Where has the week gone I fell like just yesterday was
Sunday and now it is Friday! Our weeks seem to fly by. Yesterday (Thursday) we
had another day with no classes held at the academy. This time it was for the
Hindu holiday Diwali. Diwali is the festival of light, and if I remember
correctly it has to do with light overcoming darkness or good over evil. To the
teachers it seemed liked a mix of Christmas, 4th of July, and
Halloween back in the states. This was a very welcomed day off. One of Claire’s
students own a really nice restaurant in town, and came to teach Claire how to
make a bunch of different food. Dan and I decided that if we were in there too
we would have had too many people in the kitchen, so we will let Claire teach
us what she learned later. One of my guitar students celebrated his birthday
yesterday as well so he stopped by and gave us a bunch of Indian food. He was
one of our two students of the month for the month of September. Claire had
another student who brought us even more food as well as firecrackers. Dan and
I got really excited about the firecrackers. We had a very relaxed day. We
decided to try playing one of our board games that was sent down and none of us
have every played. We played Tri-Bond, and I dominated!! Around 7:00 Pastor
Diana picked us up to take us out to see all of the lights. We saw a couple
stationary motorcades. These are decorated structures with kids and teenagers
dressed to represent the different gods. They are not supposed to move or talk,
which is really hard for kids their age. By the time we were there some of the
younger ones were exhausted and just wanted to be done. We also drove by many
houses and temples that had all sorts of lights everywhere. We then went to one
of Pastor D’s friend’s house where we got even more food. I seriously think we
won’t have to cook at all this week. We also got to shoot off firecrackers and
fireworks. It was so much fun! I loved it! We made some new friends last night,
and they told us this is just the beginning of what New Year’s and Christmas
will be like in Guyana!
We just finished having our Friday academy class. One of our
students brought her very young (maybe 1 or 2 years old) with her because she
was watching her. Towards the end of class we had an activity where the
students had to be in groups of four and do a lot of moving. I ended up taking
the niece and ended up singing her to sleep on my shoulder out on the veranda.
I don’t remember the last time I held a little girl that young, let alone sang
her to sleep. She had been fighting sleep the whole class, but she finally gave
in. It was so sweet. We hated waking her when I passed her back to our student
so she could go home.
Tomorrow is Town Day. We really are not sure what all that
means, other than there will be a bunch of booths everywhere. I feel like it
will end up being a lot like July Jubilee. A few of our students said they did
not think we would have a good turnout for our academy classes tomorrow, but
others said they were crazy. So we have decided that we will have class
tomorrow, and make it more of a review of everything we have covered so far
this semester. We will hope for the best when it comes to turn out. From the
sounds of it, things will be in full swing when we get done teaching, so I
think we will go out and explore what Town Day is after that. Who knows maybe
Dan and I will get to have more fun with firecrackers. We would be okay with
that.
This weekend brings Reformation Sunday, and we are scheduled
to attend church with Pastor Leroy. We still do not know much about it, so
hopefully we find out soon. Sunday we also have some people coming from
Georgetown to hear the choir rehearse. Dan had to call a special rehearsal just
to get everything worked out. I will be playing electric bass for the first
time with the choir at this rehearsal. We only have five rehearsals left until
the performance!
I think we are done with holidays for the month, but you
never know. They seem to pop out of nowhere here. At least our students give us
a little warning (by about a week). I hope that continues to happen because it
will be a sad day when we are sitting in the academy waiting for students and
no one shows up. I guess that is all part of starting a new chapter in the book
of life in a strange new place. Every day is a new and exciting adventure in
the lives of three GLMA teachers just starting out in a whole new world.
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