I think I can speak for all of us when I say that our 8 weeks in Guyana absolutely flew by. However, the seven of us (Julie Kugelmass, Scott Belyea, Celine Lee, Tori Payne, Sydney Oastler, Maggie O’Dea, Melana Roberts, and Anthony Babic) tried to cherish every day as much as possible. What an experience! Guyana is such an amazing country, filled with natural beauty, friendly and welcoming people, and an exceptionally care free attitude that was something we definitely had to adjust to, but learned to love by the end. Although each project was very unique, we all came out of the project united, being able to appreciate our time in Guyana together immensely. However, it goes without saying that we all had very trying times, not only in specific situations, but also in learning to adjust with the culture, each other, and even ourselves, but the overall experience was beyond a positive one and is something none of us will ever forget.
Split up into three groups, we all had incredibly different experiences. One group consisting of Melana and Anthony were placed in Georgetown. Getting to be at the core of Guyanese culture, they had an incredible amount of teaching time and experiences, and were even able to do quite a bit of travelling to surrounding communities. Working very closely with our Red Cross contacts, they did an awesome job of furthering our project to include a variety of different groups including groups of people affected or living with HIV/AIDS, community groups, and schools.
Next there was the Region 1 group: Julia, Scott, and Celine who travelled to Moruca and the surrounding areas. This area is immensely beautiful, full of lush green rainforest makes for an unforgettable scenery. The people of Moruca are those that could never be forgotten as the Amerindians (native people of Guyana) provided an extremely welcoming and comforting environment for the group to immerse themselves into. With Moruca being only accessibly by boat, this group spent much time travelling through the Moruca river to the outlying communities. This years Moruca team did a spectacular job in providing health education to a number of areas that have never been touched by other years. With this being said their project was very successful in providing health outreach to a number of school groups, youth groups, farmers, and hospitals. Having been stationed in the village of Santa Rosa for a month, the group even had the opportunity to take on the role of a substitute teacher! Overall, times had, left these three with great memories and a great overall experience to come home with.
Lastly the group that went to Region 9 included myself, Tori, and Maggie. We were based in Lethem and travelled throughout the weeks to surrounding communities. We got to see the most flat lands imaginable, along with the most beautiful mountains. Coming home covered in the very recognizable, and hard to wash off, Lethem dirt (bright red) we were reminded for weeks of our time in Lethem. We taught mostly in schools, hospitals, and health centres, and would have liked the opportunity to do even more! The kids and health workers were so appreciative and a joy to work with. Not only was the scenery spectacular, but the people were unmatched. We were always made to feel extremely welcome, and people were willing to do whatever they could to make our time in Region 9 more enjoyable, which we are endlessly grateful for.
Overall, all three projects experienced a great deal of success in many different areas, each one with its own extremely individual aspects. The beauty of this country is matched only by the hospitality of its people, and all seven of us know we are so lucky to have been able to share this experience. Julia and myself as the Project Directors for 09/10 cannot wait to impart our experiences, knowledge, advice, and excitement to next year’s Peer Educators. Thanks to QHO for such an incredible experience and we can’t wait to see where next year takes us!
-Sydney and Julia
