Brokekid.net

Anyone who wants to send the USA Today, or Newsweek, Time whatever, that would be greatly appreciated. Since we get none of those magazines or papers down here.

Mail to:

Scott Stadum
Peace Corps
PO Box 101192
Georgetown, Guyana
South America

Last night all trainees went out to see what the social seen is like outside of our villages. It was awesome, we all had an amazing time and I drank for the first time in a couple of months. So my tolerance was, well, very low. SO that made for a pretty good time.

Today a few of us went into the market just to look around. I bought a visor, some of the others bought bucket hats. Kangol is the big brand here. The other day I bought the 50 Cent album at the market. The place has everything. Fabric, food, Nike shoes, monkeys, you name it and it was there. I really enjoy the market and the atmosphere. A friend and I stopped at KFC and I got an icecream cone. It was delicious. The cone was green. That worries me. My friends icecubes were brown. That worries him.

I am off to go back to the village here soon, to read. Change my sheets. Laundry. Clean my room. And so on. If anyone is worried about me. Don’t be. I am safe and having the time of my life. This is such a great job.

Tonight I am going out in Georgetown, this will be my first outing like this in the capitol. I have gone out in Mocha and hung out with the other trainees at the karaoke bar. Fun stuff. My fellow collegues seem to love karaoke where as I almost detest it, I am no fan of karaoke. Sober or intoxicated. It just seems so futile to sing a song we secretly wish to have written ourselves or something of the equivelant. I mean, who doesn’t, for the brief few minutes that the song is playing, think they are Don McLean or Neil Diamond or whomever? We all try to sing our hearts out even though it’s…fun? Futile? I am raining on the karaoke parade. Sorry.

So tonight we are off to watch the social habits of viril men and women, dancing and gyrating to foreign beats and exotic rhythms. This should be pretty fun.

My first week of class is over and 7 more to go until I start working. The first couple of weeks are the toughest from what I understand, so we’ll just keep plowing through. I have to apologize to everyone out there I have not been in touch with yet, I have limited time on the computer and a difficult time calling out. Please call me if you have my number and if you want it, e-mail me for it.

This past weekend was amazing, we had a great time. My host mother and two of her friends (also host mothers) brought there volunteers to a party across the Demerrara, across from Georgetown. We went to a party at the house of a local police inspector, very lavish and very fun. We ate, drank (not me) and danced to Indian techno. It was amazing. My first cross cultural party. I took some pics, but those will have to wait a while.

I am settling in well. I just got a fan for my room. It may seem like no big deal but there are no Wal-Marts to get a fan from, not always electricity to use them with and when one breaks, you find someone to fix it. That simple. So it was quite an ordeal to get me the fan but it works fine. The heat is so unbearable but the fan makes it somuch better. Anywho, I have to go eat lunch at a place called Grove, it takes a while to get there so I am off! Until next time, stay tuned!

This is my second day of classes in Georgetown and actually close to a week that I have been in country. At first it was extremely overwhelming but now I am slowly getting used to the culture/environment/climate. This is going to be quite an adventure and two years is an infinitely long time, I am not even trying to fathom it. Anywho, I don’t have much time right now so I will have to figure out a way to update the blog, maybe weekends or such? I only get to use this terminal 2 times a weeks. Not a lot of computer access to the general public. Ok, I will keep everyone posted.

… and we are off tomorrow for Guyana as of 1:30 pm or something like that. We have had two days of debriefing at the wonderful Hotel Omni Colonade in downtown Miami. A really nice place, a pretty clean orientation and a lot of anxious faces. For the next three days, we will have additional briefing, meet the US Embassador to Guyana and then head out to our host families. We will see where that will take us. Some of us will head out in boats, planes or bus from Georgetown, but I suspect that the IT folks (that’s me) will be staying in Georgetown. We have been formulating our own ideas and rumours and basically wasting our time doing this because we still don’t really know. But we are ready. I will keep you posted.