Hello for the last time from Annai. Tomorrow is our last day here and then we have six days off before leaving for Surama. I can't really remember what I last wrote, so if I repeat myself then apologies! We've basically finished the library we were organising now, although there are a few persistent books which keep going missing! We've also designed a stables which are due to be built over the next few years, as well as organising the horses and giving tips on husbandry etc. Joanna arrived on Monday and has been helping us out and has joined us for riding as well. Tomorrow we go on our last ride out with the cattle. It will be sad because i've come to love our little excursions, even if I end up aching by the end!

Mr Edwards left for a few days on wednesday so Bernadette escaped to Lethem shopping with Alma who works in the shop, and I dragged Joanna up to the school to do some teaching. We got there at 11:30 and Jo was given thirty 7-10year olds and I was given about 40(+) 10-13/14 year olds. We played a tag version of dodgeball, Donkey (or bums) with a bouncy ball, and of course non-stop cricket and dutch (or was it danish) longball. The kids were brilliant and I had an amazing time, but because I was using my shoes as cones I ended up looking like I hadn't washed for days! We left after almost two and a half hours and walked back in the heat of the sun. Annai is about 15 minutes from Rockview and is a long-established Amerindian village which stretches up a small grassy ridge. The view from the top is expansive and amazing on a clear day. Annai has a couple of small stalls, a medical centre and a primary and nursery school. The secondary school is about an hour's walk across the Savannah. In fact we walked back there today and it reminded me of My Antonia and O Pioneers which were my favourite of all the books we studied for American Fiction in my second year. All we needed was a plow and the sunset would have been a dead match, there are loads of tiny settlements stretching out to the horizon. I should say that Annai (as is Surama) is mentioned in Evelyn Waugh's 92 days, his account of a journey through Guyana, and so has a bit of a literature connection!

Monday, aside from being the day Joanna arrived, was also Grace's birthday, so we all met in the bar for some drinks. I'd organised a cake to be baked for her, but after 9:30 they still hadn't turned up so we figured they'd stayed back at the school. By the time she arrived fifteen minutes later there was a little less than a quarter of the cake left. But nevertheless she appreciated it and so we all had some drinks and played strange card games. Kirsty wasn't there because she's gone to Georgetown as she's tested positive for Malaria. The girls stopped taking their pills after the rainy season but Surama is a hotbed for it and so she seems to have contracted it. It must be pretty scary for her seeing as she's just 18 and has to go to Georgetown on her own for a second test (her company's policy). Incidentally one of the girls we met in Lethem has also got Malaria. It's tough stuff! Heather and Grace went to Lethem for rodeo this weekend and so we went for a pumpkin curry and roti at Bryan, an American teacher's house last night. We took up Grace's bike and sat around and watched Jess and Bryan cook up this amazing amazing curry. It was so so good and the roti were unbelievable, they're like pitas but Bryan added lots of spices so they tasted really good. We also met his 3 month old son Kaywana (i think) or Kai for short, and the baby's mother. Bryan is 25/6 I guess and is leaving here in July to go back to the states, he's been here three years and wants to go back but his son will share his time growing up between the two countries. This afternoon we took another bike - this time Kirsty's - up to the school, and as the sunset Joanna cycled and i walked with her all the way back to rockview.

As I said we leave on tuesday, and we have devised an incredibly complicated plan for our week off. We had originally resigned ourselves to going to Surama early seeing as everywhere is so far, but we have a new amibitious plan we hope to organise tomorrow. We will leave on tuesday and join a transfer to Karanambu, a lodge on the river with lots of tame and friendly otters, and then come back the next day for a valentine's day party here at rockview. Despite Keith's attempts to get me interested in his paraplegic friend I shall be accompanying Alma to the dancing competition because her husband can't make it because of work. We practised yesterday and basically, to the sound of a soul track: listen to your heart by roxette is most likely, or an oldy: probably something by celine dion, or dolly parton and kenny rogers with islands in the stream, we dance around as if we're sleeping together. I should add that these tracks are rare blips considering that most of the music we listen to is Soca or the Brazilian Fahar. Everyone is mad, and I mean mad, about Pepe Moreno, a curly-haired Brazilian who's album of Fahar tracks is played at least twice a day. In fact the cd just finished playing in the bar. In fact, after the valentine's party, we plan to head out on thursday to Lethem and then over the border to Boavista for Carnival this weekend. This is a bit of a complicated thing to organise seeing as a lot depends on the otter farm and their availability, and also on whether Bernie and I can get our passports and yellow fever certificates down from Georgetown where we left them in a safe. But if we can pull it off, we're going to Carnival, which is just awesome and is guaranteed to be an experience! At the same time as Boavista Carnival there will be partying all over Brazil, especially at the famous ones in Rio and Bahia, and also in Cayenne and a huge party in Trinidad and Tobago. I hope that we can go, and I'll be sure to take plenty of pictures and i'll try and upload them sometime!

Anyway, I'm off to see who's replaced Pepe on the cd player, hoping it's one of our favourite songs: - Wine and bend over, tempted to touch, african queen and of course what goes on in the party stays in the party!

Till next time