I will start by thanking those of you who have emailed us recently. It helps us know we have not been forgotten. I also want to apologize if I repeat myself sometimes. I write these offline and then copy them to the site, so I can’t always remember what I may have shared previously. Today marks four weeks we have been in Mabaruma. Each week seems to go faster than the previous. This Sunday will be Joe and Christina’s last meeting with us. They are flying out Monday morning.
We are definitely in dry season now. Since rain is our only source of water, it is of real concern to us here. A few days ago I checked and we are down to less than 200 gallons of water. We have a total storage capacity of 1200 gallons, so we are getting pretty low. The locals all say that rain falls around the full and new moons, so hopefully we will get some real soon.
This last Monday, Terri and I went for lessons in handling a correal (sp?) which is what they call their dugout canoes. We are hoping to purchase a small one to use to paddle to a nearby village to start some studies there. I figured that instead of waiting until we were able to get one, to start practicing, I would find someone who had one that would let us practice on that, so when we did get ours, we would be ready to start using it. One of my studies who lives on a small creek, offered to help me (I think he was looking forward to a little entertainment at seeing us tip over often). He had said he could borrow one from a relative and have it for me Monday afternoon. I also figured I’d rather learn there than in Kumaka with many people watching and laughing.
So Monday afternoon Terri and I went out to where he lives wearing clothes we could get wet in. When we got there, he said he hadn’t been able to get the boat from his relative, so he just untied one that had been left by his house by someone who had parked it there and then walked into somewhere nearby. But the dugout was an eight person one, so it was about three feet wide, which made it very stable. So the good news was we didn’t get wet, the bad news is we still don’t feel like we are ready to paddle a small one with all our stuff in it. I think this Tuesday, we will go to the landing where all the children from Cobarima come to to walk to school. We will ask one of them if we can use their boat while they go to school to get more practice.
