We Made It!

Hello from Guyana!

After a very long day of traveling we made it to Georgetown, Guyana yesterday morning.  We will be staying in Georgetown until Tuesday.  Then we will move to a friend's house in New Amsterdam while they finish up the teacher house.  Yesterday was a day for us to recover from traveling.  Once we got to the house the three teachers, Claire, Dan, and myself, all took naps varying from 3-5 hours while our fearless leader, Eric, went out to buy some supplies (like water) before taking a brief nap himself.  We also got to go to an internet cafe to call home or get on a computer to let people know we made it safe.  Sadly, none of my calls were answered. :( I will have to try again later.  We decided to go to this restaurant, OMG, for dinner.  It was pretty good, but definitely no "exotic meat" yet.

Today we had an awesome day! We got to go to New Amsterdam and meet a lot of the people we have been talking about during orientation in person.  We also got to see the teacher house and academy in person.  It was wonderful, because it finally made it truly feel real to me. Our house is going to be amazing, and the school building is perfect.  However, we have a lot of work to be done yet.  The shipping container will make it's way from Georgetown to New Amsterdam next week where we will unload and start setting everything up.  Now, I know what is all in that container and how much work it was to get it all loaded.  I can only imagine the challenges we face this week with unloading that container in the hot sun. 

Speaking of hot sun, I already got the first sunburn of the season while we were on our way to New Amsterdam today.  Air conditioning almost seems to make things worse, so we decided to drive with the windows down, until we stopped at the bridge, the whole way to New Amsterdam.  On the way back we did the same thing.  Naturally, when your window is down you rest your arm on the door.  Being on what the U.S. uses as the driver's side (left side of car) I was in the sun's rays the whole way.  Guess who missed a spot when putting on sunscreen this morning! I have a nice little red triangle on my left arm now.  Lord knows someone is going to have to send me a care package of Aloe because most people down here really don't need it, so most places do not have it.

We have had the opportunity to make several trips to the grocery store since we arrived, mostly for water.  It surprised me just how much stuff they import from the states.  There are many comforts from home that we will be able to get if we are really feeling down.  I think some of the most "weird" things from me to adjust to is the currency and the turns when riding in vehicles.  I say "weird" just because it isn't really culture shock or surprise because I knew both of these things were coming, but they are hard to adjust to.  For example, tonight Dan and I went up the street to Domino (yes Domino not Domino's) and picked up a large pizza and four waters.  It cost us $4,140 GD which is roughly $20.70 USD.  The fact that we spent about $8,000 for supper at OMG the other night between the four of us still blows my mind! The driving will take a long time to get used to just because they drive on the opposite side of the road, so turns are completely different from what we are used to back in the states.

I think Eric said it pretty well at orientation in Minneapolis that we should think about it more like we crossed a state border instead of a new country.  It really seems like that to me right now. Based on the people I have met and the interactions I have had with those native to Guyana I really feel at home except for those few things.  Obviously, there are still going to be changes, but right now I feel like I am home. :)

Tomorrow we will be attending a church service at the church right outside our front door.  We are currently staying in an old parsonage owned by the church on their complex.  And then we really start to get working on school stuff!  We will be working on creating our registration and scholarship forms in order to prepare for registration next week.  All sorts of things to be looking forward to!

For those of you who were wondering I do finally know my address.  It is:
Kelli Lair
Lutheran Court
New Amsterdam, Berbice, Guyana

Strange isn't it? Anyways, I have been told it takes about two and a half weeks for packages to get here from the Midwest.  We never really found out about just regular mail though.

This post has become plenty long by now, so I think it is time for me to crawl into my net and head off into dream world.

Until next time, thank you for all of your support!

Kelli J. Lair