Nature strikes back!

Standard Suriname supermarket

Well, we made it home safe.  Coming back from Suriname was smooth sailing.  Even coming through immigration was a breeze.  Then it was off to Skeldon to spend time with some of our favorite people, Brian and Shannon.  It was the last time we will see them before we leave so we had to say goodbye for now.  Not being able to see this Missionary couple on a regular basis is going to be one of the hardest things about leaving Guyana.  We will miss them, but know with Jehovah's help they will keep up the good work.

When we arrived home we were anxious to see what had taken over our place.  You see, if you leave your house even for a day or two, nature starts to reclaim the house.  You are not there to battle the creatures and dirt.  As expected, ants were EVERYWHERE!  I think they got desperate with us not being home  to leave crumbs of food here and there.  They had chewed their way into all kinds of bags.  Then the cockroaches, oh the cockroaches.  Now, I know that there is one cabinet in particular that the cockroaches like to live in.  I have been a little lazy about fighting them recently, and it shows.  It seems a couple of cockroaches decided to make a home in our coffee press.  It's startling to open you coffee press and have large roaches jumping out at you.  Although, they did add an extra zing to the morning cup of joe.

My "brat" from street vendor.  Not what I expected.

After battling the bugs and reclaiming our house everything seemed good.  We were cooking dinner and had an uninvited guest.  Our dear friend, the bat.  Why do they always come into our house when we are cooking?  We scramble to cover all the food so he doesn't land on it with his gross bat body.  As I gather the supplies to try to catch him, he is flying around like crazy.  He even grazed Jaide's neck, which threw her into a tizzy.  Then he crashes into our stove, which has two burners going.  Bad choice bat! The flame injures him.  He scurries to the back of the stove.  I can't get back there to catch him, so I decide to kill him.  He is a small bat, so I thought maybe spraying a lot of toxic bug spray will kill him.  I spray him down good and leave him to die.  Anyways, long story short, he crawls under our kitchen cabinet. We can hear him flailing around under there.  Finally, he comes out and I try to trap him in a bucket.  Well, you know what happens when you injure a wild animal, they become all teeth, trying to bite you.  This little guy looked crazed.  Finally, I got him in a bucket without being bit after many failed attempts to do so. In the morning, the thing was still kicking, so I had to take him out Mosaic Law style: stoned.  Graem: 1, bat: 0.

Once we had the critters under control, it was off to Bible studies.  Recently, we have been trying to slow down a bit and really make sure our students understand important concepts.  This means that sometimes we spend the whole hour on just a couple of signs. I think, after 2 studies, that Teayon now understands that Jehovah made Jesus, angels, sun, moon, stars, and earth.  She already knew those signs, but didn't understand "make".  We spent some time on the concept of making things. Her sister makes clothes. She makes brooms and cakes.  Then, we showed her that Jehovah and Jesus worked together to make things, as father and son.  The only problem was that, she keeps thinking that Jesus is the mother too.  When you have a father, there must be a mother somewhere, right?.  We'll keep working on this.

Afroze is doing very well with her lessons.  Before we started chapter 4 about Jesus, we spent some time teaching her the signs "from", "personality", "Messiah", and  "responsibility".  She got it!  After the lesson, she had some fabulous questions that show not only is she understanding her studies, but that she is applying it to herself.  For someone who grew up with very limited language to understand deep concepts is such an awesome accomplishment!  She asked, "If Jesus came to earth, did Jehovah come to earth? Who made Jehovah? Did Jehovah die and be resurrected to heaven? If we get to live in paradise and our children don't, will we be sad?  If you abort a baby, will it be resurrected?  Do the dead burn?"  We were very happy to answer her questions and see her love for the Bible and Jehovah growing.

Her brother, Imran, was studying with Graem, when at one point, Graem asked him if he wanted to continue with some more paragraphs or stop.  Imran signed, "I love Jehovah. Continue."

We hope you enjoy our adventures in Guyana.  Writing helps us deal with our discomforts and rejoice over our accomplishments. Thanks for listening.

Love Jaide and Graem