We're back from Berbice!
Hello Everyone!
Wow time has flown since we last posted, yesterday marked our two week anniversary in Georgetown- we can't believe it!
Last Saturday we left for Berbice making the two hour car journey through the beautiful countryside to the rest of our team. We spent most of our week there while we waited for elections and the results to be finalized and released- the opposition is now the new party in power, We find it very exciting to be in Guyana while the country is experiencing it's first regime change since 1992.
It was so lovely to meet some of the Letterkenny kids that the Berbice team spends their time with. Last Sunday they took us all to the seaside to show us their beach, we had so much fun trying to race them through the sinking clay sand that afternoon! Through the rest of the week we lay low and spent lots of time together lesson planning, and preparing an agenda for our upcoming workshop on Mental Health. We will be partnering with the Guyana Foundation to train a group of young professionals from Georgetown on how to talk about and teach mental health to their communities. We're super excited about this project, as it allows us to pass on the resources we have to continue the conversation and break the stigma that surrounds mental health. In helping to initiate a support system here we hope to contribute to the sustainability of the QHO Guyana initiative during the rest of the year when we are not present.
On Friday we made it back to Georgetown in the early afternoon, just in time to experience the beginning of monsoon season in the city. We witnessed our first major rainfall in Georgetown, and since then it has become quite a frequent yet spontaneous occurrence! No amount of rain could keep us from Rumveldt though, it was so wonderful to see and play with the kids on Friday. Even after such a short period of time, we feel so strongly connected to them, and are happy to be back to our regular schedule.
This upcoming week we will be focusing on puberty on TV and in many of our classes, so we are lesson planning the day away in preparation for classes that will starting up again tomorrow. Looking forward to a busy week ahead, and being reunited with the Berbice team next weekend for our day trip to Kaiteur Falls!
Happy May Long Weekend to all of our friends and family back home!
Anna, Maddy, Jesse & Ali