you can see there was very little time before we all jumped in! Annie spent most of her time chilling, and on her blackberry unlike us crazy UK girls!

Eventually the sun came out, and it started to feel a bit more like Guyana than the UK (albeit an extremely warm UK!!). In the afternoon we went on the peddle boats (even managed to get Annie on one - twice as well!)

Nikki & Annie on the peddle boat.

All in all, it was a fun relaxing day. We got to see a bit of Guyanan culture and see where the locals hang out on weekends.

UK GOLD GUYANA Team & GOLD GUYANA Team (well just Annie for now!)

On Sunday, a group of us (Hannah, Elizabeth and myself) visited Annie's Church (St Sidwells), to take part in the morning service. It was very different from anything I had experienced before, coming from a very relaxed christian upbringing/church. We sat with Annie and her mother, and watched Annie play the steel drums during the service. We were also greeted as visitors to the Church during the notices section of the service and were asked to sign the Visitors Book.


After church, we met up with Claire, Sara & Nikki and went to the Botanical Gardens & Zoo.

Hot & tired after the Zoo

Outside of the botanical gardens

The Botanical Gardens was a beautiful place once you got past the rubbish that was dumped everywhere but the bins. It was extremely hot, due to all the rain the previous day, and we have some very interesting tanlines! The zoo had a selection of animals that are from Guyana and South America. We saw Blue & Yellow Macaws, Caimens, Turtles, Harpy Eagles, Anacondas, Pumas, Jaguars, Capuchin Monkeys and finally Johnny the Giant Otter! There were even Manatees in the pond outside the Zoo, just chilling out in the sun.

On Monday, it was a very important day in Guyanese Culture - no it was not Yorkshire Day (thats only important to us welly wearing, ferret racing flat capped Yorkshire Tykes!), but Emancipation Day, which celebrates the abolition of slavery.

We met up with Erin, one of the 'Environment Team' (part of the GOLD project in Charity), and her cousin Ethan. We all went to the National Park, which is 2 short bus journeys away. At the National Park there were stalls set out to celebrate the African culture, this included food (we tried puree, cassava pone and other tit bits - very YUM), jewellery and other handcrafts. We then went into the main arena to watch the parade of nations, which included places like Mexico, that all form the Guyanese culture. We listened to steelpan band music, and danced along (much to many peoples amusement including our own).

Elizabeth and I, were even filmed on camera saying how much we loved Guyana and the celebrations - so watch out for us on TV!!

Enjoying the atmosphere in the stadium

Boogying on down (pizza making actions ????

In front of the main stage at National Park

The Parade of Nations

I hope you have enjoyed todays blog, it is part of my exploration section of my Queens Guide.

We are now off to Charity (north of the Essesequibo River) with the Environment Team, to carry out sessions on the environment with the Guides and the locals. We won't be able to update the blog until we get back - so don't worry!

Over and Out


Lizzy

Week 1 of trainings

Wow, that went quickly, can't believe we have finished our first week of trainings. It was been
a good week, we are all settling in, adjusting to the heat, getting used to the Mozzy bites but are all having a fantastic time.

The first couple of days we did sessions on the Environment, preparing for our trip to Charity next week. We had been asked to do some environmental trainings in Charity but we were able to plan the details with the girls going. There were some good ideas so our trip to Charity should be fab. We are leaving on Tuesday (Monday is a National Holiday) and having a bus and ferry ride (Sara laughs when she tells us we're going by ferry so not sure what it entitles!)

The last couple of days we have been working on the handbook, Working with the girls and looking at what needs to go into it. We have a good basis for the chapters and the questions they would like to be asked so when we are back from Charity we will continue to work with the Guyanese GOLD team to start writing. This week we have been working with the GOLD team, the Environmental team and the Environmental field team so have been working with about 20 girls every day which has been fab, everyone seems to be having fun learning new activities and games and yesterday we were taught us some Guyanese games. The designs and plans for the handbook are also coming along nicely. Quite exciting to know we will have helped make that happen along with all the girls over the last week.

Outside trainings we have visited the Cathedral (St George's) so was a little strange to see the St. George's/English flag up. Hannah was particularly excited as the Cathedral is a timber construction. The interior of the Cathedral had a very Tudor feel to it. We also visited the Guyanese National Museum which has quite an eclectic mix of exhibits. As it is being renovated we weren't able to see it all but the geography and maps section was quite cool.

We have tried Gnipes, similar to lychee but not prickly, some of the team members have tried Plantane and Claire has tried Pumpkin. All seemed to have positive results and are back on the shopping list. It has been requested that we include some of our recipes in our blog so we will create a post for our recipes.

Last night we were invited with Annie (one of the Guyanese Young Leaders) to join her at steel band practice. It was a lot of fun, we were all able to have a go, varying degrees of success. Think we can all play a rolling C major scale though :). We then joined the group for some food afterwards, it was fab to go out and chat. The band were very welcoming.

Annie with Charity

Claire at Steel Band

 Today is our only Saturday off so tour guide Lizzy has organised a trip to the swimming pool centre which sounds fun, although sat here writing this there is quite heavy rain outside, although it is still hot so welcome trip to the pool.

Arrived in Guyana

What a very busy but exciting couple of days and as we now have access to some internet we can tell you about it.

We met up at Gatwick on Saturday afternoon to ensure we were all present and ready for our Sunday morning flight. Sunday we made it through check in and then breakfast before boarding the plane. Journey went as planned and all of us and Charity (our bear mascot, complete with matching hoodie (thanks Hannah's mum) and passport (fab Lizzy)) arrived in Barbados. The heat was quite a shock but very excited for the start of our GOLD adventure. We had a quick trip to the beach, some food and then an early nights sleep as we have to be up at 5am to head to the plane.
This wasn't much of a problem as we are partly on UK time so were up in plenty of time.

The plane to Guyana was tiny, and made it through check-in to find Berle (deputy chief commissioner of Guyanese Girlguiding) waiting for us. Fantastic :) Bus trip to the flat, quick look around before heading to the bank to change money and then off to Guiding HQ. Here we met with Sarah (the chief commissioner) and sat down to work out the plan and schedule for our project. Very exciting having a plan and some aims. For the next couple of days we are meeting the Guyanese team and planning the sessions for the environmental part of the project in Charity.

Lizzy and Elizabeth cooked our first meal, Eggplant and Plantane fritters, very tasty. We then did some session planning before bed.

Today we have met some of the Guyanese team. They are lovely, very enthusiastic, it's going to be fun working with them. We have planned some of what we plan to do in Charity. The main goals are awareness and education of the guides regarding the environment. Tomorrow we will look in more detail at the session plans.

It is incredibly hot here, but Guide HQ has a nice breeze running through it. Will take a little while getting used to this heat. We haven't had much chance to explore Georgetown but have experienced the Market and the buses, both quite crazy experiences. Fab.


Right off to do some session planning and dinner preparation. We will try and get some pictures up tomorrow but things have started and are going well :)

All packing done, on our way to Gatwick

We have finished the organising, the preparations and now the packing (some a lot earlier than others!) and all we have left to do is travel. We are meeting at Gatwick this afternoon and flying tomorrow morning. Very exciting!

We will try and update this blog as often as possible, internet and facilities dependent to update on what we are doing on project.

Other GOLD teams are also leaving/have left this weekend so we wish all GOLD teams good luck, have a safe journey and have fun on your projects. See you at debrief.

We hope you enjoy reading and wish you a good summer and see you all in Guyana :)