March 8th, 2013
Blog Writers: Cydney Chasky and
Michelle Manta
We awoke to a service announcement
from Kendry saying “Attention guests of the Caiman House breakfast is now
served”
After a lovely breakfast we hiked
downhill to the clay pit located by the river’s edge with our guides Felix and
Combrencent. Upon arriving at the clay
site Combrencent quickly changed into his clay digging clothes and jumped into
the pit where he carved away at the wall to mine the dry clay. Then it was our
turn to scrape the clay pit wall. When we mined enough clay we mixed it with
water from the river and Combrencent showed us how to make the bricks that the
village people use to build their homes. All of us made bricks of our own, this
wasn’t as easy as Combrencent made it look but it sure was fun. Once all our
bricks were made we mined some more clay and bagged the powder up into a wheel
barrel to bring back to the house to make clay for the kids to use at school on
Monday. We struggled back up hill with the clay and then relaxed on hammocks
before lunch was served.
Then it was back to school for the
second day where we worked with watercolor and ink resist. The younger children
drew on paper with crayons and then painted over the page with watercolor. The
older ones used the same process but advanced to a method of using chalk and
oil pastels instead of crayon. In place of the watercolor, India ink was
brushed over the entire sheet of paper and then wiped off in a bucket of water.
The ink filled in any remaining spaces between the pastels, and replaced the
lines of the chalk. The students, no
matter the age, became immensely intrigued by today’s lesson and quickly went
through every sheet of paper that was brought for the day. It was decided that
they would bring some of the works home to show their friends and family, but
choose one to hang up in their classrooms.
As a pleasant surprise, the students of grade 5 and 6 ended the school
day by singing the first verse of Guyana’s national anthem. We departed the
classrooms smiling and laughing and returned to Caiman house for a siesta
before dinner. While we were resting we were shown the baby turtles that are
residing at the Caiman house for a year before being released into the wild.
This is to ensure the babies survive without getting attacked by pray. Jeff,
who is here from Connecticut and helping the turtles, answered questions and
let us hold them.
While 8 of us prepared for dinner,
the 4 others, who luckily chose the letter “A” from the cup the night before,
tried to prepare for a night of adventure on the river.
At Caiman house, the remaining 8
enjoyed another incredible meal of chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans and
salad, followed by dessert of mango and cashew cookies. We then spent the evening
just hanging out around the Caiman House relaxing, laughing and learning how to
shoot a bow and arrow.
Meanwhile the “A” team: Cam,
Cydney, Knoel, and Lauren are the first group to join the Caiman research team
on a night out on the Rupununi. Details will be coming up along with groups “B”
and “C” in just a few days! Stay tuned for the “River Monsters of the Rupununi”
featured blog post.
2 comments:
When I started at Yupukari Primary - I only had two pairs of clothing. One pair was what my mother had hand sewn. During the first term we were taken by Mr Dennison Michael, father of the former Touchou - Desmond Michael (Katoka),our Prep A teacher, to the Lake-Walekulu ( to the south of the village) to get some clay. I was the only one who refused to undress to go in the lake to get some clay to do 'modelling' because I was afraid I messed up my only school clothes and I don't think it was appropreate that I do so in sight of a teacher even though it was norm at the time.
I have always associate my grandmother, who was the traditional potter of Toka Village, with clay. When I started at the Burrowes School of Art (Guyana)- it felt strange, when introduced to clay, remembering my grandmother's belief towards clay which infers that there is 'spirit-owner' of the clay to whom a homage must be paid before extracting clay. When I was introdused to clay pottery - at Burrowes School of Art (Guyana),which was not expose to children/younger person traditionally.
Sorry was almost sleeping on my pc hehe
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