New Year, back to school and off again
Since I returned from Lethem things have been quite busy on the social front; the three Canadians I went to the ranch with were in Georgetown so we spent most evenings socialising with various bits of the volunteer community and sampling Guyanese nightlife. On New Year's Eve - called Old Year's Night here, we went to a party at a diplomat's house along with 150 other people which was great fun. I ended up wandering into a new group of people and later we went to another party which was still going strong when we arrived at 4am. Finally we headed to someone else's house and watched the sun rise on their balcony before heading home for 8am and a good sleep. Naturally it's warm enough to be outside all night - from the news it looks like it's a very different story in the UK!
Life is returning somewhat to normal now and term has just started. However I'm about to head off on another adventure - this time a survival course in the jungle where I will learn to build a shelter, light a fire, kill my own food and do other cool stuff. After spending around 10 days learning what to do, you are then placed in isolation with a machete and some flint to fend for yourself for three days, finding your own food and water etc. I'm pretty excited about it - since I arrived I have wanted to see what the jungle is really like, I'm about to find out! I'm also heading to Kaieteur falls as part of the package which everyone says is a must-see so I'm looking forward to that also.
Bushmasters, the company running the trip, provides all the equipment but suggest that you bring a headtorch for night time (I don't think there are any streetlights out there.) I've hunted around Georgetown for a while with no luck so I'll just have to manage with a standard torch unless someone lends me one. The reason I mention it is that despite my normal experience of indifferent customer service here, I was pleasantly surprised that upon asking in a store the person I asked a) made the effort to call someone to ask if they had it in stock and b) gave me a number of suggestions as to where I could find some (without me even asking). It turns out if you go to the right places people know how to get their customers to come back. This store, Giftland Officemax, has a good reputation among other things stocks a huge selection of DVDs which I have spent a reasonable amount of time perusing. They didn't have any headtorches though.
I'll be heading into the bush during term time, which on the one hand is not so convenient (but the only time I could go) on the other hand it will be a chance to see if everything will work without me there to keep an eye on it. I've spent this last week preparing proper documentation for the systems we have in place and ensuring the technician I work with has everything in hand. I'm treating it as a bit of a dry run for when I leave; a standard problem for volunteer types I think is to come and set up some whizz-bang system and then leave without anyone knowing how to maintain it (or even what it does...) Anyway I hope not to do that, so we shall see how the next few weeks go.
Provided I am not eaten by a Jaguar, Anaconda, Cayman, bitten by a venomous snake or die of starvation I'll be back in a couple of weeks with plenty of pictures and stories to tell. Until next time...