The Countdown begins in Georgetown

Welcome back friends, family and followers!

As we sit around Rima's Guesthouse, our home away from home, planning for this upcoming week's teaching lessons we begin to realize that our journey is soon coming to an end. Keeping in mind our final two weeks in Georgetown we plan to make the most of our time here (you can't get rid of us just yet Guyana)! We have had an incredible adventure so far and we cannot wait to share this past week's events with everyone closely following our blogs at home.

To start off the week, we had a jam packed teaching day at Chase Academy where we taught Form 1, 2, 3 and 4. Chase Academy had been writing exams the previous week so we were thrilled to get right back into the classrooms and continue our lessons there. Since the beginning of our QHO teaching program here in Guyana we have modified our teaching style along the way. This past week we honed in on discussion based lessons. We find this method extremely effective because it removes the impression of "lecturing at students" and instead allows us to integrate the student's opinion on the selected topics. We like to organize the class by forming a circle whereby we can discuss the information as we teach the more serious topics such as drug abuse, alcohol abuse and mental health--we even had some students share stories which was great to see!  

Thursdays are one of our favourite/busiest days in Georgetown. We start off our mornings with our weekly television special on NTN This Morning where we taught about drugs, alcohol and substance abuse. Our first few sessions were difficult to get the hang of but we are getting much more comfortable in front of the T.V! Some of us still burst into laughter when the camera gets a bit too close... After NTN This Morning the crew taught at RBI and had a successful lesson on drug use. The students seemed to know a lot of information and had some great questions about the effects of drug abuse.

The four of us at the NTN This Morning station.

Before heading off to David Rose Centre for an after-school lesson, the girls treated themselves to Brusters Ice Cream, our favourite treat yet! We have definitely been taking advantage of the ice cream here in Georgetown, especially on sweaty humid days. We are hoping for a Brusters to open in Canada but are realizing our dreams may not come true... David Rose Centre is an after-school youth space for low income families where youth can go to play with friends and stay out of potential trouble. We had a lot of fun getting to know the kids better, they have so much energy!

On Friday, when we usually have our separate Sophia classes with Marni and Colleen teaching one and Steve and Casey teaching another, we combined our class for the day. Marni and Colleen taught about the effects of drug use, abuse and addiction while Steve and Casey taught about alcohol abuse and alcoholism. It was great to teach all four of us together for a change, but we had a quite a big audience to impress this time! Friday ended with another successful day at Ruimveldt. We played games, read books and coloured. We continue to establish long-lasting relationships with the children at Ruimveldt and are dreading our good-byes next week as the days approach.

The kids at Ruimveldt getting ready for dinner.

On Saturday Ali and Eric made their way to Georgetown where the six of us reunited! After a great lunch and catching up, the girls (Marni, Colleen, Casey and Ali) headed out to Region Street for some shopping and girl time, while the boy (Steve and Eric) shopped for themselves and "crushed a workout" or how the girls like to call it "stinking up Rima's". We then met back up at Rima's and went for a fancy dinner, realizing the next time we are all together is the Friday we leave Guyana.

Sunday morning was a slow start, though Casey and Colleen made the efforts to wake up for 7:30am church. What they didn't realize was that church mass was going to be 2 and a half hours (not the typical 1 hour mass in Canada). Around noon, we boarded the bus and headed for the local airport to head out to Kaieteur Falls. After a rocky hour flight, we finally made it! The hikes from one look out point to another were amazing. Steve conquered his fears of heights while Marni had no fears at all standing and looking over the edge. It was such a great adventure for all of us and we enjoyed every minute of it.

The six of us on the ledge of the falls!

Standing by the falls!

As Ali and Eric headed back to Berbice on Monday, the Georgetown team got right back into their weekly routine. We taught at Chase and went back to David Rose for a lesson on motivation and self esteem. We are so thankful to be able to share the knowledge and information with the children of Guyana.

We are taking it all in before we have to start saying our goodbyes next week. The girls have loved going for walks around the town and along the sea wall exploring the scenery. We are enjoying every last minute we have here while we can because we know we will miss Guyana when we're back home.

Marni, Casey and Colleen by the sea wall.

Sending all our love,

The Georgetown Team
Marni, Steve, Colleen and Casey