Hello Everyone,
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| Sign language section |
How are you? We are doing good. Been real busy lately. Yesterday, we had our Special Assembly Day. The attendance was 888, including 22 deaf. The whole program was interpreted. That is a stressful job, both before and during the assembly. Our friend, Brian, did a fabulous job organizing it all. It made me appreciate having assemblies and conventions in full sign language. Also, there are no assembly halls in Guyana, so we rent a school hall. This requires a lot of work. Before the sessions, we are busy moving out all the desks, cleaning, and setting up all the chairs that have been trucked in from all the Kingdom Halls in the area. After the program, since school starts the next day, we have to break everything down. We load the chairs back in the trucks, clean the hall again and bring the desks and chalkboards back inside. Jaide regretted wearing her heels which stick perfectly between the wood boards on the floor. Thankfully, she managed to not fall on her face. Oh yeah, the hall we use is on the second floor. We got a good work out loading and unloading the chairs. I will never take an assembly hall for granted again. Afterwards, some Missionaries and those who have moved to help where the need is greater got together for some encouragement and Chinese food.
Speaking of Chinese, recently, a group was established in Georgetown. They have four Chinese unbaptized publishers and one baptized. If only, my Dad taught me some Chinese! Oh well, I'm pretty stuck to ASL anyway.
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| Jamacia & Niasha, deaf students |
We are looking forward to the Memorial. We have been trying to make sure all the deaf in our area are invited. The goal is to have 100 deaf in attendance. Last year, 69 deaf came. We will let you know how many show up. So, last week and this week we are explaining to, or reminding our students why the Memorial is so important. Its a challenge to explain the concept to people with a limited language. We're beginning to learn how to simplify our teaching. We are so thankful for having so many pictures in our publications. Also, the Great Teacher DVD's explanation is awesome. I showed only half of it to one student, and without me even telling her, she got the point and signed "Oh, we need to thank Jesus". Fabulous!
The other day there was one of those moments that I will always remember. We were on a minibus going to New Amsterdam. We have talked about the joys of public transportation in Guyana, crowded, hot and frustrating. It was a typical ride, the bus was full, yet they squeezed one more person in Jaide's row. Making a Jaide sandwich, with two old Aunties on each side of her. The driver was taking his sweet time, stopping to run errands every few minutes. We stopped so he could air up his tires. Jaide, who is in the row in front of me, turns her head ever so slowly with a sweet smile on her face. I expect her to make a comment about needing patience. Instead with that sweet smile still on her face, she finger spells B.O. (body odor) still with the smile on her face, she slowly turns to face forward again. I couldn't help but laugh. Poor Jaide was literally stuck to a person with bad stink. Another adventure in transportation in Guyana!
Guyanese word of the day: Sweet meats. What is that? Bacon dipped in syrup? Honey glazed ham? Chocolate covered grasshoppers? No. Translation: sweet pastries. You know, they are like meats. . . I guess.
Love,
G&J
