Brazil and Shulinab

Hey everybody in the cold Netherlands,

How is life down there? Living in Guyana has had an amazing turn the last three weeks. Starting with the 28th-30th of January, where me and Calum went to Brasil. We biked from school through Lethem to the border-town in Brazil called Bonfim. When we finally got there after about an hour biking it turned out that we had missed the last bus. Seeing we did want to go to Boa Vista we had to take a taxi together with Martin, a dentist from Cameroon who works in Lethem, his girlfriend who was from Bonfim and someone else. 20 Reais each for a journey of about an hour.

When we got in Boa Vista we decided that it was probably smart to stick with him seeing nobody there, and I mean nobody, speaks anything near English (or Dutch for that matter). Martin took us to the hotel he was going and helped us book a room. We told him we wanted to go out that night but he somehow took us to the wrong type of clubs so that was a bit of a shame. The day on Saturday was a bit lame too, boa vista is nowhere near the type of city everyone told us it was, and it is not a tourist place at all, nothing much to do during the day.

In the night it got a lot better thought, we had dinner at Samuel's, a snackette owner from Ghana and a friend of Martin. From there we went with Martin and his Girlfriend to an amazing Brazilian party. This was a live forro band, not the slow 1 2 3-step kind that we've heard so often but an amazing up-tempo kind that made everyone spin around all night. This of course made it a bit hard for the 2 white-boys to dance, but we tried, the hardest part was answering questions in Portuguese :P. the only Portuguese word I know by now is: “ obregado” find out yourself what it means. (and yes some photos are already on facebook).

Then the week after this on Friday Gary (PTV from Shulinab, village about an hour south on the savannah) showed up in our staffroom with a motorbike outside. He invited me to come along on the way back. That afternoon I stole the keys for a while and tried myself, there are no police officers on this side of the Lethem bridge. So only if you go into Lethem you have to get your drivers-license/helmet. (is amazing). An hour later we crashed the bike in Lethem thought. Gary was riding and I was on the back. Yes he has his (Brittish) license and we both wore helmets mom.
Had to fix the bike a bit (broken headlight/bent handlebars) but nothing duck-tape cannot fix.

The next morning Gary took me on the back of the bike to Shulinab (roads where awfully sandy so it took 2 hours). Shulinab is absolutely amazing. No main electricity and mud/leaf houses. Long-drop toilets (disgusting picture I took flashed up the inside :P). The night Gary and Alex tried to cook for me but they had run out of gas, so we walked to one of the other teachers and had our food made on a open fire underneath a roof mad out of leafs. Guess they had done it before seeing they were not afraid :P.

That Sunday (6th) we walked around Shulinab and enjoyed the amazing carrey (home made alcoholic drink out of cassava). I helped make it, see facebook pictures. Even some home made wine. Was a weird feeling, first someone gave me a cup of his wine, then he asked how his son is doing in my 4th form English classes... Lucky enough this time I knew which student he was asking about, the day before someone was talking and I had no idea who he mend :P. The bike went out of battery so we had to sit next to someone's solar panel for an hour. (loved it XD). I was lucky to be able to sit in the back of a truck filled with petrol-barrels for the way back, seeing hitching a ride with someone up to somewhere is the only way of transport. But it does get you somewhere amazing, or back home in this case.

No worries thought everyone, besides partying in Brazil and crashing bikes I teach too. This was just an update from what I have done in our weekends. During the week me and Calum both are respectable teachers wearing respectable clothes (during school hours) and we write hour daily lesson plans. After school I usually play games with the dorms, football if there is a ball, or cricket (cheaper sport to play) or just tig.

Lessons go really good, if I say so myself, I enjoy teaching a lot more this term. It just seems to go so more natural. But this of course has to do with the amount of chemistry lessons I get to teach. I have 3 3th form classes and still my 4 sci and 5 sci classes. 5 sci I share together with miss Francine, who is the science H.O.D. But she is really biology minded and therefore has me teach most of the lessons. (there's only 9 5th formers writing CXC in chemistry anyway).It is just so nice to see a students face all glow up when they get the idea they actually understand what you're saying. Then when you give them some practise question and they can answer it it cannot be broken. At least until you start the next topic.

That is all for now, but I will be back soon with a bit more teaching/culture related subjects.
See ya around,
Miss and love you,

Stefan La Rooij
St. Ignatius secondary school
St. Ignatius Village
Lethem, Region #9
Guyana
South America
00592-674 42 43