Into the Wild in Lush Guyana

By TARA MULHOLLAND

Published: February 7, 2010

Guyana’s stunning scenery and abundant wildlife make it a haven for adventurers and eco-tourists.

On a trip to collect information on the giant river otter, an endangered species, a group of researchers ended up in Rewa Head. “In just six weeks the expedition recorded an astounding variety of life: 158 species of birds, 22 species of medium to large mammals, and half of Guyana’s known endangered species.”

They also found that “this pristine wilderness—still free from the impacts of the modern world—may not remain so for long. Both a massive logging concession and an even larger oil drilling concession overlap the wilderness.”

Read more about this topic at: http://news.mongabay.com/2009/1129-hance_pickles.html
and more about U.S. timber firm Simon & Shock International’s involvement with Guyana here: http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0221-guyana.html

Beneficiaries:

Congratulations to Philip Chan, an RPCV from Guyana, who won our hearts – and our first small grant – with his proposal to assist a small villiage in Guyana in their effort to obtain clean drinking water.  Please take a moment to read his magnificent project report below.

PROJECT REPORT FROM PHILLIP CHAN

(Slightly abridged by FROG)

Summary:

The purpose of the trip was to implement a small scale clean water project in the Amerindian village of St. Monica.  The decision to conduct this project was based on ongoing communication I had with my village since COS-ing regarding the rise in gastrointestinal complaints (vomiting and diarrhea) reported at the health post and village concerns about the increasingly polluted waters of the Pomeroon.  Prior to the trip we conducted research on applicable clean water applications, including portable filtration systems, Life Straws, water purification packets, and river bank sand filtration.  We consulted with the local Philadelphia chapter of Engineers Without Borders (regarding the river bank sand filtration method) and with Dr. Andrea Thorpe of the Miami Chapter – Rotary International.  We also invited a guest speaker, Dr. Christiaan Morssink-president of the United Nations Associations of Greater Philadelphia to come to our school and give a lecture on water security in the developing world.  Dr. Morssink had previously lived in Suriname, where he was head of the Department of Planning and Project Management in the Ministry of Health.  Ultimately, we settled on rainwater collection as the application for use in our project, primarily for three reasons:

• Turbidity and conductivity data collected by a 2006 CDC team to the Pomeroon indicated rainwater as the cleanest natural source of water in the region.
• Village leaders identified rainwater collection as the desired source for clean water in the community, and already possessed resources to support the set up of a rainwater collection system on the central village compound (including four 450 gallon rainwater tanks).
• In conjunction with Rotary International, a successful larger-scale project to set up rainwater tanks had already been conducted in the neighboring village of Kabakaburi.  Assessment plans to expand this project to St. Monica and Karawab were already underway, and our efforts would complement those of the RI team.

We arrived in Guyana on the morning of Sunday, March 22, and arrived in St. Monica the following day on Monday, March 23.  On Tuesday we traveled with the tushao to Karawab at the request of Dr. Thorpe, who wanted to collect population and resource data for expansion of Rotary’s clean water project to this community.  We were also planning on setting up a second water tank stand at the Karawab village compound, near the primary school and health post.  However, due to time limitations we were restricted to setting up a single water tank stand at the St. Monica compound.  Wednesday and Thursday were devoted to clearing the work site area and gathering materials for the stand, including 384 BMs of lumber donated from community members, representing nearly half of the necessary resources for the project.  Construction commenced on Thursday, and was completed the following afternoon.  Friday evening we had a sendoff dinner and party at the village community center.  Paiwari was shared.  I danced the Worm.

Read the rest of this entry »

Give It To Me Right is just now hitting the radio stations in DC. I love it – and if you’re into great music – I think you will too. I’ve got to admit, knowing Melanie Fiona’s (Canadian-)Guyanese makes me love her more.

You may have first heard her on Reggae Gold 2008 – the stunning voice behind “Somebody Come Get Me” – but she does right by R&B.

Plus she has her own Wikipedia page. Which means she must be going somewhere.

So take a listen, and when it comes out in the Spring get your hands on a copy of her first album “The Bridge.” You can borrow mine…

As I was searching for some new material to post, I came across some old news that we at FROG never got to post:

PCV Kate Puzey was murdered almost one month ago in the Benin village, Badjoude. She was 24 and an Education Volunteer. This is so very sad. My heart goes out to the volunteers in her group, her family, her friends, and the community she worked with in Benin. I know they must all be still feeling the pain of her death.

Read this sad story.

Crime against PCV’s is an issue in Guyana – sometimes even crimes of a serious nature, but murder…I am so thankful that we never dealt with something as frightening as the death of a fellow PCV.

Take a moment, sometime today, tomorrow, or the next and please say a little prayer for all the 7,500-some PCV’s across the world right now.

Did you know that T-Pain was going to Guyana? But then didn’t because of threats to his life? To make matters worse, he is now being sued for cancelling the show! Apparently this elevates the rapper to baller status, considering I found the following article on BallerStatus.com:

T-Pain Sued Over Guyana Concert Cancellation

Posted on March 24, 2009, words by Miles Bennett

T-Pain was slapped with a lawsuit Monday (March 23) in a Florida court, regarding his cancellation of a major concert in Guyana last month after he allegedly received kidnap and death threats. According to the Miami Herald, Hits and Jams Entertainment (the promoters behind the event) accuses 23-year-old T-Pain (real name: Faheem Najm) of making outrageous demands — including a private jet, FBI protection, and a phone call with the country’s president. The company said they paid the Auto-Tune king a $75,000 advance, but was a no-show, following reports of death threats. Hitz and Jams says T-Pain was scheduled to headline the Republic Day event on February 23. They said they provided his camp with more than a dozen airline tickets, including seven in first class, in addition to “four-star hotel or better” accommodations, and several other rider demands. However, three days before the show, David Abram of Pain’s Chase Entertainment told promoters he’d been “advised by a credible source associated with T-Pain’s camp that T-Pain should not ‘come’ to Guyana because he would be killed or kidnapped because Hits and Jams had not paid their ’street guys.’” While the suit states that the Pain’s camp offered to return the $75,000 advance, Hits claims it wouldn’t “remedy the disappointment to the Guyanese fans.” Hits are seeking at least $5 million for breach-of-contract against T-Pain and his Nappy Boy Touring company, citing both libel and defamation counts against all the defendants, including Abram. In response, Abram told the Herald: “It was a legitimate security threat. Chase, T-Pain’s management company, did not want to put the artist in ‘harm’s way,’ ” Abram adds. “We feel horrible about not being able to play the concert,” he added. “We are going to do what needs to be done to make this right with the promoters They’re a good company. We’re a good company.”

FROG would like to give a shout out to Russell McGorman of Our house Graphic Design, for donating his time helping us with logo work. We appreciate the time and energy that went into volunteering for us!

If you’re interested in finding volunteers to help with your organizations design work, check out DesignismConnects.com

(http://www.peacecorps.gov/)

The Peace Corps is proud to announce the top colleges and universities on their annual list of “Peace Corps Top Colleges and Universities” for 2009.

For the third consecutive year, the University of Washington is No. 1 on the undergraduate list in the large schools category, with 104 alumni serving as Peace Corps Volunteers. The University of Colorado-Boulder has risen dramatically from sixth place last year to claim the No. 2 in the large schools category, with 102 Volunteers. Michigan State University has also risen up two spots from fifth place last year to take the No. 3 rank among the country’s large schools, with 89 currently-serving Volunteers.

The complete list can be found here.

We’re Marching! RPCVs to Take Part in the Inaugural Parade

Now is your chance to be a part of history! The Returned Peace Corps Community has been selected from among groups around the country to march in the Presidential Inaugural Parade on January 20, 2009.

A total of 200 marchers will carry flags and banners from every Peace Corps country.

Members of the National Peace Corps Association are encouraged to put your name into a lottery to be selected at random to march in the Parade.

Click here for complete details.

(via stabroeknews.com/news)

Participants at a ‘Forum for Men’ last Thursday were urged to aggressively pursue initiatives that will stamp out gender-based violence in the Guyanese society.

Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security, Trevor Thomas said that “Our challenge is not to passively condemn but to aggressively pursue initiatives that can positively respond and stamp out gender-based violence in our society.”

As part of the observation of “National Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women” the ministry and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) held a ‘Forum for Men’ last Thursday which was aimed at giving men the opportunity to do “some serious introspection,” the Government Infor-mation Agency (GINA) reported.

Thomas pointed out that, “Gender-based violence is real and men need to do something about it… most men condemn domestic violence but we cannot any longer allow condemnation to be just a personal view… I would like to see some form of resolution that does not merely articulate our condemnation of violence but one that can form a catalyst for the way forward that we as men can aggressively respond to domestic violence.”

The ministry has been conducting consultations throughout the country and working with institutions and groups to see how domestic violence can be eradicated from society.