Rainy Season!

So much has gone on these last three weeks. So, so much. Where to begin? Okay, let's tackle this in chronological order.

Due to Guyana's almost constant moderate temperature, seasons are mostly meaningless. Winter, summer, spring, that other one, nobody cares. The way seasons are distinguished is rather through how much rain we get. And what do you know, just three weeks ago we entered into the rainiest of them all. Charlie and I realized rainy season had begun while we were on the literally furthest edge of our territory. Which, might I remind you, is all walking. We quickly took shelter in some very small collapsing shed, but it was pointless. In the amount of time it took us to reach it, we were already so wet that standing in the rain would make no difference...

Okay, so you can't actually SEE the rain, but it's there. Promise.

Seeing as Charlie's time with us was nearing its conclusion, there was (as is typical for Orealla) a bit of a sendoff. This time around it involved mostly a big day of swimming in the Courantyne river, followed by a series of games designed for playing on the sand. I say designed for playing on the sand because if you played them on any other surface they'd be far too painful. Games such as "Dog & Bone"....

Yikes.

YIKES!!!

Shortly afterward, Charlie departed. With all his bones still intact. A while after this period our two elders left for a brief period to attend Elder School, which obviously increased by workload considerably (hence about three weeks with no blog update, sorry). Fortunately they did arrange for another elder from an English-speaking congregation in Suriname to come by for one of those weeks, so that greatly helped.

Also during this period a group of brothers and sisters from Skeldon came by for vacation. In case I've neglected to talk about Skeldon, it's a Kingdom Hall on the coast of Guyana and is the nearest Guyana congregation to us (there is one congregation even closer to us, but that's in Suriname. Read about it here: http://nutso42.blogspot.com/2014/02/road-to-apoera.html ). Skeldon is quite a busy place, with lots of businesses popping up and therefore lots of hustle and bustle, traffic, etc, so Orealla is a popular place for them to come on vacation. Orealla has no cars, no buses, limited electricity, and is nestled next to a very large and very clean river. So peace is something we always have in abundant supply.

Mmmmmmm....

So a past week saw a group of six from Skeldon come by to enjoy our river, beaches, and ridiculous quantity of fruit that just grows everywhere. Now seeing as it's an Indian reservation, finding accommodations for large groups can be difficult, so typically people just stay at my house and I leave for a bit. This visit I was able to crash with one of our elders for a few days in his spare bedroom. Unfortunately after those few days, his parents came in for a visit so I had to vacate that spot. However I should note.... possessing a hammock gives you great freedom respecting where you sleep, so in this instance I was able to just hang my hammock up on his front porch and sleep in the river breeze. I think I liked that even better than staying in his spare bedroom.

So essentially, I got kicked out of the room I stayed in after I got kicked out of my room. No complaints though.

(Also, fun side point: the tribe of Amerinidans that reside in Orealla - Arawak - are the ones typically given credit for inventing the hammock, and even the word 'hammock' is an Arawak word)

Now then, since 2015 has arrived there's several things to see about getting. One of course is putting up our lovely new yeartext....

Out with the old....

.... in with the new!

Also need to get the 2015 Yearbook and Daily Texts off jw.org. We haven't received the paper copies yet so we grab the pdf and distribute it to everyone with a laptop, computer, or smartphone. We also have a blind brother that we try to get the mp3 for everything so we can put it on a disc and give to him so he can listen to the new books on his CD player.

So at this point I'm back on the coast getting the JW Broadcast for January (along with all the aforementioned things). Our elders have returned from school which gives me a few days of vacation. Also coming up soon will be the return of Dustin Reynolds who stayed by me last year.

So, lots of good stuff coming! I shall do my best to keep you informed.