"Are you excited?"

So naturally, I as I tell people what I'm going to be doing for the next year, I get asked a few questions over and over again.  After "why?" (with accompanying look of bewilderment) and "so is that in Africa?" I get asked if I'm excited.  And usually I say yes.  But the reality of the situation is that I wasn't really all that excited up until a few days ago.  I have trouble getting excited for big trips when I don't really know what I'm getting myself into.  It probably has something to do with the human brain not being very good at predicting the future.  It just didn't really seem real that I was going to be in Guyana in less than a month's time.  Well today I found out where I'll be placed, and got to read a letter from the WorldTeach volunteer who's currently at my future school.


I'll be living in the town of Anna Regina, on the Essequibo coast.

Anna Regina is about 2.5 hours north of Georgetown.  To get there you have to take a short boat ride, a taxi/mini-bus, a speedboat ride and another taxi/mini-bus.  Because things run on Guyana time, this process can take up to 3.5 hours.  The town is the regional capital, which means it has things like an internet cafe, a grocery store, a hotel, a few restaurants, a hardware store and allegedly the world's best hotdogs (this will be investigated).  So it looks like you'll be getting semi-frequent blog posts, dear reader.  Lucky you.  For me, it means that I'll have access to American toiletries, will be able to better convince my parents that I'm not dead and should have running water some of the time.  Lucky me.

The school where I'll be teaching in Anna Regina is named the Anna Regina Multilateral High School (ARMS for short).  I'll be teaching some combination of math, physics and chemistry.  Hopefully not chemistry, because chemistry is awful.  My inside source tells me that outside of Georgetown schools, ARMS is probably the best school in Guyana.  He also said that probably isn't as good as it sounds, but is encouraging nonetheless.  I'll be working with another WorldTeach volunteer, Keith, who I know absolutely nothing about.  The ARMS website is an excellent source for Blingee-d school images, access to a "CARIBBEAN SUPER MIX," which can serve to "make this moment happy, it will increase your chances of having the next moment happy," and a case study of late 1990's-style web development.

I think those are the main details for now, and with only a few days left, I really am starting to get excited.  I hope I have enough time this week to get everything together.