Goodbye UK, hello Guyana!

Ashton the fool but good behaved

Jillian, Marco and Ashton on their overnight stay at the Emerald Tower

Lawrence displayed the nature video at the Deaf summer school

Very Sexy Organisation Guyana office in Georgetown

Cool Ashton in the hammock at Annestyn's


Hi everyone! How are you doing in less warmer country? I hope you all having fantastic summer! How are your friends?

I had a great week (my first week) in Guyana’s capital Georgetown, this place is bit rougher than Brixton or Oldham, you know why! Georgetown is similar to Roseau in Dominica (my families is from one of south Caribbean islands originally) but Roseau is better place than Georgetown.

A lot of area is beautiful and other is not! None of brilliant beaches in Guyana, if you are very brave to dip in, you would swallow some nice shit or rot fruits but there are some great clean rivers in Guyana’s regions. I expected lesser than a lot of luxuries/beautiful but there is 3 KFC!!! Yay(!) This meal is bit different, bigger than a piece of little chicken in England. Every day, every hour, every minute, every seconds, still humid out there! Beautiful sky and smiley sunny! I always wake up about 7am every days, my body clock is 5 hours late. I thanked somebody who invented fresh water (filter) and fans! I always sweat, that’s me! Good for losing this old word ‘fat bastard’ though!

Some of homeless people (children mainly) approached me for money, foods or drink, I always ignored (yes typical British I am!) as well as Steven and other VSO staffs. I am always aware of other Guyanese people’s attitude. I felt not safe alone in town because there is always mugging or robbery around in Georgetown. Most of them openly stare at me and Steven signing, some of them laughed in front of us, I felt bit frustrated but got used to it anyway. Most of the time, they stared at him because he is white. Of course, lack of deaf awareness in Guyana but some of hearing Guyanese people are aware because their hearing friend who works at Community Based Rehab or VSO, they raised deaf awareness across some regions, so Guyanese people understand little. It is not really change! That’s what I am here for!

I learned ASL so quicker than I expected, I know most of ASL signs BUT it is bit hard because BSL and ASL have same English words. I will get used to it for a year. Two ASL users who is hearing called Mary and Lawrence, both of them are ministries, preach at deaf church in Kitty (my home area, 7 minute drive away from town)

Steven and I taught all new volunteers last Thursday at ASL class, it was really good. More simple like alphabet finger-spelling, names (finger-spelling and new sign names) then my own game Chinese whisper, spelling ‘repair’ and ‘sex’ ‘EY’ at end! Actually most of them are open-minded anyway! It is good for them because fun is good for memory! Also they love to learn some rude/swear words! There will be 4 more classes this week. It will be more interesting because I got some good ideas for them to sign well. Steven’s new sign name, this sign for white boy (Deaf black/Indian Guyanese men invented it!) Remind me that Deaf white people invented ‘sign for black’ for most of deaf black people’s sign name in UK also old sign for Africa, it’s like sweet revenge! You will see Steven’s new sign name next year! Guyanese sign language for ‘black’ is different (curly sign).

Guyanese sign language is different from ASL, I like this because ASL took over most of countries like British Empire teach English over the world!

I stayed at the hotel called Rima on 8th until 19th August before Steven and I move to our new house. Other new volunteers and I met Guyanese Foreign Affair minister at government office. He would thank us for servicing to Guyana something like that! We had to stand up before he arrived, we were all bit nervous because we were too formal (I wish we could meet up at pub instead!) Also some of TV crews there, I didn’t expected to see them there! It’s only VSO! He talked to us about Guyana, employment, disability, education, export and you name it. When we finished, one of Guyanese news TV crew filmed us. I told them about my role and thought of Guyana. Then I saw myself and Steven on news TV in the next morning!! Steven missed it, he was upset… it may be poor quality picture but good for deaf awareness across Guyana anyway. Best thing about this programme was they incorrectly called Steven ‘Steven Whim’, supposed to be Wynne! So we decided that we called our new house ‘Whim’! Cool eh!

I went to Emerald Tower (an hour drive away from Georgetown, stayed at cabin overnight). I had a brilliant time, it was very beautiful river called Black water (white people are allowed anyway!) Actually it is clean water with little fishes. There are white beach, forest and palm tree. A lot of different kind of wild animals like dragon-flies (they are fastest fly in the world – 40 mph!!! they wont bite anyway!), mosquitoes, bats, frogs, black monkey, lizards (10 cm), cockroaches (it flied and sting one of volunteers Annestijn), poor her!), wasps and much more! I was tipsy (6 glasses of rum with coke). I went swimming in the next morning about 7am! Other volunteers wouldn’t swim because it’s too cold!

Inge who is a VSO advisor, she is really nice and sweet. She tried to learn American Sign Language; I understand her sometime but bit better though. She supported me some things like phone for taxi and other things. She explained me about my role (facilitator) it will be a lot of work but not too much. I will work at Community Based Rehab for a year. Review will have to be done before 3 months I leave. I have a lot of ideas and new tools after I met deaf communities and deaf children at David Rose deaf school (Deaf summer school though). I will come to 2 other schools later.

I stayed at Annestijn’s house (Dutch female volunteer) for the weekend, she showed me and Steven around place called Kitty where we will live from this weekend. I saw our new house, it look great, clean and good spacious. It got spare room for bikes and laptop on the table. I will take some photographs and email you next week. Anne is very nice, funny, caring and fantastic sense of humour. She is bit cheeky, can take any jokes I like that. She can sign ASL well as she works as speech therapist at hospital.

Most of deaf adult are not really smart for example, they didn’t know where England is. Also they were surprised that I went to university and college etc. They thought I was hearing because two things is I am black and Steven was there, make them think I was a tour officer for him! ALL of them doesn’t drive, they thought it was right thing to not drive (hearing people told them). I didn’t tell them about Deaf British people can drive in England but I will tell them later. I will bring my photos, pictures of my deaf mates who drives. It’s bit sad for them because it’s hearing power at the moment. At Deaf church (Kitty Baptist church), two man didn’t know where England is nor what, even they only know ‘Guyana’ but no knowledge of geography for Guyana. So I drew the map of South America, USA, Africa, Europe finally UK, I marked cross symbol in Guyana and UK, I pointed to Guyana, told them we are here then I pointed UK, I told them it’s my home. They understand little, better than nothing though. It’s bit hard for them, most of them didn’t went to school or college. Lack of education for deaf people as well as access. One man told me to not sign in front of people publicly, I think it could be his members of family told him to not sign otherwise they would be ashamed.

I got about 20 of love bite on my ankles and arms so far but worst are my leg because I rubbed it once, it got bigger. So Anne gave me a fungus cream, it’s getting better now. Steven is worse than me!!! I feel better now! Heehee! He is wicked man, we look for each other.More new volunteers came (Dutch, British and Canadian) I know Dutch couple, met them at VSO training in Birmingham last July. They are nice but tall! That’s Dutch! Some of Canadian volunteers want to learn ASL, so I taught them basic signs like how are you, numbers, finger-spelling and work-related.

I didn’t eat very much lately. Normally I ate 3 meals and 3 snacks between meals in rainy England but in Guyana, I don’t eat snacks very much though. Their food are not bad but not too healthy, it would be good thing for losing weight!!! Heehee! Most of foods are not really Guyanese foods, more like American, Chinese and Italian. There are 3 KFC which is not good thing for me! I only ate it once……. In my first week! To see what happens in a few months time! I always drink bottle of coke (not my favourite soft drink but always thirsty!) I realised I drank quite so much, not only for my weight but my teeth! I had to drink it less like 2 bottles a day. When I drinks a lot of water, my body says it need some fizzy drinks afterward. It must be climate or something.

Take care of yourselves and I love you all!

Ashton