A Change of Pace

Well, biting bugs are out in force now. They really had not been that bad until about three days ago, and now they are everywhere! What a sad time to run out of bugs spray. Don’t worry, it is on my shopping list for tomorrow. This past week has been crazy. We teachers went to two different churches on Sunday. First we went to the Lutheran church on our compound and then we went to the LDS church where I spoke. We also said good bye to Eric, as he is on his way back to the states to teach in Minneapolis and continue the work for GLMA that needs to be done in the states. It feels weird that he is gone. Last night Claire and I were setting the table and we started to set for four people then realized we are down to three. We won’t be three for long, however, this weekend we will be setting for eleven! Dr. Erv Jansen will be joining us this Friday and then a bunch of people from the ELCA and the Lutheran church in Suriname will be joining us on Saturday. Most of them are coming as part of the Glocal music training program. I don’t know a whole lot about this group, but I am bound to learn more this weekend.

Teaching has been going really well. I am very excited about my classes. It has been an experience to be teaching group guitar, but I think I am getting the most out of those two classes. One class has fifteen students with an average age around 30 and the other has sixteen students with the average age of 17. It is very different, but a unique learning experience for me to learn how to teach beginning concepts to such a wide age range. I have really connected with many of my students already which excites me for the rest of the year as well. I have started to learn what they are really interested in, and I think I may end up writing some pieces for our concerts! I am not much of a composer, but I do like to arrange some music in my free time.

Now that Eric has left we discovered we teachers talk a whole lot more. I guess when there are four people you really need a ring leader to start and direct conversations, but with three we just gab about anything and everything. Sunday night we had a really good conversation as a team about communication and what we need from each other. This has really helped us to get to know our teammates better, and to know exactly what we all need in the way of communication and feedback from others. Monday I got a phone call from Eric in Georgetown updating me on all the meetings he had been having. A long list of things for us to do was given to me and we had yet another successful conversation.

Lately I have been drawing a lot of parallels between my time at Project Transformation Tennessee and here in Guyana. Other than working at camps this is the first time I have lived and worked with the same people day in and day out. I think PTTN was a great first step for me to prepare for this adventure this year. Project Transformation taught me a lot about living with other people that I really had not had the opportunity to learn while I was at Wartburg because I did not have a consistent roommate throughout an entire year.  It is one thing to live with a group of people and go to school with them, but it is a completely different ball game when you live and work with the same people day in and day out.  This is not a bad thing, just a very different thing. It is something that takes a different kind of relationship with those around you. Just another mini adventure this year.

Something else happened to us this week that was rather frustrating for me as our house supervisor. As many of you have heard we have to pump water for us to use in the house for things such as showers, washing dishes, and toilets. Our water has run out completely from the tank for upstairs, so I went to pump water multiple times on Tuesday. Come to find out the water was never being pumped up. We have been without water. The entire house was out of water except for Eric’s bathroom in the basement apartment. We have done dishes in the bathroom sinks and in the shower. I have been doing everything the same way that we did when Eric was here, but nothing seems to work. Who knows, Eric may just have the special touch. Maybe I’m frustrated because I really have no clue what to do. I have called our contractor and he said he is sending someone to take a look for us. Hopefully we will have a solution soon. Very soon.

I have realized that I do miss one thing in particular lately. It sounds strange, but I miss it. Dial antibacterial liquid body wash. I haven’t really seen liquid boy wash in New Amsterdam. I think I saw some in Georgetown when we first got to Guyana, but not since then. Maybe I will find some next time we go to town and I will certainly pick some up!