Final Confirmation

At last we have received our final confirmation that we are going to Guyana. The last of the red tape has been completed and we should be off on 13th February 2007. The rest is up to us. We have now had all of our injections, including rabies, yellow fever etc etc and we just have to sort out the Malaria regime. The dentist is underway and all medical checks have been done. Yes, we have to have a full MOT. Some of the joints are a bit rusty but most of the infrastructure seems OK.

The next milestone is Lucy and Matt's return from their big adventure. We are expecting them on 9th December. How exciting! We received a picture of them on the Great Wall of China. We are just a little bit jealous!!!! They are back in Thailand now, chilling out before the long trip home.

Mary is working up to 26th January and I will try to sort out the things that need doing on the home front. If you look at the map, we will be in Linden in the North East of the country.

Stephen

The Long Wait

We seem to have been planning and waiting for our VSO trip forever. We first started thinking about it many years ago but, in reality, the business started round about this time last year when there was "trouble at mill". (My friends will know what I mean by that). Since then we have been selected, done some of the training, had injections for nearly everything including Rabies and Yellow Fever and booked all of our courses. The next one is in middle November when we will hopefully learn some of the skills for working in developing countries.

It's been very slow over in Guyana. They say it was mainly due to the elections but they took place some months ago. We have now been told that Mary and I are the only volunteers in Linden, Guyana as it is a new venture but there are others in other regions and, of course, in the capital city, Georgetown. It's only a small country - about the population of Croydon but the size of Britain so, hopefully, we won't be too lonely. Then again, we have each other.


I had a look at Guyana from the sky on Google Earth. Georgetown was very clear. It seems very compact, has lots of water all round it from the sea, estuaries and rivers and everything is in straight lines. The east of the river seems to be heavily populated and the west almost like Britain many years ago with thousands of small strips of land. Lots of cultivation in the space available to them.

We have been told that we are still "on" for February but we haven't been given a date yet. I'll let you know when I hear anything else.

The Prime Minister of Guyana visits Linden and it's market!