Rupununi Rangers

Region Nine had been completely closed to Volunteers for several years due to security concerns. Peace Corps only recently reopened it, sending six intrepid Volunteers into the area in April of 2016. Three left within the first three months. Then Peace Corps sent six more in from my own cohort. One never made it back after the site visit. With the latest batch of Volunteers, they've only sent one out to us. So now there are nine in Region Nine (very poetic). It turns out I've been terrible about taking pictures of them, so I had to send a call out so you could see them the way I do.

Gabrielle (GUY 28): 

Photo by Gabrielle

Photo by Gabrielle

She's the only other female PCV in the region, and my go-to for everything. She lives near the central hub where we all escape to at least once a month, and she knows just about everything about everything and everyone. I've been here a year, and compared to her, I still feel like a brand-new and totally inept trainee. If you could bottle up her levels of enthusiasm, you'd be a millionaire. I don't know how she does it; I get exhausted just listening to all of the projects she's running. She often tells me she's barely hanging on, and that she struggles, but she does it like a ballerina: sure, there's tons of grueling hard work that goes into it, you're sure, but she makes everything look so smooth and effortless. Also along that same metaphor, she manages things I'm pretty sure it's physically impossible for us normal humans to do.

Steven (GUY 28): 

Photo by Gabrielle

Steven and Connor
Photo by Gabrielle

Gabrielle and Steven
Photo by Gabrielle

"Every person is the hero of their own story." Not true. The Region Nine Volunteers have all come to the startling realization that Steven is, in fact, the hero of this story, and we're all just expendable supporting characters. Since he's about as mean as a toasted marshmallow, we're all kind of okay with it. Since he's the nearest PCV to me, I see him more often than anyone else.

Connor (GUY 28):

Photo by Gabrielle

Photo by Gabrielle

Photo by Chris

Connor and Gabrielle
Photo by Gabrielle

Connor is not far from me either. I spend more time with the GUY 28 volunteers than I do my own cohort, so it will be really hard for me when they finish their service. Connor actually lives in the same village my counterpart is from, so they've become good friends. He's as laid-back as I am neurotic, and can pick up the Guyanese way of talking like he was born here. He also covered the workshop I'd planned when I was pulled out of my site.

Thomas (GUY 29):

Photo submitted by Thomas

Photo by Gabrielle

The boy who started out so quiet in training is now one of the most riotously funny people I've ever met. Every time he comes out of his site, he has crazy wild stories. Things just sort of happen to him. If anyone should write a book about the Peace Corps in Guyana, it's him.

Lance (GUY 29):

Photo submitted by Lance

He's the other Masters International student, actually at the same University I am. He's a droll character, and with his deep voice and southern accent, I just want him to narrate my whole life. He came to visit my site a few times, and played a bunch of games with the kids and I, and now they adore him and always ask when he's coming back.

Jon (GUY 29):

Lance and Jon
Photo by Gabrielle

Picture "California" but not "surfer" and you've pretty much got it. Compared to me, he sometimes seems relaxed to the point of catatonic. He's absurdly tall when standing near me or any of the locals, which makes him stand out even more than the rest of us do. He and Dylan are way down in the South Rupununi, with no cell service or internet, so we rarely hear from them more than once a month.

Dylan (GUY 29):

Chris on the left, Dylan on the right
Photo by Chris

Dylan came into Guyana with no electronics. That was the first hint that Dylan was going into this with a totally different mindset than the rest of us. We had all been told we were going way out into the middle of nowhere with limited electricity and all that, but even so, no electronics? He said he was determined to rid himself of the dependence on gadgets, so the rest of us all shrugged and figured "hey, more power to you." He's since changed his mind, but the attempt was notable.

Chris (GUY 30):

Photo by... someone else. I'm not sure who. (Chris submitted it for this post).

Chris moved into Region Nine the same day we finally had our "town hall meeting" with our new Country Director to address some of the glaring failures in the region. I couldn't help but feel sorry for him: this new, bright-eyed and hopeful PCV, suddenly dropped in among a bunch of red-dirt covered, bedraggled and sleep deprived veteran PCVs telling horror stories of the lack of medical care and food shortages. It felt like a message of "Welcome to Region Nine! You've been left here to die." Probably not the most uplifting first impression. When I first spoke to him, back in Georgetown before he left, I asked him jokingly "so what did you do to get exiled to Region Nine?"
"What do you mean?"
"That's where they send all the bad kids."
At this point, one of the staff who sitting near us cut in with "Hey! That's not true! Steven's down there, and we LIKE him." Chris and I stared for a moment until she realized what she'd just basically admitted, and then both of us cracked up, so I knew he had the right sense of humor at least to get along with the rest of us. (Side note: I've since been told by staff that I shouldn't tell that story anymore.)


For those of you wondering what happened to the the rest of my GUY 29 cohort, we're now down to six. Ellen left before swearing in, by her own choice, and Matt was medically evacuated. Now Sam and Dan have both been medically evacuated as well, and will not be returning. Kirsten had to be removed from her site in Region One due to security, and has been moved to a new site in Region Three, which she loves.