GoGoGuyana: Freshers' Week for the new volunteers

Currently about 50 volunteers work with Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) in Guyana. We work in three
areas of development: Education, Disability and Secure Livelihoods (supporting small businesses). All volunteers now work as trainers, advisers and managers. Everyone clearly has experience and expertise in their own field.

On the 11th August, 14 new volunteers arrived in Georgetown, Guyana. I was one of 5 from the UK. There were 3 couples and 2 young men from Canada and one younger woman from the Netherlands. We have now nearly completed our In Country Orientation, a training package to prepare us for living and working in Guyana.
Collectively we make for a noisy crowd at the training sessions and socially. We are all keen to meet each other, make new friends and set up networks of support for work and fun. Its like a university Freshers' Week (but without the alcohol overload, or the teenage energy).

There's a spirit of optimism and a desire to "get cracking" with our projects. Alongside this, people are setting up social alliances: football features as a common bond for many; there's a yoga contingent; future apartments are considered as venues for get-togethers (regular drinking in bars will be way beyond our monthly allowance); a brisk morning or evening walk along the sea wall is pleasant and free; and the swimming pool at the Pegasus Hotel has become an established favourite.

The photos here show us at the Madewini Gardens, a few miles out of Georgetown, where, after a training session on issues around the Disability programme,we would have the opportunity to swim in the black waters of the creek. A thunderstorm lasting an hour or so sapped away our enthusiasm, except for Drew, who braved the waters, while the rest of us took the pictures.