Wa happenin nuh?

We finally made it to Guyana! Our group made the long journey and arrived at our first training location on 6/12 at Mainstay resort. I think total travel time was like 14hrs since departing JFK. There is 38 of us; split up into health, education, and environmental sector. We spent this past week getting to know one another while learning the Peace Corps core expectations, safety rules, and many other important things. We spent a lot of time eating wonderful food and hanging out on the dock and swimming “unquestionably safe” water.

All of the food I have tried is very good! There’s a lot of fried rice and bread and always a type of meat like chicken or pork, as well as some vegetables, usually in a salad or eaten plain. They also have really good peanut butter so I’m going to be just fine! 🙂

We started our language and cultural lessons so I am slowly learning Creolese! I am also slowly adapting to the weather since it is very hot and I am constantly sweating from the humidity. It is the raining season so randomly in the mornings or at night there’s just a downpour of rain but it doesn’t last long. So far I enjoy sitting outside on the vranda since there’s always a nice breeze and pretty views.

We met our host families yesterday 6/16 and will be with this family for the next 10 weeks of training! My host family is lovely and they have a beautiful home. They live about 15 min from our training site so tomorrow they will show me how to hail a bus or taxi on the main road to get to training every day of the week.

This morning I was taught how to hand wash my clothes and soon I’ll learn how to cook some of their traditional dishes!

Everything has been wonderful so far! I think the only thing I am struggling with the most is exercise. It’s not super popular for woman to “workout” and there is nowhere to run so I finally asked my host mom if I could jump rope outside! I also have resistant bands that I use for my arms and legs so those will be a life saver.

Oh and the mosquitos love me so I have to keep remembering to reapply bug spray but it’s basically too late because my legs are destroyed. Luckily I have a bed net at night so I can sleep in peace. However, lizards are everywhere here so I have to get use to them crawling all around my walls. Lol

Our first day of training at the school is tomorrow so I am waking up at 7am to get a SIM card for my phone and having some breakfast so that I am at the school for 830am!

I’m not sure how consistent I will be posting blogs but I will try my best!

Have a fantastic week everyone!

-Liz