Anna Regina has some very Special Guests

WE’RE HERE!!

Our 3 hour trip from Georgetown was successful. Georgetown -> Parika -> Supernaam -> Anna Regina was the itinerary. We had to take a speed boat from Parika to Supernaam and that was super cool, I didn’t want the ride to end.

Parika

Ride on the Essequibo River

Supenaam

Our house in Anna Regina is massive. It is the old headmasters apartment on the school compound. It’s nice to be 2 feet away from the workplace. We have a large livingroom, dining room and kitchen. There are also 3 bedrooms; unfortunately the biggest has the least amount of breeze so we aren’t using it to sleep in… at least that meant that Sarah and I didn’t have to fight over it =). My room has a bed… that’s it. I am going to keep an eye out for a small desk or bedside table. I am using the third bedrooms closet as it is bigger than mine, and we are also using that room as our laundry room.

We have spent a little time in the town. We walked around the market on Friday, and then visiting Zorg on Saturday with our friend Antonio. We walked on the beach, drank Blanko and collected a mango and sugar cane from his backyard.

*insert house pictures*

We chillaxed on Sunday before the big day.

There’s an enormous dragonfly on the outside of my net

The first day of school is over, I made it through. I can easily reflect on this momentous day while hiding within my mosquito net, listening to Bon Jovi and watching a frog climb on my wall.

Sarah and I were so nervous this morning. We were up (a very loose term) around 630am this morning. I was awake at this time but hadn’t departed my bed. I showered, dressed and ate a banana. Sarah and I left our house around 755am and went to the canteen for breakfast. The ladies that works there are awesome; they are so fun and are so nice to us, nothing is too much trouble.  We then went to the office and met 2 other new teachers. At around 945am we were taken to the staff room for an orientation meeting, the official daily staff meeting started at 10am while the students were on break. It was then we were introduced to the rest of the staff. One of the teachers has taken to calling me “Katt-ee” without realizing that that isn’t how you pronounce my name. I think it might be a little late to start correcting her..  :L

I then was sent to a classroom where I was meant to be assisting a teacher. It turns out that for various reasons that this teacher didn’t come to class… seeing as I was told I wouldn’t be teaching until Tuesday I didn’t prepare a lesson. I walked into the classroom with all these bright eyed eighth graders looking at me… think think think. I introduced myself and gave a little background, and then we went around the room. I asked each student to tell me their name, where they are from, and what they want to be when they grow up. I could not hear half of the students; they talk so quietly that I have to tell them I’m old and deaf to encourage them to talk louder. Some of the career choices were: doctor, lawyer, nurse, teacher, mechanical engineer, and architect. We then did some nature talk; it was review for a lot of them, but I enjoyed it. I feel that being thrown into a classroom with nothing prepared has been a good start to my year here in Guyana… any structured lesson will be better than what I came up with today. Overall I handled it pretty well, but I wish I had had something super fun planned.

After lunch we met up with our head of department and got the syllabus (broad term) for our subjects. As of right now I am teaching 7,8 and 10^th grade integrated science, and 10^th grade chemistry. Unfortunately ARMS is overstaffed with maths teachers, so she is stuck teaching 9 and 10^th grade integrated science and 10 and 11^th grade physics (basically because no one else wants to teach it). I told Sarah that if she wanted I would take the 11^th grade physics off her hands, the deputy head said that we would rework the timetable if we had to.

I have been working on the 2 lessons I have to give tomorrow (two eighth grade science and tenth grade chemistry) and I am feeling pretty good.