We're here

We are getting settled in in Mabaruma, We flew in Friday morning without much incident, other than having to leave one of our suitcases behind in Georgetown due to too much weight on the flight. But the night before, in anticipation of such an event, we had repacked our bags according to importance, so we knew just which bag to leave. Gary took it with him and then brought it back the next morning when he brought Mitch and Kallai for their flight.
Hopefully I’ll be able to post up a couple of pictures. One is the service group heading to the territory Saturday morning. The other is our digs this time. I figured it only appropriate that it include Terri assuming the position in the hammock. This was Will’s house. It sits about 500 feet behind the big house/hall. It’s about 12’ X 18’
Mitch and Kallai left this morning for Port Kaituma. They will be spending a few days there before travelling on to Matthews Ridge. Mitch is heading up a project to build a building there to serve as housing for ‘Need Greaters’ as well as a Kingdom Hall. There was a congregation there back in the 70’s but it was disbanded. We spent some time there the year we were at Port Kaituma. At several houses we called on, the people asked, " When are you going to build a Kingdom Hall here? We need a Kingdom Hall." There has been a Memorial held there for the last several years. A few brothers travel over from Barimita. They usually have around 200 attend, not bad for a place with no publishers or Kingdom Hall. We are planning on travelling up to help a bit as well as see.
I am having a bit of trouble making the transition from the ministry in the states to here. I think I am talking too much. It’s just that when you get someone who seems to be listening, it hard not to go on. But here it can be the person is just being polite and listening, something that doesn’t happen much in the states.
This is the rainy season here, and they had been getting a lot of rain recently, but we haven’t seen that much rain since we arrived. The weather has been great, not too hot and a regular breeze.
Terri had a day today that covered the full range of emotions. She got to see Joyann Smith deliver a baby girl at the hospital. Then she went to study with a woman she had studied with when last here who has since been diagnosed with uterine cancer. She has been told she needs $400,000 ($2,000 US) for treatment, which is totally out of her reach, so Terri will continue to study with her and watch her die. She then went to Barabina (her favorite place to walk to (not)) for a study with a man who is also learning to read, and shows such appreciation for the help he is getting.
I think I earned some points today. I knew Terri was having to go to Barabina for the study and would be getting in late and tired, so I went to the store and bought a few things and threw them in a pot and started cooking dinner. She was appropriately surprised and grateful. As I have said, life is good when the little things can make you so happy.
Hope all are doing well as we are.

We're baaack (well sort of)

We are currently in Georgetown. Our trip here went fairly smoothly. We left Buffalo around 2:10 Tuesday afternoon and arrived at JFK about 3:20. Diana Roth (no relation to the singer) came and spent some time with us at the airport, as we had about 10 hours to spend before our flight to Georgetown.

We waited near the Jetblue ticket counter, since the Frieses and the Lanes were passing through on their way back to Buffalo from Mabaruma. I had just about convinced myself that we had somehow missed them when I finally spotted them. It turned out their flight had been delayed for a couple of hours. So we were able to spend about twenty minutes visiting with them before they had to leave to catch their flight to Buffalo. It was kind of like the changing of the guard, as we were able to be informed of various things that had happened recently in Mabaruma as well as some details regarding where we will be living in Mabaruma.

We then proceeded to the next terminal where we would be catching our departing flight, and Diana left us to return home. But not before waiting while we arranged to weigh our check-in bags at an outside baggage drop. We had weighed and reweighed them at home, but that was on a bathroom scales, and if we were overweight, we figured worst case, we could give something to Diana to take with her. All four bags were within half a pound of the max, so we were happy for that. We gave a cheer each time the weight appeared in the display. Life is good when the little things can make you so happy.

We had to wait a few hours for the ticket counter to open and allow us to check in our luggage, and then a few more before we loaded for departure. The plane was completely full and we waited for almost an hour on the plane before departing. We were told it was due to all the baggage that was being shoe-horned into everywhere. We were able to catch a little sleep on the flight as we had been up for over twenty hours, and only had a few hours of sleep the night before.

As always, it was such a pleasure and relief to see Gary waiting for us when we emerged from customs (where I didn’t see a single bag being opened). He then took us to Sister Scott’s where we will be staying while in ‘town. After dropping our things, we went briefly to the branch, and then on to exchange some money and pick up a few things, mostly for our brief stay here in ‘town.

Today is a holiday here (Boxing Day), so most businesses and all government agencies were closed. Even the internet café just down the street is closed, so I am composing this now anticipating being able to post it up tomorrow. Also, we will have to run errands again tomorrow, like getting temporary drivers licenses. Mitch Muick is arriving late this evening. He will be staying here with us, and so we will probably run around together with Gary tomorrow.

It is kind of nice to finally meet and stay with Sister Scott. Many who have traveled through 'town, on their way to visit us have stayed with her. When I mentioned to Brother Hinds that we were staying with her, he smiled and said, “Ah yes, the branch away from the branch.” She has a fairly large house, which she currently living in alone. The whole second floor is set us as an apartment. Terri had asked her if she considered renting it out, but she said never, as she enjoyed so much the opportunity meet and assist so many on their way through ‘town. We will be getting two days of Georgetown this time, since we arrived on Wednesday and there are no flights into Mabaruma on Thursdays. That means two days of blasting music and barking/fighting dogs. Since it’s so warm (it was 80 when we landed at 8:30 this morning) closing windows is out of the question.

But know we are well and looking forward to continuing on to Mabaruma. I'll keep you posted.