Hi friends and family!

We hope that everyone had a wonderful and delicious Thanksgiving. We certainly did celebrating with our friends here in Guyana. Our meal was complete with turkey, stuffing, sweet potato pie, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, rolls, deviled eggs, apple pie, and wine! A phrase we have come to know well here is, "It isn't wrong, just different." So, although there were some very important parts missing in our celebration (old friends and family) we had a wonderful time.

We also wanted to include some more photos in this posting to show you a little of what life is like here. Sunday has come to be one of our favorite days here. We try to start it off with some instant coffee and french toast. A wonderful routine! Then it's on to washing clothes and cleaning the house. After we have finished with the chores for the day, we relax, watch the news and head out to Oasis where we complete E-mailing and talking with our families on Skype. If any of you are interested in chatting with us some Sunday, Skype is a free download found at www.skype.com. You simply download the free software and as long as you have a microphone and speakers on your computer you are in business. It's free talking from computer to computer and has been a great way for us to keep in touch with what is happening at home. After Oasis it's back home, perhaps for a haircut which takes place on our front porch, one of the coolest places in the house. Then perhaps a movie and then bed, by 8:30 PM of course. :)

This Friday we were excused from work to go away for a VSO volunteer forum. This meeting takes place every 3 months and is a time when the volunteers can touch base with each other and the office staff about any concerns or issues. One of the major conversation topics this time was if the volunteer allowance we are currently getting paid, (45,000 Guyanese dollars/ 225 USD per month) is enough for us to live on. Blake and I are getting by just fine because there are two of us and we are able to split some bigger costs, but the single volunteers are certainly struggling. So, cross your fingers for us! :)

I am giving my first Guyanese educational workshop on Thursday. Yet another reason to cross your fingers. We are going to essentially be teaching the first grade head teachers in Georgetown what phonics is and perhaps touch on how to teach it to their kids. The education system here is an interesting one in that as you graduate what we would know as high school, except at 16, you are given a series of tests. If you do well on those tests then you have the opportunity to go to either Guyana University or the Teacher Training college. If you don't do well on the tests then you go directly into the classroom and begin teaching. The official title of these teachers is "unqualified teachers" and the schools are filled with them. There is a severe teacher shortage in the country, so it is very hard to find a solution to the problem. Consequently, you end up with schools full of teachers not much older than their students who may not know the material they are teaching, much less how to teach it to kids. So, Ann and I are going to pick our battle and try to make sure the teachers at least know what phonics is and then move on from there.

Things are going well here. It is still hard to think about the holidays coming up considering the weather. We talked about how we would be able to get in touch with our families on Christmas Day because Oasis will be closed that day. We were thinking that maybe the wireless signal would still be working and we could "huddle up outside the building and use the signal." Then we had to remind ourselves that there would be no need to huddle as it will still be 90 degrees outside. YIKES!

Blake is knocking everybody off their feet at the VSO office with his great ideas and attention to detail. We are starting to think about the other opportunities that might be here after this short term placement ends. Habitat for Humanity is here and with all of the severe flooding of the past years, there should always be work to do.

We love the updates (even the football updates) so keep them coming! We have gotten several requests, so again, here is the address that we can receive letters,etc. at:

VSO c/o Jessa and Blake
PO Box 12199
Georgetown, Guyana South America

We also now have a telephone if anyone gets the urge: the country code is 592 and our number is 227-7241. There is no city or area code.

I think you have to get a calling card or something in the US but i'm not sure. You may even be able to just dial from your home phone but I would check the cost first.

We will keep checking in!

Jessa and Blake

Happy Thanksgiving from the developing world. Jessa and I are missing home like crazy this week but are very excited about spending Thanksgiving in Guyana. The Guyanese people don't celebrate Thanksgiving but most of them have heard of it because they all seem to have relatives living in the United States. That's actually a major problem here. There are as many Guyanese living abroad as there are living in Guyana. There is a massive "brain drain" in Guyana. Anyone with skills, training, or education leaves the country for a different(better I'm not always sure) life in the US, Canada, or the UK typically. Just a few years back Guyana led the world in percentage of highly educated persons migrating abroad at 89%. Shocking huh? Anyway not trying to be a bummer on thanksgiving just thoughts.

We've got big plans tonight. First we have to finish a day's work. No time off for Thanksgiving here. Then we are attempting to re-create our mother's dishes with another American VSO couple from Chicago tonight. We will see how the green bean casserole turns out, it's still up in the air. I don't think we will screw up the mashed potatoes or rolls from the bakery, but you never know. We also were able to purchase a few bottles of affordable (probably not very good) red wine. It should be a blast, no football though, we will just have to imagine.

I hope everyone's Thanksgiving is wonderful and full of adventure just like ours.

Happy Thanksgiving,

Blake and Jessa

Greetings from Georgetown!

Everything is going great here! We have gotten our first taste of the rainy season that doesn't officially begin until December. Although, the locals say that the weather has been unpredictable for the last few years, much like at home. The rain here starts almost as soon as it gets dark and seems to rain through the night. It rains so hard that it almost sounds like someone is continually emptying buckets of water outside the window. Apparantly it normally stops during the daylight hours as the hot sun burns the clouds away. In some respects the overcast days of the rain are a welcome relief from the heat. On Thursday night however, we woke up to the rain and our sheets were soaking wet from the humidity of the rain. We actually had to turn off our fans that are always running as we were shivering! I also ended up having to take a cab to work because the rain hadn't stopped by the time I had to leave. I am still pumping myself up for the 41/2 mile biking commute during the rainy season. I am confidant that I will be able to bike rather than catch a cab, minus the most severe storms, even if I have to leave a dry change of clothes at work to change into! It's like a personal challenge.

We have been to 2 dinner parties this week in which local Guyanese women have offerred to cook us local Guyanese cuisine. One woman is the downstairs neighbor of some of our VSO friends, Cecelia, who says that she loves taking care of VSO's when thye come and has been working with them for years and years. She does tons of laundry for 500 Guyanese dollars (about $2.50) and mends clothes practically for free. We are lucky enough to have our own washing machine, but about halfway through filling and lugging buckets of water to the washing machine, don't think I don't think about Cecelia! The other party was catered by one of the local Guyanese staff at the VSO office. These parties are great ways of getting familiar with the local foods and some vegetables that we have never heard of. There are many staples in Guyanese cooking; potatoes, cassava, yams,rice, and curry. These are often mixed into salads or casseroles. Cecelia has offered to give the VSO's cooking lessons if we are interested and we are both very keen to learn more about it. There is also alot of chicken and fish included in the meals here. We have been a little hesitant to buy and cook fish ourselves at home as we are a little wary of the freshness factor. There is a man who walks up and down our street with buckets yelling, "Fresh Fish!" We are not quite sure whether to believe him or not, although we have been told that the fish in the buckets are not only fresh but still alive!

Blake starts work at the VSO office tomorrow morning and is very excited about the new challenge. He will be working closely with the program director of VSO Guyana and will be able to use his marketing skills and business degree. He will even have his own desk. As a perk at the office the staff makes fresh fruit juice everyday; cherry, pineapple, guava, passion fruit! Delicicious! I have to admit I am a little jealous!

We keep very bsu thorughout the week with Monday night, yoga night. (or for Blake and the other boys Monday night football.) and Thursday night sign language class. In January we will sign up for free Spanish classes at the Venezuelan institue which will take up 2 nights a week. With cooking classes from Cecelia on the way we are very busy here. With all luck we will come back home, flexible, tri-linguial, and culinary geniuses!

The house is great and we are settling really nicely into our daily life here, with the definite moments of missing people, places, and AC back at home. We love all of the updates and checking in everytime you write, so please keep the E-mails coming! Our pidgeon holes are still sadly empty, so if you feel inspired to compose a letter, poem, or picture it would be most welcome! We will write again soon and post more pictures of daily life here in Georgetown.

VSO Guyana
CO/ Jessa and Blake
PO Box 12199
Georgetown, Guyana
South America

I think we've have been slipping in our committment to update this blog, but I am back on top of it with a short posting today and another very soon.

Things have been great down here in Caribbean South America. We are all settled in to our home which turned out to be surprisingly nice and I think I have even forgot what warm water feels like. Jessa started work last week at the NCERD (National Centre (yes that's how it's spelled) for Educational Resource Development) and it is going okay. Things move slowly here. We were told that 100 times but she is seeing it first hand. There have been several days that she has done literally nothing but luckily she is working side by side with another volunteer so they can share in the boredoom. As of yesterday though, things were starting to pick.

For me, I've been okay. I actually am off to a assessment/interview/meeting at the VSO office for a short term 3-month placement. I will be doing some communications and marketing type things for them to help in promoting the program, at least that's what I think I will be doing. So I've been a little bored in the meantime, but plenty of cricket on TV to keep me occupied.

Otherwise, things are good. There are lots of other volunteers here that are becoming good friends and we look forward to fun times to come. I've gotten used to shopping for fruits and vegetables at the outdoor market and I really like it. We bike every where and it's hot but I will take that over the rain. I don't look forward to the rainy season, apparently it's kind of miserable. We miss home for obvious reasons, but we are loving the experience.

We will write more soon.

Blake