Weekend in Bartica and bits and pieces

Speedboats waiting in Parika

With just two weeks to go we decided that we needed to have one last trip on a speedboat and, of course, to visit our good VSO friends Derek and Trudy who live in Bartica. The river is the mighty Essequibo which makes the Thames look like a countryside stream. Lo and behold, the boat we went out on after waiting over an hour (they have to fill up before they will go) was a covered one. Never experienced it before. Apparently, so we are told, all boats will have to be covered by a certain date. Now that's practical and more comfortable but leeeeesssss exciting. You would pay a lot of money in Britain to get a boat ride like the one from Parika to Bartica. One hour of beautiful scenery and sheer excitement!

We had a great weekend with our friends, lovely food and great chat. The way back was on an open boat so we got what we came for and it stayed dry. Great experience!

It's Monday 2nd February 2009 and we have just entered our last week of work at NCERD. Mary and Meg have just completed their last workshop and I am still waiting for a technical advisor to look over my last module. They've had it for three months. Things move very slowly in Guyana but, as they say, "That's Guyana!" Will probably be working until the last minute on Friday. After that we have a week to sort out the house, have a "Cooling Down" Party next Saturday, say goodbye to friends and colleagues and board the plane for New York. We heard about the snow in London. There's no chance of it coming to Guyana but New York may get a covering. Well we can do it - from 35C to -5C in 8 hours. No problem!