Boy oh boy have we been neglectful! Lot's of information to catch you all up on. January has seemed to have flown by. It was full of work, birthdays, barbeques, and heat!

Work is still moving right along. We seem to be busy in waves at NCERD. We are either juggling a million different projects or twiddling our thimbs catching up on our most recent novel. At the moment things are slow, but we are amping up to begin a curriculum pilot in the schools here. That's right...that means I will actually be working in schools with teachers and kids to improve literacy! We are piloting a program that Ann (my British counterpart) and I have created ourselves. If all goes well with the pilot schools, there is talk of nation wide distribution. That would be wild!

Blake's countdown at the VSO office is coming to a speedy close as Friday will be his last day at the office. It has been a long awaited day and I know that he is going to love sleeping in come Monday morning. He is beginning his quest for a job and will be delivering applications and resumes to some very promising job postings; one being the British High Commision. How posh! There are also several non-profit agencies that are doing really interesting work here that he would be a great asset to, so that is in the radar as well. For a while at least though, I am hoping that he will relax, and explore, and enjoy some down time here in Guyana. One of his most favorite past-times lately has become the bi-weekly trips to the market. He is a pro at getting everything we need for under $1,000 Guyanese dollars (about $5 USD). He often gets away with an extra cucumber or bag of peppers slipped into the bag as he has made friends with every vendor in Georgetown!

There have been several birthdays here in Guyana lately and each and every one has been celebrated enthusiatically. The first was Cheryl, a wonderful British volunteer who turned 30. A big one! Blake was keen to remind me that mine was not far off and that he would always be younger than me. :) Cheryl is placed in a small town called Corriverton in Region 6, about a 4 journey away from Georgetown. To get there you take minibusses for about 3 hours and then a ferry for about 20 minutes. The time is lost waiting for the ferry to fill up and take off. All in all, it is a pretty easy journey that we made with about 25 other VSO's to celebrate with Cheryl on the beach. I am not sure if I have mentioned the beach in Corriverton before. It is not exactly the white sand, blue water, Trinidad and Tobago beach that we have experienced, more like a brown sand, brown water, deserted beach. It does have an eerie beauty all it's own though and you can look out over the water and see Suriname. There is a "back way" to travel to Suriname from Corriverton, but it is highly illegal and we decided to pass on that trip. So we spent the day on the beach with friends, playing cricket (very popular here!), and enjoying the day. What a birthday to remember!

We also celebrated with Rob, a Canadian volunteer, who will be leaving with his wife in April. They have been here for a short 6 month placement and then are off to experience the rest of South America. In commemoration of his birthday we had a barbeque on a homemade barbeque pit, (homemade veggie burgers for us...not a recipe I will use again. :)) and then it was off to the karaoke bar. Somehow I was talked into singing what I am sure was a ear- spliting rendition of Girls Just Want to Have Fun, with the rest of the gang. Blake looked on...proudly I am sure.

The December/ January rainy season was very mild this year and we only got a couple of really heavy downpours. Thank goodness, as I recently lost my rain jacket at the Venezuelan institute where we are taking free Spanish lessons. Blake and I kept hoping for rain, so that we could find whatever lucky classmate made off with it, but never tracked it down. They needed it more than I and luckily Blake's mom sent a perfect replacement. (Thank You!) Now I am set for whatever weather comes our way. We are back to the humid heat for awhile though, to await the next rainy season in May. (The big one!)

Plans for the coming months include some short weekend trips out of region 4 (Georgetown) to see some more of Guyana, a World Cup Cricket match (the semi-finals are being held in Georgetown and the whole city is in preparation mode), a 5 day overland trek to Kaiteur Falls (the longest single drop waterfall in the world), and a 2 week trip home in May that we are so looking forward to. We miss you guys!

Well, I will call that an update for now. We will try to be better at keeping you informed in the future. Thank yous to Ben and Celeste, Sarah S., Jill and Travis, Pete and Catherine, and of course all of our parents for sending packages, cards, letters, pictures, etc. They make our weeks!

Love and miss you guys!

Blake and Jessa