THIS IS GUYANAAAA!

In before everything else, I hereby state the disclaimer about Explorer of All Trades.

[ PEACE CORPS DISCLAIMER ]

"The contents of this website are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the U.S. government or the Peace Corps."

[ MY OVERALL STATUS ]

STATUS | Trainee.
LOCATION | Timehri, Guyana.
DURATION | 20 days.
MOSQUITO BITES | 37.
COLD BUCKET BATHS | 21.  
STOMACH FLU | 0.

[ THIS IS GUYANAAAA! ]

Look! It's Ghana. No,  it's Grenada. No, wait, IT'S GUYANA! G-u-y-a-n-a. There is no 'i' in Guyana.

If I had a dollar for every time when someone mistakes G-something for Guyana, I would be probably fifty-one dollars richer. Imagine how much Guyanese rum I could afford with that.

Where the hell is Guyana? Don't feel bad if you don't know where it is. Not even my immunization technician at the travel clinic knew where it was when I nearly received a set of immunizations required for Ghana in Africa. Guyana is the third-smallest country in South America after Uruguay and Suriname and it is right there on the coast next to Atlantic Ocean near many Caribbean islands.Oh... just let me find the map for you!

See? It's right there!

Well, where do I begin? I cannot believe it has been 19 days since we landed in Guyana and everything has been a breeze to the point where I feel like I've been here for more than a couple of months already. As many of you know I'm a woman of few words, there is so much to spill with you all about my Peace Corps journey in Guyana and I will do what I can to share my experiences. Without turning it into a novel, I will break everything down one by one into smaller blogs:

• "Guyana 101." Everything you have been dying to know about Guyana.
• "Mii famalay." My host family and Guyanese communities.
• "Foood, foood, rum, foood." Did I mention food?
• "My Peace Corps Journey." What Peace Corps is and why I wanted to become a Peace Corps Volunteer.
• "Deaf Guyana." Handy knowledge about Deaf communities and education in Guyana.
• "Fresh Meat." I'll leave it to your imagination.
• More to come... obviously.

 [ THE SUMMARY OF WHAT HAS HAPPENED ]

Oh, my, what is there to say? This is probably going to be all jumbled with my thoughts all over place. You have been warned.

• There are 43 of us as Peace Corps Trainees in GUY 27, the 27th group for Peace Corps Guyana. Wait a minute, Trainees? Yeah, you read that right. Trainees, not Volunteers... yet. If we survive through our Pre-Training Service for next two months in Timehri, we will be sworn in as Volunteers on July 7th. We are the largest group for Peace Corps Guyana to this day and we are split into two sectors: Education and Health. I'm in Education! A+!

• APRIL 19, 2015. I left home for Peace Corps Staging in Miami, knowing I won't be able to see my family for next two years. I am truly fortunate to have my family who supports every step I take through my Peace Corps journey. Thank you all! I arrived in Miami reallllly late like at 11 PM and I remember the moment as if it was yesterday when I met few fellow trainees who were too excited to sleep, bursting with eagerness of what will happen next: Damaris (my first roommate in PC), Eneka (sorry if I couldn't spell your name right that night, haha), and Mitchell (I was sooo excited that you knew how to sign ASL even if rusty!). 

• APRIL 20, 2015. Peace Corps Staging is where all invitees converge from all over America to register for the new chapter with Peace Corps and make it official. We were no longer Peace Corps Invitees when we officially became Trainees! Just another step closer to become a Peace Corps Volunteer. Anyway, we all went over many important documents, information, what we expect from Peace Corps and what Peace Corps expects from us to sure we are all in one piece and have everything ready to go. 

• APRIL 21, 2015. Why, hello, Guyana! We spent forever in the morning waiting in lines for the Caribbean Airlines to open up so we could get our tickets and leave the ol' good land of 'Murica. As soon as the plane left the ground, I knew I was going to miss: sweatpants, flannels, Snickers, real coffee, craft beer, and snow. But I also knew it's going to be all worth it for the greater good. See you later, 'Murica. It's been real. 

• APRIL 22 to 30, 2015. So much has happened over ten days at the Mainstay Resort where Peace Corps held our orientation, just a couple of hours north away from Georgetown, the capital "city" of Guyana. The Mainstay is a resort with small huts, white sands, beach, conference room where we spent the most of our orientation in, volleyball courts... you get the picture. If you don't, Google is your best friend. Anyway,  the orientation breezed by over the week as Peace Corps briefed us about EVERYTHING there is to know from our safety to Guyanese culture to the details of our roles in Peace Corps to Peace Corps Guyana. Peace Corps Guyana was very supportive and aware about Deaf culture and my future role as Deaf Community Educator. There were three sign language interpreters during the orientation: two local interpreters (Guyana has no official interpreting programs or agencies - I'll get more into that later in the Deaf Guyana blog) and one Peace Corps Response Volunteer who is very versatile in everything that she does, like seriously. Rachel Rose, thank you for all that you do! Truly. Uh, yeah, you do deserve this shout-out, gyal!

• WHAT ABOUT GUYANA? I haven't experienced the cultural shock from American culture to Guyanese culture because I'm a type of person who goes with the flow easily with an open mind to learn about new cultures, new languages, and new environments. There is so much to share with you about Guyana from food to languages to transportation to climate to people... that is for Guyana 101! 

• DEAF GUYANA. There are so many words that I cannot describe about the Deaf community in Guyana... there is no official curriculum in the education program for Deaf students or any other special needs students and it is still common for Deaf children to stay home and do nothing instead of going to school. Many Deaf people do not know how to read or write and thus they are unable to get any job to support themselves or their families. Some even don't know how to sign or speak. This is... I'll write more about this in Deaf Guyana when I know more.

• BEFORE YOU ASK... yes, some areas in Guyana do have wifi, cell phones, cell service, flushing toilets, Hershey's, and many more! I've learned how to love bucket baths and the cold shock I get when I pour the first bucket of water over me in mornings.

I know... I know.. there is so much more to share! My laptop battery is running low and I really want to post this blog before my laptop dies on me. I'll keep you updated on upcoming blogs though! Thanks for reading!