As you can see, being where the internet connects faster is helpful when it comes to adding pictures. The first is of preparations for the SAd that were done on Friday. We hung a big tarp off the back of the house to give a place for people to get out of the sun or rain depending on what the weather chose to do.
Next is a
picture of the baptism, followed by a picture of most of the group that came down from Port Kaituma. Then we have Will doing an interview of some of the youths, and finally a picture of everyone hanging out under the tarp during the lunch break.Friday was our last trip to Kobarimo and our string of staying dry came to an end. One of the women we visit was in ‘town, so we went a little later so as not to throw all the other calls off. We took the same boat we had been taking, but Terri had to bail most of the way since it is getting to leak more and more. When we got ready to leave the creek was the lowest we had ever encountered. In fact it was so low that we kept bottoming out and one of us (either Terri or I) had to climb out and push the boat through the mud. The mud was over two feet deep at times and it made for a very nasty and wet experience. Once we got about 1/3 of the way back, we were able to all be in a paddle the rest of the way.
When we got back to the house, the rest of the visitors for the SAD had arrived, and they had decided that the hole in the ground wasn’t acceptable for the baptism, so Compton donated a bunch more wood and a large box was constructed and lined with a tarp. I was a little concerned since it was going to take more than 1/3 of our water supply to fill it. But I told myself that I was going to be leaving Monday, so I didn’t need to worry about the water. But we got some rain overnight, and rainy season is only about 2 weeks away.
Saturday was the SAD and 16 people came in a boat from Port Kaituma, including four from Matthew’s Ridge. We had a peak attendance of 107. I had told Bro. Rainey on Friday that we were going to have 110, so he told me were three short. But I said that with all the children milling around, we did in fact have 110, they just didn’t get the count right. I reminded him that we now had three toilets, so if they were occupied during the count, that too would explain it.
Certainly a high point was Ellis’ baptism. It was so nice to be able to do it right there at the Kingdom Hall before all onlookers. And the ‘pool’ was big enough that both the dipper and the dippee were able to be in it together. I had expected that Will would do the actual baptism, but Saturday morning, Bro. Rainey informed me that Will had volunteered me, so that was a nice privilege, to be able to baptize one I had studied with when I was there three years ago. At that time Ellis had informed me he was like a turtle, because if you try to push a turtle, it just pulls back into it’s shell. So afterwards I said to Ellis, “I guess the turtle made it.” and he just smiled.
Sunday was a special service day since there was no meeting as a result of Saturday’s SAD program. We had 36 out in the ministry. It was nice to see Ellis make the effort to come out Sunday morning. Sunday evening we had a going away party at Compton’s and I was a little disappointed that I didn’t see Ellis. Compton said he had mentioned he was pretty tired from Saturday’s and Sunday’s activities, so I said I would rather he missed the party than the morning field service.
Then Monday morning it was time to finish packing things away and walk one more time to the airstrip. We rode back to town with the Hazel’s and another brother who had come out for the SAD. Several others had to wait for a flight the next day. I had mentioned that if everyone couldn’t make it on Monday’s flight, we weren’t going to be the ones waiting, as we had to catch the flight out of Guyana Tuesday morning. We were able to stay at the branch again Monday night, and that was nice because we got to see Bro. and Sis. Hinds. They had been in the states when we had come in. We were quite surprised when we landed at Ogle because since we had been there in January, they had build a whole new terminal for arriving passengers, complete with a nice looking control tower.
Our departing flight was scheduled for 10:00 AM and Gary informed us that they wanted passengers there three hours before the flight, so we left the branch at 6 AM. Traffic was very light and we arrived at about 6:45. We checked in with no problem, and breezed through customs and security, and then sat for about 2 hours forty five minutes waiting for the flight. When we arrived in New York, we were able to reach our next ticket counter in time to catch an earlier flight. When we arrived in Buffalo we were greeted by not only Steve and Michelle Swanson as expected, but Jessica and the boys were there as well, holding up a big banner that said, “Welcome back”. Even with catching an earlier flight we still arrived home about midnight.
