To continue my story regarding the Mabaruma trip, Friday morning I went by the waterfront to see if there were any boats. A man approached me and asked if I was going to Kaituma. I told him I was, and he mentioned that they had one other passenger and would be leaving as soon as I was ready. I noticed a boat from Kaituma there and asked if that was the boat we would be taking. He said no it was a different boat. I went back to let the other two brothers know that there was a boat as soon as they were ready.
When they were ready we walked to the waterfront. I met the man with the boat from Kaituma, he said he had come to get me. I asked him where he had been yesterday. He said they had left at 6 AM. So whereas I had no boat Thursday, now I had two boatmen fighting over us. I decided I would go with the one from Kaituma since I normally rode with him. He said he was waiting for four other passengers, but after a bit he got a call saying they wouldn’t be traveling until tomorrow, so we got under way. There were only five passengers and we made the trip in an hour and a half, the fastest I had ever made the trip.
When we got to Kaituma, I went and let Monica know that we had arrived and would be having the study at 1 PM. Shortly thereafter I saw the bus from Matthew’s Ridge and spoke to the driver. I asked him when he was planning on leaving for the Ridge. He said he was leaving early, probably around 1 PM. I asked him if he could wait to leave until after two, but he said he wasn’t feeling good and wanted to get home. I gave him my cell number and asked him to give a call when he was ready to go. We then headed down to where the study was held. From there I went around to let the others know that we were there and the study would be at 1 PM. I told everyone that we would be starting promptly at 1 because I wanted the visiting brothers to be able to be there for as much of the study as possible.
At 1 PM Monica, Caroline, and Pamela were there and Sharon arrived about ten minutes later. I had one of the brothers, Jason Lampley, read the paragraphs, and I had the other, Kenneth Branch, read all the scriptures to save time. We were most of the way through the lesson when my phone rang and the driver said he was ready to leave. I asked him to come to where we were studying to pick the brothers up. Bro. Lampley was reading the last paragraph when the bus arrived. After the study, I did a little shopping and then headed out on my bike. The road was the driest I had seen it in a long time and I was able to reach Matthew’s Ridge well before dark.
When I got back, Stephan mentioned that he and Andrew had been talking and thought that since we had so many brothers there, maybe a couple could make a trip to Baramita. Bro. Smith had sent across some of the new tracts in Carib, and they thought it would be nice to get some help being able to read them. I told him that I had done enough traveling so I wasn’t interested, but had no problem if they wanted to go. So after the meeting on Saturday, Stephan and Andrew set out on Stephan’s bike (Andrew’s has a broken chain whose replacement is coming ‘just now’), their plan was to drive the road as far as it’s good and then walk.
They got back Sunday night and said the trip had been a great success, the trip had taken just over four hours each way. The brother taking the lead in Baramita had been reassigned and had left before his replacement had arrived, so Stephan gave the talk. There had not been time to work with a translator, so he gave the whole talk in English. Andrew spend a lot of time with a couple of sisters who are fluent with the Carib language. Before he left, one of the sisters suggested that he try reading some of the tract to ones there who only spoke Carib. The tract contained a number of questions, and after he would read one, the ones listening would start talking amongst themselves. They were amazed that they could understand what he was saying. The sister was so happy because before that everyone thought she was just saying what she knew the tract said in English, but here was a person who didn’t know the language, but he was able to speak it from reading what the tract said. As you may know, prior to this, Carib has only been a spoken language. The organization has devised a written form so that literature can be printed. Now however they are going to have to teach the people how to read in Carib.
Brother Branch gave the talk here and I did the Watchtower. We had 101 in attendance and they were all from Matthew’s Ridge, and still there were a number of ‘regulars’ who were missing. The next day, I commented to one of my studies on how many were at the meeting. He said to me, “More will come. Everyone who comes realizes it is the truth they are hearing and they then encourage others to come. I have two brothers that I keep telling they should come to the Kingdom Hall.” I mentioned to one of my studies who has never come yet that he should come to the hall and he said that he promised me he would come. He said he had never gone to any of the churches because he didn’t care for the attitude of those in charge of the various churches. He said his ‘wife’ had gone to one once, but afterward one of the women had made a sarcastic remark about her, so she never went again.
If this trend continues we may have worked ourselves out of a home. When the Kingdom Hall was built, it was built with free span trusses for the first forty feet to allow for future expansion. Currently our living quarters occupy sixteen feet of that space. We could dismantle our ‘house’ and have the additional space for the hall. Before we take that step, we can add additional benches and just tighten things up a bit in the hall. We will wait and see how the attendance goes.
I haven’t taken many pictures recently so I thought I’d include a couple of the families from the Kingdom Hall for those of you have been following the blog since the early days. I have included pictures of the Smith family and the Fazaralli family.
