Communication continues to be a challenge. I had written this Sunday evening, anticipating driving out Monday morning to send it out along with the other emails, as well as receive whatever was waiting for us. The road was quite bad, about as bad as I had ever seen it. I arrived and set up my equipment, but was unable to make the connection. I was surprised as the sky was quite clear. I’m assuming that there was heavy weather between Kaituma and Georgetown. I stayed out trying for almost an hour before giving up and returning so we could go on our studies. Monday is our longest walk. Mario, Krystal, and I walked out. We left Krystal at Patricia’s, and she studied with her and Regina since Stephan had left. Mario and I walked on to Michael’s and then afterwards returned to Patricia’s to have a study with her ‘man’, or more correctly ‘boy’.I’m not sure whether I will try again tomorrow (Wednesday) or wait until Thursday. It’s tough driving out for forty minutes over a muddy nasty road, all the while not knowing if you are wasting your time. What follows is my original post for Monday. Another week has passed us by. This was my week to go to Port Kaituma. I had told myself if it had not rained any from Tuesday afternoon, until Wednesday morning when I was ready to go, I would take the bike. However, it rained in the night, so I went in a cruiser. It was nice, I got to ride in the front. At one point I remarked to the driver that there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. We got to Kaituma about 10:00 AM. I thought I would try and do my emails early before the weather interfered with the signal between there and Georgetown. But when I tried to get online, I wasn’t able. I checked several times during the day, never with any success, so that was a disappointment.When I had gone out last Monday to where we can get signal, I called Brother Baxter in Mabaruma. He mentioned that he had been trying to contact me because he and a brother who was visiting from the states had wanted to come to spend some time in Matthew’s Ridge. But since they hadn’t been able to reach us, they had cancelled their trip. I told him that in the future, he should just come, because no matter what, we would be able to make room for visitors. He said he wouldn’t be able to come now until sometime in February, but the other brother might still try to come. He also mentioned that they were planning a trip to Kaituma on Wednesday.So when I got to Kaituma I gave a call to him to see if he had made it to Kaituma (the phone worked, just the data signal wouldn’t work). He said he was still in Kumaka, and the trip had been cancelled since Alex who was supposed to drive the boat had had to return to Georgetown that morning on the steamer. He mentioned that the brother was with him and was going to get a boat to travel up on his own. I told the brother to give me a call when he got to Kaituma.I then went and visited some of the women there in Kaituma. I had seen Monica at the waterfront when I first arrived. She asked about the study. I told her it was at Caroline’s at noon. She said she was going to come. There were four women at the study, Caroline, Juliet, Sharon, and Monica. I mentioned that in a couple of weeks there might be a number of brothers visiting and we might try to have a couple come to Kaituma on Sunday to give a meeting. Caroline mentioned to Stephan that it is hard getting others to come to a meeting in the middle of the day in the middle of the week. We will see what happens.About the time the study was over, my phone rang and it was the brother letting me know he had arrived. I told him just to wait there and I would come and get him. I went back to the waterfront and the driver told me he would be leaving in about half an hour. I found the brother, his name is Mario Giannotti he is from Chico, California. I told him that we would be leaving shortly and I was going to run around and do some shopping. It started to rain and we were going to be riding in the back of the truck, so I asked him if he had any rain gear and fortunately he did. We ended up sitting on top of a load of cargo at the back of the truck, facing backwards. We stopped after about an hour when we were at about the halfway point. I looked at the shop sitting beside the truck and I thought the truck was sliding into the ditch. Then I looked behind us and it looked like everything was coming at us. I said something to Mario about it and he said that made him feel better because he thought he was hallucinating. We finally arrived safe but sore from riding on a hard board for over two hours over rough road.Mario is staying with us until Tuesday when he will travel back to Kaituma and then on to Mabaruma. At the end of the week he goes back to Georgetown and then back to the states where he will spend a month working at Wallkill before returning to California. He has been in Mabaruma for about two months. He gave the talk this week here at Matthew’s Ridge. In spite of the rain, we had 72 at the meeting. He got to experience having to just about shout to be heard over the sound of the rain on the metal roof (we either need a ceiling, or a sound system).Stephan is leaving tomorrow for Georgetown where he is planning on purchasing a motorbike so we can reach some of the more remote areas when the weather clears. He will be returning with the next steamer the end of the month. It works out well though, because Jared is arriving Friday, so he will be here to help with the meetings.The other big news here recently is ‘chiggers’ It’s not like the little biting flies back in the states. It’s some kind of critter that burrows into your skin and then lays its eggs. They usually show up on, or rather in, your feet. I think I have had one in all the time I have been in Guyana. Stephan had mentioned he had been here almost a year without getting one. Well this last week I have had about ten taken out of my feet (and one from my pinky finger) and Stephan has had about six. We aren’t sure why the rash of them as of late. I suspect we picked them up last week when we were working cutting boards under the house. We don’t have any dogs, but there are always neighborhood dogs avoiding the rain by being under the house. Once you dig them out they clear up with no problem. Mario mentioned he has had to remove several while he has been in Mabaruma.It is difficult some weeks to have to choose a picture to put up. There were several to have to pick from. Recently when I drove out to do emails, there was a huge spider web in the bushes along side the road and with the dew and the sun, it was really cool looking. I parked the bike in front of it to give it a little more perspective. I also took a picture of the group at the study in Kaituma. But visitors always take precedent and since Mario will be leaving Tuesday I am putting up a picture so all can see he really was here. I did it as a group picture for all the other moms, dads, and friends.
