Lifestyles

A new country. A new culture. A new community. A new climate. And, of course, another Peace Corps Pre-Service Training. Here are a few of the things we’re experiencing while living in Guyana…

Life in the countryside

We are back in Pre-Service Training, a grueling ten-week ordeal preparing us to spend the next two years living and working in Guyana. We’re staying with a host family on a 60-acre pumpkin and pepper farm on the outskirts of a village called Laluni Creek. The village has a population of roughly 600 people and it is reached by turning off of the paved road at Kuru Kururu and following a red dirt (or loam, for all the pedologists) road about seven miles into the bush. The outskirts of the village are called “Area 6” by the government but “Rasta Country” by the locals, who are variously confused or amused by the notion of Laluni Creek having a sixth area. Our host family’s house can be reached by turning off the red road into Rasta Country and following a white sand track (actually a series of crisscrossing tracks in case one of them is flooded during rainy season) for about a mile. After a good rain the sand tracks turn into streams, the streams turns into small lakes, and the drive home looks like something taken directly out of a truck commercial.

Being out in the countryside and off the grid means that a household needs to be completely self sufficient. Therefore,

• Our water is pumped out of a well into a giant black storage tank on the roof. Gravity provides the water pressure for the shower, toilet, sinks, etc.
• Electricity comes from a generator, which typically runs between 6:30 (sunset) and 11:00 PM.
• There are no landline phones, but cell service affords both telephone and internet connectivity. The caveat is finding just the right spot to get reception. Hands-free devices are popular not for avoiding distracted driving but for keeping a cell phone in the location where it gets the best signal!
• Meat is kept fresh by having it walk around the forest until it’s ready to be eaten. We’ve had labba (a large rodent) and wild pig that were caught within sight of the house.

Home, sweet, home. Our family’s farmhouse in Rasta Country.

Mosquitoes

Mosquitoes love tropical climates. It’s warm and wet, and there are plenty of Bloody Marys and Bloody Johns they can use as watering holes to wet their whistles. The single biggest challenge of living in Guyana is getting the mosquitoes to respect our personal space. It’s a losing battle, but we’re fighting the good fight.

Step one: Sleep under a mosquito net. Of course you can’t roll up against the side when you sleep, or they’ll violate you through the net. Sometimes, when they get to be too aggressive in the evening, we retreat into our sanctum sanctorum and scowl menacingly at the world outside. The mosquitoes seem unperturbed by this act.

Step two: Soak yourself from head to toe (they love the toes) in extra strength insect repellent. This liquid miracle keeps all but the most determined mosquitoes at bay, which becomes particularly important when the Einstein super mosquito sneaks under the net at 4:30 in the morning.

Step three: Even with mosquito netting, gallons of bug spray, and constant random motion to fake out would be attackers, bites still happen. Since mosquitoes carry malaria, we are also taking a weekly dose of Mefloquine, a medication that suppresses the symptoms of malaria but doesn’t actually rid your body of the disease. Ridding yourself of malaria happens by taking a different series of pills after we leave the tropics at the end of Peace Corps service. I shudder when I think of all those malaria parasites that might be living it up in my liver right now. Did I mention that the side effects of Mefloquine include vivid dreams and night terrors?

Lots of Sun

Did I mention that Guyana is near the equator?

Visitors

Although we are living on the outskirts of a small village that has no paved roads, no access to public utilities, no internet access, and limited cell phone reception, there is a never-ending parade of guests at our host family’s farmhouse. The most numerous and least welcome are the insects, but these attract the interest of more charismatic critters who are drawn to their crunchy outside and gooey inside.

Tell me, oh wise crappo frog, why do you hop face first into the wall every time I walk past you? 

Bugs are from Mars?

These guys also eat bugs. When a frog gets too near their hunting space, they twitch their tails like a cat while staring down their adversary. It’s like a soap opera being acted out purely for our entertainment.

This frog played the part of insect sentinel at our window sill for several nights in a row. Our hope was that he was snatching mosquitoes out of the air as they drifted through the open window, protecting us from malaria and general itchiness. In reality I believe he was mostly eating fat, juicy beetles…

This is also a frog.

It’s always such a pain when you wake up in the middle of the night and realize that nature is calling, and she wants you to pick up. It’s an even bigger pain to have to push a tarantula out the bathroom window with a whisk broom, squinting through bleary, sleep-rimmed eyes. Later that same day this fellow was waiting for me out on the patio. I swung like Babe Ruth with the whisk broom, and he hasn't been seen since…

It was an enjoyable last night for this leaf insect, even if he appears hopelessly inept at utilizing his clever camouflage. The next morning I found the ants turning him into baby food for their brood.