Here's What's Been Going On

Well, it turns out I may be able to stay in Guyana longer than I originally expected! The only problem that lies in that is: The visa I got when I came into the country was for three months, and that was 2 and a half months ago! Fortunately, there is one fairly cheap method to be able to stay longer. This is known as "border-hopping".

The way you do this is you get a multiple-entry pass into the neighboring country, Suriname. When you cross the border, they stamp your passport with a visa. So then when you pass BACK into Guyana, Immigration there stamps your passport with.... another 3-month visa for Guyana!

Seeing as my roommate came to Guyana on the same flight as I did, both of our visas are going to expire at the same time, so we planned a trip into Suriname together. However, we did encounter a few..... difficulties.
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The day before going to Suriname, we had to move out of our house in Bath Settlement and over into a nearby village. Seeing as we had stuff to move like a fridge and a stove-top, we hired a guy to bring a truck around to help us haul our stuff. We talked to him as he was driving us over to our new house, and it turned out that he was going to pick someone up from the Suriname ferry the next day. The day we were planning to go! The ferry was coming in at 11 in the morning, and this guy was hoping to get there a half hour early. Sounds great, right?

Well, the next day he picks us up, and we get about fifteen minutes away before I realize: In the course of moving, I had packed away my passport, and forgotten to put it back in my bag of stuff I was taking to Suriname.

So.

We decided it would make more sense for Micaiah to keep on going (so as to make sure our room reservations weren't given away, etc) while I went back to find the passport. After some serious panicking, rummaging through suitcases, things like that, I found the passport, got on a bus, and got over halfway to the dock where the ferry is to take us over to Suriname.

Then I get a call. "Hey, this is Micaiah. The ferry does come in at 11, but they close the gate at 10. We missed it."
The ferry only runs ONCE A DAY.

So now, here I was, over 3 hours from home, and it isn't cheap to get that far (the only way to get around is with buses). I didn't want to go 3 hours home, pay the fare, then come BACK the next day and go through the whole thing again. I was NOT having a good day.

Then I started looking around. "I recognize this area. Hey wait! I used to LIVE here! This is Tom and Michelle Sanches' neighborhood!" I quickly called them up, and explained the situation, asking if I could just spend a little while at their house and have Micaiah meet me there so we could figure out what to do next.
They replied "You shouldn't have to go all the way home! Stay with us tonight, so you don't have to travel as far tomorrow!"

Now, as nice as that was for them to offer, let me also explain: They had just gotten home from a moth-long trip. They hadn't even been home 4 days. Still unpacking, still re-cleaning the house. Also, Tom Sanches is Brighton's secretary, so he was trying to compile all the field service reports. And yet, they were still willing to let us two interrupt all that and stay with them.

So what started out as the worst day of my trip quickly became a great day. Being able to see the Sanches' after so long was great. Also, that night we made popcorn and spent a few hours watching movies!

Next morning (this morning, Saturday) we packed our stuff back up, and continued on toward the ferry. We even made it on time!

Which brings us up to now. Sitting in a hotel room, playing on my computer. Now, I did bring my camera, but I forgot the plug that lets me upload my pictures to the computer (left that in the new house), so it'll be a few days before I get the pictures up. But don't worry. You'll get pictures of Suriname, the new house, and the full story of the rest of our trip here in Suriname!