Friday, August 27, 2010

Now we gaff!

Urijah and his picture of what he learned

District Convention stage 

Hello Everyone,

How are you doing?  I hope well.  So this afternoon we were trying to hang our hammocks under our house.  My days tying knots on a pirate ship failed me.  After trying a few knots I thought I had figured it out.  At that moment our neighbor yells "ya need more tight."  So I continue to struggle to make it "more tight."  He must have seen my struggling because he proceeded to come into our yard and take over.  He made quick work of hanging the hammock, using his mouth, arms, feet and toes in the process.  The whole time he is pretty quiet.  Once he is all finished hanging the two hammocks, he sits down on our bench, swings the hammock towards me and says "now we gaff."  To gaff means to chit chat.  Now you need to know, this man accent is so thick that I can only understand a word here and there.  When I hear those words, I repeat it and say "really".  His words run together and he uses phrases that I don't understand.  I think I agreed to allow him to sleep in our house sometimes and to go to a Hindu party.  Also, I think we have a gaff date tomorrow afternoon.

The ministry has been going good.  Wednesday, we met or heard of 5 new deaf people.  We hope to meet them soon.  We are getting back into the routine of teaching sign language to the deaf.  Our stick figure drawing skills are awesome!  Last week Chris Turner and I were at a little deaf boy's house.  We were about done. I had noticed he was wearing a little plastic ring that was a butterfly, so I started teaching him the sign for butterfly.  Out walks his mom holding two glasses with something white inside.  Now, remember its the middle of the afternoon in South America. . . . HOT!  My first thought was horchata, that delicious Mexican rice drink.  Then I realized Guyana does not have anything Mexican or anyone from Mexico.  She hands us the glass and asks "do you want sugar?"  Both Chris and I grab the glasses and feel that it is hot.  Yes, hot powdered milk!  Oh, what a treat!  As I stared at the layer of film floating at the top of the milk, I was thinking 'how can I get out of drinking this with out offending her?'  She sat down and watched us.  I thought about "accidentally" spilling it or sharing it with the plants, but I couldn't. So I chugged it down.  Layer of film and all.  My breath was horrible after that.  So, so powdery.

In the picture you see Jaide with some deaf at the District Convention of Jehovah's Witnesses.  Sunday, we had 39 deaf come.  For the two District Conventions in Guyana, a total of 66 people got baptized.  I think some deaf were baptized in Georgetown, but I am not sure how many.  One deaf bible student, Errol, took off 6 days of work for the Convention.  Why?   He helped with cleaning up the grounds and setting up the stage.

We are doing very good now, and appreciate all the encouraging emails we've received.  We will keep the blog updated regularly, so sit back and enjoy.

Peace be with you brothers and friends!