Happy Easter to all!

I hope everyone had a great Easter! It was so weird not being home with the family for Easter. I even missed church! I think it was the first Easter mass I missed! I thought mass started at 10am, but it really started at 8:30am LBut I did get to meet the priest so now I know what time church starts for next week. Cha Ching! This weekend I went to something called a QueyQuey (I am sure that I have spelled it wrong). But it was really fun! It is an event where family and friends get together before the big wedding day (It’s a Guyanese Christian thing). I guess earlier in the day the groom has to go over to the brides house and try to find her and he sings a song every step of the way! I wasn’t there for that, but I was there for the party! Everyone was dancing and having fun…it was awesome. I loved it because people of all sizes, ages, races were all dancing together. There was 4 years olds and 70 year olds. It totally made the “dance like nobody’s watching”—relevent!

The Guyanese also celebrate more on Easter Monday than Sunday. On Monday everyone goes out to fly kites on the beach. People were surprised to hear Americans don’t share this same tradition. “you don’t fly kites on Easter?!” We went to one beach and there were a ton of families with picnics and kites. Our landlords neighbor made an 8ft kite…it was insane! I asked him the next day if it flew and he said it did!Alicia and I went with our new neighbors, the first beach we went to was pretty quiet (the one with the picnics). Later, we walked to another beach with a completely different atmosphere—PaRtY! There were huge speakers everywhere and everyone was dancing and having a good time! It’s funny because before I left the house, my girl neighbor who is 18 said, “Are you going to wear that?” I had a skirt and a tanktop on. I said, “yeah.” She said, “You’re not serious.” I was like, “Yes I am! Why what should I wear?” She was like, “something nice.” I was like, “A skirt isn’t nice? What is nice?” She was like, “jeans.” I was like, “In the U.S. a skirt is considered to be nice.” But after I got to see what the other beach was like, I knew exactly what she meant: Looking nice meant looking HOTT. People were like in clubbing clothes! I was like to the 18 year old, “So when you say “nice” you really mean Hott.” She laughed and shook her head. I don’t think she understands that I did not bring any “hott clothes” for the Peace Corps! But even though I was wearing a skirt…I still had fun!

Alicia and I also learned how to make Cassava bread (Pone) and Cassava/Egg balls yesterday. It was really interesting to watch Camo (our landlords wife/the sweetest lady ever) make it. Basically a cassava is like a potato and you boil it, mash it, put garlic, butter, salt, pepper, etc and then wrap it around a hard boiled egg and then fry it. It is probably ridiculously unhealthy, but it was so good! We also made Pone, which is grated cassava, grated coconut, nutmeg, milk, black pepper, and cinnamon. It was really good too, but it had a very spicy flavor. I guess it is similar to like a zucchini bread? Whoever comes to visit me, I will make them some! I also made banana bread today and it turned out awesome (first baked thing so far that has actually turned out at all! haha) the oven we have is a little shady at times…so it was pretty exciting that the banana bread worked!!

Alicia and I also started our garden. The soil in Guyana is really tough to break up and till…but we got most of it down. It is about an 8ft by 8ft plot. So far we have planted: pumpkin, eggplant, hot peppers, bora, calalou (like spinach), and papaya (which supposedly only takes like 9 months to grow a tree that bears fruit! Craziness. Good craziness!)

I still haven’t started my job yet, but I will next Tuesday! Yay! It’s funny because I was expecting to start work next Monday and so I called my headmistress to check in and talk. She was like, “come in on Tuesday.” I was like, “doesn’t school start on Monday?” she said, “No, there is a holiday on Monday.” There are a ton of Holidays here!

OOooo best news yet:

Alicia and I got two 6 week old puppies! We were originally only going to get one, but we both wanted different puppies, so we got two. I had to pick the friendly one that came up to me…it is always a good sign and it proved correct! Mine is brown with blackish ears and a blackish nose. Alicia’s is black with some brown spots (like a rotweiller almost). I named mine Odie (after Garfield and Odie) and Alicia named hers Aldine (like a country singer named Jason Aldine). We call him Aldy for short. They are both boys and they are both so bad! We are in the process of potty training them..and boy oh boy is it work! But they are ridiculously cute and so it makes the job a little bit easier!

More later!

p.s. I wanted to give a shout out to my family, especially this week. I wish I could be near family at this time. Each person is in my thoughts and prayers. Dad is watching down on us everyday. I know he is proud of the Dulaney family. So much love from Guyana<3