The Important Buildings of Guyana

I was just plain shocked at some of these. There are some extremely nice, beautiful private homes and buildings. I don't know exactly what to think about the apparent lack of concern.

This police station is directly across from our house/church. There is some humor in this to me. I feel like I should feel safe since we have this so close, but I've not seen it occupied yet (though I'm not outside much), and it appears to be very old and run down. I've heard the inside is much better, so that's a plus.

This is the post office in Skeldon, the town/village right next to us. The blue vehicle is what we drive most often. (I still find myself forgetting that the driver gets in on the right side. When I ride shotgun I find myself looking for a steering wheel to rest my arm on.) Anyway, back to the post office. The faded paint reads "SKELDON POST & TELEGRAPH OFFICE". Our p.o. box's location is just in front of our vehicle's front end. There's that window, then about 25 boxes. If you walk inside the door and turn, you can see who has mail for yourself. There's a padlocked cage around it, but you can still see all the mail. During the day, when the post office is open, the doors and gates are left wide open, making it nice and breezy. The flooring inside is wooden planks, some uneven. To send letters/packages/whatever, you approach the "window" (small slot opening below a fence/cage of sorts) and pass your item underneath. I think they just look at it to determine the price, probably feel the weight and thickness too. A thicker regular letter cost me $200 GD (is that correct for "Guyanese dollars"?) and a thinner regular letter cost me $80 GD. When I handed the woman my three letters, she looked at them and handed them back with correct postage in the lick and stick kind of stamps. I haven't used one of those in a really long time. It was cool. I kind of like this building, it's fun for me to just observe the differences.

This just made me realize how practical a hospital really is. I think my favourite part of this picture is the sign "stray animals will be impounded". I'm guessing that means shot.

This is right next to hospital, actually it's an extension of it. The building you see in the picture above is the building on the right in this picture. If you look closely, you might be able to read the signage on the light blue building. It's the x-ray department.

This last picture is just to give you a little taste of the Centre and Roadside, the other church. On the right side of this picture you can see the sanctuary of the church, upstairs. Look closely on that wall under the window, those are the times of services, etc. The pastor of this church right now is Terry, with help from Mr. Hunter. Preaching here rotates between those two and brother Moti.

Below the sanctuary is (as far as I've seen) a double for classes for the Centre, and a nursery of sorts for the church. The children's area in the basement is very nice and looks like it would be fun if I was a child. The kitchen and cooking area is below the sanctuary as well, around the building to the right. I'll have to post pictures of them cooking a large meal on their open fires. It's really cool. They do have two gas stoves, but when cooking in mass amounts, the cook is handy with a huge kettle/bowl thing and regulates the fire herself. It's impressive.

The large tent thing you see covers a large open area where the children all stand at attention during the "morning exercises" (during this time they have a devotion, sing the anthem, and recite something...maybe a pledge?). This large area is also used for a couple of other things: OVC (Orphaned and Vulnerable Children) which runs from 3-5 four days a week and youth group every Friday with Troy where we usually play basketball and other games after hearing a short lesson.

I want to say some things about the OVC group. I've had some time with the kids already. The first day (Monday) I was with them didn't go so smoothly. I just didn't understand them and some didn't seem to really care whether I was there or not. I need more compassion for them. They do a class time and sometimes have crafts, songs, or games. Next week I'll be doing some food art with the kids. I'm looking forward to it, but they are a tough group. Think of the name of the group, and you may understand why. Katie and I played games with them on Tuesday and we really enjoyed the time. The older ones really enjoy hangman, but don't really get too in to expressing themselves with songs or anything else that draws too much attention. They are always fed a meal when they come, it's part of the program. I really wish I could be more involved in some of their lives and really help. I do realize there is only so much that can be done though, I am only here for five months (closer to four now) and some ideas are just unrealistic and impractical.

Back to the picture. The two windows on the building, under the tent, are from the office part of the Centre. The window on the left is Miss Indru's office. The library, computer room, and one classroom are on this level. Upstairs to the right is a large classroom with dividers, creating four separate classrooms. That's where I've spent some time this week with one of the remedial groups of kids. They're really cool and really want to learn. I love helping out there. I'm singing with them sometime next week. Okay, I need to move on. There's so much I could say about the building. Oh, I do want to mention though, on the bottom level there is also an electrical classroom and sewing classroom. All the sewing machines are pedal machines. It's cool to watch them work.

I need to go put something together for us for dinner now. I hope all of this is helpful and you experience a little more of our lives through it.