Few days of note in our first month in Aishalton

Hi Again

WE'VE BEEN IN AISHALTON EXACTLY ONE MONTH!!!!


As I promised at the end of my last blog, this blog is going to be dedicated to talking about a few of the days so far that spring to mind as being of note to describe. This is by no means an account of all we’ve done outside school.

Saturday 25th September-

This was an extremely busy day. After an early wake up, we attended a small Christian gathering at Sir Anthony (a very kind Primary teacher/ influential guy in the community) and his wife Renata’s house. Although it was interesting to see how the people practiced Christianity (Namely Roman Catholicism), being atheist ourselves we mainly went along to meet some more people and for the free breakfast afterwards!

Sir Anthony happened to be holding a Village Manaur, after the service which we joined eager to meet some more villagers and to get involved with village life. A Village Manaur is a kind of self help scheme with a twist: like back home, all work is voluntary and the work can be of any type, this is decided by the person who holds the Manaur. The twist is that heavy drinking is a major part of Village Manaurs. Para kari, a local drink made from fermented Cassava, is served by the women to the working men. If you accept the donation, it is your way of saying you will carry on working for a bit longer. Anyway this particular Manaur was digging a rubbish pit that was 6 foot deep...Work was good until about lunch time where the alcohol appeared to be kicking in on the guys and by about 2 pm everyone had stopped work and were sitting round chatting, eating and drinking heavily in the shade. Dave and I left at about 4 pm to go and learn to make some Roti Bread, but as a penance leaving early Dave was encouraged to play a couple of songs on the guitar to the drunken rabble, they loved his comedy and theatre. It was quite strange to see a teacher and our headmaster getting absolutely plastered, in the middle of the afternoon, but I think that’s just what happens out here... Who am I to question their practises?

Alison our neighbour taught us to make some Roti, and they also agreed to teach us how to make other Guyanese food next weekend as well.

In the evening, Dave and I went up to Burning Hills and chatted to uncle Roy who was at the manaur earlier who agreed to take us out fishing and hunting with him some time.



Thursday 30th September

This day was the end of Amerindian Heritage Month and so lessons were called off to go and watch the precessions that went on the whole day at the Sports Ground. Most acts performed were done by Wapishan people from Aishalton and surrounding villages and were mainly dances. If you’ve seen one dance, trust me, you have seen them all! After lunch I was asked to play in a football match for Aishalton against another village. We won 2-1. As it got late and proceedings drew to a close a lot of people just stayed round chatting. After a few glasses of Para Kari I was in the mood for the party which I had heard was going on past the Airstrip (a patch of flatted grass). It was about a 20 mins walk away but Chubes and a few cool guys were going as well so I didn’t end up getting lost. When I got there it took another glass of Kari before I was brave enough to try my hand at Faha Dancing (Brazilian Dancing). If I were to describe it I would say that it was a mixture of Salsa and just grinding. To be honest I was fairly terrible but at least I gave it a go. Unfortunately, I don’t think my two left feet will ever possess the co-ordination required to dance Faha. But I made it home in the end, so that was a success.



Sunday 3rd October

Sunday afternoon, James (an English guy who lived in Aishalton for 1 and ½) and his friend Kreda rocked up asking whether us and the Peace Corp Vols: Kristen and Chris, wanted to go see the Petro glyphs near Aishalton and to spend the watch the sunset at a local view point.... and thats exactly what we did. Both parts were amazing but I particularly enjoyed the lying on the sun heated rocks taking in first the setting sun and then the milky-way. Oh and driving through the Savannah standing on the back of the pickup truck, wind blowing through my hair was also pretty cool.

Monday 4th October

School inter-house swimming. Kikoi, my house lost pretty badly.

Thursday and Friday 7th-8th October

These days were really fun. The sports were held at the school grounds and it was nice to see so much support from parents, pupils, teachers and other village members alike. Everyone seems to love sports here, so naturally winning was deemed very important by all. Kikoi won the March element to the day, winning all three sections: Best uniform, Best Banner and Best Marching. I was so happy we won this section as I and the marching team had worked for numerous hours in the early mornings and after school to try and pip Odo’oda (the other house, prenounced Oohdow)... I also came up with the motto for our banner!

Anyway, Kikoi narrowly lost the main sports event, 333: 330 which Dave keeps reminding me about, but I only have to recount my clear victory over him in the 100 metre’s in front of the whole school to shut him up!!! Haha its only light hearted jokes though, we’re not at each others throat’s or anything.

So those are a few of the things that have gone on so far. Tomorrow Dave and I are heading to Awarewaunau for to watch the last few day of the Inter-schools competition for our region, The Deep South. This is where all the best athletes from all the villages in the region compete at: Swimming and Track and Field. We’ll probably stay there for a few days exploring and come back on Sunday but we’ll have to see.

I plan to post a few more little extracts, explaining various things like the layout of the village, also things like a bit more on our house and a ‘who’s who’ in the village.

If you have suggestions on something I haven’t explained very well ect.. just let me know by email.



Many thanks

Sam