Happy Holidays!

I hope everyone is enjoying their cold weather! We are still sweating it out here in Guyana. The rain has started and it is gray and gloomy outside which at least gives the illusion of a chilly December. The rain has been a relief from the heat and has done a really nice job of cooling things off a bit.
Blake makes sure to keep us fully stocked with water bottles to keep us nice and hydrated. For those of you who were wondering...The water here is generally brown in color. So, we don't drink it right out of the faucet. It is howevere safe to use it to brush teeth with, etc. We were given a water filter by VSO which we can use when we boil it, but most of our drinkable water we get from Jus' Water down the street where they fill up our huge water bottles for only about $1. What a deal!

The Guyanese people are obsessed with decorating for the holidays so there are fake trees and fake snow and fake holly everywhere! Fuuny story to tell about that...as a part of any true Guyanese decorating scheme every room has at least 3 ornate fake flower arrangements. We had to clear out several when we moved into our house. My office also has its fair share of fake flora and fauna. So, one of the couples here recently celebrated a wedding anniversary here. The husband, had planned on going to one of the many florist shops to buy her some celebratory flowers. When he went into the first shop there were no real flowers to be found; only plastic bouquets. He went to several shops but was unable to find a real flower in town! So, in true Guyanese style there are plastic reminders of the holidays all over town, which helps us get into the spirit of things despite the heat.

One of the other couples had the first holiday party of the season last night and it was a lot of fun. A good chance for everyone to relax and seee everyone. We have many more plans for the holiday season as well and are looking forward to it. Coming from a teacher background I am awfully used to the long vacations that follow the school holiday schedule. Here we are only allotted 2 days off; Christmas Day and Boxing Day (the day after Christmas). So it will be yet another adjustment. Blake also gets 2 half days off for holiday shopping...My hopes are high. :)

Next weekend we are taking off from work on Friday afternoon and heading down to visit one of our volunteer friends who is placed in Region 6. About a 4 hour travel from Georgetown. She lives on a beach that you can actually swim in and says that it is truly gorgeous. We are very excited about seeing a different part of Guyana. Those of you who have gotten excited about talking to us on Sundays (which we love, by the way!) we won't be around this Sunday as we will be travelling all day. So, catch us the next weekend. I will be giving my workshop to another group of teachers in a nearby region on Monday. Here is a picture of what a classic Guyanese workshop looks like. The other "Whitey" (A totally acceptable and widely used term to descirbe anyone who is white) is Ann, the other volunteer I work with at NCERD.

We hope everything is going wonderfully at home!

Jessa and Blake