Fruit Quiz

Fruits in Guyana are a little different. Consider this part 1 of your education.

The picture below contains a lemon, a lime and a wild cherry pepsi can (imported from america - woo corn syrup). Which is which?

answer after the jump

Exams Part 2

Here's another couple of exam week nuggets:

1. So the kids all get photocopied tests, but write their answers on their own pieces of paper. I'd already collected this one guy's paper, and he was writing on the back of his exam paper, which is fine. They're bored. I get it. But then it starts drawing a lot of attention, and he's sitting in the back of the classroom, so it must be interesting. Also all the kids sit at these double-wide desks, so its the kid (who's in 8th grade) and a 7th grade girl from a different class. Anyway, I walk back, and he's drawing but (somewhat skillfully) covering it up with his hand. So I let him go for a while, but eventually take it up. There was some crude drawing of something resembling a naked lady or something. Nothing too outrageous, but probably what was causing the commotion. What caught my eye was something else though. He had written:

Hello, my name is Vivekanand Mangar and I am in 8-1. I don't have a girlfriend because I have a big head."

Its possible he didn't actually write it (could have been the girl), but I kind of had a hard time keeping a straight face for the rest of the exam period. I did quietly mention to him that his head wasn't really all that big, and he'd probably grow into it in a few years. Ah to be young again...


2. Unrelated excellent answers to a question:

Q: List three things you should do to take care of your eyes.

A: Never rub your eye with your eye.

A: If you have something in your eye, ask someone to blow it out for you.

Exams

This week is exam week. I was fortunate enough that my largest group of students (5 9th grade science classes) took my exam on Monday, so I've had plenty of work this week but will be able to finish my marking early. One of the topics we covered this term was atomic bonding, both covalent and ionic. Students were asked to identify some bonds.

Some have a little trouble with spelling, so I got some nice answers:

Convection bonding - we did talk about heat transfer and convection this term

Iconic bonding - Michael Jackson and Michael Jordan hanging out, making music videos.

Ironic bonding - I like to picture atoms sitting in a dive bar with tallboy PBRs and trucker hats, complaining about how nobody knows the actual definition of irony.

Guyanese Things: Drinking

Drinking

Guyana is home to some of the world's best rum. El Dorado 5 Year has won a lot of awards, and you can get a .75 L bottle for about $5. Some rudimentary research online suggests that you can get it in the US for about $30 a bottle. However, all the guys I hang out with prefer to drink vodka. And that same $5 will get you a bottle of vodka here, the locally made Ivanoff. I don't think anyone has ever considered giving it a medal for anything. It is pretty terrible. But the guys, for some reason, love it. I reached my breaking point with the Ivanoff a while ago, so I've had to try alternative strategies. Buying rum for myself works ok, but usually ends up with me getting really drunk, so that's a method that can only be strategically deployed. Another alternative is to drink beer. There are two (well really three) problems with this. Firstly, the beer is, relatively speaking, expensive. $1.50 a beer doesn't sound like much, but when you can get 3 beers for the price of a bottle of liquor, its hard to justify the cost on my meager living allowance. Secondly, you get dirty looks if you're drinking beer while everyone else is drinking hard liquor (aside: for some reason Guyanese call all liquor "rum," like "we should drink some Smirnoff tonight, its really good rum.") But I have found that if I drink Guinness, I get some respect. Much to the detriment of my liquidity, I've been drinking more Guinness. Here's a quick rundown of the beers in Guyana and what I think about them.

Guinness - This isn't your run of the mill, bread-in-a-bottle Guinness. This is the Foreign Extra Stout breed, a 7.5% abv beast that actually has some flavor. The flavor isn't all that great, but you can taste some hops and toasted barley. Its definitely my favorite beer here, though it'll sneak up on you.

Banks - This is the national beer of Guyana. Its a pretty typical Caribbean lager - not much taste, but pretty good when cold. It's the Budweiser of Guyana.

  
Carib - Another lager, this one made in Trinidad. Less flavor than Banks. I don't really like it all that much. Unlike Banks, bottles are not recycled. I think the lack of hassle with deposits and the ability to throw your bottles anywhere when you're finished (which I think is a bit of a national pastime here) are reasons for its popularity.

Parbo - Surinamese beer. Nominally a pilsner. Does have a little pilsner-y bite, which is nice. Probably my second favorite beer.




Banks Light - ugh.

Banks Premium - Banks regular is made with rice. Banks Premium is made with surgar. Why? Sometimes a place will have Banks Premium drink specials, but that's pretty much it.

Mackeson - A stout from the Carib people. More like normal Guiness. Not much alcohol, kind of sweet. I usually don't bother, but its tolerable.

There's some other beer, but that's about all that I've had. The third problem with beer that I alluded to above is, as you can see, the options are pretty limited. One of the things I'm missing the most food/drink wise is real beer. Hops and flavor and all that stuff is in pretty short supply here. At least the rum is good.

March Newsletter

March Newsletter

Despite trying the opposite of my usual March Madness strategy
(painstaking research vs. watching 0 college basketball games), I
managed to whiff on all 4 of my Final 4 picks. Maybe I should have
gone by uniform color or mascot.  March (I can't believe its already
almost over) has been a busy month school-wise, and also life-wise.
Here's a little peek into some recent holiday activities.

Mashramani
I had planned on going to Georgetown for Mashramani, where I was
assured the festivities would be "more bright" than those in Anna
Regina. Unfortunately, most of coastal Guyana experienced heavy rains
and flooding during the week leading up to Mash. Mash was on
Wednesday, and we actually had to cancel school on Tuesday at ARMS
because water had entered the building. The water came within about
1/2 an inch from our front doorstep, but luckily receded. Because
Georgetown also experienced some flooding and isn't the cleanest city
even the best of times, I decided just to stay in Anna Regina. Keith
did go to town and had a great time. He was even on tv.

As I might have mentioned before, Mash is sort of a combined Republic
Day and Brazilian/Trinidadian Carnivale. In Anna Regina, there were
about 5 different groups representing government organizations,
private businesses, etc., all in various costumes. Through a friend in
the education office, I was able to "mash" with the Region 2
Department of Education. We had spray painted t-shirts and some
headgear. There was a parade that covered probably 3 miles in the
midday heat (I was exhausted and sunburned at the end), terminating at
the Anna Regina car park (the community cricket ground was unusuable
due to the rain). We marched and danced down the road, and everyone
came out of their houses to watch us. It was really cool to see my
students and a few other people from the community that I know. I
think some were pretty surprised to see me. After the parade and a
dance-off, a few fellow teachers and I went back to the education
office to escape from the heat. Events continued at the car park for
the rest of the afternoon and into the night. We returned to the car
park that evening for a few more drinks.

It was a pretty late night for a school night! For some reason the
school decided to have parent-teacher conferences the day after Mash.
This was good for me, because not many parents showed up, so it was a
low-key day. The parents that did show up were in for a surprise, as I
had dyed my hair red for the parade and didn't have a chance to get it
re-colored. One of the teachers has a friend who is a hairdreser, so
she gave us some nice hairstyles for the parade. None of the parents
said anything about my red stripe, but I did get some funny looks. The
headmaster quietly asked me to take care of the situation on Friday.
Not sure if anyone complained, but I guess as a teacher you're
expected to look professional for school. It was a fun week.

Phagwah
Phagwah is the Hindu celebration of colors. It also marks the
beginning of spring and the new year on the Hindu calendar. There are
some stories about how it came to be, but I wasn't able to get a clear
picture. Anyway, Phagwah is a big holiday, especially here on the
Essequibo Coast where there is a high Indo-Guyanese population.
Fortunately, the holiday fell on a weekend this year, so I was able to
invite some of the other WorldTeach teachers to come visit. 5 in all
came to say with Keith and me for the weekend. We had planned on
visiting the lake one day, but the weather didn't cooperate. We did
get to attend a temple that one of the teachers goes to for Phagwah
celebrations. There was a religious ceremony, everyone had a nice
lunch (pumpkin curry and potato curry, yum), and then the fun started.
The "celebration of colors" bit of Phagwah manifests itself with white
and colored powder. I'm not sure if the colored powder serves any
other purpose during the rest of the year, but for Phagwah, everyone
gets some and walks around throwing and rubbing it all over everyone
else. Its a really social experience. Everyone was really excited to
"play Phagwah" with us, I think mostly because they liked the way the
colors looked on our (mostly white) skin. Children also use squirt
guns and dye to escalate the color throwing. I think my shorts are
permanently stained. The powder got everywhere. That night we had a
proper housewarming party, which was really great.

Unfortunately everyone had to go home on Monday, the actual day off
from school, because they had to teach on Tuesday. There was a big
Phagwah event at the community cricket ground. More people, cultural
dances and singing and much much more powder. I'm still finding it in
between my toes and behind my ears. As great as it was to go to the
temple on Sunday, I had just as much fun at the bigger community
event. I've often wished that I could become more a part of the
community, not just the school and the school compound, and seeing all
my students and new friends and being able to just walk up to them and
smear color all over their faces (I didn't emphasize this enough, you
really rub your hands all over everyone's face) was really satisfying.
Afterward, a few of us went with the hairdresser and her sister (who's
actually one of my best students) to the outfall of one of the lakes,
where we did our best to get all the powder off. The past few weeks
have been really great here in Anna Regina, I feel like I'm starting
to fit in and make some real connections, and this Phagwah weekend was
definitely the highlight. I can't believe how fast the year has gone
by. Fortunately, the third term will be a little less demanding
teaching-wise, so I hope I can continue to enjoy my last few months
here in Guyana.

Easter Vacation
We get a 2 week break for Easter. A few other WorldTeah teachers and I
are going into the interior for most of it. We'll be going to Lethem,
a town on the Brazilian border, for the huge rodeo they have there
each year at Easter. We're also going to visit an eco-lodge and
Kaiteur Falls, the world's largest single drop waterfall. Should be a
lot of fun.

I'll be putting up some photos of the events throughout the week.

Bicycle

So I finally broke down and bought a bicycle. This metallic beauty (named Oscar because that's the brand, I'm so original) only cost me $13,500 (about $75 US). I don't live far from town proper, maybe a half mile, but the bike makes it much easier to get there and back, and I've been using it a lot. Its also much easier to carry stuff to and from the market, etc, so I've been really happy with it in general. However, because its basically the world's cheapest bicycle, there have been some issues. I was riding back into the rice fields just to see where the road went and the seat came loose. For some reason there is an adjustment at the top of the seat post if you want to angle the seat up or down or something, and the nuts allowing this adjustment had gotten loose. So I had to ride for about 30 mins alternating between a severely angled seat and an awkward squat. Also, for some reason all the bicycles here have the breaks switched around backwards from what I'm used to. So the front break is on the right hand side of the handlebars, and the back break is the left hand. So I almost killed myself a few times by using the wrong break until I figured it out and got them switched around. The bike is a little small, so its a little awkward to ride. And every time I need to make an adjustment, I have to go to the market (only open until about 4 and school gets out at 3) and hope the guy is there. Sometimes its just his wife or female workers or something and while they are pretty handy, they can't do everything. So then other times I have to go to the guys house where he keeps all his tools and such. He's been really friendly and helpful though, and it turns out that I teach one of his daughters. Its a small town.

So I love riding the bike, probably moreso because of its “character,” but I've also managed to open pandora's box at the school. One day I was riding back from town, and one of the dorms kids asked if he could borrow the bike. I said sure, and he rode it for a while and brought it back. Now not a day passes where at least 2-3 kids ask if they can ride the bike. Other dorms kids have bikes. There are plenty of bikes around. For some reason they all want my bike though. Its only the younger kids and some of them didn't know how to ride and now are looking pretty good on the bike. The constant stream of kids knocking at my door asking to use the bike gets a little annoying, but I figure there's not really any harm in letting them ride around the school compound in their free time.

Mashramani (Part 1)

Mashramani (shortened to Mash and also called Republic Day) is Guyana's independence day celebration. Its held on the 23^rd of February every year. As the day hasn't actually come yet, I don't fully know what all will be going on that day. However, there are a variety of school-related Mash events, that culminate with a national competition in Georgetown just before the actual holiday. So a few weeks ago, there were 3 days of events in Anna Regina, similar to inter-school sports. Events were held at the community cricket ground, and students could attend if they wanted. Naturally teachers were needed to escort those students who wanted to attend, and I was asked to go for all 3 days. With half the school gone, there wasn't much teaching to be done, so I was happy to check everything out. A summary of the events follows.

Dramatic Poetry

Before I start talking about dramatic poetry, a word about the number of schools present. All the schools in the central Essequibo Coast were eligible to participate. I think this was about 5 secondary schools total, and about 8000 nursery (kindergarten) and primary (grades 1-6) primary schools. So each event was primarily made up of children ranging in ages from very young to young. Most of these children performed their dramatic poetry readings by screaming into the microphone as loud as humanly possible. The theme of Mash this year is “celebrating our culture, preserving our pride,” which seems kind of weird, but whatever. The upshot was that most of the poems (yelled at ear splitting volume) were very patriotic and full of Creolese slang. So the readings were very hard to understand as well as very loud. I had a headache after dramatic poetry. The best entrant was a little kid in a suit who proposed to a person-sized map of Guyana dressed in a wedding gown and veil.

Calypso

The calypso competitions consisted of both groups and individuals singing a variety of Caribbean and Guyanese songs. I think there's a real niche market here for some vocal trainers. Some of the children have beautiful voices, but I don't think anyone has really been working on the concept of harmonizing. As a terrible singer, I know the best way to hide is to just sing simple stuff off on your own, staying out of the way. All the group singers sang exactly the same parts, which is tough enough if you're an excellent singer. The dramatic poetry headache only got worse after calpyso. That was the end of day 1.

Masquerade

So around Christmastime in Guyana (at least on the Coast), roving bands of street performers wander around with a few drums, maybe a recorder and triangle, and play music for tips. They also will do some rhyming to impress their patrons. Its sort of like Caribbean caroling. For some reason, this tradition is also part of inter-schools Mash competitions, with both individual and group performers. The individuals do all sorts of dance moves to the beat and have to be adept at picking up money that's thrown to them. The groups have some certain archetypes of costumed dancers: a boy dressed up as granny with lots of junk in her trunk, a doctor, the bad cow (someone with a big cow costume who just jumps around), etc. They all just sort of bounce around on stage for a while to the drum/recorder/triangle noise. I'm not sure how anyone could judge it, but they did. One school had the granny give birth on stage, which was entertaining.

Dance

Choreographed dance routines. The individual performers from ARMS both did Indian dances and were excellent. The girl in the older age group was unfortunately disqualified when her song ran on too long and she was impolite to the judges. I had heard that she'd had quite a streak of national Mash performances going, so everyone was pretty upset. I'm not sure if any appeals were heard on the matter. The group dances were pretty entertaining, though we heard a few popular songs over and over. Both groups from ARMS also did very very well. They had some excellent costumes and choreography. The older girls also had some flags, it was a little bit like a color-guard routine. Both groups of girls took first place in their age categories. Day 2 was a lot more fun than day 1.

Costume

The final day commenced with a costume competition. In reality it was more like a float or display type thing. A student would get up on stage in costume, usually pulling some sort of decorated cart or something. Lots of little kids barely dragging around various decorated carts. ARMS didn't compete in the costume competition. Another school's girl had on this massive dress type thing with an enormous flared collar. She too could barely walk.

Physical Display
The week's events concluded with the physical display. The younger kids did all sorts of exercises and balancing stunts, while the secondary schools basically did competitive cheerleading things, without any yelling or awkward forced smiles. Some of the younger kids at the school got put up really high. Another school made a human pyramid 4 persons high, all standing, which was pretty impressive. They won.

On the whole it was a pretty fun day. I think the national competition is coming up next week and I don't think I'll get to attend. I am planning on going to Georgetown for Mashramani proper. Its supposed to be one of the biggest parties/spectacles of the year, so I'll report back afterward.