Virtual Tour of Bina Hill

Okay, so today is the day that I've decided to try to explain where I live. It's a little confusing, but hopefully with some visual aids you'll all catch on eventually. Bina Hill is not a village. In fact, Bina Hill did not exist as of something like 10 years ago (well, I suppose the Hill itself has been around for a lot longer than that, but there weren't any buildings). Here is a picture of some nearby areas.
North Rupununi includes 16 villages, 6 of which you can see here. This is definitely the most densely populated area. The other villages all lie either somewhere on the road (in orange.. the only road around goes all the way from Brazil to Georgetown) or somewhere along the river (in blue... of course). I have in fact been to Kwatamang, Rupertee and near Annai, although not right in it. Most of the people here at Bina Hill live here. There are a couple however that either live in the nearby communities and walk to work (like the cleaner who is from Kwatamang) or from further away and drive in. Some, like the Medex drive in every day on his motorcycle. Others live further away and don't own vehicles so stay here most nights during the week and only head home on the weekends. The boys I refer to regularly consist of a couple that work here (either in the gardens or on the grounds or whatever), but mostly are a group of maybe 10 students here (boys and girls) preparing for their performance in Carifesta in Georgetown at the end of August.

Here is a rough map I drew of Bina Hill itself.
So lets start from the front
On the left you can see 3 buildings. From closest to furthest they are the little store, the kitchen and the bathroom. On the right, you see the main building. The top floor of the main building has a couple rooms where people live, a community radio station and a big open area where they have meetings and workshops and stuff. The bottom floor has a couple of rooms that they put short-term guests in and the offices. Here is the main office where I spend most of my time.
The chair behind Stacey in the middle of the room is where I'm sitting right now (my laptop is behind the one you see facing you). The office has about 6 of its own computers (all laptops except the main one that has the printer and stuff) and can probably fit 6 or 7 people working simultaneously comfortably. I'm sure there has been more though.

There is a road to the left of the store. If you go down that road you have the school on the right of the road and 4 or 5 huts where people live on the right.
This is the school. It's pretty dead right now except the Carifesta rehersals several times a day because they pretty much have the same school year as us. During the year it is an institute that apparently provides training in different trades. Kids come here either after or instead of going to secondary school. I don't completely understand how it works, but I talked to one girl who took Information Technology last year and wants to take Natural Resources next year. She is 15 years old and went straight from primary school to this place. I also heard that the Institute is working on getting itself recognized as a college or something like that.
These are the huts to the left of the road. I was relatively unfamiliar with this part of Bina Hill until recently, but the guy from the Peace Corps who arrived last week moved into the very last hut you can see here. He has a water filter, and we were going to be running out of bottled water in the store very very soon so I've started getting filtered water from him every morning. Very nice of him indeed :-)

Now go back to either the map or the picture of the front. If you look down the road next to the main building this is what you see.
The roofed area on the left is just a table with benches where you can eat, play checkers or just generally hang out. On the right you can see first a very little bit of the office, then the house that people I don't know very well live in (they specialize in Makushi culture and language though). Then there is another roofed little area that isn't really used at all except by the donkeys. Then finally you see the zinc roof that is our building. The front half of it is just open and has a hammock. The back half is our room, which I showed you yesterday.

What next? If you go to the far side of the bathrooms this is what you see.
This is where we do laundry. And on the right you can see some outdoor showers. I haven't used these ones though because I feel the walls were made for makushi people who tend to be quite a bit shorter than me and I don't particularly feel like flashing everyone here. Behind the laundry you can see some more huts where other people live. And if you keep walking about 200 meters further you get to the fish pond that I showed you the other day also.

I think that about explains it. I hope it clears a few things up and I hope you enjoyed my virtual tour :-) Have a great day!