Hello from Surama on the edges of the Iwokrama Rainforest and the Rupununi Savannah in region 9, the centre of Guyana. We've been here almost two weeks now and we leave on Wednesday so whilst the girls do some invoice and logo design I thought I should probably catch up with the journal.

We're staying in the centre of Surama and have a guesthouse to ourselves. We were staying in the tourist accomodation but we felt a bit removed from the community so now we're right at the heart of it in a guesthouse with about 8 rooms. Bernie and Jo have double beds and I'm on the top of a bunk bed a little further down from them. We have our own shower, table, loo and a nice porch where we sit out and have breakfast. We wake up here at about 5:30 and then get up at about 6:30, shower, eat breakfast and then go to work. We've been doing some teaching at both the primary and nursery schools as well as clearing trails, going to church, taking part in community and cultural groups and just meeting people from all over the village.

Teaching was good fun, though it was incredibly tiring especially when we became the only teachers at the nursery school for two days. Our lessons involved reading fairy tales, playing with play dough, colouring in and spinning the children round and round and round till we were almost sick! The primary school was different but still good fun, i've taught grammar, taken spelling and notation tests and basically helped out where i can. At the moment there are a group of 6 students who haven't made it to secondary school but who have a final chance to do so by taking their year three exams in June and so i'm helping them with their coursework. Unfortunately it's incredibly difficult to motivate them!

We then climbed Surama Mountain and cutlassed our way through some rougher parts and shaped stones for steps on the stepper bits. That was on Monday which was community day, a day when everyone who can gets up and brings stuff out to work with. It was great fun and we caught some good sun, but we were exhausted afterwards.

Then we had a day off and the next day we walked for an hour and a half to the river and went out for a day fishing and rowing along in our dugout. We saw Bats, Macaws and loads of other birds like Herons and Storks. We went fishing in the morning and then swimming after lunch and fishing again in the afternoon. The girls caught nothing in three hours in total and I caught ten fish, as the locals would say this "vexed them much". I caught six piranhas, some dog fish and a couple of others. It was great fun, very rewarding and a real experience of a lifetime! We were underneath a huge rainforest-covered mountain fishing in the shade.

More generally we've been teaching a couple of local ladies how to use the internet and helping with spreadsheets and invoices and things like that. The girls are getting pretty good now, Lynn and Judy can now send lots of e-mails and use a messenger. Today's lessons are on google and how to use it.

Finally I can't fail to mention Mashramani, which was last friday night and saturday. It's a national holiday and the country's republic day. On the night there was dancing, storytelling and folk singing and then the next day we walked into town and played cards and chatted with everyone. People had brought in food, cari - the local brew, jamon wine, and all of their kids. People ran around, music was playing and we had to make a little introduction and then we played a massive game of football. It was about 35 degrees and so I was dying after about ten minutes, but it was great fun. In the evening we danced lots and a girl called Mina taught me how to do loads of new moves. We danced to some pop numbers and as well as the Brazilian music.

Anyway, some trainees have just arrived so I have to go and welcome them, till next time!