I stand corrected

Terri took this picture at one of our calls in Kobarimo. This is a granddaughter of a woman we call on. She was out skipping rope with this vine.

I wanted to post something up so I could correct something in the last post. I had mentioned an email we had received regarding a question supposedly asked on Jeopardy. Well, as with many emails, it turned out to be untrue. The actually question posed was, “What bible translation do Jehovah’s Witnesses use?” So if you passed along an untrue rumor, you will have to correct it as I have done.

That being said, time is really starting to fly by with many things left to accomplish with a very limited time to do so. Getting lumber for the toilet continues to be a problem, so Monday I will go to some of the other mills in the area and see if I can get it from them.

On a bright note, Thursday evening Bro. Baxter handed in his auxiliary pioneer application for May. It will be the fifth consecutive month he has aux. pioneered. It has been such a joy to have him out in the ministry with us so much of the time, and he has really developed his preaching skills.

Our last two trips to Kobarimo have been fairly routine. Two weeks ago we had quite a shower go through while we were there, but we were under shelter, so we stayed dry. The calls we went to after that were quite surprised to see us since it had rained so much. Unfortunately, the rain delayed us long enough that our last call figured we weren’t coming so she went out to help carry wood up from the landing, so we missed the study with her, but she was waiting for us this week.

We used the same boat we had used the two weeks before, but either it is just deteriorating due to age, or someone crashed it into something quite hard because the front has a big crack in it which leaks in quite a bit of water, so two paddle and one bails. I told Terri I wondered if it would even be there in another week, and she said that she didn’t know as she would want to take it if it was. But hey, it got us there this week. Next week will be out last trip to Kobarimo, and I’d like to keep our string of staying dry in tact.

Tomorrow starts our string of ‘last meetings’ as we won’t be having a meeting next Sunday because of the SAD program. It’s hard to believe we have been here four months already, but I also know how quick once we get home it will feel like we never had been gone. It’s almost like living in parallel realities.

One more time

Just a note by way of explaination on the pictures. The first one was from our river trip today. The second one I took a couple of days ago. The thermometer normally hangs on a wall on the back porch and usually shows about 95 in the middle of the day, but that's in the shade, and we are usually out walking about in the sun. So I decided to place the thermometer in the sun, just to see what it would record. I'm not sure if you can read it on this page, but it is reading about 109, so it does get quite warm here during the day

I'm afraid I somehow lost the second picture, and I'm not going to spend another hour trying to insert it, so you will just have to take my word until you see our pictures when we get back.

Today we went on the river one more time before we leave. Terri, Jennifer, and I went. The weather was excellent, we only got lightly showered on once. As we well getting ready to leave Kumaka,a woman was out on the wharf with a small boy. She asked if we were going to Kaituma, as the boy needed a ride. Terri told her we were only going part way up the Kaituma. The woman then asked if we would take the boy as far as we were going. I told Terri to say no, as I didn’t want to have to worry about what would happen if we just left him somewhere along the river.

Today was a typical river day. We had some really nice calls where they asked us when we were coming back, and you feel bad because you can’t give them an answer. And then you have some calls where it’s like talking to a brick wall. At one house, Jenn was talking to an older woman, and asked her about the other ones there with her. One was a granddaughter and an older one was her daughter. Jenn was having a hard time reasoning with her on the scriptures, so to just try and make conversation, she asked the woman her daughters name. The woman just looked at her, (like she had been doing with most her other questions) and then leaned back into the house and asked the daughter her name. It’s very hard with ones like that.

At another door she was reasoning on how Jehovah and Jesus are two separate individuals, showing her where Jesus said the father was greater than he was. So she asked, “so are they the same?” The woman replied, “Yes, sister.” So the Jenn tried a different approach and pointed to a small boy there and asked if he had a father, to which she replied. “Yes sister.” So Jenn asked are the boy and his father the same one? “Yes sister.” It can be very trying at times, but other times so rewarding. Truly, the harvest is great, and the workers are few.

I finished digging the pit for the toilet, now we only need the lumber. I picked up the zinc for the roof Tuesday, so we have that.

Ellis has gone over the first two sets of questions for baptism, so that is on track. Now all I need to do is figure out how to make a baptism pool to have here at the hall, so all can see the baptism. We had noticed someone nearby has one of those inflatable small pools in there yard now. Will suggested we might speak to them about renting it for the day, Again, Jehovah will provide.

Someone had emailed the girls recently that a question had been asked on Jeopardy “What is the most accurate bible translation?” And when nobody got the answer Alex read the answer as, “The New World Translation, by Jehovah’s Witnesses.” I don’t know if anyone out there can confirm that or not. But if true, I’m sure that may have created a stir with some.

Getting short

As you can see, work is continuing on the new toilets, I think on more session of digging may have that part completed. I am doing this so I don't get out of shape for digging to uncover the top of septic tanks once I return to the states. The other picture is of a couple of young girls that Chelsea had had sleep over one night. As you can see, they have been trained well as to how to start their day.

Monday Compton and I took a bike and went out past Wauna to Black Watta. I had been there shortly after we arrived and had not finished the territory, so I wanted to finish the territory before we left. We met a woman out there who has a sister that’s a sister. She has gone to a few District Conventions with her in ‘town. While we were out there, a major downpour went through. But we were at the best call of the day sitting under a man’s house sharing scriptures. We were having a nice discussion, plus it was pouring so we didn’t want to go out, so we ate our lunches while we talked to him. It turned out he was a son of the woman who has the sister who is a sister. He told us before we left that we had spoken clearer to him than anyone one else he had ever talked with.

We finished the territory and then walked back out to where we had left the bike. Since it had rained so much, the ‘road’ which is all dirt was quite slippery. Driving back reminder me a lot of skiing, the way you are always trying to pick the best line to follow through all the bumps.

Andrew returned this week from Port Kaituma. He had stayed an extra week to help Richard there until the ones who had been in Matthews Ridge were able to close this down there and return to Kaituma. Paul & Sinead flew out of ‘town on Tuesday. Hopefully they will return in the end of September as planned.

I am a little concerned about the toilet we need to build before the Special Assembly Day program. Compton mentioned that the Forestry Service has placed a hold on all timber cutting because apparently there was so much illegal cutting going on. He said he had heard that they should be getting some lumber in ‘just now’. I just need to remind myself that this is for Jehovah, and he can certainly supple lumber. One week from Tuesday the Circuit Overseer and his wife arrive, as we are the host congregation for the SAD.

I told Terri that I had a hard time getting too motivated in the field ministry yesterday, since I know we are leaving soon, so there is no point in trying to start any studies, as we will have a hard enough time getting ones to take over the studies we have, since they all have their own studies to be taking care of.

I guess this was a little short, but then again that’s how I’m starting to feel as well.

Yarakita

I thought I ought to give Terri equal billing. This was taken at the airstrip when Wendy was leaving.

Our trip to Yarakita was a success after getting off to a shakey start. I had figured on taking one of the bikes to Kumaka to get the boat ready as I didn’t think there would be buses running that early. I told Alex I would pick him up on the way by, and he was waiting when I got there. As we were passing by the hospital in compound, the bike suddenly started going back and forth in the back, so I knew the tire had instantly lost all its air. I gave my keys to the shed that the motor and things are kept in to Alex and told him to go ahead to start to get the boat ready. I then started walking around in compound trying to locate a tire pump, hoping that it would hold air enough to let me reach Kumaka, but there was none to be found. Finally a bus came by and I stopped it to ask if they had a pump. They did, so I borrowed it and pumped the tire. I then gave the pump back to the conductor on the bus, and by the time I walked back to the bike, the tire was flat again. I ended up sitting as far ahead as I could so my weight would be in the front tire and drove it to Kumaka. So we were about 45 minutes late in getting underway.

Because there were four of us in the boat, it couldn’t plane up out of the water, so we could only do about 11.5 MPH. Then we went into the creek before Yarakita, and had to turn back to reach the right one, so it was about 11:30 when we got started. Solo and I went down on direction, and Compton and Alex went the other way. The village is much more spread out than the last river village we did. Maybe because the village can also be reached overland as well.

Solo and I had several nice calls. Solo knew many of the people, or at least the families there. We met a young woman who mentioned that she had come to the Special Assembly Day program last year at the Primary School. We told her about the one scheduled for May. She then asked us when we were planning on coming back to Yarakita. Compton mentioned that he had many ask the same question of him. It makes you feel bad that you can’t give an answer to that. Then before we left the young woman, she asked if we had a Secret to Family Happiness book. Not your usual question.

We had agreed to meet back at the boat at 4:00 PM. It took Solo and I a half an hour to walk back from where we had ended. It was about 4:30 by the time we were ready to leave, and several of the people standing around mentioned that if we didn’t leave soon we would be stuck there until the next day, because at low tide the creek becomes unnavigable. Because we were lighter, and the falling tide’s current is stronger than the washings tide’s, we were about to make about 13 MPH on the way back, but we still reached Kumaka in full darkness.

Today it was just Terri and I going to Kobarimo. While school is still on vacation, there were a number of boats at the landing. We had decided on a fairly large looking boat, and I was getting into it when a woman paddled up in another canoe. We asked her who the boat we were taking belonged to, and she said it was a man who was out working, and would not be back until late afternoon. But she said she didn’t think we should take that boat, as it was very ‘twisty’. She mentioned she would be gone until 4:00, and we could take hers. I thought it was nice she was looking out for the white folks. We had a nice paddle up the creek, no strong words and no umbrella blows.

At one of our calls, an older woman who is the mother-in-law of the one we started the call with, but who has been there the last few weeks, mentioned that she had ‘given testimony’ in the church Sunday that no one from the church ever comes to visit them to share the word. The only ones who come are the white folks from the Kingdom Hall. I don’t know what else she might have said, but she said afterwards, everyone clapped their hands. When we first started going there, they were always busy doing cassava bread, but now they do that on Thursday since we come Friday. They also mentioned they go to the pond early, and encourage one another to hurry up, so they will be back before we get there. We are really hoping Joy or someone will be able to continue the calls after we leave.

It's coming your way

I had mentioned about the need for additional toilets before our Special Assembly Day program, so we recently had our ground breaking ceremony, but it wasn't to well attended. The good news is I got the pit about half dug, and this is pretty close to a no-shadow moment.

Our most recent trip to Kobarimo was also our most eventful. I had wondered what we would find when we got to the landing, since school is still on vacation plus it was a holiday (Good Friday) so ther4e wouldn’t be boats from people going out to work. Joy met us there and there were only two boats there, neither of which looked to promising to non-natives like ourselves. There were some small children playing around there, so Joy spoke to them and asked if they would paddle up with us so they could bring the boats back. They said they would, so Terri and I got in the bigger of the two, but it was quite narrow, with a very round bottom, which makes them as the locals say, “rolly”. The small boy seemed to handle the boat fairly well as he brought it up for us to get in, so I decided to let him stay in the back. When we first got it, I could indeed tell it was ‘rolly’. I told Terri that today was the day we were going to get wet. Then to make matters worse, we just nicely got going, and he drove the canoe right into a tree on the bank. As we got going more and I had a little time to get acclimated, I was feeling more comfortable, but Terri was getting more and more nervous. I know this may be hard for many to believe, but he actually hit me with her umbrella, because I wasn’t willing to turn around to go back. She finally insisted that we pull up to a stump along the way to let her get out and go in the other canoe. By this time I was willing. But when we stopped, the other boat came alongside and she just got into it, and they set off.

Now the small boy wasn’t happy that a boat paddled by a girl and a woman (Joy) was ahead of us, so he’s paddling hard to try and keep up. We ended up hitting two more trees before we reached. After the second one, he tried to explain it that I was so big, he couldn’t see around me. That may have been part of the problem, but if you are paddling at a 45 degree angle in a narrow creek, it shouldn’t be hard to figure that you’re going to hit the bank even if you can’t see.

We had some nice calls in Kobarimo and as we were walking back to the landing, a man came up behind us with a paddle. Joy knew him so asked about his boat. He said it was reasonable sized, so she asked if we could go back with him. I ended up in the front, with Terri and Joy in the middle. We started out and Terri mentioned that she had here hands on the sides of the boat, and her fingers were in the water. I noticed that some water seemed to appear in the bottom of the boat, and Terri said it had come over the side when the boat tipped a little to far to the side. I was just glad I couldn’t see all of that. The first time Joy had gone with us, she had mentioned she was a little afraid, since she hadn’t been in a boat in so long. Well she has gotten over her fears, and she was laughing at how nervous Terri was, as well as showing off her paddling skills, even thought it was rocking the boat. But we did manage to keep dry for another week.

We received word last week that Paul Donlon had flown to Georgetown, since both his wife and baby were quite sick. He had contacted us and asked if we might be able to send the boys up to help until he came back the middle of this week. So Josh and Andrew went up Saturday. Paul then called back to say that he was thinking of just going back to Ireland now, since he had planned on returning right after the SAD program. He said Sinead and Bethany were so weaken from a virus they had, that they were worried they might get something else.

Josh returned today, but Andrew is staying another week which will allow the ones who have been at Matthews Ridge to pack up and return to Kaituma. Again, that had been the plan, but it wasn’t supposed to happen for another month.

Tomorrow, myself, Compton, Solo, and Alex are going to take the boat to work the village of Yarakita. It’s been about a year and a half since it was worked. We had stopped at the landing of the village a couple months ago to ask whether there were any houses on a creek close by there, and when we got ready to leave, the people were quite upset/disappointed to realize we were going to be visiting them. We are going to be using the recent tract on false religion, as we still have a small supply left. I am excited that it will mostly be locals, rather than white people preaching tomorrow. With four in the boat, it will take longer to reach there, but we should be able to do the whole village and reach back before dark.

Memorial

I thought I'd put up this picture from our Memorial observance. It was taken a little before the program began, so there is still a number of empty seats. Also I don't know as you will be able to make out too many of the faces, but those who know, you can see Rosta sitting there in the middle.

Obviously the recent highpoint of our time here has been the Memorial. We had 129 here Monday evening. To put that into a little context, we had 113 last year, we have an average attendance on Sunday of about 60, we have about 35 publishers working here now. Wendy has been conducting a study with some on Kahn Hill, and about 10 came from there. We might have had more as we had arranged for two buses to bring ones in from Wauna and those parts, but only one bus came. We have not been back out there yet to hear of how many say they came, but were not able to catch a bus.

Probably one of the more outstanding individual experiences was that of a man named Danny that Compton has been studying with out in Settlement. He had an accident a few years ago and was completely bed-ridden for some time. He has gained back a little use of his legs, but still hardly ever goes out of his house. He had expressed a strong desire to attend, so Josh went out on one of the bikes and was able to bring him. He really enjoyed being here, and he was one of the last to want to leave. He has expressed a desire to come to the Special Talk on the 15th.

We had been able to cover all of our close in territories, except for a small part of Wanina, and some river territory in the two weeks of the invitation campaign. This included keeping track of all not-at-homes during the first week and either returning when they were home, or going back during the last week and just leaving invitations.

Having had the Memorial with 129, we have pretty well decided we will hold the SAD program at the Kingdom Hall this year. It will save a lot of work of having to clean and prepare some other location, but it will involve some work here. If we are going to have around 120 here for the whole day, we are going to need to provide additional toilets. We can’t just arrange for a couple of porta-potties to be dropped off for the day. Also we are still hoping to figure out a way to perform the baptism on-site.

Other newsworthy events include the departure on Wednesday of both Wendy and Mitch, Wendy had been here six months, and Mitch five weeks. I mentioned to Terri that the next time we go to the airstrip to send someone off, may well be for ourselves. As usual, there was quite a number who went up to see them off, including a woman from Settlement, Sharon English, whom Mitch had started a study with while here. She had come to the Memorial as well.

One a less than pleasant note, Monday evening while they were at the Memorial, Wendy and Rasheeta had their place broken into and a number of things were stolen. It has not been a nice going away week for Wendy. She has also been quite sick on top of everything else. One of the things stolen was her computer on which all the files were that we had been working on in mapping out all the houses in the territory, so that project has suffered a setback.

The weather here has been rather overcast and rainy the last few days which is a blessing, since now is the time the sun is passing overhead on it’s way up north to you folks. I’m hoping to get a picture of a no-shadow moment, but we’ll have to see if the weather cooperates.

The latest

This is Ellis, he has been coming to the meetings since the very early days. He came to help us get ready for the Memorial today. He is planning on getting baptized at the upcoming SAD.

It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything up. Things have been a little busy around here with trying to cover all the territories with the Memorial invitations plus working up a new talk. I had given Andrew my list of talks that I have so he could make up a talk schedule. Well, he misread my list and so assigned me a talk which I hadn’t given. I told him rather than redo his schedule, I would just work up the talk. I gave it today, so that’s over. However I am also giving the Special Talk here, so I have two weeks to work up a next one. Such is life in Guyana.

We have also been working the last few days to try and get the hall ready for the Memorial. Yesterday we had a group here doing some cleaning, but also painting the outside of the hall and some areas inside as well. Today another group got together to finish the preparations. We gave the hall a through cleaning after the meeting, as well as painted some benches we use just for the Memorial, as well as rearrange everything inside the hall to accommodate additional people. We had put in a request for using a building that the education department has for the SAD, but that recently fell through. Will mentioned that after the SAD last year, the CO had said that they could have saved themselves a lot of work if they had just held the SAD at the Kingdom Hall. We have decided we will see what the Memorial attendance feels like and then decide if we need to try and make other arrangements for the SAD.

A regular of my posting has been our trips to Koborimo, of which we have had two since last report. Time before last, Joy Kissoon had expressed a desire to join us, so we had her meet us at the landing. She mentioned she was a little nervous, as it had been a number of years since she had been in a boat. But she assured us she could swim, so we told her she would be fine. The boat which we had taken for the last three weeks was sitting there, but I was a little concerned since when we had taken it with Joelle, it had sat pretty low in the water, and Joy is quite a large woman. We picked a next one to take, which had higher sides. I had noticed some water in it when we left, but gave it little thought. We paddled up without incident, with Joy just sitting in the middle. When we got out, I noticed much more water in the boat.

We had a nice morning in Kobarimo. We were handing out the Memorial invitations, so while I was at a house that I spoke with, Terri and Joy would offer the invitations to nearby houses, and when we got to a house that Terri usually spoke at, Terri and Joy would do it, while I offered invitations. As I was walking about, I kept my eyes open for something to use to bail the boat when we got back. I found a small container someone had dropped, so I put it in my pack.

When we got back to the landing, I was happy to see our boat still there waiting for us. I climbed in and bailed out the water and then Terri and Joy got in. At that point I saw that there was a pretty good leak in the boat, but I didn’t worry much as I knew we had paddled it up without incident. But I couldn’t help thinking what I would have thought if I had seen it leaking in shortly after we had started, knowing we had nothing to bail with.

Since my last writing, both Eliesha and Terri have developed all the classic symptoms of Dengue fever. Eliesha's was more like mine in that she was able to somewhat soldier on through her symptoms, while Terri’s pretty well had her out of commission. I mention this both as a way of explaining her ‘hammock neck’, as well as explaining the fact that this week she didn’t feel up to Koborimo. Joy had told me Thursday after the meeting that she wasn’t sure whether she was going or not as she wasn’t feeling so well. So Friday morning I wasn’t sure if I might be going alone for the first time. But Joy was waiting at the landing. I was also concerned since school is out now here, and I didn’t know if we would find a boat. It turned out there was a young boy who comes to the hall, Joel, who was going to go up the creek to fetch water, and he offered us to ride with him. I think he appreciated having two more paddlers. As we went up, I mentioned that I was concerned about how we would get back, since we hadn’t taken our own boat up. I then suggested to Joy that we work the area in such a way that we finished on the far side of the hill, and we could then walk across to Barabina. She said she had been thinking that as well as her aunt lived there and she was sick, so she wanted to visit her. So that is what we did. The only problem was that after walking across to Barabina, which took about half an hour, we were then almost to the end of Barabina, which is another half hour walk. But now I can say I have walked through the jungle from Kobarimo, to Barabina.

I guess I’ve rambled on about long enough, so I’ll close. Just to let everyone know, Terri is doing much better. She was able to go to a couple of studies Friday, and she went out with the group Saturday.