Friday, 6 September 2013

Shakira blasting through the sound system at the Amerindian culture show

I just can’t find a solution to this sweaty commute! Yesterday started off quite cool. I was up at 6am and out the house before the Sun came out from behind the clouds. I made it to Stabroek without perspiring a drop and was so happy with myself that I grabbed a breakfast dahl puri. I started walking up to school when the heavens opened and a deluge of rain fell on my head. Yet again, I turned up in the science staff room soaking wet.


My first lesson was with year 9s. I had started to get a niggle that this class was going to cause me trouble so I started the lesson by making groups of 4 out of their desks and moving this talkative lad (he went on to have a really good lesson). I used the home and expert groups that someone presented to the teachers in Nepal this year. It didn’t work as well as I had imagined but I think that will come with practice.

At the moment, I have 12 lessons per week. We are waiting for the ominous arrival of the A level students and I’m told that after that, I will have only three hours free. This meant that I had a long lunch so I went for a walk to Oasis café- a little dream box that sells proper coffee, paninis and great pastries. I met up with a couple of friends from non-teaching jobs (Mael and Terrence) so it was a good escape.

I had a dream lesson with year 11 geography after lunch that ended with them doing a test on the Demographic Transition Model. They couldn’t wait to get started and the atmosphere was feverish as they were scribbling away. The whole class (28 students) answered every question. I almost passed out.



That evening was my turn to cook so I started on a beef and eddo curry. Javan and Ricardo came home and we decided to hit the Amerindian Heritage celebrations at Sapphire. This was really cool. There were stalls selling pepperpot, cassava bread (soft and hard) and little trinkets. The main attraction were the performances on stage of traditional dances, songs and funny skits full of culturally insensitive jokes. We stood around occasionally talking and slowly drinking a drink (aka liming).


Guyanese newspapers are fantastic, this is an article I read yesterday:






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