Time flies- Ghosts, jumbies and broken down boats on the Demerara

Time goes so fast.

I definitely find this on Sunday mornings with the Monday morning creeping up to ruin your weekend! I also found it on Friday evening as we whizzed along the West Coast highway to a place I hadn’t been for seven years.

Seven years ago, almost to the day, I was staying in the same house on the West Coast with 24 other Project Trust volunteers. All of us were crammed into a gorgeous family house just a stones throw from the sea. The close-quarters forced us to share all these crazy new tropical experiences and we filled the house with lots of jokes and stories even though we must have driven our host family a bit crazy for the week that we invaded!

 

 

It was nice to get out of the city again. Outside of Georgetown can become eerily quiet at night so just to build on the eeriness, we wandered, past a haunted house, to the sea at midnight. The sea is actually the mouth of the Demerara but at this stage, the river is so vast that it stretches away from you just like the sea. We sat a heard some ghost stories. These were made more ghostly due to the accompanying cadaver voodoo doll that someone had placed next to the sea wall as some kind of grievance ritual. I raised the idea of us going for a swim but it was quickly shot down with all these bad omens lying around us.

Finally the friendly face of the morning came and we made our way back to Georgetown. This time we opted for the speed boat that took us from our side of the Demerara River to Stabroek Market in the heart of Georgetown on the other side. The boat quickly filled up and we started chugging our way across the river with the 30 other passengers on their way to get market-day supplies. Mid-chug and midway across the river, the engine slowed to a stop, not a great sound to hear on a boat. Thankfully the driver made some adjustments and it restarted in minutes to a sigh of relief from all the passengers.

 

 

A second week of school has passed- 12 more to go until Christmas. I think saying 12 weeks to go would strike fear into any teacher in the UK but here there are many distractions to break up the weeks. This week’s upcoming distraction is Sports Day on Friday. I haven’t yet decided if I will have an A-Level practical on that day or try to defend my title of 2^nd-to-last in the teachers’ 100m race.

 

First week back- English Yachties and Super furry monkeys

And I’m well and truly back to the blackboard.

I’ve missed teaching. I’ve missed writing on a chalkboard. The lovely way the chalk makes my handwriting look special. The way the chalks always snap mid-flow. The way you feel like washing your trousers every day because they get covered in chalk dust. All these things to help you remember you’re back to work!

Getting the chance to travel and work in India this summer was great but it made me miss the day job. It was also great to get back to the UK with their strange lack of humidity and to see the family but all this relaxation really made me miss the day job. I think an 8 week summer holiday was more than enough for me.

Landing in Georgetown bought back all the memories of the previous year along with the smells (some amazing, some terrible- GT doesn’t do mediocrity!). After a whirlwind first couple of days, settling in and seeing friends, it was back to school. Typically, two days in, I felt that I had never been away.

With the first week under my belt I am back in full throttle. It is my fourth year of teaching now and I still feel like I am in my first! New names to remember, new ideas about teaching different concepts, new tactics to persuade Year 11s to revise and Year 9s to do their homework! I look to the future and wonder if I stay in teaching, will this ever change?!

I remembered why I look forwards to weekends in Georgetown. This past one started with a super birthday party for my Guyanese ‘cousin.’ Then the scenery changed on Sunday and I found myself bombing up the Essequibo River towards a Yacht Rally. A Yacht Rally in Guyana sounded like the most unexpected thing to happen here but then I guess that made it truly Guyanese.

 

 

We turned up at a big house with a jetty creeping out over the murky brown river and were surrounded by a platoon of sailing yachts that had made their way from Tobago to the Guianas. A four day trip we later found out! I spent the afternoon swimming, kayaking and getting toured around the yachts by the sailors themselves. One of the couples sailing happened to be from my hometown in the UK, which just made the whole day a touch more bizarre but a breath of fresh air to be out of the city.

I had forgotten how beautiful Guyana is. Coming back up the river, the Sun was setting in pinky/orange streaks that bounced off the choppy waves on the river. Bright green parrots were making raucous banter over our heads as they crossed the river for the night and troupes of red monkeys were settling up in their favourite sleep spots along the river bank. I resolved to not leave it so long before I next leave the city!