Hello Everyone,
How are you? Sunday, was our special talk. Arranging the bus, picking up the deaf and getting to meeting on time was stressful and frustrating as usual. But once we got there it was worth it. There was 74 people at meeting, including 38 deaf. The friends from Skeldon brought a lot of new deaf to meeting. It was really exciting to see and meet them all. It really shows the potential for growth here.
The last few days have taxed our patience. It started when we ran out of propane for our stove. Normally not a big deal. We just take the tank down and get a new one. It's the same kind of tank like you use for a BBQ grill. Well, turns out that none of the shops have any gas. "Gas is scarce in the country," is what I heard over and over. "Maybe later today or tomorrow," they said. That was Saturday morning, but it turns out we are not going to get gas until Thursday. "No gas, that's fine. We will just eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches," we thought. We are so sick of pb&j! The only bread at the store right now is this white bread that is lighter than air and 5 minutes after eating a sandwich you are hungry again. The hardest part is no coffee. The lack of coffee may be adding to our patience being taxed.
So, Monday started out with no coffee and air bread, as we prepare to make another trip to Suriname to renew our visas. First, I call the hotel to confirm our reservation. We were looking forward to this hotel with free Wi-fi and pool. The hotel, says, " Oh yeah, I meant to tell you when you called before that we have no rooms." What! He actually never took my phone number. I thought that that probably meant they never fill up. I guess I thought wrong. Well after a few more phone calls over a very bad connection, we found a hotel. No pool and more money. Oh well.
Then it starts raining. How do they clouds know that we are lugging our things to Suriname. It always rains when we go to Suriname.
We get our first car ride and first bus ok. As we board the second bus, I try to put my luggage in the back. The woman yells at me "Just get in!! The police are coming!!" So I hurry in with my bags. Then we just sit there. I thought we were in a hurry. Then they told Graem to squeeze in the back with me. I figured they needed to make room. Turns out, they just thought we wanted to snuggle in the 1,000 degree bus. Then they said to Graem, "Oh if you want to, you can move to the other available seats."
Then we get to a gas station. They tell the boy sitting next to me that he should be sitting in the front, because he is getting off before us. So I have to move my bags and they tell me that I should put them in the back. I am getting more and more blunt here. Remember I haven't had my coffee yet. I asked, "Remember I was trying to do that before?" Then I ask, "I there a reason we are running from the police?" No answer.
So on we go. The bus is getting pretty packed, but the driver believes that we must be as full as humanly possible. The driver spots some people that may want a ride, so he decided to kick the bus in reverse. I am in the back of the bus as we are driving on the wrong side of the road. Then the driver yells, "Oh, the police!" and we drive forward again, leaving the long sought after passengers behind.
Remember the boy that they made move to the front of the bus. Well they ended up moving him back to my row again.
Thankfully, the ferry went smoothly! We are always nervous going through immigration. Graem always gets more nervous than me. But he goes first. The man asked me him a question. Graem nervously leans in to hear him better. Graem finally understands the very important question, "Are you related to Kobe?" Whewww!! An immigration officer in a good mood! Customs was a breeze too!
Then came the 3rd bus ride of the day. A man drinking a beer already had asked us if we needed a ride to Paramaribo. We told him, "No, we going to Nickerie."
"Ok. Go on my bus. $25 SRD to Nickerie." I didn't answer the drinking man, but he did ask a fair price.
Again he came up to me and said, "Johnny is not coming." I replied, "Um, I don't know who Johnny is."
I had my doubts about going on this man's bus, but he wasn't the one driving and there wasn't many other buses. As, we go ahead and get on his bus, he said, "You're going to Nickerie, sit in the front."
We are on our way. He has now finished his beer and is on to more serious stuff. He starts downing whiskey and coke. He offers us all some, but thankfully all, even the driver refused. He then offers me chicken, beef, alligator. "You have this all on the bus?" I asked. He just looks at me in his stupor and pulls out some meat, held between his fingers and tries to get me to eat it. Doesn't that make your mouth water?
We make a stop at a gas station. I know we must be getting close, so I tell the driver again, "Residence Inn, Nickerie." They both react like, "Ok girl, we know where you're going."
Then they ask me a few times, "Paramaribo or Nickerie?". "Nickerie", we answer again and again.
I can see both their faces processing that we are going to NICKERIE! The drunk man is obviously not happy, "What! Nickerie? You're going to Residence Inn, Paramaribo. You're really messing me up you know." I'm leaving the profanity and other words that I did not understand out.
"Remember, you said Nickerie as we got into the bus and on the ferry. You said $25, which is the fare to Nickerie, right?", we answered.
"Remember, I told you that Johnny wasn't coming?"
"Remember, I told you that I didn't know who Johnny was?"
Again, I am becoming more and more frustrated (I also haven't had my coffee, remember), and I say back to him, "Maybe if you didn't drink so much, you could remember". I figured if he tried to hit me, I could probably dodge the drunk man's blows. Graem is handling this well, and just starts to laugh. I should have know this would happen.
So we got left at the gas station and another bus had to pick us up.
It all ended well. The hotel had our reservation. We watched TV in an air conditioned room. Unfortunately, not much was on besides CNN. I now know more about Bin Laden than I ever wanted. We got some good wine, herb gouda cheese, fancy potato chips, and decent ice cream. These are all things that we do not get to enjoy in Guyana.
We hope the rest of the trip goes well. We'll let you know.
Guyanese word of the day: "rank". You may feel like us when you hear this word, that this is not a good thing. For example, if a fish smells rank, we would throw it out. But in Guyana, if a fish smells rank, it is a fine specimen. It means it is fresh. Maybe you should take this new meaning into your vocabulary and tell the girl you like that she smells rank.
bus, including 6 deaf! The meeting was great. The total attendance was 78, with 32 deaf. It's really encouraging to see the progress many of the deaf students have made in the almost 2 years that we have know them. After the meeting Lionel, a Bible student of mine, came up to me. You could tell he was really impressed by the meeting and all the effort Jehovah's Witnesses put into teaching the deaf. As he went around meeting other deaf, he was surprised to find out that many didn't go to school. They had grown up never learning sign language, but they can now sign. Much of their life and language skills have come from Jehovah's Witnesses teaching them. Lionel was blown away. He went to a school for the deaf, where he learned. Jaide explained to him that we go, sit and teach the deaf. It doesn't matter if they know sign language or not. For the first time I could see appreciation in Lionel's eyes. He was excited for us to come back Wednesday for our study. He kept asking, "You're coming Wednesday, right?" Normally he is very passive about his study. He said, " Jehovah is good. This (meaning the meeting) is nice. I need to keep learning."
If you have read our blog in the past, you may have noticed we talk a lot about the music in Guyana. It's hard not to. Part of the culture here is to play your music loud. So, unless there is a black out (power outage), you most likely are going to be hearing music of some sort of the other. You wake to music at 5:30-6am, all day and even go to bed with music sometimes. Well, when we went on the trip with our Congregation to swim in the black water creek, we got a special treat. For most the time at the creek, we were the only group there. It was great. Then came a couple of cars. One backs up to the table next to ours, and out piles the people, the food, bottles of vodka and drinks. The the back trunk opens to reveal his huge stereo system, which he immediately starts blasting Caribbean R&B/hip hop. Its about time to go anyways, so we start packing up. There is arouns 35 of us, so it takes a little time. A few minutes later another car pulls in and parks on the other side of us. Same procedure, people out with food and alcohol, open the doors and trunk and blast the music. This time chutney/soca music. It was quite the audio experience, both competing for who is loudest. AHH, a beautiful day out in nature.
