White Girl Don't Watch Cricket?

Practicing the sign language songs

Want to hear something funny (at my husband's expense, of course)? Remember Graem's amazing study with his student's deaf friend, Errol? Well, last week, we went back.  Graem was super excited to see that he was there again, ready to study.  We sit down and wait for him to come in.  He walks in and we wave hello. I'm curious how much sign he remembers.  Then he says, "Good afternoon. Would you like some guavas?" We tried to hold in our laughter and Graem, his embarrassment.  Errol is not deaf!! The week before, Graem had an amazing study with him and Renny.  He never voiced a thing and just signed. The crazy thing is, though, that Renny seemed surprised that Errol was talking too. I guess he is a great example for us to sign, not voice, when we are with deaf.  One sister says that Graem's not the only one to get the hearing and deaf confused. Another sister had a study for quite awhile before she found out that the deaf person was actually hearing.  From now on, we're thinking about implementing hearing tests when we start studies.

You fellow Americans, do you ever watch cricket?  Before coming to Guyana, I had no clue. I still don't understand it (honestly, though, I don't understand football either. Superbowl is all about half time nachos, anyway. Right?). It's baseball with a fat golf looking thing, right?  I'm beginning to think that we're the only ones that are just not into it.  The other day, a few guys delivered water to our house.  I had the TV on, watching the news.  As one guy passed me, he asked "White girl don't watch cricket?" At first, I thought "What white girl?" Oh yeah, that's me. Then, I thought, "Cricket? What? Come again."  By the time I processed his question, he was already in the truck driving away. Sometimes white girl, a little slow.

Sarah and Jaide enjoying ice cream

Yesterday, we went to the monthly ASL meeting in New Amsterdam.  Four deaf students and five hearing brothers and sisters accompanied us.  For three of the deaf, this was their first time to the meeting. All together, attendance was 68, including 30 deaf. It's always incredible to see deaf communicate freely with one another, even if they know limited ASL.  Another fabulous example for us hearing.  Don't be afraid to communicate, even if you don't have the same language. Even a hearing couple from Chile was there.  They are learning English, but still managed to answer in sign language.  Here, the important thing is not how you sign it, but that you tried.

Guyanese word of the day: boulanger.  Translation: eggplant.

If you are considering "stepping over into Macedonia", please email me.  We would love the help!

Love Jaide and Graem

Thats beautiful!

Phagwah people

Hello Everyone,

From left to right: Popo, Sharon and Vicky.  The boys are Bible students

How are you doing?  Living in Guyana we get exposed to an assortment of holidays that we have never heard of in the States.  The three major religions in Guyana, Muslim, Hindu and Christian, have like 3 national holidays each.  The Muslim and Hindu holidays are normally new to us.  For example, yesterday, Phagwah, a Hindu holiday.  It is the festival of colors.  People go around throwing buckets of water at each other.  Or they spray squirt guns with dyed water in it, or throw colored powder on you.  Sounds lovely right?  Before Sunday we were warned not to go out because we will get sprayed.  Then someone else told us not to worry about it, that they will respect us and leave us alone.  Well, Jaide got sprayed with red dye on the way to meeting and I got sprayed with blue dye out in the ministry in the afternoon.  No respect, I tell you.

I need to tell you about Renny's friend.  A little over a week ago, I went to Renny's study.  When we got there he excitedly introduced me to his friend, Errol.  Errol sat in on our Bible study.  He learned so fast.  He doesn't know sign language, but he picked it up quick.  He learned God's name in a snap.  We were discussing the Bible's promise of Paradise, and he was understanding everything.  He even pointed at a picture of Paradise and signed "beautiful."  After the Bible study had finished, I showed him the ASL alphabet and to how to fingerspell his name. It only took one time, and he had it.  You don't understand how amazing that is.  We have students that have been studying for months, some even years, who don't know how to fingerspell their name.  He even wrote his name in the exercise book and then under each letter drew the ASL letter hand shape.  Blew me away!  Normally I do that to help them learn their name.  I hope he will be able to sit in on more studies.  He seemed to really enjoy it.

Our Kingdom Hall flooded again.  That means thorough cleaning to disinfect the place.  It has been raining a lot.  Its a muddy mess every where.

Guyanese word of the day:  aawbee. (This is spelled phonetically)  Translation: we.

Love,
G&J

Me duh know she!

Hello Everyone,

Traffic jam with cows and sheep

How are you doing?  Some weeks writing the blog is a piece of cake.  Good. funny or exciting things have happened.  Other weeks, we sit down and have to struggle to have anything to write about.  When that happens you get blogs like last weeks, discussing my bowel problems (I am doing better, thank you very much).  But, this week I couldn't wait to write it.  Why?  Awesome ministry experiences.

We will start with Imran.  He used to study the Bible, but stopped probably around a year ago because of family opposition.  He and his family are Muslim.  His sister is deaf also, but when their family gave her a hard time she continued to study.  Jaide is studying with her and she is doing amazing.  Well, a couple of weeks ago Imran told Jaide that he wanted to talk to me.  After a couple attempts I finally met up with him.  We gaffed for a bit.  He told me I should start to work with him.  He would teach me how to cut

hair, and that we would make a good team.  Then he asked about the meetings.  I explained what's up with us interpreting the meeting into sign language and the last Sunday we have a full sign language meeting in New Amsterdam.  He said he wanted to go.  "Sweet!" I thought.  Next I asked," before you studied the Bible, then stopped, what's up?"  He explained his cousin and friends got mad at him and yelled at him.  So he stopped.  He said he had gone to the Muslim temple, but they don't teach him.  He then said, "I love Jehovah.  Muslim, Hindu, Christian Churches alright.  But, Jehovah I love."  I wanted to jump off that couch.  He then said, "I don't care if my cousin is mad. If my Mom calls (she lives in New York), I am deaf and I can't hear her."  This happened Tuesday and Thursday he surprised us by coming to meeting, along with his sister and cousin.  He was all smiles, nodding when he understood things.  After the meeting it was beautiful to see all the friends come up and meet them. This came at great time for us.  We were starting to feel down, because we haven't had any deaf come to meeting in awhile.  Jehovah again gave us what we need.

Its been raining like crazy!  All day yesterday, we make it to our Bible studies, battling the mud and
downpours.  I slept with long pants and a sweatshirt, and I was still cold.  Keep in mind, I've been in Guyana awhile. I know this 'freezing air' is nothing to you in New York or Canada.  This morning, we again ventured into the rain to go to market. I told Graem he can never complain about going to Winco again.  If he does, I will tell him it could be worse.  Each person could  be sopping wet, whipping around umbrellas that keep slapping you in the face.  By the time we got home, Graem looked like he stepped straight out of a shower with all his clothes on.

Guyanese expression of the day: If you want to speak like a true Guyanese person, you must remove some words from your vocabulary. These words are "I, her, and him".  You must replace them with "Me, she, he".  Examples: "Me duh know she." "That she book."

Please writes us some time,

Love J & G

I need a bathroom, you know.

Hello Everyone,

Deuces Ashtyn!

How are things?  We are doing good.  The time has come for Ashtyn to leave us.  She arrived January 5.  We have enjoyed having her here with us.  It is great to have help with Sign Language.  I know many of the friends here will miss her.  As Ashtyn will tell you, there is a lot of work that needs to be done in Guyana.  So, come on down!  Email me and let me know if your thinking about it.

Sign Language class

Saturday afternoon, Jaide, Ashtyn and I were on a Bible study with a couple.  It was going really well when suddenly, a wave of pain swept over me, and I broke out sweating.  To quote Brian Reagan, "my insides seemed like they wanted to be on my outsides."  Something I had eaten wanted out of my body, in a bad way.  So here is the dilemma, ask to use their toilet or ride 5 minutes back to our house.  Using their toilet is a risk, because maybe they don't have toilet paper, or their toilet doesn't flush properly, which are both common problems.  Both could cause another embarrassing situation.  Or do I try to make the ride home?  Of course, no Starbucks or McDonald's toilets here.  If shops and restaurants have a "toilet", it is a wall outside. I decide to try to make it to our house.  I try to make my exit. Of course, its not that easy.  They are insisting that I have a soda that they bought for us, and Jaide is asking me why. "Did you forget something?", she asks.  "Why are you going home?"  At the same time I am trying to get out of waiting for a soda.  I thank them and tell them I don't need it and that I REALLY need to get home.  They're not having it.  I don't want to offend them, so I wait for the drink and pat my stomach and tell Jaide, "I don't feel good and I NEED to go home."  Jaide said I didn't look so good.  She said my veins were popping out of my head.  I get the soda and down it as fast as I can and after a few minutes I am off.  Now, about 100 feet down there path on my bike I am starting to doubt my decision.  I am afraid I am not going to make it home.  I think the exerting of peddling the bike isn't helping matters. I need to move and move fast if I am going to make it home "safely." I don't think I have ever ridden that fast.  All people saw was a white flash.  Alas, me and my sensitive stomach made it home in time.  Disaster averted! Maybe next time, I will pack some toilet paper and imodium.

Let me update you on how Renny is doing.  I wrote about Renny a couple of months ago.  He is probably my best Bible study right now.  We are studying the DVD 'You can be God's Friend'. He is getting it.  We will understand a little of the DVD, then I will pause and ask him "it what?"  Most times he tells me, "I don't understand."  So we begin to explain the point with use of pictures and drawing.  After he seems to get it,  then we watch it again.  Normally,  he gets it then.  Right now we are studying the Paradise earth and what the Bible promises it will be like.  Its wonderful to see him get it.  Here is an example of a typical answer to a question about the Paradise earth, "Earth change to beautiful all over, people eat, eat, eat fat.  Hungry no."  To teach him the concept of change we drew a picture of an old, dirty shirt and a nice, new shirt.  We asked, "If you are working in the yard and have the dirty, old shirt on, then want to go to the Kingdom Hall what do you do?  Change shirts".  Then we draw under the old shirt a picture of the world today, and under the nice, new shirt a picture of the Paradise earth.  From there he got the concept pretty easy.  It is a fun study.  He has a funny habit of shaking your hand almost every time he understands a point.  Also, he likes to hug.  Which is fine, I don't mind, I just wish he would shower before we come.

Guyanese expression of the day:  "you know".  It seems that a common habit is to end your sentence with you know.  'Its hot you know', 'I already did that you know'.  Little Pheobe in Orealla is 3yrs old and would give us pretend food and tell us, "its hot you know."  So cute.  Or in my case, "I need a toilet you know."

Love,
G&J

      

The cha cha slide

Hello Everyone,

The cha cha slide

How are things?  We are doing good.  Sunday night we went to a going away party for a missionary couple that are moving to a new assignment on the other side of Guyana.  It was a fun gathering.  Good food, fun games, laughter and of course, the cha cha slide.  You see, it wouldn't be a Guyanese Witness party without the cha cha slide.  "What is the cha cha slide?  You ask.  Its a song/dance.  The song basically is a man talking over music and telling you what dance move to do.  The dance is like an electric slide of sorts.  How many times did they play the cha cha slide Sunday night?  Three times!  Thats right, the cha cha slide song was played three times.  I will be honest, I danced it two times.  And coming in second for the most played song of the night was Shakira's "Waka Waka."  This song is hugely popular in Guyana.  When we first arrived it was playing everywhere.  People had Waka Waka written on everything.  I tried to do the dance for it like everyone else, but my hips do not move like Shakira's.

Don't be fooled by his cuteness, he wanted to bite me

Yesterday, we spent most of the day at a wonderful couples house, Tom and Michele Sanches.  They are former Missionaries that are currently serving in Guyana on their own.  Tom is like the modern day Apostle Paul.  He goes on there preaching trips into the interior of Guyana, reaching villages that have never had a Jehovah's Witness visit before.  He has gone to 37 different villages.  He trips last from 2 weeks to a month.  He was telling us about his last trip.  All the other brothers that were going to go with him couldn't make it for one reason or another.  So Tom went at it alone.  He took 2 changes of clothes, a hammock, bug net, bleach for water, some toiletry things and boxes of literature.  Thats it!  No food, no water.  Now, for you who have been to Guyana you know how traveling around the Country can be a pain.  Smelly, cramped. uncomfortable, time consuming, leaving you exhausted.  And that is just around the developed areas.  Well Tom is going deep into the bush.  He planned on using a motorcycle but after a day, he realized the roads were far to bad.  What was he going to do?  Deep in the interior there is not a steady route of transportation.  Plus, to travel village to village is expensive, averaging $50-$100 US per trip.  What was he to do?  Jehovah provided.  People gave him free rides all along the way.  Now that $50 fare gets you what?  A spot on an ATV(quad) with 4 other people and supplies.  Travel was not easy.  A 30 hour boat ride, later a 17 hour boat ride, 5 hour plus ATV rides crowded with people and supplies and bush truck trips riding in the back with tanks of Gasoline.  He also had to help push vehicles and get them unstuck.  One time he went three days with no food.  Two times, a two day period with no food.  But he reached all this villages and found people who never heard of Jehovah God.  People thirsting for spiritual truths.  Awesome experiences!

Guyanese expression of the day: just now.  This is probably one of the most common expression you will hear in Guyana. When someone tells you "just now", you know it could be any where from 5 minutes to hours, even days at times.  So when someone tells you, "he'll be back just now."  Don't hold your breath.

Love,
G&J