Henry in Guyana

As I come towards my last 5 weeks in Guyana I thought I'd record a few thoughts about my experience so far. There's no doubt that this was worth doing - for me at least. I've had a whole load of experiences and challenges that I would never have otherwise had, and had a lot of good times. As time goes on however I often feel like the work I do is a little unorganised and not as effective as it could be. I came here essentially without a boss or a remit - a mercenary volunteer if you like, which is actually quite challenging. If I want to do some work, I have to create it, and this leaves me open a little to the risk of doing work for the sake of doing it, rather than if there is a real need. One of my aims in coming out here is identifying a possible placement for a future volunteer, but as yet I am not sure how this will materialise. There is certainly plenty of need in Guyana, but there does need to be a good structure to justify sending someone thousands of miles to do something. My own case was not so bad as firstly I did encounter some help at the start, and secondly I have personal reasons for being here. I think if I'd just turned up without much to do and no particular link to the country it would have been a lot harder.

The fun side - traveling, going to parties, and so on has been great. I will definitely miss the Guyanese evenings out on someone's balcony (sadly I don't have one) and the fun times I've had with other volunteer/development types here. The reason I sometimes feel disillusioned is that the thing I came here to do - work in IT (too broad a remit really) is entirely contingent on what I do, and so can be quite unsatisfying if I don't get much done. Party time is great, but only if there's good work to justify it. A significant amount of this is my responsibility - I'm responsible for making sure I get things done during the day, and finding things to do in the first place, but that doesn't mean it's easy. Nevertheless, facing such challenges will have been a great experience and hopefully will serve me well in the future.

In these final weeks I have now set up three four-part IT courses which I will be delivering to teachers at Mercy Wings (Beginner's IT, Intermediate IT and Using IT for teaching - do I know anything about this? I'd better learn quickly!) and I will be making sure everything at Saints is robust and well documented so it can continue to run well in the future.

Well the last six weeks have involved plenty of travel and holidaying but now I'm back in town for the foreseeable future and back to work. I mentioned in a previous post that I was interested to see what would happen at Saints if I disappear for two weeks - and fortunately it went without mishap. I had made an effort to leave some documentation and check that the technician I work with had everything in hand and it all worked out. A dry run, if you like, for when I leave in April; I am trying to avoid coming in to set something up that will only fall apart when I leave.

In fact the work at Saints is going well and we have a good platform for building up the facilities and ultimately their education benefit, so I will soldier on. I also saw another side of Saints on Friday - one of the teachers put on a Spanish afternoon - Cafe Caribe, which involved small tables being set out in the forum and a number of performances on stage. There were several Spanish presentations and poems, and a number of dance acts which were all very impressive. Two couples wowed the crowd with some quite enthusiastic dancing and there was one group act of about 12 people which was quite outstanding. Apparently they had only spent two weeks preparing but it came off very professionally. Some of the people I associate with are a bit skeptical of what goes on at Saints and it is easy for that to rub off - but it is a vibrant and lively place with some very talented and intelligent students - which showed at Cafe Caribe. They also gave me some cake, and free food always improves my opinion. As well as the dancers a group of about 15 boys from the 4th or 5th form (I think) sang a couple of songs - including "La Cucaracha" which was very funny to see. There were some good costumes too - unfortunately I wasn't armed with my camera (myself and the technician were forcibly escorted form the IT lab to our table by two chicas) but I did manage to get hold of some photos.

On Wednesday I took another trip to Mercy Wings school, where they are hoping to install a network and increase the usage of their (fairly decent) IT lab which is only used for a few hours a week currently. I have said I will help with this, and I also hope to do some work to encourage/guide the use of the facilities to help with teaching. A while ago I wrote about a trip to Mocha where I was planning to help with some community IT project; the problem there is that I would not have time to set something up from scratch that could be sustainable, particularly given that I have never done anything like that before. Mercy Wings has good facilities already so all it would really need my enthusiasm which I hope to lend over the coming months.

Last night I was invited to a lime (read drinking session) with my landlady who lives upstairs which was quite fun, and her daughter who had just returned from the UK presented some Wine Gums and Jelly Babies for the snacks bowl - both things you can't get here so I had plenty with the ensuing sugar low.

Not many photos this time unfortunately, I shall have to do some more scenic activities for the next post. Also my mum (who is British) arrives in town on Wednesday for her first trip to Guyana in 25 years so it will be interesting to see what she thinks of it after all this time...

Things are heating up on the musical front - I'm accompanying the Saints choir of 11-13 year olds who are singing a couple of carols at the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols at Brickdam Cathedral tomorrow night. This should be quite jolly but I'm afraid to say that the past few nights have involved many wasted hours sitting in the Cathedral waiting our turn. We have been doing run-throughs with the other acts but we are always told to arrive at 6:30 and then sing for 5 minutes at 8:30 and go home. I'm not sure why everyone doesn't have specific rehearsal times, and the Saints students are incredibly patient given that they are sitting around for so long. I imagine they must have very patient parents too as a number come along as it is late for children to be out alone.

Having said all this, the event should be good and I'm looking forward to it - the piano has been tuned so the most important notes now work (apparently it fell over a couple of times recently) and Saints are sounding good. The Cathedral itself is very grand and well kept, although the acoustic is a bit too open for singing. The pipe organ is sadly out of commission but there is a good electric organ that mostly works except for a few stops and buttons which were apparently taken out by a power surge.

With a population in the region of 700,000 Guyana can be considered a bit of a "small world" which I have been reminded of a few times. Last week I was invited to play the piano at someone's house (who I didn't know) which I accepted. Then I had to turn down an invitation to go to dinner at someone's house as it was at the same time. The fact that both were at the same time aroused my suspicions, which were confirmed when I arrived and learned that it was one and the same house! My presence was also preceded by this blog which the hostess had already read - it seems to be going around the Guyanese diaspora and coming back in to Guyana which I am pleased to hear. This map of recent visits shows a little about its readership, I just need to work on Africa and Russia now.


The following day I went along to Woodside Choir, which from what I gather is the one of the best choirs (at least in the classical tradition) in Guyana and possibly the only one that tackles four-part harmony. It was very jolly and resembled a small choral society you might find in the UK. I was again reminded of the size of the place as someone there who I had never met already knew who I was as she was coming to a lunch with me the next day. She also knew my father, and it's always nice to meet people who remember him. The rehearsals are held at Bishops' High School which like Saints is seen as a top school, and from my brief visit it looked well kept and well equipped. I will be away for the Woodside concert this term but hope to join in after New Year, and there are a number of very musical people in it who I am sure will be useful people to know. Making the effort to meet people and put myself out there is definitely paying off...

In a previous post I mentioned a chap I have met who runs a charity called Troopers of Charity and wants to set up a community IT project in the town of Mocha, with a population of 6,000 and about 6 miles from Georgetown. On Wednesday I went with him to have a look to see what it was like and whether such a plan would be feasible.

Mocha wasn't far from what I expected, smaller, more rural and sadly poorer than Georgetown. There is a large canal which was originally dug by slave labour along the road in to Mocha which was interesting to see. I visited the primary school there, which was much like other schools I have seen, although when I was taken into a classroom all of the children stood up and without prompting said in unison "Good afternoon sir, welcome to class 6 plums". Or maybe it was prunes. Anyway apparently each class has a fruit name to make it more interesting - it was a very friendly welcome.


The reason I visited the school was to have a look at the room where they might host computers, which was not bad; a concrete room with power and burglar bars. The Mocha community could certainly do with an IT program as very few are IT literate, and at first I was very enthusiastic. On reflection however it has become clear that I cannot make this happen in the time I have. The chap at the charity is not really equipped to run this project, so I would have to be fundraiser, manager, and tutor. Whilst this would help satisfy my relentless narcissism I only have 5 months which is not enough to train enough people to run the facility effectively. Not to mention the fact that I have no knowledge of how to teach IT skills or run such a community project.

It's a shame to not be able to help here as everyone I met was very enthusiastic, but without a guarantee of people skilled enough to manage and maintain such a project once I leave, I fear (and have been warned that) it would all go to waste.

After the school visit we walked around a bit more, and as with other places there are cows and goats just wandering around. I think they all have owners, but they seem to just cruise around the streets and gardens minding their own business, ignoring people entirely.


The bus back to Georgetown was a typical bus with a rastaman driver (every culture and race has a nickname here, some of which are probably only appropriate at certain times), classic 80's soundtrack and a green graffiti interior with "Soulja Boy" written on the roof. I haven't been on many buses but I find them quite entertaining as people are piled in and constantly shuffled by the conductor as people get in and out. Having said that, I am told long journeys squashed up against large smelly people are not so much fun.

This week has been reasonably peaceful - work at Saints is going ahead very well. I've mentioned before the problem that they only have a 384k internet connection (the residential standard in the UK used to be 512k, now it goes from 2Mb upwards) shared between about 40 computers. When multiple computers connect to the internet through such a connection the results are unpredictable, often with one user hogging all the bandwidth (through no fault of their own) and sometimes leaving a practically unusable service for the rest.

We have now installed a proxy/caching server which allows us to:

• Restrict the bandwidth available to each user, so no individual can take too much
• Monitor the websites users are visiting - and manipulate their bandwidth. During busy times for example, we can block or slow down "non-essential" sites like Facebook and Hi5 as downloading all those pictures doesn't really help with anyone's work. Slowing down the connection to these sites allows more speed for other users.
• Cache web content - in other words save web pages locally (and automatically). This means that every time someone visits a site, if someone else has visited it within a given timeframe they are served a local copy. Instead of 30 fresh connections to yahoo.com, there's just one and the rest use the same copy

Last week was really quite busy - my efforts in meeting as many people as possible and milking every contact have started paying off. I have been rehearsing with the Saints choir accompanying them on the piano which is fun although some parts are a bit tricky. We had a rehearsal in the Cathedral (Catholic) the other day but unfortunately we had to wait 90 minutes for another group to finish and then it turned out all the important notes on the piano didn't quite work so everything was a little messy. Practicing is a bit of a challenge as I have access to the piano in school but there are usually people wandering around chatting, and when I start practicing somehow small children emerge along with a conductor and it becomes a full blown rehearsal pretty quickly.

On Friday I went to a comedy show at the National Culture Centre, a nice building with air conditioning and a big auditorium with room for at least a few hundred people. The show was good, although I'm not sure if it's my ears but they overdo the treble on the speakers here which I found occasionally a bit painful. Anyway there were some satirical songs and sketches, some about quite current and controversial events. A significant number of jokes revolved around people stealing each other's wives/husbands and who is who's father/sister and so on. Anyway it was a good evening, even if some of the Creolese eluded me..

The following night I felt a bit like I had stepped into another world; I went to a party at a house in a gated community, and as you drive in you can feel the difference in atmosphere. Despite the guard seeming not to bother who was coming in the streets were clean, had proper pavements, the trenches didn't smell and all of the houses were in good condition - it was a bit like an idyllic American suburb. The party itself was good with excellent buffet food (which I always make the most of) and waiters serving drinks faster than you can drink them. I gather that there are compounds like this around Guyana, where businessmen and so on live, and it was a glimpse into a side of Guyanese living that I haven't seen much of so far. There was still plenty of Guyana about it though, with big speakers playing music late into the night which I imagine the stuffier communities further north would not enjoy quite so much.

Then came Sunday, when I went limeing (that's drinking) out of the back of a 4x4 with some Guyanese people I know which was fun, although not too late as most of us had work the next morning. What was quite amusing was that a couple of them had young children who spent most of the time jumping around in the 4x4 and seemed to be having a great time. Someone felt a drop of rain and immediately everyone ran for cover - in England when you feel a drizzle you might think about moving but things aren't likely to be too bad. Here if you feel a drizzle you'd better get under shelter quickly because the heavens are about to open.

Changing tack a little, a chap I met recently runs a small charity called Troopers of Charity, which from what I gather holds occasional events to help the poor, raising money for equipment for the disabled and distributing food. Anyway I have agreed to have a go at the website, and there is a plan to set up a small IT lab to help teach some children to use computers which could be quite empowering for them. My work at Saints is going well and I hope will help, but having spent some time in Guyana St. Stanislaus is relatively speaking a very privileged environment. I have time to give, so perhaps there is an opportunity to get involved in a project to make a far-reaching difference. I imagine I will write more about this in the future...

It's been a busy few days again, I have just returned from playing the piano at a rehearsal for the St. Stanislaus College choir, made up of 11-13 year olds mainly. I am not really an experienced accompanist so it will take a little work, but tomorrow we are rehearsing in the Cathedral which should be fun. I have yet to come across any pianos in really good condition, most are fairly tired uprights that don't quite hold their tuning and it goes down from there. Both the Catholic and Anglican Cathedrals have magnificent-looking organs, but I haven't heard either of them; I hope they are in good condition but I think organs cost hundreds of thousands of pounds to refurbish so they may also be a little tired.

On Friday I attended sports day which was quite a jolly affair. It is run by the school governors and as a result was quite a slick operation. There was a varying level of support from the teachers, but there was a good number who really threw themselves into it which was appreciated by the students.

The atmosphere was very strong - much more than the sports days I have attended. It was held at the former national cricket ground, where in its prime a number of cricket stars played. The event began with a very impressive march past, where each of the four houses had a team of dressed-up marchers who had to march in time and parade in front of some judges (complete with drummers who may have been from the army). Have a look at this video which captures a bit of the atmosphere. I'd actually seen some rehearsing at school but not really understood why a small girl was bossing a load of others around in the assembly forum.

Once this was over the main competition began which contained all the usual events. There were some hotly contested teachers races too (which got the crowd roaring), as well as some more fun ones including tug-of-war, sack races and my favourite - late for school. This race involved perhaps some of the less athletic students starting in just their shorts and a vest. At the starting pistol they had to get dressed from a pile of clothes with shirts, ties, shoelaces etc all sorted and make it to the finish line.

All in all it was really a good day out and most importantly the students seemed to enjoy themselves and have a great competitive spirit. Hopefully in the future it can be as successful as an entirely staff-run event.

This week myself and a VSO teacher have twice visited Mercy Wings school on the outskirts of Georgetown, a school started by nuns for young people (15-20) who for one reason or other haven't got on with the state education system. It is a charity and therefore not government funded, and is what we might consider to be a technical or vocational college. Students are referred to as trainees, and study a range of subjects including plumbing and construction as well as English and maths.

Whatever impression I had of St. Stanislaus (which despite its faults is a leading state school), things are very different here. The facilities themselves are good, with well kept buildings and a very good IT lab. As well as this, from my very brief visits it seems like many of the staff there are genuinely keen to help. Unfortunately, few or none of them are trained teachers and this affects things a great deal. Things like lesson plans, goals and so on are non-existent (as far as I can see) and I gather that some lessons involve little more than spelling tests. I observed a 2 hour IT lesson today where the students spent the entire time on a learn-to-type program. It is good that they appreciate how to type, but this was their second ever lesson and it would be nice to see them learn how to word process and so on. The classed ranged from the obviously au fait to the entirely computer illiterate. It is likely that some of the students suffer from learning difficulties of some kind and a number are illiterate.

Things did seem at times a bit dire, although during the lesson we heard some drumming, and downstairs there was a music lesson going on with some very lively bongo-bonanza style drumming going amongst a group of trainees. This was very impressive, although the classrooms all have wooden walls with slats on either side - I'm not sure anyone else in the school could teach during that!

Despite a good IT facility, many of the teachers are not computer literate and it stands perhaps as a good opportunity for me to go in and make a real difference. I will have to consider carefully how to, if I do, go about such a project. As far as I can gather the IT room is only open two days a week so even an informal club with some fun things would be worth doing. Mercy Wings seems like perhaps many places in the developing world - there is money available to help with equipment from outside donors, but with the wage rate and emigration (brain drain), well trained staff are hard to find.

Not much other news - the project at Saints is moving along, I finally attended volunteer frisbee in the park on Wednesday (which was great fun) and despite promises from the power company for consistent power from Nov. 5th, blackouts are still common (and particularly annoying when you are trying to get something done!)

On Monday I went to NCERD, a branch of the Ministry of Education responsible for educational resources. Whilst there I bumped into a collection of British 5 VSOs, they were very friendly and have put me in touch with some of the volunteer community in Guyana. The following evening I went to a cafe where Brits tend to hang out and met some more. It was nice after being here for a bit to have a chat to some people from home; most of these are on a 2 year placement which is quite a commitment. I have yet to make Ultimate Frisbee in the park on Wednesday afternoons which sounds great fun.

NCERD has a stock of 600 computers to roll out providing IT labs for 150 computer labs across the country, which I hope to be able to help out with and should give me a great opportunity to travel around. In fact I had my first opportunity on Wednesday with a trip to Region 5 to re-install the software on a load of computers. If you have been to the cinema this summer you would be forgiven for thinking that this is where the Guyanese keep their prawns, but in fact Guyana is divided into a number of regions, this one to the East of Georgetown.

The NCERD technician and I got in a car to Region 5 - this was like a bus but in car form, in that the car drivers are quite aggressive in getting passengers. Anyway, we managed to fill the car and he drove quite safely for about 90 minutes all the way to the Berbice. It was pretty hot, but fortunately I was by the window and got a chance to take a few pictures. In fact the journey was quite spectacular, we passed some very fancy houses, some run down ones and at some points just thick palm trees on both sides. There seem to be animals wandering around a lot of the time - I assume they have owners but even in Georgetown there seems to be the odd horse just wandering; on this road it was cows.

Continuing with the Region 5 theme, the school we visited was in the charismatically named No. 8 village, and as such was No. 8 school. It was a small primary school with a similar design to St. Stanislaus although smaller and quite well kept. The IT room was actually very impressive - all of the computers had backup power supplies so when we had blackouts (and we had a few short ones) they didn't turn off. This is very handy when installing Windows.

Once the job was done we were driven to the bus stop - and were stopped by the police. However after a brief look in the car and the boot we were waved on - I think this was to do with recent events in Guyana. After this we caught a bus, and had another spectacular drive, this time in the sunset, through the palm trees along the road back to Georgetown. I look forward to further adventures out of town...

Monday was my first day at St. Stanislaus College - not far from where I am staying and has around 550 students. It is made up of old wooden colonial buildings but like many of these buildings in Georgetown they have degraded over time and the wood is hard to keep looking smart. There is a feel when walking around of what it once was, but sadly no longer is. The chipped paint, broken windows and messy classrooms I imagine cause the quality of teaching and student interest to be reduced, which is a shame.

However, this is a problem of adequate funding, and having said all that Saints, as it is known, is a lively and in parts well equipped place. The IT rooms, of which there are two, are air conditioned and have a good number of working computers with a shared 384kbps internet connection. It will be a while before I have the measure of the place but projects I may be involved with include setting up a central file server with individual accounts and teaching various computer skills to staff (Office, internet use etc). There is a serious problem with power - there is no power for a few hours at least every other day; on Monday the power was out all morning, and on Tuesday it went out in the afternoon during a lesson. It was an interesting experience as whilst a large group of students worked in pairs on the computers, the lights, screens and air conditioning to drop out at once. Fortunately it was nearly lunch time so the students enjoyed a longer break.

 
I haven't achieved much yet but I have only been there for two days, and it will take me a while to understand how everything works. There seems to be the usual misunderstandings and political issues that exist in any institution and I must tread carefully for now. I will also have to learn a fair amount of technology myself to get it all going with the help of another technician in the department but I hope to make a significant contribution during my stay.