18 days in Guyana and still alive!!!

18 days only??? Woww...It could because of the culture, the HEAT,the food, the landscape, ... but everything is so different that it really feels like I'm here much much longer... Yesterday came back from New Amsterdam, (no no don´t get confused I was not in a weekend trip to The Netherlands), it's a city in Guyana located in Berbice (2 hours by minibus from Georgetown) where Christina, is living now. All the volunteers who either are based in Georgetown (Selina, Viveth, Paul & Sarah and Xerez) or are still waiting to move to the regions ( Only Marieke, Sonja and me) went to visit her yesterday to celebrate her birthday!! It was nice to meet all of us again but the city itself does not look like very touristically interesting...(let's put it that way) Today I had a feeling that was going to be GOOD day, is the same feeling every day, but today was a very GOOD day!!! I know many people won't understand this, but today I'm very happy because It the first time I really work in Guyana!!! Finally!! I have been waiting for almost three weeks and to be honest a lot of patience have been needed, things go really slow here... In fact, I still don't know when I'll be moving to my new home in Waramadang (I'm still staying at my dearest Rima Guesthouse with 2 of my buddies and the rest are already in their placement's locations)!! But Today I started to develop part of my work and right now have a better picture of my project and what´s going to happen in the next few weeks...: Wednesday 1st Sept: Going to Bartica (Reg 7) to meet my local employer (RDC 7) and coming back on Thursday. Monday 6th Sept: Going to Lethem (Reg 9) with my VSO boss (Tim) and my buddies (Marieke & Sonja) to get to know the area and meet RDC 9, will come back on Friday 10th Sept. Monday 13th Sept: Going to Bartica for 2 weeks to start familiarizing with the job itself and my local employer! After those 2 weeks I hope I can move to Waramadang!!!! That´s in a month from now and I can't wait to be there... Okay, okay and those are my plans for the near future, but you know good thing I already learned in Guyana is that plans can change every day so I'll keep you updated!! In the meantime I can say I'm getting bored.... One day we all went to a creek to swim in "black water" ( there's a saying in Guyana that if you drink black watter and eat "labba", wild meat, you for sure will come back! Fuck in 2 weeks here I already did both things!! :p ), I had my motorbike training during 2 days, the first one in the botanical gardens and the second one in the surrounds of the city avoiding cows, dogs and goats in my way!! It was the day when I learned about the concept of Guyanese time!! We were supposed to start by 8am and we started at 11am!!! Only 3 hrs waiting... I knew that my pink helmet was going to be really succesfull!! I also went for a weekend in Essequibo (region 2) with Clive, a local volunteer, and after one of the nicest boat trips of my life through Essequibo river until the Atlantic Ocean I had a very local weekend where I tried home made pepperpot!! (local dish) A reggae concert in the National Stadium under a heavy rain could not be missed (sorry no pictures from that day) but it was so funnny!!! Of course, as some of you know I was almost a NBA star in my younger times but did not want to be so popular so I just opted to stop playing but by chance got into a basketball match between the Guyana National Team and the Washington Warriors (University team), the match was quite boring but it was funny to pay attention to some small details like.. the curious outfit of some of the public, the shows in the breaks, (we had an imitation of Michael Jackson and the guayanese version of full monty) and the fact that they gave ALL the trophies to the USA team, including the MVP and the championship winner, which was strange to me even they were much better because it was only HALF TIME when they did it!!! More things, i tried a rastaphari vegetarian restaurant where I could buy some reggae and also checked out the best curry of the city!! Mmmm...really goood!! Ahh!!! Before I forget I'm trying to get more healthier.... I'm trying to quit smoking!!! I'm already 2 weeks without any cigarrettes in my body!! And I'm preparing myself to run a marathon!!! It will be in December next year in Barbados (good excuse, no?) !!! And I went to play football last Friday!! I was the only "whity" of the 6 teams playing and all the public watching!! Interesting experience! (let's put it that way) Ok people that´s it for now....going to put my mosquito net now as they are already attacking!!! Looking forward to know about your lifes by emails/comments/facebook/sms/smoke signs/whatever.. Abrazos para ellos y Besos para ellas!! Ser