¿Aprendo espanol es facil?

This lovely video put together by Matt Stone and Trek Parker (not a phrase you hear often!) nicely explains what I´m doing with my life. It´s amazing to discover that you don´t need to be rich or clever to travel the world and have amazing experiences. You just need to do it!

I discovered the video on the blog fluent in 3 months which is a blog written by an Irish guy who has spent the last 8 years travelling and learning language, and has some great tips on faster language learning - mainly, speak it! There´s some great life lessons here too.

Few people seem to speak English here anyway, so this shouldn´t be a problem, however to put a bit more pressure on making language learning a clear goal, I hereby publicly set myself a target of achieving a level of B1 on the Commmon European Framework benchmarks for language fluency  over the next three months - that is,

Can understand the main ideas of complex text on both concrete and abstract topics, including technical discussions in his/her field of specialisation. Can interact with a degree of fluency and spontaneity that makes regular interaction with native speakers quite possible without strain for either party. Can produce clear, detailed text on a wide range of subjects and explain a viewpoint on a topical issue giving the advantages and disadvantages of various options.

Wish me luck!

Currently my main resource for learning is my Kindle, loaded up with Collins English-Spanish and Spanish-English dictionaries, Learn Spanish the Novel Way, Spanish made Simple and Practice makes Perfect: Spanish Verbs, plus trying to get out and talk to people as much as possible. Any other recommendations or lovely PDFs people could send me would be incredibly welcome!

In the meantime, I´ll also be having as much fun as possible. Next post will give a few pictures of the fun so far.

On to the next stage

So, my Guyana experience is over, at least for now. At some point I might write some blogs trying to put the whole experience into context, and filling you in on some of the crazy and wonderful parts of my experience in more detail - losing a toe to a fish, crossing the jungle and savannah by motorbike, DJing at parties and out in public, getting powdered, soaked and dyed at Phagwah,  learning to cook roti and bake and learning to wine and to waltz Guyanese oldies style.

Wow, that´s a lot!

Finishing a placement is as much of an emotional rollercoaster as starting it. I was very lucky to get to the point where the work that VSO had started in the region could be handed over to some amazing Guyanese teachers - Simone and Mycinth. I feel honoured to have worked with two people with such a passion for improving education in Guyana and such positive and selfless individuals, and very hopeful that they can continue to work with teachers to move things forward. VSO has largely pulled out of education in Guyana now, and so it is wonderful to be able to pass on the baton to such capable hands.

Right now I am starting a new journey - a few months travel in South America. Starting in Venezuela, continuing to Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. I hope to get some perspective on my experience in Guyana, and how it has changed my understanding of what I want from life and what I can give. Also I hope to meet people with different lifestyles and cultures, learn Spanish to a reasonable level, and have fun in amazing places. This part of the world has a shaky reputation for safety, but is also packed full of mountains, waterfalls, beaches, music, dancing, animals, and different cultures.

My journey began with some time in the Rupanuni. Thanks to Tjeerd, Sergio, Melvin, Sonja and Eddie and Behi for the great company and hospitality along the way. The Rupanuni is a savannah area in the south of Guyana, with amazing open skies and incredible sunsets, bordered by jungle covered mountains. Relaxing into the steady pace of life there with a few walks and bike rides was a great way to get into the travelling spirit.

My first faltering steps into Latin America have been in Santa Elena de Uarien, a lovely frontier town (not a phrase you hear often) a few kilometers into Venezuela from Brazil. I have spent a few days hanging out, testing out a few phrases of Spanish and meeting some interesting people. There are a few nomad type travellers around, including a Spanish guy who has been cycling with a tent all the way from Mexico, and a camper van full of Argentinian graphic designers who have been on the road for three years, passing through Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia. They keep going by selling some crafts and working over the internet from time to time and seem like some of the happiest people I have met.

I also started on my plan to get more active with a very long and very hilly bike ride through the Gran Sabana to a small hippy ish community called El Pauji, where I stayed for a couple of nights and swam in some beautiful waterfall plunge pools before facing the long and very hilly bike ride back.

Signing off for now, new blogging policy is quick and straight from my head. One lesson I am trying to learn from my experience so far is: less perfectionism, more action!

Also, work less, live more!

Ciao.

All my Christmasses are green

This is, unbelievably, my Third christmas in Guyana. And christmas in Guyana, like the other holidays, has it's own unique set of traditions.  A great thing about this country is that the major Christian and Hindu holidays are celebrated by (nearly) all Guyanese, regardless of religion, in a uniquely Guyanese way.  Easter is flying kites on the beach and watching horse racing. Phagwah is crazy water and dye fights in the street. Diwali is terrifying fireworks and spinning wire wool. And Christmas is:

- spring cleaning your house and changing all the curtains

- a big, messy street party on christmas eve, with rum and ginger, huge soundsystems, drunken santas and last minute shopping

- black cake, pepperpot, apples, grapes and nuts (apples and grapes don't grow in the tropics so are expensive imported luxuries here)

- Caribbean Christmas songs; I saw Mommy Kiss a Dreadlocks, We wish ya an Irie Christmas, Drink a Rum, A Rich Man For Christmas and Never Had A White Christmas 

- and church till 1 in the morning and partying till the next day on Old Year's Night

This christmas I am off to Orealla, the place most in Guyana that has most stolen my heart. And my toe.

Wishing everyone a wonderful holiday, however far away you are!

If you don't mind awfully, would you be so kind to consider maybe thinking about casting your eyes over this entry and even if you would be so kind try decoding the symbols in order to extract meaning so that you can discern my

How an English person asks a taxi driver to stop:

Excuse me, I hate to be a bother but would you consider being so kind as to help me out by maybe pulling the car over to let me out just before the next road, by the house with the large balcony and the mango tree, is that a mango tree or an avocado tree, I get those awfully confused, is it a mango tree that has the leaves haning down like that, anyway if you could do me the honour of letting me, oh we’ve passed it, never mind, I hate to be a bother but if you could bring the car to a halt at your very first convenience I would be most awfully . . .

How a Guyanese person asks a taxi driver to stop:

Driver! Street coming up.

On the other hand, protocol when walking down the street is:

England:

• Blinkers on, studiously avoid eye contact or interaction of any kind, stern and unapproachable face.

Guyana:

• Every man, woman, child and goat you come near gets a Good Morning, or at least a quick 'Wam*?' 

Taxi drivers dealing with British directions are equally confused as a Brit dealing with a smile and greeting from a stranger in the street.

* My favourite contraction of 'What's Happening?'.

Rain stops everything.

Guyana has a very efficient system for rain which would improve the quality of life immeasurably in England. The plan - get all the rain out of the way in the shortest time possible.  The clouds don't bother with drizzling, spitting, showering, misting, sprinkling or any of the other half hearted rain types we are so fond of.  When the heavens do open, they open all the way, and a week’s worth of British drizzle falls in the space of five minutes.

First, you feel a drop in pressure, the air clears, your sweating dies down half a shade and the temperature falls.  There is an ominous silence, a swirling, a sense of impending doom. After a couple of minutes, the sky tears apart and water comes gushing through. A second outside gets you saturated. You have to stop work as you can't hear yourself shout, let alone think. The street becomes a river, your front yard a lake and the guttering a dramatic waterfall. There are more flashes of light than the paparrazi chasing after <insert pointless attention seeking celebrity here>, and the thunder shakes plates off tables and loosens false teeth. Everything stops.

Then after half an hour, the rain clears up, the sun comes out and dries things off, and you go about your day.

Anyone up for starting a petition for the UK to adopt this system?

Travel in Guyana

The Lonely Planet – South America on a Shoestring travel guide devotes a few short pages to Guyana. The opening line of the ‘facts for the visitor’ section gives a pretty good introduction to the challenges facing tourists.

Nothing is easy here.

There is certainly some truth here, although there have been some changes since the guide was written. The bad news is that travelling in Guyana can still be complicated, unpredictable, frustrating and surprisingly expensive. Georgetown is dirty, dangerous and has few real tourist attractions. The roads are treacherous with wildlife, potholes and crazy drivers. There is still little in the way of tourist infrastructure. Without insider knowledge, it is very difficult to arrange journeys yourself, and often the only option is expensive guided tours. The mosquitos and the climate are brutal until you get adjusted to them. The rainy season, which for the last few years has not stuck to the usual schedule, can in the interior close down roads entirely or leave you with no option but to wade through waist deep mud. And seeing the most interesting parts of the country often involves costly internal flights or many uncomfortable and bumpy hours in a cramped bus or boat.

But despite, (and partly because of), these difficulties, this is an incredible country. Dig a little, and you will find unspoiled paradises, practically untouched by tourism. The people are incredibly welcoming and open. The culture is a wonderful mix of influences, taking in psychedelically colourful Hindu festivals, wild Carribean party spirit and traditional Amerindian communities deep in the jungle. There is a great soundtrack to life here - you are always within earshot of loud music in the costal towns, the jungle has an endless chorus of birds, frogs, insects and monkeys, and the savannah offers incredible peace and quiet. There are thousands of square miles of pristine rainforest, the highest single drop waterfall in the world thundering into a remote gorge, breathtaking open savannah and an unbelievable range of weird and wonderful wildlife. There is tasty food, world class rum, and joyful, sexy music. You can tackle almost any weather Guyana will throw at you with shorts, a T shirt and an umbrella. You can sleep in a hammock surrounded by the eerie roar of howler monkeys, bathe in pristine black water creeks and canoe down jungle rivers with giant otters for company.  If you want to get off the beaten track then you’re in luck. There isn’t a beaten tourist trail in the whole country.

I wouldn’t recommend Guyana for everyone. There are many cheaper and easier places to travel, especially coming from Europe. It doesn’t fit into many longer itineraries either – there are reasonable links to some Carribean islands, but the only easy way to get to most other countries in South America is to fly via the US. But if you’re willing to put in the effort there are great rewards to be had.

For anyone interested in travel in Guyana, the Bradt guide is highly recommended. It is probably the only decent guide book to Guyana available right now – pithy statements aside, the Lonely Planet guide is pretty useless, and most South America guides don’t even mention the country. I will also try and follow this post with write ups of some of my favourite journeys in Guyana so far.

Top Tips

My main role here is in training and sharing ideas with teachers around how to make their classrooms more child friendly, inclusive, and accessible for children with special needs.  Some of these ideas never seem to get put into practice, some get tried but are hard to keep up, and some work like a charm.  These are the top 3 Guyana tried and tested simple, easy and effective ideas.

1. The 'Magic Box' - This began as a way to try and make sure everyone is participating when doing training sessions with teachers.  We decided to get all teachers to put their names in a box, from which we would pull out names at random to respond to questions or feed back after group work.  Names that have been chosen got put to one side until everyone had had a turn.  The box quickly evolved into a labelled, decorated 'magic box', with the teachers shouting an enthusiastic chorus of 'hocus pocus' every time a name was picked.  I am now baffled as to why any teacher of facilitator would try to work with a group without using some kind of random system to choose who should respond to questions.  Teachers and pupils have really taken to the idea, and I also now use this in every training session I do.  It is great for pace, good fun, and keeps everyone on their toes.
2. 1, 2, 3, Eyes On Me - Rappers, rock stars and children's entertainers have known for years that a call and response routine is a great way to get everyone excited and in sync.  It works for teachers too.  The primary school (or grown up) version is that the teacher says '1, 2, 3, eyes on me' and the pupils respond '1, 2, eyes on you'. For teenagers it might work best to make up a more relevant call and response routine.  One of the biggest challenges for many teachers, myself included, especially with teenagers, is getting them to pay attention and listen.  The call and response trick seems to work like a charm, and in a friendly and positive way.  No more 'we can wait here all day', 'it's your own time you're wasting', and the other classic empty threats we all remember from our school days.
3. Set questions or tasks that start easy and get harder - Differentiation is difficult and time consuming, and to teachers in Guyana it is a new and unfamiliar concept.  The education system is based around all pupils doing exactly the same work, whether they finish it in ten seconds or two hours.  Differentiation can be a tenuous concept for teachers in the UK too, and is often forgotten or done badly.  It was certainly something that was always talked about, but little understood, when I was in teacher training.  The simplest way I have found to explain how to do differentiation in practice is: when giving class work, start with easy questions that review previous knowledge, move on to slightly more challenging ones that address the new content, and finish with an optional task to stretch the thinking of the quicker workers.

What are your best teaching or facilitating tips?