Scenes from Georgetown January 2013

Scenes from Georgetown

Jean-Claude is helping the Cuso office put together an orientation for the 6 new Canadian volunteers coming to Georgetown February 14, 2013.  I thought our readers might be interested in some of the photos.  So take a look.

D’autres scènes de Georgetown

Jean-Claude aide le bureau de Cuso pour la session d’orientation qui sera présentée aux 6 nouveaux volontaires qui arriveront à Georgetown le 14 février 2013. Vous serez peut-être intéressés à voir certaines des photos utilisées. 

Guyana Bank for Trade & Industry cash machine - they work well! - les guichets automatiques: ça marche bien! 

clean fast-food snackettes; this one is roti shop - une "snackette" de nourriture indienne

There are supermarkets just like in Canada - des épiceries juste comme au Canada

frozen produce just like home - le comptoir de produits congelés juste comme au Canada

Mohan in his taxi. He brings me to work every morning - le taxi de Mohan qui conduit Patricia au travail tous les matins

Mini-buses are cheap and fun! - Les minibus pas chers et amusants!

Patricia in a mini-bus; the guy hanging out the window collects the money -  Patricia dans un minibus; le gars à gauche rammasse l'argent

sign outside Guyana Power & Light Company; people pay in cash, lots of it! - affiche à l'entré du bureau de la compagnie d'électricité; les clients y payent leur compte en argent comptant...beaucoup d'argent!

Chinese New Year/Le Nouvel An chinois

Chinese New Year in Georgetown

We went to the National Park celebration with recently arrived Canadians, Caryn Duncan (here for a 3-month assignment) and her partner Bladamir.  As usual it was a wonderful balmy night.  Being in the tropics is wonderful at night…  We were privileged to have front-row seats, right behind the Prime Minister, Samuel Hinds, and his family.  Being white sometimes has its perks (but it is embarrassing!). 

China is a key partner with Guyana.  They are building bridges, a hospital and a new Marriott hotel.  So the Prime Minister, the Chinese Ambassador, and the cultural attaché all had to make their speeches.  Notice the lovely cut-out of BANKS beer right beside the podium!!!  The entertainment was good and varied:  Chinese acrobats, an Indian dancer, a Guyanese dancing troop.  In the end, red lanterns were lit – and became quite the fire hazard as the wind blew them onto the stage or they got caught in the wires!  But the real fun was watching the people.

Le Nouvel An Chinois à Georgetown

Nous sommes allés au Parc national en compagnie de deux nouveaux volontaires, Caryn et Bladimir pour assister aux célébrations du Nouvel An chinois. Comme d’habitude nous avons profité d’une douce soirée…un gros avantage de vivre dans les tropiques. Nous avons eu le privilège d’être assis dans les premières rangées juste derrière le Premier Ministre, Samuel Hinds et sa famille. C’est parfois gênant d’être traité avec de tels privilèges.

La Chine est un partenaire important du Guyana. Ils construisent des ponts, un hôpital et le nouvel hôtel 5 étoiles de la chaine Marriott. Donc le Premier Ministre, l’ambassadeur chinois et l’attaché culturel ont tous fait des discours. Prenez note dans les photos de l’annonce pour la bière BANKS juste à coté du podium!!! Le spectacle qui a suivi était intéressant: acrobates chinois, une dance traditionnelle de l’Inde et une troupe de dance guyanaise. Des lampes chinoises furent allumées vers la fin du spectacle; la plupart s’envolèrent comme prévu dans le ciel mais d’autres se dirigèrent droit vers la scène donnant une bonne frousse aux acteurs. Enfin le plus intéressant était de pouvoir observer les gens tout autour de nous.

Bladimir, a stranger, & Caryn at the entrance - Bladimir et Caryn avec un acrobate local

can you spot the white man in the crowd? - trouvez le "blanc" dans la foule?

The Prime Minister and Banks beer! - Le premier Ministre et la bière BANKS!

traditional lion dance and drum - danse traditionnelle du lion et le gros tambour derrière

the crowd - la foule

lighting the lanterns - on allume les lanternes chinoises

Guyanese love to photograph themselves! - Les Guyanais adorent se photographier!

cute

ah refreshing Coke - Ha le goût rafraichissant du Coke...

our friend Shalini and Patricia dressed for dancing! - notre amie Shalini et Patricia habillées pour une soirée de danse!

PATRICIA’S NEW PROJECT

(pas de francais, mes amis.  Jean-Claude est au yoga!)

The second part of my Cuso International assignment began January 7, 2013.  I moved from downtown Georgetown to the University of Guyana’s campus, about a 20-minute taxi ride from my house.  Barbara Deodat, the Head of the Distance Education Department of IDCE (Institute of Distance & Continuing Education) has spent the last 6 months overhauling the space for her department.  She had the 4 rooms cleared out of all the junk, painted, new computers and new Internet installed.  She had a window put into the one room with AC, got a lovely desk & a new chair AND lucky me, she lets me use this room until I leave in June.  It’s bright and airy.

Santosh and Donna are the two adm assistants who are doing a valiant job re-typing the mathematic texts.  No electronic versions were found!  What a job!  Jean-Claude will help them to use the newly installed scanner to see if that will facilitate their work.  One is Afro-Guyanese, the other Indo-Guyanese, both very open and friendly.

I much prefer the campus to downtown, even if the taxi now costs me $5.00CDN instead of $1.50CDN.  Like most university campuses it has lots of open space, green fields, flowering trees, lots of benches to sit in the shade.  It is quiet and there is NO garbage.  So I am happy in my new digs.

My project is to revise and update the content and layout for their self-instructional print-based course Supervisory Management.  The material dates from 1998 and no electronic version exists. Four different university lecturers wrote the content, each taking a certain number of units.  The result is a lot of overlap, duplication and theory that is not “put into practice”.   The exercises and “tests” are all knowledge-based with no higher order skills (application, analysis, synthesis, evaluation).  The focus is on the traditional roles of the supervisor:  planning, organizing, controlling with only some mention of leadership and team-building.   Current thinking gives much more space to the role of supervisor as team leader.   So I have a wonderful challenge!!  I will be working with the 3 tutors who have used the course.  The project is right up my alley and should take me to end of April.

Have a look at my new colleagues and office……

my new colleagues: Santosh, Barbara, Donna in the adm office

Welcome into my new office (note the new window!)

Patricia hard at work!!

View from my office on a cloudy day of the campus

other side of the view - we're on the second floor!

St-Vincent & Grenadines

THE ENGLISH FOLLOWS…

Pour la deuxième partie de nos vacances de Noël nous avons quitté l’air et la chaleur de Georgetown pour explorer une autre île des Caraïbes qui nous attire depuis longtemps, St-Vincent et les Grenadines. 1 heure et 40 minutes de Georgetown à la Barbade et un autre vol de 25 minutes pour nous rendre sur les plages et l’air pur de St-Vincent : ça vaut la peine pour 8 jours! Nous nous sommes payé un peu de luxe pour une chambre au deuxième étage avec balcon directement sur la mer. Donnant directement sur l’ouest, les couchers de soleil étaient idylliques. Arrivé en plein ‘party’ du Jour de l’an le soir du 31 Décembre ce n’est que le lendemain, 1^er Janvier 2013 que Patricia et moi avons célébré le Nouvel An ensemble : champagne et chips au coucher de soleil.

En plus de visiter la ville principale de l’île, Kingstown, nous avons profité de la mer et avons fait plusieurs voyages en bateau vers les autres îles plus petites qu’on appellent ‘Les Grenadines’. Autant Bonaire était le paradis des plongeurs, autant St-Vincent et les Grenadines sont le paradis des amateurs de voiliers de luxe (voir nos photos qui suivent). Comme durant toutes nos vacances, on en a profité pour bien dormir, bien manger et boire et faire le plein de bon air avant de retourner à Georgetown.

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New Year on the Island of St. Vincent

After a week exploring the interior of Guyana, we decided to treat ourselves to a little comfort and a lot of blue water.  St. Vincent & the Grenadines have always appealed to us, but were difficult to reach from Canada.  So on December 31, 2012 we flew 2 hrs to Barbados and then 20 min to the island of St. Vincent where we had reserved the superior deluxe room at Paradise Beach Hotel.  It was indeed a deluxe room on the second floor overlooking Young Island and the moored yachts, and especially the blue blue sea.

We had an impromptu New Year’s Eve celebration!!  The hotel was booked by the Syrian community.  The party, with its boom boxes and Arabic music, started at 20:00 and went on to 2:00 a.m.  Needless-to-say we didn’t sleep.  There were great fireworks from all over the island – a neat way to bring in 2013.

We were not interested in exploring the rainforest in the interior, nor the volcano.  We wanted to take advantage of the sea.  One day we took an all-day tour on a motorized catamaran to the Tobago Cays to snorkel.  It took 2 hours to get there (and I had wanted to sail – but a sailboat would take 2 days) and yes, the water is a beautiful blue BUT there were so many yachts, big & small, that it was crowded.  Since we were with 26 other people, the snorkeling was short but I did see my first calamari!  We then motored to Union Island for a delicious pizza lunch.  The Captain showed us the famous Palm Island, closed for the moment because its generator caught fire and there is no electricity.  Then on to Mayreau (pop. 500) where we went for a swim but the swell was very strong.  The return trip was like being on a rocking horse – the water was rough, but we loved it!!!  A great day on the sea.

Another day we took the ferry (1 hr) to Bequia (pop 2000) where we walked to the two beaches over the hills – these islands build your leg muscles with all the steep inclines!!  A calm place with lots of tourists and again lots and lots of sail boats.

The rest of the time we swam right outside our room, ate lobster, drank rum punches and enjoyed the marvelous weather, warm winds, NO bugs at night, and slept in a super comfortable bed to the sound of the waves!!!  Aahhh!!

Paradise Beach Hotel: yellow building, bottom left - notre hôtel en jaune dans le coin gauche en bas 

Our room, second floor balcony on the right - le balcon de notre chambre au deuxième à droite

1st January 2013 at 5: 30pm with REAL champagne from the Duty Free - le 1er janvier vers 17h30 avec du vrai champagne 'hors taxes' 

The catholic cathedral in Kingstown - la cathédrale catholique à Kingstown

Clean streets downtown - les rues propres du centre-ville

Kingstown

Locals on the beach 1st January - les gens de la place sur la plage le 1er Janvier

One of the tourist resort - un des centres touristiques 'tout inclus'

Beautiful cruise sail boat (have never seen the sails out) - un beau voilier de crosière (jamais vu les voiles déployées)

...and another - ...et un autre

and more modest ones (less than 1 milion $) - et beaucoup d'autres plus modestes (moins d'un million de $)

a day on this catamaran visiting the Grenadines - une journée sur ce catamaran à visiter les Grenadines

beautiful beaches with strong 'surf' - de belles plages mais avec de bonnes vagues

lunch hour on the island of Bequia - l'heure du lunch sur l'île de Bequia

near the harbor in Bequia - près du quai de Bequia

fresh fish delivery at our hotel - poissons frais livrés à l'hotel

St-Vincent endemic parrots at the botanical garden - les perroquets de St-Vincent au jardin botanique