Digital Guyana

Greetings, I’m Matt Gaffen and here’s my introduction.

I’m afraid a picture isn’t available at this juncture, but I’m sure you’ll catch sight of me at some point soon. Here’s the face of some kind of frog person I drew before coming out here instead;

I caught wind of this project through Resonance FM (London’s first art radio station, don’tcha know?) at which I volunteer doing a variety of small jobs to help keep the station running. An e-mail from the station mentioned this fantastic opportunity teaching web design and animation in Guyana. I had experience in both fields and thus replied to it right away.

I am the animation specialist of this course and have come out a week early with Hugh (the our teams’ fourth member) in order to teach a concentrated four-day ‘slab’ course in Adobe Flash (animation software). More details to follow

As for who I am and what I do; I’m an art student studying at Chelsea College of Art and Design. My degree is in Graphic Design Communication. I’ve been using flash for about five or six years and have a fair amount of experience animating exclusively on personal projects.

I’ve been out in Guyana now for nearly a week with Hugh and am having a great time, having got over the mosquito bites and spouting blood from my nose at every opportunity. Most of the locals are friendly and one of my students has just introduced me to Ultimate Frizbee, which in case you didn’t know is just about the best team sport. Ever.

After being worried a little about course expectations on Monday at Merundoi, the first day went swimmingly well. The students are all engaging with the material, being creative with it and learning the concepts at a fairly impressive pace. Above all they seem happy and some students are actively showing a lot of excitement, so I believe that they will take what they’ve learned further. It has been a really exciting week with a group who could not have been more of a pleasure to teach in any way. To summarize, I feel very satisfied with the work today and with any luck the course will proceed at a similar speed and level of quality.

It’s quite odd being an art student and suddenly being in my tutors’ position. By no means is it not enjoyable though, in fact it sells teaching to me a bit.

I have brought two types of malaria medication; Lariam and Doxy. I was asked to bring Doxy in addition to Lariam, which I’d already started at the time, because of it’s incredible side effects which could possibly include hallucinations and a desire to kill oneself! I am still on Lariam, but apart from some enjoyable, vaguely psychedelic dreams I am experiencing no side affects.

One day left of the course now, I shall provide some more details some time tomorrow when it’s all over.

Going to the sidewalk café tonight to listen to live jazz. Hopefully will get at least slightly drunk for the second night running. Am starting to grow a real appreciation for the local rum.

You can check out my personal blog at http://www.mattsdeadcat.blogspot.com. Expect to see most of this copy-pasted there soon.

G