Civilization comes to Mabaruma

Things are starting to settle into the routine here now. Although next week will bring some changes. Next Friday, Terri, I, Amy, and Compton are planning on taking a boat to Port Kaituma, and from there getting a ride to Matthews Ridge to see and help with the project there. Terri and I will have to return by the following Tuesday, as Graem and Jaide will be flying out that Monday, so I will have to be here to conduct the Bookstudy Tuesday. I will be the only appointed (using that term rather loosely) brother here until Joe and Christina arrive in three weeks.
Last night, one of Elroy and Joyann’s daughters sat with Terri and I during the meeting. At one point, she leaned over and whispered to me, "How do you spell gi?" I wasn’t sure I had heard her right, so I asked what she had said, and she repeated, "How do you spell gi?" I said I didn’t know, which was certainly true. Later I saw a little note she had been writing and it said, "I love Jim, I don’t like Terri she not gi me the book".
Last week when we were working Sugar Hill, I had spoken with a woman there, and I was trying to reason with her on the importance of the bible. I asked her if she thought the bible was a book of truth, and she said, "Some truth, some lies." That kind of took me by surprise, so I was trying to help her see that while some may teach untruth, and say it’s from the bible, that doesn’t make the bible a book with lies. I shared with her John 10:30 where Jesus said, "I and the father are one." I said while it’s possible for someone to read this verse, and then say that it proves that Jesus and his father are same same. I then read her John 14:28 where Jesus said that the father was greater than he was.
She got a look on her face and said that made it sound like they were two different people. I said, "That’s right." She said, "They not two, they same." So I asked her, "If they same, when Jesus died, who resurrected him?" She laughed and said, "Jesus never died." I said, "Yes he did, the bible says he died for our sins." She said, "See, I told you the bible had lies in it, Jesus never died." And that pretty well was representative of the rest of our efforts to reason with her.
This week were back in Wauna Wednesday. We walked back to Sugar Hill because I had told someone last week I would bring him back a bible. After we had been to his house, and we were leaving, I jokingly asked Compton if we should go back to see that woman. He said that sounded like a good idea, and I didn’t have the heart to tell him I was only joking, so off we went. As we were passing the house just before hers, the woman there called out that there was nobody home at the next house. She said they had gone out. I remembered that she had mentioned it was a daughter, so I mentioned to her that we had spoken to her last week and she had expressed the idea that the bible contained some truth, some lies. She said that she didn’t know better because she didn’t have any teaching.
I was kind of standing off to the side, but Compton could see into the house, and he asked if the other woman he could see wasn’t the daughter we had spoken to last week, and she said she was. The daughter then said that she couldn’t talk to us because her teeth were hurting her. Compton then said, "You know why your teeth are hurting don’t you? It’s because of the way you were ‘busing God last week." She said that it was not that at all. To which Compton said, "My teeth aren’t hurting me, so who must have been speaking truth?" She kind of laughed about it, but it gave Compton a way to get her talking. She still expressed some strange ideas, but Compton would keep calling her on them. She did allow herself to reason on some of the points he was making. He mentioned that she really needed to learn to read, so she could read the bible for herself, instead of depending on what others said it said. He mentioned that if she wanted, there were sisters who would come to help her learn. She told him she didn’t need anyone to teach her, the spirit would enable her to read. She then said that in three months, she would be reading. Compton, said he would hold her to it, and be back in April to check up on her. All in all I thought it was a positive visit. After we left, I told Compton I had just been joking when I suggested going there, and he got a laugh out if it.
Since we were last here, there has been a cell tower erected, so many here now have cell phones. It seems strange to see people standing in the window of their huts with leaves for a roof, and just open windows, to be talking on their cell phone. But there are benefits. Wednesday when we went to Wauna, Compton had suggested that we walk out to Black Water to call on a man he and I had had a nice visit with when I was here last year. He said he had seen him once since then and had again had a nice conversation with him. The man had mentioned how much he had appreciated our previous visit and how he hoped I would come back.
I’m guessing it’s all of three miles from Wauna to Black Water, and Compton walks with purpose, so it was a real workout getting. When we reached the man’s house, his wife informed us he had gone out and wasn’t expected back until the afternoon. Compton asked her is they had cell service that far out and she said they did. He then asked if they had a cell phone and she said they did, so we were able to get the number so that a next time we could call ahead before walking all the way there.
It’s with the theme of, ‘civilization comes to Mabaruma’ that I have selected one of my photos. Since we left, they have painted pedestrian crossings on the roads at the schools and other public buildings. I’m sure everyone feels much safer and progressive as a result. The other picture is of the ‘Need Greaters currently here. Graem and Jaide Bryant are from California. They have been here for their first time since the middle of September, and are leaving us, as I mentioned, next Monday. I told them that it was fitting they be married, since neither of their parents knew how to spell. The other sister in the picture is Amy Oka. She is from Arizona. And this is her second tour of duty. She was here before for about five months. She arrived in November and is planning on staying through August.
Here’s hoping your week was well and your thoughts are peaceful.

It's a girl

It has been raining most of the time since my last posting. Sometimes raining lightly, sometimes heavily, but seemingly always raining. And with the rain comes gray overcast skies. And of course with the rain comes mud!!
Tuesday we were preaching in Baribina, so we walked about ¾ of an hour through the rain and the mud to stand in the rain talking to people. Because we cover the territory so often now, people are more used to seeing us, and are less apt to invite us in to their houses to listen to what we have to say.
Terri spent the day with Amy going on studies around Hosororo. She mentioned that due to the weather, she had worn a sweater all day long and had never broken a sweat, even when walking the hills between Hosororo and Bumberi junction. She said she thought that was the first time she could ever remember walking in service in Guyana without sweating.
Wednesday a group of us went to Wauna. For some reason, few buses were running, so we had to wait over an hour for a bus finally to arrive that was going to Wauna.. The ride to Wauna was just as bad as I remembered it. While it’s only about 8 miles or so, the ride takes nearly an hour. The bus rocks and shakes so much, at one point, I actually thought I was getting motion sickness.
We had hoped to be able to study with a teacher there after school was over, but we were told that the bus was going to be returning at 3:00, which is when school lets out. We passed by the school at lunch recess, and spoke to him. He said he would give as little time then, so we had a nice discussion. He mentioned he used to live in ‘town, and he had seen the witnesses there, and was always impressed at the way they would go about their preaching, even though many would treat them poorly. It impressed on me the fact that even when we are out and think we are accomplishing nothing, we don’t know who is watching.
He had expressed the idea that while he could see from the scriptures that all who claimed to serve God were not necessarily doing so, and he cited Matt. 7:21-23, he felt that regardless of one’s religion, if the were sincere in their worship of God, He would accept their worship. But he mentioned that his time was slipping by, and he had to take care of some matters before resuming classes, so we agreed that we would focus on that issue next week.
After that, Compton and I walked over to Sugar Hill to do some houses. The track to Sugar Hill forks along the way, and he went to the right. We passed by a few houses, so I thought maybe he had a call he was going to, but then we reached the next track and he turned to the right and started walking that way. I then realized that he had intended to go to the end and work his way back. I mentioned that if we had taken the left fork, we would have reached there. He said he had never gone that way, so he didn’t realize where it went. He then stopped and said that that was as far as the houses went, but I told him I knew there were several houses beyond, so he then followed me. He later mentioned to Graem, that he was Guyanese, but he was learning his way around from a white man.
Last night we were walking back to the house after the meeting and I was leading the way with the light. I opened the gate between the yard at the Kingdom Hall and our house and walked through and Terri went to close it behind us. She let out a scream that something had bit her. I suggested that maybe she had just poked it on the fence wire on the post, but she insisted that something had gotten her. She was concerned that it may have been a scorpion, so she wanted to go back to the house to read what the book said about scorpion bites. The bus was just leaving, so she stopped it to ask the locals what to do in the event of a scorpion bite. It seems there were several opinions on the matter, but the final consensus was that she should go to the hospital and they offered to take her. I said that if we were to go there, I would take us on the bike.
We then went in to read what the book said, as well as to consult web MD. The indications there4 were widely varied as well, but seemed to indicated that it was most dangerous to small children or old people. I suggested to Terri that a trip to the hospital at 8:30 at night, might be more scary than her bite, and suggested that we wait to see if anything started to happen. So we went home and had supper, and she didn’t seem to be getting any worse, although she mentioned the pain was still very strong.
I went back up to the house to get online to send and receive emails, and when I got to the gate, I noticed a few very large black ants on the gate (as in about an inch long). When I got back, she said she was feeling a little better, and then this morning she woke up and said that other than feeling a little numb when the bite was, she was felling fine. So now she has one more story to tell.
Since we are ‘between the moons’ right now, the weather has dried up and we are once again having some sun. I mentioned to Terri that as we are planning to travel to Matthews Ridge for a few days two weeks from now, hopefully we will be assured of dry weather for the trip. I have received word that the plans for the building have had to be modified due to the wet conditions of the site. Now instead of a 30X50 two story, with a Kingdom Hall below and two residences above, it will be built as a 30X60 single story with a 24X30 hall and two 18X30 living quarters.
A word on the pictures. We have Compton on the track going to Sugar Hill, Terri & Jaide on their way to Settlement, and JoyAnn, Selina, and the new baby, Chantel.

Check it out

We have had a bit of the rainy season lately. It started raining night before last and rained all through the day yesterday. Yesterday in the afternoon I was sitting in the house and thought I could hearing it raining out, but then realized I wasn’t hearing the rain hitting on the zinc roof. I opened the door and realized what I was hearing was water rushing in a stream by the house. I then understood why there is a bridge in the walkway to the house. I had never seen water flow there before. Of course the good news is that it has completely filled our two water tanks. That is important since this house is so much smaller than the other one, the roof doesn’t collect nearly as much water.
The last couple of days here I saw critters that I have never seen before in Guyana. The first were small armadillos, although they call them something else, and the other was what looked like a very large guinea pig with longer skinny legs. I guess that’s one of the benefits of living in a house that sits back in the bush.
Wednesday morning I was working with Alex and I stopped by a house I had used to study with a man at the first time I was here. I had tried a few times the last time I was here, but never could find him home. When I approached the house, his son was sitting outside and I asked him if his father was home and he said he was. So. I walked to the house and called out. I could hear some things being said, but couldn’t make it out, so I just waited. After a few more things were said the man came out and saw it was me. He told me to wait a minute, then went back in a put on a shirt and came down to talk with me.
I shared a few thoughts from the bible with him, and mentioned how I had always enjoyed our conversations in the past. I mentioned I was going to be here for a while, and offer to once again come by. He said that would be fine and we arranged for me to return Friday. Later in the day I was telling Graem about the call and he said Alex had told him about it. Alex had told him that when I had gotten to the house, someone had called in and told the man that Jehovah’s witnesses were there, to which he had responded, "Well they can just stand there!" I hadn’t been able to make that out. When I heard that, I started to wonder if he would be there when I went back, or if he was just to polite to say no to me.
So, today I returned, although a little later than I had said since I hadn’t caught a bus as soon as I’d hoped. But I got there and he was there and invited me up into the house. In all the time I had been going there before, he had always come out and we sat under the house. We had a nice discussion and set up for my next visit. He works security, so his schedule is always changing. But he figured his schedule next week and asked me to come Thursday.
Last Sunday I did the Watchtower and it was funny because I pretty well knew the names of all the locals. It was the white people that I had the problem with their names.

We're here

We are getting settled in in Mabaruma, We flew in Friday morning without much incident, other than having to leave one of our suitcases behind in Georgetown due to too much weight on the flight. But the night before, in anticipation of such an event, we had repacked our bags according to importance, so we knew just which bag to leave. Gary took it with him and then brought it back the next morning when he brought Mitch and Kallai for their flight.
Hopefully I’ll be able to post up a couple of pictures. One is the service group heading to the territory Saturday morning. The other is our digs this time. I figured it only appropriate that it include Terri assuming the position in the hammock. This was Will’s house. It sits about 500 feet behind the big house/hall. It’s about 12’ X 18’
Mitch and Kallai left this morning for Port Kaituma. They will be spending a few days there before travelling on to Matthews Ridge. Mitch is heading up a project to build a building there to serve as housing for ‘Need Greaters’ as well as a Kingdom Hall. There was a congregation there back in the 70’s but it was disbanded. We spent some time there the year we were at Port Kaituma. At several houses we called on, the people asked, " When are you going to build a Kingdom Hall here? We need a Kingdom Hall." There has been a Memorial held there for the last several years. A few brothers travel over from Barimita. They usually have around 200 attend, not bad for a place with no publishers or Kingdom Hall. We are planning on travelling up to help a bit as well as see.
I am having a bit of trouble making the transition from the ministry in the states to here. I think I am talking too much. It’s just that when you get someone who seems to be listening, it hard not to go on. But here it can be the person is just being polite and listening, something that doesn’t happen much in the states.
This is the rainy season here, and they had been getting a lot of rain recently, but we haven’t seen that much rain since we arrived. The weather has been great, not too hot and a regular breeze.
Terri had a day today that covered the full range of emotions. She got to see Joyann Smith deliver a baby girl at the hospital. Then she went to study with a woman she had studied with when last here who has since been diagnosed with uterine cancer. She has been told she needs $400,000 ($2,000 US) for treatment, which is totally out of her reach, so Terri will continue to study with her and watch her die. She then went to Barabina (her favorite place to walk to (not)) for a study with a man who is also learning to read, and shows such appreciation for the help he is getting.
I think I earned some points today. I knew Terri was having to go to Barabina for the study and would be getting in late and tired, so I went to the store and bought a few things and threw them in a pot and started cooking dinner. She was appropriately surprised and grateful. As I have said, life is good when the little things can make you so happy.
Hope all are doing well as we are.

We're baaack (well sort of)

We are currently in Georgetown. Our trip here went fairly smoothly. We left Buffalo around 2:10 Tuesday afternoon and arrived at JFK about 3:20. Diana Roth (no relation to the singer) came and spent some time with us at the airport, as we had about 10 hours to spend before our flight to Georgetown.

We waited near the Jetblue ticket counter, since the Frieses and the Lanes were passing through on their way back to Buffalo from Mabaruma. I had just about convinced myself that we had somehow missed them when I finally spotted them. It turned out their flight had been delayed for a couple of hours. So we were able to spend about twenty minutes visiting with them before they had to leave to catch their flight to Buffalo. It was kind of like the changing of the guard, as we were able to be informed of various things that had happened recently in Mabaruma as well as some details regarding where we will be living in Mabaruma.

We then proceeded to the next terminal where we would be catching our departing flight, and Diana left us to return home. But not before waiting while we arranged to weigh our check-in bags at an outside baggage drop. We had weighed and reweighed them at home, but that was on a bathroom scales, and if we were overweight, we figured worst case, we could give something to Diana to take with her. All four bags were within half a pound of the max, so we were happy for that. We gave a cheer each time the weight appeared in the display. Life is good when the little things can make you so happy.

We had to wait a few hours for the ticket counter to open and allow us to check in our luggage, and then a few more before we loaded for departure. The plane was completely full and we waited for almost an hour on the plane before departing. We were told it was due to all the baggage that was being shoe-horned into everywhere. We were able to catch a little sleep on the flight as we had been up for over twenty hours, and only had a few hours of sleep the night before.

As always, it was such a pleasure and relief to see Gary waiting for us when we emerged from customs (where I didn’t see a single bag being opened). He then took us to Sister Scott’s where we will be staying while in ‘town. After dropping our things, we went briefly to the branch, and then on to exchange some money and pick up a few things, mostly for our brief stay here in ‘town.

Today is a holiday here (Boxing Day), so most businesses and all government agencies were closed. Even the internet café just down the street is closed, so I am composing this now anticipating being able to post it up tomorrow. Also, we will have to run errands again tomorrow, like getting temporary drivers licenses. Mitch Muick is arriving late this evening. He will be staying here with us, and so we will probably run around together with Gary tomorrow.

It is kind of nice to finally meet and stay with Sister Scott. Many who have traveled through 'town, on their way to visit us have stayed with her. When I mentioned to Brother Hinds that we were staying with her, he smiled and said, “Ah yes, the branch away from the branch.” She has a fairly large house, which she currently living in alone. The whole second floor is set us as an apartment. Terri had asked her if she considered renting it out, but she said never, as she enjoyed so much the opportunity meet and assist so many on their way through ‘town. We will be getting two days of Georgetown this time, since we arrived on Wednesday and there are no flights into Mabaruma on Thursdays. That means two days of blasting music and barking/fighting dogs. Since it’s so warm (it was 80 when we landed at 8:30 this morning) closing windows is out of the question.

But know we are well and looking forward to continuing on to Mabaruma. I'll keep you posted.

SAD

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.

Sorry no photo

I just spent about forty minutes trying to upload a couple of pictures only to receive an error message, and it's too late to start again, so I guess this will be like the early days. Sorry-o

Well, time has definitely shifted into hyper-drive. It started Monday. We had planned on taking care of some last minute details at the house before the CO and his wife arrived. So I went to Kumaka early to get some paint, and try to arrange the lumber for the toilet. I went to every lumberyard, and no one had material. The best was one that said in three days. But in Guyana, even when they say, “Tomorrow”, it’s questionable as to when you will see it, so three days is meaningless. Then I went to get paint, and had to go to several shops before I found any.

Then while I was in a shop in Kumaka, along comes Compton with the Raineys. They had arrived the day before we were expecting them. So I rode back to the house with them, and saw a couple of people sitting on the porch with Terri. You may have remembered I had mentioned meeting a young girl who told me she was a Jehovah’s Witness, and it turned out she had studied in Barimita. It turned out the reason she was here was because her ‘man’ had been told to leave Barimita, because he beat the girl, (why she went with him is another question). Wendy had started studying with her, and then Terri took it when she left.

As usually happens, the man has continued beating her and their 2 year old son. Terri had mentioned to her that she needs to get out of that situation. So her mother-in-law had decided, after a weekend of beating, that the girl needed to get away, so she had brought her to the house, to ask us to help, as they had no money to get anywhere. So now I had the CO and his wife, and this young girl with a two year old, and a five month old baby at our house. It was decided that the best course would be to send them to Port Kaituma, where they could get a ride to Matthews Ridge, and from there make their way to Barimita. I called to Compton’s to have him check if the boat that had brought the Raineys was still at Kumaka, and if they were going back to Port Kaituma. But it was getting late morning, and we were concerned whether they would be able to make it to Matthew’s Ridge before dark. Compton called back and said the boat was going to wait until the morning.

So they ended up staying with us at the house, and then early Tuesday morning Terri and I got up early and went with them to Kumaka. As soon as we got out of the bus, a boatman came up asking if anyone was going to Kaituma. I said we had some to go, but we would wait to see which boat was ready to leave first, and that would be the boat they would go on. So now we are waiting, and watching and worrying that the young man was going to show up and we have a scene there in Kumaka. But finally a boat was ready to leave, and we sent them off. There was a woman that we knew going up in the same boat, so we asked her to help Cynthia get a bus to the Ridge.

I have spent the last two days building the toilet for the SAD. Compton ended up scrounging up some pieces of wood and making the lumber we needed. I also took Bro. Rainey’s suggestion and dug a shallow grave which we will line with a tarp and fill with water for the baptism. Tomorrow we are having a congregation cleaning and prep day for Saturday. Terri and I will go in to Kobarimo one more time before we leave. Early in the morning Elroy is coming by and we will hang the second door on the toilet so he can then finish painting it.

I am not sure if I will post one more entry before we leave, or wait until we get back and have a nicer internet connection so we can post up a number of pictures.