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.

I stand corrected

Terri took this picture at one of our calls in Kobarimo. This is a granddaughter of a woman we call on. She was out skipping rope with this vine.

I wanted to post something up so I could correct something in the last post. I had mentioned an email we had received regarding a question supposedly asked on Jeopardy. Well, as with many emails, it turned out to be untrue. The actually question posed was, “What bible translation do Jehovah’s Witnesses use?” So if you passed along an untrue rumor, you will have to correct it as I have done.

That being said, time is really starting to fly by with many things left to accomplish with a very limited time to do so. Getting lumber for the toilet continues to be a problem, so Monday I will go to some of the other mills in the area and see if I can get it from them.

On a bright note, Thursday evening Bro. Baxter handed in his auxiliary pioneer application for May. It will be the fifth consecutive month he has aux. pioneered. It has been such a joy to have him out in the ministry with us so much of the time, and he has really developed his preaching skills.

Our last two trips to Kobarimo have been fairly routine. Two weeks ago we had quite a shower go through while we were there, but we were under shelter, so we stayed dry. The calls we went to after that were quite surprised to see us since it had rained so much. Unfortunately, the rain delayed us long enough that our last call figured we weren’t coming so she went out to help carry wood up from the landing, so we missed the study with her, but she was waiting for us this week.

We used the same boat we had used the two weeks before, but either it is just deteriorating due to age, or someone crashed it into something quite hard because the front has a big crack in it which leaks in quite a bit of water, so two paddle and one bails. I told Terri I wondered if it would even be there in another week, and she said that she didn’t know as she would want to take it if it was. But hey, it got us there this week. Next week will be out last trip to Kobarimo, and I’d like to keep our string of staying dry in tact.

Tomorrow starts our string of ‘last meetings’ as we won’t be having a meeting next Sunday because of the SAD program. It’s hard to believe we have been here four months already, but I also know how quick once we get home it will feel like we never had been gone. It’s almost like living in parallel realities.

One more time

Just a note by way of explaination on the pictures. The first one was from our river trip today. The second one I took a couple of days ago. The thermometer normally hangs on a wall on the back porch and usually shows about 95 in the middle of the day, but that's in the shade, and we are usually out walking about in the sun. So I decided to place the thermometer in the sun, just to see what it would record. I'm not sure if you can read it on this page, but it is reading about 109, so it does get quite warm here during the day

I'm afraid I somehow lost the second picture, and I'm not going to spend another hour trying to insert it, so you will just have to take my word until you see our pictures when we get back.

Today we went on the river one more time before we leave. Terri, Jennifer, and I went. The weather was excellent, we only got lightly showered on once. As we well getting ready to leave Kumaka,a woman was out on the wharf with a small boy. She asked if we were going to Kaituma, as the boy needed a ride. Terri told her we were only going part way up the Kaituma. The woman then asked if we would take the boy as far as we were going. I told Terri to say no, as I didn’t want to have to worry about what would happen if we just left him somewhere along the river.

Today was a typical river day. We had some really nice calls where they asked us when we were coming back, and you feel bad because you can’t give them an answer. And then you have some calls where it’s like talking to a brick wall. At one house, Jenn was talking to an older woman, and asked her about the other ones there with her. One was a granddaughter and an older one was her daughter. Jenn was having a hard time reasoning with her on the scriptures, so to just try and make conversation, she asked the woman her daughters name. The woman just looked at her, (like she had been doing with most her other questions) and then leaned back into the house and asked the daughter her name. It’s very hard with ones like that.

At another door she was reasoning on how Jehovah and Jesus are two separate individuals, showing her where Jesus said the father was greater than he was. So she asked, “so are they the same?” The woman replied, “Yes, sister.” So the Jenn tried a different approach and pointed to a small boy there and asked if he had a father, to which she replied. “Yes sister.” So Jenn asked are the boy and his father the same one? “Yes sister.” It can be very trying at times, but other times so rewarding. Truly, the harvest is great, and the workers are few.

I finished digging the pit for the toilet, now we only need the lumber. I picked up the zinc for the roof Tuesday, so we have that.

Ellis has gone over the first two sets of questions for baptism, so that is on track. Now all I need to do is figure out how to make a baptism pool to have here at the hall, so all can see the baptism. We had noticed someone nearby has one of those inflatable small pools in there yard now. Will suggested we might speak to them about renting it for the day, Again, Jehovah will provide.

Someone had emailed the girls recently that a question had been asked on Jeopardy “What is the most accurate bible translation?” And when nobody got the answer Alex read the answer as, “The New World Translation, by Jehovah’s Witnesses.” I don’t know if anyone out there can confirm that or not. But if true, I’m sure that may have created a stir with some.

Getting short

As you can see, work is continuing on the new toilets, I think on more session of digging may have that part completed. I am doing this so I don't get out of shape for digging to uncover the top of septic tanks once I return to the states. The other picture is of a couple of young girls that Chelsea had had sleep over one night. As you can see, they have been trained well as to how to start their day.

Monday Compton and I took a bike and went out past Wauna to Black Watta. I had been there shortly after we arrived and had not finished the territory, so I wanted to finish the territory before we left. We met a woman out there who has a sister that’s a sister. She has gone to a few District Conventions with her in ‘town. While we were out there, a major downpour went through. But we were at the best call of the day sitting under a man’s house sharing scriptures. We were having a nice discussion, plus it was pouring so we didn’t want to go out, so we ate our lunches while we talked to him. It turned out he was a son of the woman who has the sister who is a sister. He told us before we left that we had spoken clearer to him than anyone one else he had ever talked with.

We finished the territory and then walked back out to where we had left the bike. Since it had rained so much, the ‘road’ which is all dirt was quite slippery. Driving back reminder me a lot of skiing, the way you are always trying to pick the best line to follow through all the bumps.

Andrew returned this week from Port Kaituma. He had stayed an extra week to help Richard there until the ones who had been in Matthews Ridge were able to close this down there and return to Kaituma. Paul & Sinead flew out of ‘town on Tuesday. Hopefully they will return in the end of September as planned.

I am a little concerned about the toilet we need to build before the Special Assembly Day program. Compton mentioned that the Forestry Service has placed a hold on all timber cutting because apparently there was so much illegal cutting going on. He said he had heard that they should be getting some lumber in ‘just now’. I just need to remind myself that this is for Jehovah, and he can certainly supple lumber. One week from Tuesday the Circuit Overseer and his wife arrive, as we are the host congregation for the SAD.

I told Terri that I had a hard time getting too motivated in the field ministry yesterday, since I know we are leaving soon, so there is no point in trying to start any studies, as we will have a hard enough time getting ones to take over the studies we have, since they all have their own studies to be taking care of.

I guess this was a little short, but then again that’s how I’m starting to feel as well.

Yarakita

I thought I ought to give Terri equal billing. This was taken at the airstrip when Wendy was leaving.

Our trip to Yarakita was a success after getting off to a shakey start. I had figured on taking one of the bikes to Kumaka to get the boat ready as I didn’t think there would be buses running that early. I told Alex I would pick him up on the way by, and he was waiting when I got there. As we were passing by the hospital in compound, the bike suddenly started going back and forth in the back, so I knew the tire had instantly lost all its air. I gave my keys to the shed that the motor and things are kept in to Alex and told him to go ahead to start to get the boat ready. I then started walking around in compound trying to locate a tire pump, hoping that it would hold air enough to let me reach Kumaka, but there was none to be found. Finally a bus came by and I stopped it to ask if they had a pump. They did, so I borrowed it and pumped the tire. I then gave the pump back to the conductor on the bus, and by the time I walked back to the bike, the tire was flat again. I ended up sitting as far ahead as I could so my weight would be in the front tire and drove it to Kumaka. So we were about 45 minutes late in getting underway.

Because there were four of us in the boat, it couldn’t plane up out of the water, so we could only do about 11.5 MPH. Then we went into the creek before Yarakita, and had to turn back to reach the right one, so it was about 11:30 when we got started. Solo and I went down on direction, and Compton and Alex went the other way. The village is much more spread out than the last river village we did. Maybe because the village can also be reached overland as well.

Solo and I had several nice calls. Solo knew many of the people, or at least the families there. We met a young woman who mentioned that she had come to the Special Assembly Day program last year at the Primary School. We told her about the one scheduled for May. She then asked us when we were planning on coming back to Yarakita. Compton mentioned that he had many ask the same question of him. It makes you feel bad that you can’t give an answer to that. Then before we left the young woman, she asked if we had a Secret to Family Happiness book. Not your usual question.

We had agreed to meet back at the boat at 4:00 PM. It took Solo and I a half an hour to walk back from where we had ended. It was about 4:30 by the time we were ready to leave, and several of the people standing around mentioned that if we didn’t leave soon we would be stuck there until the next day, because at low tide the creek becomes unnavigable. Because we were lighter, and the falling tide’s current is stronger than the washings tide’s, we were about to make about 13 MPH on the way back, but we still reached Kumaka in full darkness.

Today it was just Terri and I going to Kobarimo. While school is still on vacation, there were a number of boats at the landing. We had decided on a fairly large looking boat, and I was getting into it when a woman paddled up in another canoe. We asked her who the boat we were taking belonged to, and she said it was a man who was out working, and would not be back until late afternoon. But she said she didn’t think we should take that boat, as it was very ‘twisty’. She mentioned she would be gone until 4:00, and we could take hers. I thought it was nice she was looking out for the white folks. We had a nice paddle up the creek, no strong words and no umbrella blows.

At one of our calls, an older woman who is the mother-in-law of the one we started the call with, but who has been there the last few weeks, mentioned that she had ‘given testimony’ in the church Sunday that no one from the church ever comes to visit them to share the word. The only ones who come are the white folks from the Kingdom Hall. I don’t know what else she might have said, but she said afterwards, everyone clapped their hands. When we first started going there, they were always busy doing cassava bread, but now they do that on Thursday since we come Friday. They also mentioned they go to the pond early, and encourage one another to hurry up, so they will be back before we get there. We are really hoping Joy or someone will be able to continue the calls after we leave.

It's coming your way

I had mentioned about the need for additional toilets before our Special Assembly Day program, so we recently had our ground breaking ceremony, but it wasn't to well attended. The good news is I got the pit about half dug, and this is pretty close to a no-shadow moment.

Our most recent trip to Kobarimo was also our most eventful. I had wondered what we would find when we got to the landing, since school is still on vacation plus it was a holiday (Good Friday) so ther4e wouldn’t be boats from people going out to work. Joy met us there and there were only two boats there, neither of which looked to promising to non-natives like ourselves. There were some small children playing around there, so Joy spoke to them and asked if they would paddle up with us so they could bring the boats back. They said they would, so Terri and I got in the bigger of the two, but it was quite narrow, with a very round bottom, which makes them as the locals say, “rolly”. The small boy seemed to handle the boat fairly well as he brought it up for us to get in, so I decided to let him stay in the back. When we first got it, I could indeed tell it was ‘rolly’. I told Terri that today was the day we were going to get wet. Then to make matters worse, we just nicely got going, and he drove the canoe right into a tree on the bank. As we got going more and I had a little time to get acclimated, I was feeling more comfortable, but Terri was getting more and more nervous. I know this may be hard for many to believe, but he actually hit me with her umbrella, because I wasn’t willing to turn around to go back. She finally insisted that we pull up to a stump along the way to let her get out and go in the other canoe. By this time I was willing. But when we stopped, the other boat came alongside and she just got into it, and they set off.

Now the small boy wasn’t happy that a boat paddled by a girl and a woman (Joy) was ahead of us, so he’s paddling hard to try and keep up. We ended up hitting two more trees before we reached. After the second one, he tried to explain it that I was so big, he couldn’t see around me. That may have been part of the problem, but if you are paddling at a 45 degree angle in a narrow creek, it shouldn’t be hard to figure that you’re going to hit the bank even if you can’t see.

We had some nice calls in Kobarimo and as we were walking back to the landing, a man came up behind us with a paddle. Joy knew him so asked about his boat. He said it was reasonable sized, so she asked if we could go back with him. I ended up in the front, with Terri and Joy in the middle. We started out and Terri mentioned that she had here hands on the sides of the boat, and her fingers were in the water. I noticed that some water seemed to appear in the bottom of the boat, and Terri said it had come over the side when the boat tipped a little to far to the side. I was just glad I couldn’t see all of that. The first time Joy had gone with us, she had mentioned she was a little afraid, since she hadn’t been in a boat in so long. Well she has gotten over her fears, and she was laughing at how nervous Terri was, as well as showing off her paddling skills, even thought it was rocking the boat. But we did manage to keep dry for another week.

We received word last week that Paul Donlon had flown to Georgetown, since both his wife and baby were quite sick. He had contacted us and asked if we might be able to send the boys up to help until he came back the middle of this week. So Josh and Andrew went up Saturday. Paul then called back to say that he was thinking of just going back to Ireland now, since he had planned on returning right after the SAD program. He said Sinead and Bethany were so weaken from a virus they had, that they were worried they might get something else.

Josh returned today, but Andrew is staying another week which will allow the ones who have been at Matthews Ridge to pack up and return to Kaituma. Again, that had been the plan, but it wasn’t supposed to happen for another month.

Tomorrow, myself, Compton, Solo, and Alex are going to take the boat to work the village of Yarakita. It’s been about a year and a half since it was worked. We had stopped at the landing of the village a couple months ago to ask whether there were any houses on a creek close by there, and when we got ready to leave, the people were quite upset/disappointed to realize we were going to be visiting them. We are going to be using the recent tract on false religion, as we still have a small supply left. I am excited that it will mostly be locals, rather than white people preaching tomorrow. With four in the boat, it will take longer to reach there, but we should be able to do the whole village and reach back before dark.