As I mentioned in my last posting, I decided to go to Kaituma two weeks in a row to get my schedule off the weeks of either the full or new moon. I was able to take my bike this last time. The road was fairly decent going there. When I got there, I went and told the ones who are apt to come that I was there, and then since I had more time, I went to an area that I used to have studies in when we were in Kaituma four years ago. It was a little difficult because I was on a bike rather than walking, and I was coming the opposite direction from when I walked. But I stopped at a house I remembered and at first the people there acted as if I was at the wrong house, but then they said that there was a man who used to come to talk the bible to the father. Unfortunately, he was away for several days. I said I would try and stop again when I came next time. I located another house with the same results, namely the man wasn’t home. I learned that he worked for Caroline’s man, so I mentioned to her later that I used to study with the man, so there may be an opportunity for her to speak to him.When I went for the group study, we had a nice group. Caroline, Sharon, Pamela, and Monica were there, as well as Caroline’s older daughter Shevon. While I was in Kaituma, a few showers went through, but it was nothing like the hard rains of earlier weeks, and the drive back wasn’t too bad. I stopped in Falls Top, but the one I had hoped to see the most was hanging out in one of the shops watching some men play cards, so we didn’t talk too much. I asked if he had read any of the book. He said he had read a little and then had loaned it to someone else who had asked to see it. I think next time I will take another one in case he hasn’t gotten it back by then.I stopped to see another man we had met and the first thing he asked me was if I had brought a bible for him. I had to tell him that we were still waiting for the bibles we had ordered, but I had brought him a magazine I thought he would enjoy. He said he was glad because he had finished the two I had left with him before.Last Friday I had gone to one of my studies, Filbert, because he was going to take me back into the bush to where a cousin of his lived so I could share a little from the bible with him. Filbert had encouraged him to come to the Kingdom Hall because we had ‘good teachings’ there, but he had never come yet. When I got to Filbert’s, he said his cousin had told Filbert that his pastor had told him that since he had been baptized and married in his church, he shouldn’t be going elsewhere. So he told Filbert that I shouldn’t come.This week when I went on Filbert’s study, he told me that one of the girls from the cousin’s house had said that they had been waiting for us to come. They had even put up a tarpaulin for us to be able to sit under while we spoke to them. Filbert said he had explained that the other person had said he didn’t want us to come. They said they would very much like to hear what it was we were teaching, and asked Filbert to see if he could get me to come. He said he would ask me to go out again this Friday. I told him I would be happy to, so he said he would relay that information to them the next day. It’s nice to see the way things continue to open up here. It will be interesting to see how far back in the bush they are, that they have never been called on yet.Monday was a holiday here. It is Independence Day, or as they call it here, Republic Day. They try to get all the school kids involved in it. In an effort to give the young ones who have been coming to the Kingdom Hall, an alternative, we went to the falls Monday. I think there were about 22 in the group. It was a nice group with many young ones, but also a number of adults as well; we even got Terri to join us. I was surprised that a number of the adults said they had never been to the falls. The trip went off without incident (nobody fell this time). Afterwards, a young one who has just started studying and coming to the meetings mentioned she was so glad she went. She said she never would have had that much fun if she had gone to join the group at the Republic Day celebration. I am hoping this will be able to go out tomorrow (2/24). The last two trips out have been unsuccessful, and the weather appeared to be quite clear, so I’m not really sure what determines whether we will be successful in our attempt to get online. I told Stephan it would be nice to be able to see a radar image of Guyana before deciding whether to drive out or not. But then if we had a way to see radar images, we would most likely also have a way to get easy access to the internet. Such are the challenges of an assignment like this, which brings me to this week’s picture. I don’t normally mind bugs, even big ones. But when they start opening bottles for themselves, I think that’s crossing the line!!
