Two Months in Country!

Another week is in the books here at the Guyana Lutheran Music Academy. My classes are progressing wonderfully, and we have some awesome academy classes planned. We attended a multi-school sports day today. All of the schools in the region were participating, so we got to see a good number of our students competing. One of my students has moved on to the national competition next month in at least one of her events! We are all extremely excited for her!

This past Wednesday we celebrated Dan’s birthday. We made the most American meal we could think of in order to celebrate with him. We had a student who is a butcher make us some ground beef and we made hamburgers with all the fixings and French fries.  It was really good! Having ground beef made me miss a good crumble burger! We also had cake and ice cream. I made the cake again. We had a Halloween themed cake because even though Guyana does not celebrate the holiday they have mixes and such that celebrates it. I am getting really good at making cakes here without them getting dry and crumbly. It makes me excited because the Canadians came over again and said something about that. It is very rare to get moist cake like that with these ovens. Claire and I also decorated Dan’s bedroom door as well as the dining room to liven up the celebration. Dan has really wanted to get a pet monkey for around the house. No, I did not go deep into the rainforest and smuggle a live monkey into the house for a pet (although walking around New Amsterdam one day we did see a guy that had a pet monkey on a leash), but I did find a stuffed animal monkey for him. We have seen these monkeys hanging off the back of cars all over Guyana, so I was excited when I finally found them to get one for him. He put the monkey around his neck like a cape after we gave it to him. Also for Dan’s birthday we got internet! That’s right everyone, I can now Skype and do things!

This has really been a big week for the GLMA teachers. We finally got our bank accounts figured out. Claire spent about three hours at the bank on Thursday and Dan and I spent a total of two hours on Friday. Dan and I even have debit cards already. I think it is now just finally sinking in that I am in a new country and will be here for a while. Opening a bank account finally had that hit home for me. I have always known that I have been in Guyana for two months, but it never really felt real. It always felt like I was in a dream or something. 

Thursday was crazy. All day there were some dark clouds off in the distance and we could hear thunder, but it just would not rain. I had been asking everyone I saw all day if we were going to get rain. Every single person answered me “No!” I figured they would know better than I would what weather in Guyana is like. My first class of the day was COFONA brass. We got set up outside just like we do every single class. A short two minutes into class a few rain drops started falling and the next thing we knew it was a total downpour! The percussion group came sprinting downstairs to help us get everything out of the rain and we all went upstairs. Dan and I had to do some very quick thinking to now combine two classes that had not been planned to be together in one class all together and make a lesson plan that makes sense based off what both classes had learned. I am rather proud at how well we pulled that lesson out of thin air and got the group playing as a full group without traditional instruments.

This weekend brings a lot of music performance/learning for the teachers. Saturday, Dan is heading back to town (by himself) to attend a music conference at the National School of Music while Claire and I stay in New Amsterdam to teach all of the academy classes. Then Saturday night we are performing two songs for a Cancer Society event at the town hall. Sunday the GLMA band will be heading to St. John’s Lutheran Church to be musicians at the confirmation service. We visited that church back when Glocal because some of the songs we are supposed to play have no music and none of us know the songs! This is something that Eric, Michael, and Dan all seem to be very comfortable with, but Claire and I are a little different. We will have a bunch of percussion equipment, a guitar, a piano, and a viola so we can be creative with who plays what throughout the service. I also just found out that we are playing at the opening ceremony for a town festival on Sunday. Glad I learned that the day before!

I had my first experience with a Guyana post office this week. Thank you Grandma for the package of Aloe. When you have a package come in the mail (via USPS and GPS, if that is what they call it) you get a slip of paper telling you that there is a package for you and the estimated duty amount based on the weight. You have to go to the post office between 10:30-11:30 am on Tuesday or Thursday with ID and money and wait in a line. I had no idea where the post office was, but I got in a car and they took me right there. Thank goodness because it would have been about a half hour walk to get there and I would have missed my pickup window! You then hand them the slip of paper and go sit down until you hear your name called. I waited about 45 minutes before my name was called. You go back up to the window and give them your ID. Then you watch them open your package so they can write down the exact items in each package and a real duty amount. Before you get your package you slide down to the next window and they tell you exactly how much you owe, you pay them, and then you get your ID and receipt and then you finally get your package and start making your way home. 

There have been a lot of firsts this week and we are two months in. I am okay with this. It just proves to me that I really do have one of the biggest learning experiences of my life right here, right now. I am so lucky to have been able to get into this on the ground level and have the opportunity to really help shape this program. I have fallen in love with Guyana, New Amsterdam, and Guyana Lutheran Music Academy. It is shaping me as a teacher, a musician, and a person. I look forward to seeing just how much I can grow in this short ten months. I can’t believe I only have 8 left!