Friends & RPCVs of Guyana

A welcome surprise arrived in our Inbox recently.  Edith Yoo, a Peace Corps volunteer and FROG Funds recipient, was kind enough to scan and email a number of thank-you cards written by her students.   We could say more, but we’d rather let the postcards speak for themselves.  For more information on Edith Yoo’s FROG Funded project in Canal #1, please see the project summary.

Name: Tim Delaney
GUY Group: GUY 12
Guyana Site: Dartmouth
Type of Volunteer: Education

1. What have you been up to since you finished Peace Corps?
After I finished my 3rd year in Guyana in 2006 I spent a few months at home in Buffalo, both looking for jobs in Africa and helping with the foundation of FROG. In 2007 I moved to Ethiopia to work for Oxfam America for a year. After Sasha and I’s wedding in December that year I hung out in Guyana for a couple months and then Sasha and I moved back to Ethiopia so I could start my job at the Engineering Capacity Building Program (www.ecbp.biz) in the capacity of Communications Coordinator. And that is where you can still find me.

2. What do you miss most about Guyana and your Peace Corps experience?
I would say El Dorado, but since I’ve been going back so steady I’ve managed to always keep a stockpile with me in Ethiopia. More importantly, I miss my friends and family. It makes it even harder being in Ethiopia where the phone communication to Guyana is so tough and most of my good friends don’t have email. I also miss the more relaxed approach to things and the stress free life style (even if it was a source of stress sometimes when trying to get things done.)

3. How did your experience in Guyana affect your post-Peace Corps experience?
Guyana taught me to slow down. Everything doesn’t need to get done immediately; life needs to be enjoyed a little. That’s not to say you never have to work, but there is a time for work and a time for enjoyment. I think the expression is ‘work hard, play hard’. I’ve tried my best to take this experience into my post PC life.

4. Describe a challenge you worked to overcome while in PC Guyana.
Life is all about challenges. I’m not sure I worked through any particular problem in PC that I would not have faced anywhere else in the world. That being said, the biggest challenge I had was returning for my 3rd year, ready to start the construction of our village resource center, only to find out that the funding source had changed its policies during my leave and we could no longer go through with the project. In the end I used it as a valuable lesson for my community in that they should have never sat back and waited for funding, we should have kept pushing. We worked through the problem though and used our time to do other valuable things for the community.

5. In 5 words, describe your Peace Corps experience.
Inspirational, life-changing and amazing people. (Or Toughest job I’ll ever love.)

6. What is your favorite Peace Corps Guyana memory?
Wow, big question. Well, hands down it would have to be meeting my beautiful wife Sasha. But there are so many other fantastic memories of village trips to the lake when my father was visiting, rodeos, crossing trenches and jumping seawalls in the middle of the night to swim in the ocean, rodeos, weddings, rodeos, nights in the Timbassy Suites, trips to Uncle Mello’s in the Pomeroon, rodeos, BBQs, Guy 12, and Region 2, 2, 2!

7. What was the hardest part of readjusting to post-Peace Corps life?
Making money. It was a little strange to move to Addis Ababa in Ethiopia where things are relatively cheap and be making money…part of me was still in PC mode and would shy away from decent (not really all that expensive, but more than what a PCV could afford) restaurants and bars, but some of my friends probably thought I was pretty crazy since I was passing up opportunities to go to nice restaurants where the entrees were only about $5-7 because I thought that was too expensive.

8. Which lessons from Peace Corps have you applied in your post-Peace Corps jobs/life?Guyana and Peace Corps opened my mind to the idea of letting people tell you what they want in the context of development, rather than just doing things that you think are helpful. I have carried this mentality with me to Ethiopia (and in life in general) and try my best to apply it all the time, although I find it quite difficult to convince many others working in development. Getting to know people and their needs is often a much better way to help than having a wealth of knowledge in a particular field.

9. What advice would you give a future or current Peace Corps Volunteer (Guyana or otherwise)?
Enjoy. Listen. Learn.

10. Would you do Peace Corps again? Where, when and why?
I would definitely do it again if the opportunity arose. I would probably wait until after retirement when my children are in college so that Sasha and I could go together. Where: maybe somewhere in the Caribbean so our children wouldn’t mind visiting.

Are you a Guyana RPCV who would like to be featured in our RPCV Highlight? Email me at kringer@guyfrog.org.

On May 11, 2010 Peace Corps announced that the Colombian Minister of Foreign
Affairs Jaime Bermúdez and Peace Corps Director Aaron S. Williams met to sign an Understanding to establish a Peace Corps program in Colombia.

“We are honored that the government of Colombia has invited Peace Corps to establish a program in Colombia,” said Williams. “It has been nearly 50 years since President Kennedy established the Peace Corps, and although times have changed, our mission to promote world peace and friendship has not. This Peace Corps program will encourage Americans and Colombians to work side by side on Colombia’s education initiatives, with a focus on youth development in local communities.”

Read the full press release here.

The Georgetown-Lethem Road, deemed “one of South America’s most remarkable
roads,” was featured in Sunday’s New York Times. The article and audio slide show discusses the impact of improving the road and how the country is torn between economic development and preserving the pristine environment. From the article:

“The road is a physical manifestation of these two poles. At one end are echoes of the nation’s colonial past, like cricket pitches and hackney carriages (taxis). Hindu temples, for the many Guyanese descended from laborers from the Indian subcontinent, dot Georgetown’s canalled streets.

At the other end of the road, on the border with Brazil, every other conversation seems to be in Portuguese. Chinese merchants sell goods to traders, businessmen broker deals to lure Brazilian rice farmers and signs welcome Brazilians and their robust currency, the real, to this outback.”

Some of the volunteers who participated in the Clean Water project shared their personal experiences:

From Phillip Chan, Jefferson Medical College (MS2)

Awesome trip this year!  At first, I was a bit more anxious having a larger group with us, and trying to get everyone out to the village all in one piece.  In the end, we ran into the most trouble on our U.S.-based Delta airlines flights, of all places!  However, once we got to Guyana the week was an incredible success, and in retrospect it seems to have gone by so amazingly fast.  The days were jampacked with teaching, playing with kids, local trips, purchasing construction materials, and paddling around on the river.  In the evening, despite the fact that we had nothing but a kerosene lantern and headlamps to light our way, we managed to entertain ourselves with a few infamous nights of “Celebrity” charades more mosquito coil smoke than can possibly be healthy for the human body.  At night we slept 6 hammocks in a row up in the old primary school building, falling asleep to the sounds of frogs, crickets, howler monkeys, tropical birds, and what had to be the loudest sounds possible of bats copulating.  I’d like to thank the St. Monica and Karawab school faculty and village leaders for all their help and incredible hospitality.  A special thanks to my awesome fellow Jefferson med-students, y’all were a blast to hang out with and made this trip more productive, fun, and entertaining than I ever could’ve imagined.  My all time favorite highlight of the trip: boatracing with paiwari at the final farewell dinner, Americans vs. Guyanese.  It came down to the wire (no thanks to myself) but ended in a dead on tie.

From Devesh Upadhya, Jefferson Medical College (MS2)

This was the best week of my life! There were so many new experiences, so many fun times with my fellow travelers, and the experience of learning something about myself in a totally different environment–not a bad outcome for my first service trip abroad. From the first evening, when we spent some time with Peace Corps volunteers learning about the challenges and rewards of working in the country, to the last day in the village when we futilely paddled our canoe in circles, every day was a learning experience. I found myself waking up every morning around 5 AM, full of energy. I had time to enjoy the quiet mornings, play with the children, eat a quick breakfast, and then dive into teaching math to the students; afterwards us volunteers would gather around the kerosene lantern, play games, and just talk while we inhaled the (possibly mind-altering) combined fumes of mosquito coils, DEET, and our kerosene stove boiling water. I am very thankful for the villagers’ hospitality, and for all the donations that helped make our trip a helpful contribution to the village!

From Kartik Dandu, Jefferson Medical College (MS1)

Spending my spring break in Guyana was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. I knew that I would never get another opportunity like this, and I could not pass it up. Having a seasoned peace corps veteran like Phil around was the main reason why our trip went so smoothly (except for the whole Delta airlines debacle). In Georgetown, we were able to get a taste of the local culture which has a surprising number of American influences. Coming from America, Georgetown was a nice transition before we headed up to St. Monica. At the village, I had a lot of fun teaching the kids math/science during the day and playing games in the river with some of the same kids at night. Being able to provide the village with water tanks and a playground equipment was a nice bonus. I can’t say enough about the hospitality of the people in St. Monica. They were always willing to accommodate us and even cooked us three meals a day. In the end, our trip went by way too quickly, and I would definitely like to visit Guyana again in the future.

From Priya Sharma, Jefferson Medical College (MS1)

Spending a week in Guyana and St. Monica was one of the most gratifying experiences that I have ever had!  Since this was my first time traveling to a foreign country for a service project, I was extremely apprehensive about the obstacles that I would face.  However, I was completely amazed by how easy it was to adapt to the Guyanese life!  As soon as we arrived at the village, I was overwhelmed by the gratitude and hospitality of St. Monica, and we were able to interact with the villagers as if we were from St. Monica itself.  Everyday was a new learning experience, whether it was learning how to sleep in a hammock comfortably or learning how to balance a flashlight while acting out Yoda in our “Celebrity” game.  My all time favorite experience was demonstrating a Grade 8 chemical extraction that required an Erlenmeyer flask filled with distilled ethanol suspended over a Bunsen Burner, but was instead demonstrated with a cup filled with trimethylated spirits suspended in a pot of boiling water.  Surprisingly, the experiment worked extremely well!  Another amazing experience was paddling downstream on the Pomeroon only to find that it was impossible to paddle back upstream!  Needless to say, I quickly realized that paddling was much harder than it appeared!  Overall, I had an amazing trip.  I want to thank everyone in St. Monica for their unbelievable hospitality and I want to thank the Peace Corps Volunteers who housed us in Georgetown during our transit.  But most of all, I want to thank Phil and my fellow Jefferson students for putting together this amazing trip, it was one of the most rewarding experiences that I have ever had!  I will have a piece of St. Monica in my heart for years to come!

RPCV Phillip Chan, Guy 15, was a repeat recipient of a FROG Grant. He returned to Guyana during his spring break from Jefferson Medical College with 5 of his classmates to continue on the work he started last year in St. Monica. Here is a summary of his project report…

Summary:

The purpose of the trip was to build upon our previous work providing St. Monica residents with a cleaner source of drinking water.  Our group was composed of six Jefferson Medical College students (three first-years and three second-years).  We wanted to expand our project by installing additional rainwater catchment tanks in the neighboring village of Karawab as well as focusing on educating the community about proper water treatment and hygiene.  We had maintained contact with village leaders since last year’s trip and wanted to follow up on our promise to duplicate the water collection system installed at St. Monica Primary School with a similar, smaller scale one at Karawab Primary.  Plans had actually been made to complete this expansion last year but were limited by time constraints during our short time in-country.

Stand construction. Pictured: Harold Miguel, Errol James

Prior to our trip we held local fundraisers here in Philadelphia while consulting with consulting with contacts on the ground in Guyana.  These included the tushao, Thomas Charles, St. Monica Primary Headmaster Nicholas Courtman, and Karawab Primary Headmistress Eve Samuels.  In addition, we also received support from Peace Corps Response Volunteer Nicole Baker, who was briefly posted to St. Monica in January of 2010, and Drs. Andrea Thorpe and Karen Schneider.  Dr. Thorpe is a member of the Rotary International Team which implemented a large-scale rainwater-catchment tank distribution in Kabakaburi (neighboring community on the Pomeroon) and who has been working with her organization to continue these efforts in St. Monica and Karawab during the summer of this year.  Dr. Schneider is the leader of a Johns Hopkins medical team which works on the Pomeroon each year conducting large clinics for the main Amerindian communities, and thus has a good working knowledge of the health challenges and outcomes of this patient population.

We flew into Guyana on the morning of Sunday, March 21, and finally arrived in St. Monica late the following day on Monday, March 22.  On Tuesday we started work at the school, conducting health outreach sessions on the importance of water treatment.  We engaged the students in “field experiments” to collect various water samples and utilized light microscopy to conduct basic wet mounts of our slides.  At the request of Headmaster Nicholas Courtman, we also worked alongside the school faculty, assisting the secondary division students with their Secondary School Research Projects (SSRP’s), required for the completion of their studies this academic year.

Faculty training, IT education. Pictured: L: Devesh Upadhya (Jefferson MS2), Karawab Primary School Faculty.

Splitting our group into three pairs of teachers, we spent the morning and afternoon teaching Math, English, Science, and Social Studies.  While in Philadelphia, we had collected 4 used laptops for donation to the school, and were able to set these up using the school’s existing solar array to supplement our teaching with appropriate computer programs (Excel, Word, digital encyclopedias, etc.).  These activities formed the basis for our daily work at the village, and we continued them for the remainder of our time in St. Monica.

Viewing wet mount slides. Pictured: Brian Clark (Jefferson Medical College 2nd Year (MS2), Grades 4 -5, St. Monica Primary School.

On Wednesday, the group traveled up to Karawab with the tushao to ensure the delivery of the water tanks and proper construction of the water tank trestle at Karawab Primary.  We also conducted afternoon training sessions with Karawab’s secondary division students on the prevention of HIV and other STI’s, and a computer education class with the Karawab Primary School faculty using two of our donated laptops, which remained with the teachers for their further use at the school (like St. Monica, Karawab also has a solar panel array to power these computers).  We concluded our Karawab trip with the handover of 100 lbs. of children’s books collected in Philadelphia, providing a seed source for a new school library at the primary school (previously they had no extra reading books on hand for the students).

Farewell Ceremony at St. Monica Primary. Pictured: Grade 8 students (St. Monica Primary), Kunal Varkharia (Jefferson MS1).

Farewell Dinner at St. Monica Primary School. Pictured: St. Monica Primary School Staff and Faculty, St. Monica – Karawab Village Leaders, and the Jefferson Medical College Clean Water Team! Paiwari boatracing followed shortly afterwards.

Edith Yoo, PCV Guy20, recently completed her project to enhance the after school homework help program at the Two Brothers Primary Accelerated Learning Center in Canal #1.

Summary:

The money that we received from the FROG grant was used to purchase much needed books to aid students with their school work and help strengthen the Afterschool homework help at the learning center. With the successful implementation of the FROG grant, these impoverished secondary school students finally have access to much needed books.  Monday thru Friday, from 4-5, students come to the learning center to get homework help, and to have access to the textbooks. Typically we will see 10-12 kids come on a daily basis to access different texts. Secondary school students have come from all along the West Bank to be able to have access to free textbooks.

The afterschool sessions are run by volunteers. Teachers from Two Brothers Primary School and members of the Two Brothers Primary Accelerated Learning Center have set up a rotation schedule in which one parent and one teacher is on hand to assist the students. The Peace Corps volunteer is always on hand to assist with whatever is necessary.

In addition a small portion of the FROG grant was used to purchase storybooks for the library and chapter books for the secondary school students to read. We are using the books to encourage reading, and have students practice it, because reading is crucial in your ability to become a successful student.

The afterschool homework with the secondary school students is an ongoing project and hopefully it will continue for many years to come at the Two Brothers Primary Accelerated Learning Center in Canal #1.

Mason Richards’ narrative
short film will be screening as part of the Cal Arts Film Directing Showcase 2010 on Friday, May 7th at 8pm at REDCAT Theatre in Los Angeles (631 West 2nd Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012 – (213) 237-2800.) All are encouraged to attend!

The film, centers around, Marjorie, an older Guyanese woman who struggles with loneliness, abandonment and sacrifice as she prepares for her Grandson’s move to America to be with his mother.The cast and crew consisted of local Guyanese non-actors, non-professionals and students in town working alongside a crew from Los Angeles. This film was made possible by fundraising and donations totaling $20,000 through a non-profit fiscal sponsor affiliate of the Peace Corps: Friends of RPCVs of Guyana (FROG). A major part of making this film is that the filmmaker would return to his home country, and share what he has learned and make a film “in the community – with the community.” This is the third narrative film to ever be shot in Georgetown, Guyana.

Name: Joan Eichner
GUY Group: GUY 14
Guyana Site: Vergenoegen, EBE
Type of Volunteer: Education

1. What have you been up to since you finished Peace Corps?
Grad school and the 9 to 5 grind.

2. What do you miss most about Guyana and your Peace Corps experience?
Travel and adventure, hanging out with great PCV friends, and feeling like I made an impact on a daily basis.

3. How did your experience in Guyana affect your post-Peace Corps experience?
It helped me to finally get over my fear of the common US household spider, which cannot compare to the house spiders I dealt with in Guyana! It also made me want to work in public health and made me realize how what we do in the US impacts other countries.

4. Describe a challenge you worked to overcome while in PC Guyana.
Designing and implementing my PEPFAR project….from start to end it was challenging but worth it.

5. In 5 words, describe your Peace Corps experience.
HOT, LOUD, challenging, rewarding, fun.

6. What is your favorite Peace Corps Guyana memory?
The very first time we left our sites (illegally) and went to Leguan, skinny dipping in the knee- high river and drinking rum.

7. What was the hardest part of readjusting to post-Peace Corps life?
Explaining my experience to other people…re-adjusting to the excesses of American life… cutting down my use of “just now.”

8. Which lessons from Peace Corps have you applied in your post-Peace Corps jobs/life?
That every person has something interesting to offer to someone else, and to respect every person and try to understand where they are coming from and what they value…and patience, but I’m still struggling with that one.

9. What advice would you give a future or current Peace Corps Volunteer (Guyana or otherwise)?
Enjoy the experience, which seems to drag by at times, but two years is so short and you will never be in another experience quite like it.

10. Would you do Peace Corps again? Where, when and why?
Yes, I almost did – PC Response Corps, Malawi, HIV/AIDS prevention…cause it would be freakin’ awesome!

Are you a Guyana RPCV who would like to be featured in our RPCV Highlight? Email me at kringer@guyfrog.org.

Position Title: HIV Prevention Technical Advisor
Division: Research and Development
Reports to: CEO
Location: Cape Town, South Africa
Date Drafted: 15 March 2010
Desired Start Date: 1 August 2010

Organization Background:
Grassroot Soccer (GRS) is an international NGO that uses the power of soccer to educate, inspire, and mobilize communities to stop the spread of HIV. Through interactive HIV prevention and life skills education, GRS provides youth with the knowledge, skills and support to live HIV-free. Since 2003, more than 300,000 youth have graduated from programs run by GRS and its partners in 18 countries. GRS aims to graduate 1 million youth by 2014, rigorously evaluating our model’s success, scaling through implementing partnerships, and using soccer to enhance our impact.

Job Overview:
The HIV Prevention Technical Advisor (HPTA) serves as Grassroot Soccer’s public health specialist, responsible for: ensuring the quality of GRS Global programming; advising the development and design of programs, tools, curricula, and evaluations; developing GRS as a leading organization in youth HIV prevention; and strategically guiding the organization to achieve its goal of reducing HIV incidence among young people worldwide.

Main Responsibilities/Tasks:
The HPTA will be responsible for a variety of tasks including:
Research:
1. Liaise with research advisors in the fields of public health, education, and sport-fordevelopment and ensure their input is incorporated into GRS’ programs
2. Conduct literature reviews to inform grant writing, program design, curriculum development, and valuations
3. Ensure GRS staff and volunteers are sufficiently informed about the HIV epidemic
4. Obtain feedback on programs from beneficiaries and stakeholders through focus groups, site visits, and M&E data
Advocacy
5. Speak/present on behalf of GRS at national and international conferences, workshops, and meetings
6. Build relationships with relevant partners, donors, and other stakeholders
7. Assist in technical aspects of grant writing and program design
Curriculum Development
8. Advise the development of new curricula, ensuring interventions are based on sound theory and research and are appropriate for the targeted audience
9. Manage curriculum development consultants as needed
10. Review and approve all curricula and communications tools before implementation
Monitoring and evaluation
11. Provide technical assistance to M&E Officers in South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe
as well as implementing partners in other countries (including Malawi, Tanzania, Kenya, Namibia, and Lesotho)
12. Develop strategic frameworks (e.g. logic models, conceptual frameworks, etc) for workplans, grants, and M&E plans.
13. Recruit, select, and manage evaluation consultants and research partners carrying out program evaluations
14. Conduct routine data quality assessments and build internal data management capacity
15. Oversee development of M&E tools and processes to track outputs and outcomes.
16. Design, implement and publish relevant research that informs GRS, other implementers, and the fields of HIV prevention and sport-for development

Qualifications:
• Passion for and commitment to Grassroot Soccer’s mission;
• A Masters Degree or higher in public health, education, or a related field;
• 5+ years experience in research, evaluation, curriculum development, program design, program management, advocacy, and/or health communications;
• At least 1 year of field experience working in health, education, or research, preferably in Africa;
• Interest and expertise in HIV prevention and/or youth development;
• Action-oriented, critical thinker who challenges the status quo and insists on results;
• Excellent writing skills, including grant writing and manuscript composition;
• Excellent communicator who can translate research into action across the organization;
• Track record of launching and implementing innovative ideas and programs;
• Experience with qualitative and quantitative program evaluation methods;
• High emotional intelligence and ability to work effectively with diverse groups;
• Computer literacy, including excellent Microsoft Office skills (particularly Excel and Powerpoint);
• Applicant must be a team player capable of working independently in a fast-paced, multi-cultural environment.
The tasks listed above are not an exhaustive list of all duties, but do comprise of the essential job functions. Grassroot Soccer reserves the right to change and update job specifications at any time it deems necessary.

If interested, send a CV and cover letter to globalhr@grassrootsoccer.org by 23 April 2010.