September 19, 2015
I have now completed my orientation with the Peace Corps and have been sworn in as a Peace Corps Response Volunteer! I have also almost been here a week. There has been so much to take in and process, some overwhelming and some exciting! For most of the week I have been staying at a hotel in Georgetown while going through orientation. On Thursday, I officially moved into my studio apartment. This apartment is a very nice apartment here. The landlords live above me and have been extremely nice and helpful.
The kitchen has a 2 burner stove, like a camping stove and I use a propane tank to get going. Propane tanks cost $3500 in Guyanese which equates to about $17 in US. You cannot see in this picture, but the Peace Corps also gave us a filter to filter water which I've set up next to my sink and use that to wash my fruits and vegetables and contacts! Our water here is pretty safe especially since our landlords collect rainwater. Supposedly, the system of obtaining water will be going toward how our utilities are paid- it's prepaid or pay as you go. With collecting rain water, especially in the rainy season, then means you don't have to buy as much water! Also, there is no hot or cold water, there is just the water temperature of how to sun heats it. So showers in the morning are a bit colder than midday.
I was greeted by this frog when I walked into the bedroom. He was sitting on the bed.
It's been an interesting experience attempting to learn the currency and living essentially as how a working class Guyanese lives. I feel I've been so spoiled in the US in what we consider working class vs working class here. The Peace Corps gives us a living allowance each month. Every month we get about $110,000 which is $550 in US. Half of this is my rent: $55,000 ($275). Utilities, I'm told, if I don't use AC ranges about $3500-4000 ($17-20). I'm told I'll probably spend about $25,000 ($125) on food each month for groceries. Today I spent $4000 ($20) on groceries without any meat. Transportation would be my only other consistent cost which depending on where I'm going can cost $60-100 ($0.30-$.50) on a minibus each direction. Taxis cost more about $700 ($3.50) give or take. So there goes my monthly allowance!
As I mentioned I did go grocery shopping today. Here people go to the market, which is more like a farmer's market type, for produce. People go to the grocery store for more processed ingredients such as boxed milk, flour, sugar, etc.
I've actually enjoyed the market, and the produce here is wonderful! Today I got cucumbers, pears (which are avocados), bok choy, tomatoes, mangos, fresh thyme, bora (which is part of the green bean family), eggplant, black eyed peas and eggs. I have to be inventive when it comes to cooking as I can only use a stove, no oven. So this should last me the week! Eggs here are not refrigerated as they do not go through the same washing process the eggs in the US go through that then need to be refrigerated. I bought 36 eggs (a tray) for $850 ($4.25) which I split with another volunteer living 2 doors down from me.
So in order to wash my produce appropriately, I fill a basin with filtered water and put a bit of bleach in it and soak the produce for 30 minutes or so before rinsing again with filtered water.
Kind of a process.
I've experienced the minibus today.
So, as you're walking down the road, and you need to take a bus, you flag one down like a taxi. If they flash their lights at you it means they're full and they cannot pick you up. I'm learning there are general areas in which certain buses run. I've not yet taken the bus during the week. Supposedly they have set routes, but today when taking the bus it seemed pretty arbitrary. They have a beginning and an end point, but it seems they drive around in-between looking to pick up or drop off depending where patrons want to go. A minibus fits 10 passengers and a driver. Like I said earlier, it costs 60-100 one direction. You pay when you get off. There's a bus that I can take right on the University of Guyana Campus that would take me into town and that would cost $100 ($.50), but there's another bus I can take that takes me right outside of campus, maybe a half mile walk from my place that will take me to town for closer to $60 ($.30).
These buses are intimidating for me, but in time I hopefully will get the hang of it. The driving here is pretty crazy. Because of British influence, people drive on the left. Almost no one pays attention to traffic signs. When driving (thankfully I'm not allowed to), you have to avoid people walking on the street as there is no sidewalk, avoid stray animals such as dogs, sometimes goats and cow, avoid horse drawn carts, bicyclists, motorists, and oncoming traffic as generally people drive into oncoming traffic.
I have not yet started working at the University. I will start on Tuesday and start teaching my first class on wednesday. Since they've had no instructor for a class the students are just "on-call" until the coordinator calls them and says there's class now. So apparently, I can tell the coordinator what time I want to teach and they'll just show up Wednesday. Here's the entrance of University of Guyana (UG).
It's literally across the street from my apartment, however because there's this moat, river thing in the middle so I'm unable to just run across the street. I have to walk down and follow the water until i reach a bridge, cross it, and walk back toward the entrance.
Also across from UG is a small cemetery.
The tombs are above ground, as there's a lot of flooding here so as I was told, bodies can float up but not go anywhere.
Here's one of those horse drawn carts I mentioned earlier.
This is Seawall
Sea wall opens to the Atlantic Ocean. It's pretty cloudy and dirty for the first 2 miles from the beach and then supposedly it turns clear and blue. There's just a lot of sediment and stuff. No one goes to this beach to go into the water.
Well, that's all for now. Will post more later.
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