Volunteer Stories - Dorothy
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What Am I Doing Here Anyway?
I love volunteering in different countries and have been doing so for many years. Each of my overseas experiences has been different, and Guyana is no exception. The first big problem was to find a project there for just the two weeks that I could spare. Finally, after researching widely for weeks and weeks, I discovered the Rupununi Learners in Yupukari. Mike wrote that I would be welcome but didn’t specify what kind of work I could do for them, except to mention writing and photography. He knew I had written a book of travel memoirs.
Even after arriving late one Sunday afternoon and meeting everyone at Caiman House, I was given no particular assignment. What am I doing here anyway? But I kept my eyes open and just winged it through the next two weeks. I had a wonderful time. I’m hoping that the kids and villagers also benefitted from my presence. Miss Eleanor invited me to teach an occasional class—sixth grade—and I helped Rosita and Alicia in the library. Perhaps my biggest gift was at the after-school program in the Library Treehouse during my second week. By then the school kids had stopped asking me, “How old are you, Miss?” They’re not used to having a white-haired volunteer apparently.
I suggested the theme for the week might be “Many Lands, Many Peoples.” I happened to have some power point shows on my laptop computer of many countries where I had traveled or lived. For kids who in some cases had never even been to their capital, Georgetown, this exposed them to a new view of the world. There’s no TV in Yupukari, thus no Discovery Channel or National Geographic to broaden their horizons. During the week we went on vicarious short trips to Ghana, Thailand, India, Costa Rica, Namibia, Vietnam, Ecuador, Australia and more. Fortunately, there are books in the wonderful library about life in all those countries, so if my pictures whetted their appetites, they could discover more about life far away from their Makushi village.
As always happens, I received more than I gave. I loved the easy acceptance I felt from everyone in Yupukari - from Rudi, the TouShoa, to Junita, the hammock-weaver and bread-baker, to Harold, who made me a fishing creel, and so on. It was such a rich experience that I’ve been busy capturing it in words, in the form of short articles which will appear in various travel magazines, accompanied of course with pictures of Yupukari life.
Unique. Fascinating. Friendly. Two weeks in Yupukari with the Rupununi Learners, who made it possible, will stay in my memory bank of top life experiences. And I hope my being there also enriched the lives of the people I met and worked with, young and old.