It seems so weird that I've been here for almost a month.  The time is flying by!!!!

A normal day for me consists of getting up around 6:30 and bathing.  Bathing means filling up a bucket with rain water and taking it to a small outdoor shower, with no shower in it.  I use a small bowl to take water out of the bucket and pour it onto myself.  At the house where I am living they have a black rain collection barrel and sometimes the water is kind of warm from the previous day, but mostly it's a freezing shocking sensation.  Needless to say, my 35 minute hot showers have turned into 5 minute freezing ones.
 Next, I get ready for school and help my host mom make breakfast.
 Training starts at 8:00 and goes until 4:30 or 5:00 and we take lunch from 12:00 - 1:00.  I go home and have lunch with my host family.  Training is similar to a college class with lectures on different situations we might face throughout service and how to handle them. At the end of the day sometimes I will stay at the training center to do homework or to use the internet.  Other days I will go home and play with my host siblings or talk with my host family.  Then I help make dinner.  I am not good at cooking... yet.  I have burned a lot of things, but my host mom insists that I am slowly getting better

Yesterday I went to an area called the landing with my host siblings and one of their friends.  It takes me about 10 minutes to walk to the landing down a dirt road.  (All of the roads where I live are dirt/mud and sand.)  The landing is an area by the creek that people go swimming, do wash, and bathe.  The creek is black water and it will stain light clothes so I wear all black when I go.  I usually wear a bathing suit and wear a tank top and shorts over it.  We jumped off of the bank into the creek and played for an hour.  It's weird to me how similar the children here are to the children back home.  We played catch and had swimming races.

Today I had the chance to speak with the country director of the program and found out that he went to Hampden-Sydney.. what a small world! Right now I'm sitting in our training building stealing internet from the internet cafe..

I have uploaded a bunch of pictures onto Facebook and since then I haven't been very good about taking pictures!  So I will do my best to upload some more soon!


Only 2 weeks until I get my site assignment, which is where I will be living for the next 2 years!

Labaria snake in the kitchen yesterday!  Didn't get a chance to take a picture, but they are poisonous and it was exciting!

Welcome to my life in St. Cuthbert’s Mission!

I arrived in Guyana and spent my first couple of days at a resort called Splashmins.  I spent these couple of days getting to know the PC Guyana Staff and the other trainees that were a part of Guyana 24.  After Splashmins all trainees begin what is called CBT (Cite Based Training).  For this training I was 1 of 8 volunteers sent to a rural location.  The people I am training with Lesley, Juan, Rachel, Alex, Susan, Patrick, and Jane.  This location is an Amerindian village. 

Upon arrival in St. Cuthbert’s we met our host mothers at what we would later learn was our training building.  We walked in after a very bumpy jeep ride to see seven women sitting in folding chairs looking at us.  They didn’t know exactly who we were, but they knew the names of the people that they would be hosting.  They called our names out and walked up to us, trying to find their new “white baby.”

My site is amazing as is my host family.  My host family is made up of my host dad Brian (Papa B), my host mom Denise (Momma D), my host brother Brandon (11), my host sister Sabelina (Saba, 7), and my other host sister Gabby who is 2.  I’ve gone on many adventures so far.  A few of these including a ride in a real canoe (made from a tree), swimming in the black water (river & creek), made roti and bake, as well as helping to make cassava bread!  I'm hoping to be able to upload a bunch of pictures this Friday when I travel out to a larger town where I can use an internet cafe!  Miss you all.

I'm here in Guyana!!  I'm sorry that I have taken so long to post.  It's pretty hard to get internet access where I am located.  I am living in a remote training site called St. Cuthbert's Mission.  It is an Amerindian community of about 2,000 people.  I am living with a host family. My host family is my host mom, Denise, host dad, Bryan, host brother, Brandon (12), host sister Saballina (7), and host sister Gabby (3).  They have been teaching me to wash my laundry by hand, take bucket baths, cook local food, and understand the rules of cricket.  I'm using the internet connection at the local internet cafe.  Which is a small room with 6 computers used by the entire community.  It's only open Monday - Friday from 6 - 9 pm.  So it's usually pretty crowded.  I'm hoping to write more soon and to add some of the pictures that I have taken!  My mailing address for the next 7 weeks is

U.S. Peace Corps c/o Genevieve Stiles
c/o United States Embassy
100 Young & Duke Streets, Kingston
Georgetown, Guyana
South America

Happy Almost Valentine's Day!