Celebrating Guyana's 47th Independence Day!
Hello again!
Everything has been extremely well these last few weeks. This past weekend had been very eventful, with Guyana’s Independence Day falling on the Sunday; celebrating 47 years as an independent nation. The Georgetown team was extra excited about the weekend because Kevin and Kate were coming up from Berbice for a visit! It had been since the beginning of project since we had all been together, so reunited was a wonderful (and emotional) experience.
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| The Canadian cake we decorated for AEA's Cultural Fair! YUM! |
On Friday we were invited to a cultural fair at AEA (Adult Education Association), which is a remedial school that we teach at a few times each week. We were very excited to attend!Allie and Haily decorated a cake in typical Canadian fashion to bring to the event. At the fair, traditional songs were sung and games were played from a mix of Indo- and Afro-Guyanese cultures. Many of the students presented dances or speeches and it was evident they had put a lot of effort into the presentations. The pride in their country was contagious and we very honoured to share this day with them (and bring some “Canadian flavour,” as they called our maple leaf cake)!
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| Celebrating 47 years of Independence at RBI! |
On Saturday Kate and Kevin made their big appearance! There were lots of hugs and happiness at Rima’s that morning and it was so great to be all-together again. That afternoon we were invited to attend an Independence Day event at RBI (Reyaz Business Institute), a secondary school we teach at on Thursdays. It was pouring rain, but that did not stop the festivities, as events were moved inside to one of the covered outdoor classrooms. There was a band, food, a fashion show and many more great items on the itinerary (including Kevin’s impromptu speech about QHO). Reyaz, the owner of the school, was a great host and we are looking forward to teaching on his morning TV show in the coming weeks.
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| Independence Day festivities at National Park. |
That evening we all went to a large Independence Day festival at the National Park. From singing to dancing and hearing President Donald Ramotar speak - there was never a dull moment! We heard later from some of our students that we made a brief cameo on live television (as we were all struggling to eat sugar cane in the audience - whoops)!
Since Monday was a National Holiday and the students did not have school, we spent the majority of Sunday planning activities for the “Fun Day” the Ms. Toney was organizing at the David Rose Health Centre. On Monday, Allie, Kate, Haily and Janet ran several successful health awareness activities with the children inside, while Adam and Kevin organized a football (read: soccer, for those North American readers) tournament. There was much more interest than expected; more than 120 young men showed up to play! Organizing the athletes into teams and setting up the games for the single court was certainly a challenge. When the “Fun Day” came to a close, we were all exhausted from the long day of efforts. Once we arrived home to Rima’s and debriefed on the day’s events a group, we concluded that the day had been huge success! Enjoy the following photos from "Fun Day!"
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| How many food groups can you draw on one plate? Learning about nutrition. |
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| "Pats on the back" - the kids wrote with nice comments about their friends and peers on a paper hand. They looked great and made the kids feel great too, as they read so many nice comments! |
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| An informal lesson on self esteem. |
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| Kevin refereeing all 16 football games. |
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| Large turnout for the football game! |
For the final meal together, we made a home cooked dinner of rice and copious amounts of vegetables. This tends to be what we eat every Monday. We had a lovely weekend all together celebrating Guyana!
Lots of love,
ALL of QHO Guyana
Allie, Adam, Haily, Janet, Kevin and Kate