March 7th 2013
Blog Authors: Maria Jijon and Kendry Vasquez
We awoke to a wonderful breakfast of fresh bakes, eggs,
potatoes and coffee as well as some fresh honey and local made peanut butter.
As we were finishing up breakfast and planning out the first day of lessons for
the art camp, we threw on our FGCU Yupukari T-shirts and were paid a visit by
the school’s Headmistress Maisie Li, who filled us in on the schools formalities.
After meeting with Li we had Anthony, a former Toushao give us a tour of the magnificent
village of Yupukari. First we took a tour of the primary school and continued on
walking throughout learning about all some of the history, traditions, and
customs of the people there. We also got to meet many of the warm welcoming
people there including the village’s health officer, Sylvester, and one of the
villages former Toushaos, and current elder, Uncle Issac. He treated us with a
couple of traditional tales of how some of the neighboring village names came
to be as well as teaching us some Makushi phrases and teaching about the many
ways of preparation and uses of cassava. We headed back to Caiman House, freshened
up, and worked a little more on the lesson plans for the day. We then ate a
delicious lunch of noodles (some with beef) with fresh picked veggies such as
okra, cucumber, bora (local Guyanese green beans), and tomatoes! We then put
some final finishing touches on the lesson plans and headed off to the primary
school.
We got to the school right on time to start our first art class. After
introductions and name tags we started our paper cut out project. We used fish,
palms trees, frogs and butterfly cut out shapes to make these colorful string
figures that were used to decorate the classroom. The children were so creative
that they ended up taping them in a circle and using them as crowns! At the beginning,
until we were able to break the ice, everyone was a little nervous, but as the
paper project continued we started bonding with the students and we got a lots
of smiles and giggles. Back again at the Caiman House we had more preparing to
do for tomorrow’s lesson so we all put our creative hands together again and
got everything ready really fast. After that, everyone had a chance to do
laundry by hand which was a new experience for many of us. We had another
amazing meal followed by relaxation and storytelling at the six hammocks outside
of our rooms under the stars. Our group
bonding just grows stronger every day.
1 comment:
A bit of history - when I started at Yupukari Primary School (older school building)- the building wasn't what it is current, obviously, not in age but in size. My recollection is excluding the stage (clay bricks)and to either 3rd or the 4th post from the door (if your are standing infrom of the school). An Arawak lady name Ms Elsa Scad from Pameroon (region 1 - near the coast)was heading the school then.Later western and eatern sides were added on under the administration of Ms Wavney Dryden of Buxton, East Coast Demerara.Then, also on the east side of the village - villge wasn't that spread as is - there were houses only on either sides the road which ran straight through the jungle to the river - Where the current newer school is where the houses began on either sides. My grandfather's house, I was made to understand, was right between the cashew tree infront of the older school building and the Caiman House. Reason for my being started off at Yupukari, like many children from Katoka and surrounding villages, was that it was the only school in the area. Every weekend we would track back and forth between Yupukari/Katoka -Tough life and hard work paid off - we were the first students to pass Common Entrance Examination to attend high school from that school(interior scholarship)- late Dolly Lawrence, Kenrick Blades (Ms Dryden's nephew) and the humble author. The class included the current Touchou.
Thanks once again for imparting your knowledge to my village children. I appreciate that very much. Cheers!
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