Monday, May 30, 2011

Sunday best


Hello Everyone,

How are you?  Yesterday was the last full sign language meeting for us before we come home.  We had a full 
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.

Pictures:  Top; The group from our side of the river that went to meeting. Bottom; Lionel and his daughter.

Guyanese word of the day:  get ya give.  Translation: If you have a little money, you give to those in need.

Love,
G&J



Thursday, May 26, 2011

Swimming in Guinness!

Hey Everyone,

Swimming in "black wata"
How are you?  Have you ever dreamed of swimming in Guinness?  You know the dark, Irish stout beer.  We got to experience almost what that would be like.  In Guyana they have what the locals call "black water" creeks. Its called "black water" creeks because the water is so dark, almost black.  I hear it is from all the leaves and debris that fall into the water in the rain forest and decompose.  All I know is it looked like a creek of Guinness that we went swimming in.  Does it taste like Guinness? You ask. Sadly no.  Its kind of eerie swimming in water so dark that you can't see whats below you.  An anaconda or a alligator.  I was so jumpy that if I stepped on anything that didn't feel right I would scream like a little girl and jump.  It was fun day, slightly rainy and cool, but a good time.

Kenton & Graem
One Bible student, Loreen, who struggles with comprehension, had a break through this week.  She successfully remembered the signs for father, mother, son and daughter.  Then Jaide thought, "I am ready to teach her that God is the Father and Jesus is the Son."  She started to explain this to her, really feeling like they are getting somewhere.  Then Jaide asked her to draw the Father and Son in heaven.  Loreen drew three people.  Confused, Jaide asked, "Who is this third person?"  Loreen confidentially signed "mother."  Jaide had to smile, and think, "What have I done?  I spent all this time teaching her what a family is.  A father, a mother, a son and a daughter.  Now, I have to explain that Jesus had no mother in heaven."  So, Jaide erased the picture of the woman in heaven and signed, "No mother."  She didn't know how else to explain it.  You should have seen Loreen's face!  Priceless.  You could see Loreen trying to process this new information.  Wheels turning, face contorting as she tried to figure this mystery out.  One step in the right direction; she is comprehending signs.  One step back; she now thinks Jesus comes from a broken home.

Guyanese word of the day:  Jumbee umbrella.  Translation: mushroom.  So, in Guyana they would call a "ghost" a Jumbee.  I guess they have carny jumbees here.

Love,

G&J



Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Top Ramen & peanuts!

Hello Everyone,

Our dog aka tick bag
Hows it going?  The generosity we experience here is awesome!  Many people want to show their gratitude for what we do, so they give us treats.  Like, for example, soda, crackers, pastries and sometimes full-on meals.  Last Wednesday everyone was super generous, giving food left and right.  By the time we arrived home we had, 3 packets of Top Ramen, 6 packets of instant oatmeal (sugar-free), half a bag of New York Yankees peanuts in the shell, a loaf of bread, a box of linguine noodles and 6 eggs.  Random, right?  We usually get mangoes or bananas to take home, but this time it was carbs all the way. We truly appreciate their gratitude. They give us what they can, happy that we are taking time to teach their family.  How did they know Jaide never eats Top Ramen, but for some reason was craving it that very morning?  Dinner that night hit the spot.

Sunday, we had 3 deaf come to meeting.  Yeah!  It has been a while since we have had 3 of our students come to meeting.  Very encouraging.  We were also happy that one local brother that is learning sign helped us interpret.  It is going to be hard to leave, especially leaving Imran and Afroze.  The two of them are awesome students.  We just pray that they keep up their studying and go to meeting when they can.

Pants fail
If you have been following our blog, you know that we get called "white guy" and "white girl" daily.  My favorite thing is when Guyanese men impersonate how a white guy talks.  Apparently, when we, white guys, talk we sound like a stereotypical computer nerd or Steve Urkel.  And we say "Hey Guy."  Every time anyone has impersonated a white person, that is what they say.  It was funny when a truck full of sugar cane workers are driving by and half of them yell out in their white man voice, "Hey Guy!"  One man instead of calling me, "white guy", "white boy", "white man" or "whitey", calls me Steve.  One time he said it sounds like a white guy's name.  So, I just go with it.  Hello, my name is Steve.

Guyanese word of the day: DoughSay.  (Spelled phonetically)  Translation: pancakes.  Go ahead and go to IHOP and place your order for some doughsay and see what they do.

Love,
G & J

Friday, May 13, 2011

"You're getting fat!"

Culture is a funny thing. In America, if I am feeling fat or ugly, I know I can count on my best girl friends to tell me I look great, even if I don't. I know that if I happen to gain a few extra pounds or experience a breakout, my fellow Americans will think twice before they point it out to me.

But Guyana is different. I suppose they appreciate honesty, rather than flattery. In case you wanted to go to meeting and forget you look less than stellar, you will be disappointed. One must have thick skin. Your acne will be pointed out as boils and if you gain a few extra pounds, you will be called fat. A few weeks ago I went door-to-door with some sisters. Over and over again, I was told I looked tired. The worst thing was that I wasn't tired at all. I told them this and still I was told I was tired. I gave in, “Ok, I must be tired.”

Last night, having a bit of a cold, I went to meeting, knowing that I don't look or sound my best. I'm sure just out of concern, the friends want to express sympathy over my less than beautiful appearance. One sister, said “I noticed you look sleepy.”  I saw her again this morning and she reminded me that last night I looked so sleepy. One brother said, “Your voice is hoarse. But you know, it sort of fits your character. You know cause you're a bit funny.” I really don't know how to take that one. My voice is almost gone because I'm sick and that somehow fits my personality. The all time best comment, though, I can't attribute to my cold. It goes like this, “You're getting fat. I guess the Indian and Guyanese food is treating you well.”

What have I learned from all this? One culture is not better than the other. They're just different. Some actually like to be called fat. And maybe some think that if they point out how you look, they are telling you they care. I must forget my previous notions to become offended and learn to say, “Thank you” before I run home to burn a few calories and put some cucumbers on my eyes.

I hope to be a better person after this. But, if I came home and something like, “You're fat” or “Why would you wear that color?” or “What's wrong with your face?”, please just remember where I've been. It just means I care.  

Monday, May 9, 2011

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

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

"Are you related to Kobe?"

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.