November Newsletter

November Newsletter

It doesn’t feel like November in the Rupununi. Summer is everlasting here. Now that November is over, the school term is coming to a close. Exams start on November 27th (happy birthday to me J) and the week prior all we are to do is review. Looking back on what I have covered in my classes versus what the syllabus written by the Ministry of Education wanted me to cover leaves me feeling a bit let down by myself, but in all fairness I have to understand that I did the best I could do as a teacher with no real teaching experience with students that, even though my students are between the ages of 12-17, might not be able to read. When the beginning of November rapidly approached (I can’t believe how fast the time has been going) and we started thinking about wrapping things up and planning when we would have exam week, I panicked a bit because I realized that my students were far, far behind. The thing is though is that they don’t get it. For example, I teach third form Biology, which would be 9th grade comparatively, and this is their first year taking Biology. We started with the living things flow chart, which is very basic and really only needs to be memorized at this stage, but towards the end of the term they still didn’t get it. I would ask questions like “Name one thing that all living cells have”(We had moved on to chapter 2 at this point: Cells) and they would respond by shouting “Eukaryotic!” which made me realize that they still didn’t grasp how that flow chart worked and divided things up…so how could I move on? I didn’t give up on teaching about cells, but I did constantly have to go back and explain a few more times how the chart worked and stressed that they need to memorize it and engrain it in their heads if they wanted to move on. This is what makes me not feel so bad about being so far behind on the syllabus because I feel there is no point on moving on with more and more information when they don’t even understand the basic concepts, which is what the local teachers do. At times it seems like they care more about moving through the syllabus than whether or not their students understand the information presented. The problem is that the Ministry doesn’t understand that without learning resources, most basic being text books, how are the students supposed to move at the rate they have determined when the only source they have is a notebook full of notes and no other references? Not to mention that they don’t have electricity that would enable them to study more efficiently after the hour of 6 p.m. The Ministry seems to think their ideas to be held in good theory, but if they would only do some outreach to Region 9 they would realize that their theory is much more than could ever realistically be put into practice down here. There are a number of challenges that these students have to face, which include a major lack of resources (posters/visual aids, individual textbooks (which means that class sometimes has to be only chalk and talk because they just need to get the information down in their notebooks), lunch, properly ventilated classrooms, desks, chairs, sometimes even pens, no electricity for the dorm kids at night), most don’t have parents that could help them with their studies, and finally (although I could keep going), if they ride to school from a nearby village they have a long haul everyday to school both in the morning and at two o’clock in the afternoon when the sun is blazing in the savannah during their 6 mile journey home after a long, hot day at school. One day Kirsty, Grace, and I rode to Aranaputa, which is a village that is 6 miles down the road from the school and a source of a good number of our students that do not live in the dorms. We realized after the day was through how rough the ride could be for some of our students, and I think we all had a bit more understanding and compassion for how demanding their days are and why they would have a hard time performing well. When I mentioned earlier that some students don’t even get lunch, it is mostly those students that endure this commute to school (the dorm kids have lunch made for them even though they sometimes don’t eat it), which means that by two in the afternoon when it is time to make that six mile trek back to their village they are doing it on empty. By the time they get home it is about 3, they might have chores to do, and before they know it, it is nearing 5:30-6 and the sun is going down and taking the light with it. When can they study? Plus, there are quite a few parents that do not stress the importance of education, probably because they are uneducated themselves in terms of Western standards of education, and just live off the land, living a very tribal lifestyle. I don’t want to say they are uneducated though, because they are not stupid, they just know about different things like farming, their land, and how to make so little work somehow than we do. If I went into the jungle with some of the locals they could probably tell me so much about the trees, plants, and animals and what they can be used for. There are some students that do really understand, but my, oh my, there are so many that just don’t get it. It’s hard to determine if they don’t know it because they genuinely don’t understand it, or if they don’t understand it because after they copied the notes I put on the board they never looked at them again. It’s hard to find a balance to keep them all moving forward because there is such a wide range of intellects that you either have to lose some at the bottom or lose the ones at the top because they get so bored, which isn’t fair to them at all. And as always I find myself holding a double-edged sword because it is not fair to leave most behind because it was their education system that failed them long ago and now they have to bear the brunt as a result, but at this point, what can I do? I could push for the system having remedial classes, but I am not going to change the whole system in only one year, which I know I could never think I could do because it just is not realistic, and besides, who would teach these classes? We are already short teachers even with the 5 of 12 teachers that are volunteers. So all I can do next term, now that I have a clearer understanding of what the situation is here, is work hard and find out why they are not understanding it, it occurred to me that some might not be able to read, and to just help them as individuals as much as I can.

Exams:

The students were unable to take the exams that we had originally written for them due to the fact that we had no paper because as a school we could not buy any due to a lack of funds (the Headmistress has been using her own money to get things we need for the school and she has 3 kids of her own) and the Ministry didn’t send us any. No paper meant no photocopying (we do have a Xerox machine that can be run on a small generator), but without paper that machine is no good. Most students are supposed to take a CXC style exam (it depends on which form they are in and which subject the exam is for), which consists of 2 exams. Paper I is a long multiple choice and maybe some True/False and short answer. Paper II is supposed to be more essay style with only about 2-3 essay questions. For fifth form I had to write 60 multiple choice questions on paper I. When we found out that there would be no way to make paper copies of the exam we realized most of the exams we had written were not going to be administered. There was no way that I was going to be able to write out 60 multiple-choice questions on the chalkboard. I ended up going through the exam and picking out the most important points and minimizing my exams as much as I could so they could realistically take it in the time allotted. Once again the students lose out because taking these CXC style exams gives them practice taking the exam and gives them a chance to learn how the exams are written, so when the time comes for the real thing they are comfortable with the style of the CXC’s. The CXC exams are taken at the end of their last year of secondary school and their scores determine what kinds of jobs they would be able to get in Guyana (and maybe the whole Caribbean, since they are exams taken by all Caribbean countries…I don’t know??). It’s hard when you see fifth form students (this would be like 12th grade) working so hard only to have yet one more disadvantage because their education system lacks the ability to complete basic tasks like sending down paper for exams they dictate are required. It seems like liability is not a word in the vocabulary of any of the Ministry officials, and the sad result is that the children of Guyana are paying for it, more so in Region 9 since people look down on the Amerindians that inhabit this part of the country.

The People:

I mentioned earlier that we went to Aranaputa, a beautifully lush village that sits in a basin surrounded by mountains and jungle that is 6 miles away from the school. Let me introduce the two girls that I went with. Grace and Kirsty are 17 and newly 18 Project Trust volunteers from Scotland. They are both amazingly high-energy and spirited people that have gracefully adjusted to life in the Rupununi. I could not imagine being in this situation when I was 17, and I am so proud of them. My first inclination was they were only going to last a week when I heard Grace say “what made them think that I could live like this in the middle of nowhere?” (they are not given any kind of choice as to where they are placed whereas Jess and I asked to be very rural like we are), however, not long after they had made their house a home and were really being creative about how to make it all work. Probably more so than Jess and I, but we were in very different living situations. I think seeing how Grace and Kirsty had made themselves a home made Jess and I that much more anxious to want to get situated in the place that we were going to be living and so we could make our own home. So anyways, yeah, they are great and lots of fun, and on a sunny Sunday morning we made our way off the compound on our bikes to go to a Gospel church with one of our students. The roads in the village are pretty much all sand, which is not very easy to ride a bike in. I actually tipped and fell off my bike at one point in the day. We went to church, which was a short service led by some of the parishioners due to the fact that the Reverend was out of town. They sang some songs, which I wished I knew so I could sing along, and read some versus out of the Bible. They acknowledged us welcomed us into their church during the service, and after the service one of our other student’s (Althea) sister Zita, who is a teacher at Aranaputa Primary School, came over to us and invited us to her house for lunch. After being led around the village by Jennifer Peters, who you can see a picture of on my blog, and stopping at random students’ houses to meet their families, we made it over to the other side of the road where the village continues to Althea’s house. We sat with her and her family and looked at pictures, and her sister Zita told us there was lunch waiting inside. When we finally went in we couldn’t believe it. There were only 3 plates on the table, along with a nice spread of food, and they wanted us to sit down and eat first. After insisting they eat with us, we enjoyed lots of local dishes like chow mien and a chicken dish together. When we were leaving we thanked them up and down for being so hospitable to us, as all the locals seem to be. At each house we went to we either were given fruits to take home or given food and drink. When we were headed home the 3 of us just kept saying, “Geez-everyone here is so nice.”

Thanksgiving:
Happy Thanksgiving to you all…it didn’t feel like Thanksgiving to us, but we did end up having a Thanksgiving meal on that Friday. I got to talk to my family over the computer, which was nice but did make me miss home knowing they were all together and I couldn’t be there with them.


Well, exam results will be out in December’s Newsletter and I get to be at home reflecting on the differences between Chicago and Annai living. I hope that everyone is doing well and enjoying the cold weather I never thought I would miss…I hope that everyone is finding they are actually getting my emails now seeing as I have been able to fix the second newsletter group in my contacts list. But there are pictures on my blog, so make sure you check it out.

www.wattsinguyana.blogspot.com

Happy Holidays!!!

Home for Christmas and taking hot showers!

Hey everyone, happy holidays!!!! I hope everyone is keeping happy, healthy, and warm!! I am home for Christmas right now, and I have been slowly but surely reacclimating to life with hot showers, vegetables, electricity, and burrrrrr, the cold! I got home on Wednesday the 12th, and I will be here until the 2nd of January. I already do miss Annai, but I know that I will be back soon enough. While I am here I have been enjoying the company of my much missed mother, and I have been able to see most of my family (I get to see the rest tomorrow...my niece is starring in a play and I can't wait to see it!)and some friends. I am trying to convince my brother to let me have a party at his house on Friday the 22nd, so if you are in the area of St. Charles, keep it in mind. I have been eating my little heart out, salads for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I have been cooking, and my mom and I bought a 50 pound bag of flour to work on my bread making. I am going to be cooking most of the dinner on Christmas, and I am really excited for that. I will make a few things that I have learned to make in Guyana, like roti, bake, and a curry of some sort. My mom, brother, his girlfriend Courtney, my friend Erin, and I went out for seafood at McCormick and Schmick's last night, it was oh so good...New York strip, seared rare yellowfin tuna, calamari, some good wine....it was heaven. I am mmming and ahhhing everything I put near my mouth to taste or near my nose to smell. I went grocery shopping with my mom the first full day I was home, and man was that a bit overwhelming, but man did we get some good stuff! I wonder if I didn't come back in the middle of all this how intense my readjustment would be at the end of the year. It would be interesting if there was a way I could see...I guess I will just have to do it again sometime and stay put for the whole year. I do feel incredibly lucky to be home, I probably would have been crying my eyes out on Christmas day. It will be cool to hear from Gace and Kirsty and Bryan (other volunteers that stayed there) to see how thier Christmas was.
Well, I hope that everyone is doing good and trying to take time to enjoy the season for what it is supposed to be and if I don't have a chance to see you or talk to you, well, let me bid you a very merry holiday season! Take care!!
P.S. I am working on November's newsletter now...I will have it up in the next few days, but until then I hope you are enjoying finally being able to see some pictures!