The Wickwires are a family living in Mabaruma that provides a very much needed and important medevac service for the Region. Health Care is limited in Region 1 of Guyana, so if there is a critical health need, then the Wickwires, along with a couple other families, will fly the person to Georgetown through their organization, Wings for Humanity (it’s sponsored by the Seventh Day Adventist Church). They’re a fun family, and we’ve enjoyed getting to know them over the past year.

The Wickwires called us a while back and asked us if we wanted to take a river trip with them and some visitors to Arukamai. We, of course, said ABSOLUTEY!

Not too far out of our village, we stopped the boat for the Wickwire’s boys to jump from a tree. They were doing back flips and all sorts of things!

We arrived at Arukamai. You can see the Wings for Humanity boat in the picture. It has a 250 HP engine. We LOVED traveling through the rivers and creeks at a much higher speed than we’re used to on our community’s boat (with its 15 HP engine).

We met up with Andrew, who is a bee keeper in Arukamai. He’s lighting his smoke-making thingy (I don’t know the actual names for these things).

Jay and Andrew checking on the bees, while I stood at a distance.

Random pic of a palm tree.

Jay and Andrew after having survived their visit to the bees.

After Arukamai, we were headed back to Mabaruma. We heard some macaws, so we pulled the boat over to observe them for about 10 minutes. The pictures don’t do them justice at all.

After resuming our journey, the steering cables on the boat broke. The steering wheel was no longer usable, so Jud Wickwire strapped a paddle to the side of the engine.

Rick, president of Adventist World Aviation (who was also visiting), got us home in one piece using the paddle while Jud controlled the boat’s propulsion from the front.

Thanks, Wickwires, for a great afternoon!

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We love Pepper Pot, which is the best-known Amerindian dish. It is made with either cassava water or cassareep.

Aunt Norma came over to teach us to make cassareep Pepper Pot, otherwise known as “Black Pepper Pot.” “White Pepper Pot” is made from cassava froth or cassava water.

Step One: Sautee some onion in plenty oil.

Add cassareep (2-3 tablespoons).

Throw in the chicken (already marinated in a little cassareep and hot peppers).

The finished product, with cassava bread. YUM!

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Fellow PCV, Kristin, and Project Trust Volunteer, Inga, and us decided to go all out for a Friday evening meal a couple weeks back. It was Kristin’s idea to make a chicken pot pie, and it was incredibly good!

We didn’t get any pictures of the finished product because we were so hungry and loved it so much, we couldn’t stop to capture it.

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Travis is climbing the tree.

He has made it to his jumping spot.

We estimated the jump is about 40 feet.

Kristin, Travis, and I are all in the tree about to jump.

I’m trying to prepare myself for the jump. 1…2…3…

Jump!

We had such a great time at Jumping Tree. Unfortunately, our camera was out of battery and we didn’t get the chance to take any pictures of Jena jumping. I can’t wait to go back to Jumping Tree!

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Kristin has been wanting us to go with her to “Jumping Tree” in Wauna for many months now. Since another PCV, Jena, came to visit, we decided it was finally time to go to “Jumping Tree.”

The girls posing for a picture during the walk.

The walk to “Jumping Tree” is a little path through the bush where people have laid wooden beams down in the swampy mud.

Kristin missed the log.

Jena missed the log, too.

Stay tuned for our adventures of jumping off of “Jumping Tree.”

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We don’t use the blog very often to solicit support from our readers. But, you’ll remember the many posts inviting book donations to help grow a library (thanks to your donations and generosity, the library has grown from zero to 600+ volumes in 8 months!).

Now, we have a new request. This time, we’re asking you if you will consider supporting the development of young Guyanese women. Almost every development worker and theorist I know of will tell you that the key to development is a country’s young women – supporting their education, empowering them to make healthy choices, and encouraging them to pursue their dreams.

I am working with fellow PCVs in Guyana to plan and host the second-annual Camp GLOW (Girls Leading Our World) in August. Read all about the first Camp GLOW. As a leadership and empowerment camp, Camp GLOW opens up opportunities and dreams for countless young Guyanese women.

Every participant pays $15 USD to attend Camp GLOW, but everything else, including transportation is covered for them. Six girls from our remote village have applied to go to Camp GLOW. The transportation cost alone is $200 USD per person for these girls to get to Camp GLOW. In addition, there are food costs, programming costs, activity costs, etc.

When the girls are present at Camp GLOW, they are immersed in challenging and equally exciting sessions on a spectrum of topics, including decision-making skills, relationships, goal-setting, sexual health, nutrition and diet, self-esteem, assertiveness, emotional health and more! In short, camp changes these young girls lives! If you feel that you’re able to help, even in a small way, with Camp GLOW, please visit the Camp GLOW Guyana website.

All donations can be made online and go directly to the non-profit Friends and RPCVs of Guyana (www.guyfrog.org), who will then ensure that the monies are properly transferred to support these young womens’ participation in Camp GLOW.

If you have any questions about Camp GLOW, please ask! I serve on the Gender and Development Taskforce of Peace Corps Guyana, which has responsibility for the planning and execution of Camp GLOW. Harmony actively supports Camp GLOW in her role as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Guyana and hopes to serve as a Camp Resource Volunteer in August.

www.campglowguyana.org

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On Easter Sunday, we decided to take Jena down to the Landing to swim and paddle in Uncle Charlie’s corial (a small dug-out canoe).

As we were walking down to the Landing, we passed Mirenda, who was wearing a mushroom as a hat. We LOVED it, so we tried it on and got pictures of it. She thought we were hilarious for liking her mushroom hat so much.

We paddled around in the corial for 30-minutes before the young kids from the village swarmed us at the Landing. All these enthusiastic kids jumped into the corial, making it significantly less buoyant but significantly more fun!

The corial sank at least five times. It’s quite an effort to refloat it.

Jena is holding a little boy who doesn’t know how to swim and was very scared down by the water.

We also just played in the water. The beloved “splashing game” never gets old for some reason.

Jena and Kristin in the corial with the kids.

To refloat a corial, you rock it forward and backward, letting water slosh out at each iteration. Otherwise, the corial is WAY too heavy to pull up and dump the water out.

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On Easter Sunday, Kristin and Jena joined us to share in festivities (dying eggs) and eating a feast.

After dying eggs, we later cracked them, and Kristin transformed them into delicious deviled eggs.

We bought a chicken from our neighbors – they killed and plucked the chicken for us in the morning. We made marinated it in a citrus vinaigrette dressing (thank you, Webers!). It was absolutely delicious.

I made some “Never Fail Dinner Rolls,” as the recipe calls them. They are as massive as the picture makes them seem. We actually almost failed on these rolls, as the gas in our oven/stove ran out mid-baking, so Kristin found a nearby oven (in the school kitchen) to finish them up and ensure that they did not fail.

Harmony prepared a fabulous salad. We rarely eat raw vegetables. For the Easter holiday, the produce sellers brought in an extra variety of vegetables. The salad had bora, carrot, corn, green onion, tomato, cabbage, beans, barley, and maybe one or two things that I’ve forgotten.

We ate our meal very happily!

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This is a belated post, as Mashramani is celebrated on Feb. 23. But, again, late is better than never. I was in Mabaruma for Mash, and Travis was in Georgetown. Mabaruma’s Mash was quite a bit smaller, with only three floats. Still fun, nonetheless.

Lots of Guyana pride on Republic Day.

Police Station all decked out.

Northwest Secondary School Dorms.

Some random statue in Mabaruma. I wish I knew what it was for.

Can you see my glitter?

The parade started down the hill and everyone walked up dancing to music the whole way. There were three floats and lots of people covered in glitter.

Ministry of Education

Administration

Ministry of Health

Tired at the end of a very long day.

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This post is quite late considering we are already in the month of April. But, this is what happens when we have unreliable and inconsistent internet access.

The morning started out with some breakfast cereal.

Unfortunately, Travis didn’t want to eat the cereal I had prepared for him. I don’t know why…

I surprised Travis with a mid-day snack of Snickerdoodle cookies, which are some of his favorites. Making these cookies took quite a bit of effort considering I had to purchase white sugar in Georgetown. There turned out wonderfully! They were like a bite of heaven. Or, maybe just a bite of home.

Our tasty and romantic dinner was served on a taped up wash bin on the floor. We are classy. We opened a bottle of wine that Travis’ parents gave to us and ate bean, cheese, and potato enchiladas with black beans.

A special Valentine’s treat from Travis. He found these in Georgetown and saved them for this special day.

Even Bamboo got a special red Valentine’s bone.

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