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| Sharda & Jodee |
Graem and Don were missing the thrill of BBQ'ing meat, so they used their best ingenuity to construct this lovely piece of work. I have no idea what exactly is making up this marvel of design, but it sure made some delicious grilled eggplant (called boulangie, here in Guyana). Good thing we had that too, because while they were manly trying to build a fire, JoDee didn't realize their plan and cooked the meat on the stove. Oops, next time we'll use the BBQ. The meat was still good, JoDee!
In a foreign country, of course, there are many new customs and we hope that we don't make too many mistakes trying to figure it all out. Sometimes we fail. Don's first day here, he went to Haresh's Bible study. His family is Hindu. Don noticed a small house-like structure in their front yard, and innocently asked Haresh's dad, "Is this the kid's play house?" He got real close to Don's face, touched his shoulder and answered "No, this is where we pray." Thankfully I don't think he was too offended because he didn't kick them off the property and still hospitably made us garumba (I don't know how to spell it and those I asked, didn't know either), a spicy jam made from mangoes. Also delicious. I told a sister that we put it on french toast. She laughed. Ahhh, probably another cultural faux pas.
Monday, we visited the Branch Office of Jehovah's Witnesses. Thankfully we arrived in one piece, even though, our driver saw this as a chance to practice for nascar. If we did crash, we would see you all in Paradise (no seat belts here!). Anyways, as you can see we are all safe. Once we arrived, we met brothers and sisters from Chile, England and Suriname. The couple from Chile, Fernando and Cindi, have only been married for 7 months and don't speak much English. But, here they are, willing to help out where there is a need for those to preach. Funny too, they know my friends in Chile. Small world.
The Brothers and Sisters are busy here in Guyana. We learned about the many isolated groups. In one area, there is one sister conducting all the meetings. The Branch showed us the radio they use to contact some the friends in the interior that don't have phones. It is encouraging to hear though, that the traveling overseers try to visit every group in the interior, even if it is only one Witness. One area in the interior, Baramita, speaks Carib. It was not a written language, until the Witnesses got ahold of it. They have translated "God's Friend" and "Would You Like to Know the Truth". Now, they are busy teaching people how to read their own language. You can imagine their disbelief to finally see their language in print.
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| Brother Hinds with a Carib brochure |
Keep in touch,
Guyanese expression of the day: "get a passion". Translation: "get angry."
J&G
