An interesting development: One month ago, Hopetown congregation had gotten up to six white boys- Sam, Micaiah, Me, Levi, Dan, and Sage. Since then, Dan and Sage have moved over into Orealla, and Levi went back to Ohio.
So this left me, Micaiah and Sam. But then, news came around that a Chinese group is trying to start in Georgetown, but they only had one brother, a ministerial servant, to take the lead in it. Not only that, but this brother had started learning Chinese three weeks ago! So this group is in need of serious help. As it turns out, Sam Peden had been in a Chinese congregation once! Without hesitation, Sam called up the brother to see about joining. Things are apparently working out and he'll move up there as soon as he gets back from an upcoming Suriname trip. Now they'll have TWO servants instead of just one.
It seems that there have been many attempts to start a Chinese group in Guyana, but there's never been enough people to support the group. Which is a shame, because Chinese is a huge field here. There's entire towns and suburbs of Chinese who move in, but there's been nobody to preach to them.
Until now.
So anyway, after Sam decided to move out, it's left just me and Micaiah in Hopetown. But then, Micaiah found a cheap plane ticket home, so he plans to rush to Ohio for two months to work and enjoy the snow, and then come back in time for the Memorial here.
So beginning February, I'll be the only white boy in Hopetown. This will be the first time in years that this has happened. Although Sage is going to come visit for a week in February, so I guess it doesn't completely count.
Speaking of Sage visiting, here's why he's coming to visit:
February 13th, we'll be having a Zone Visit! To describe simply what this is, it's like a National Convention. Every Witness in the country is invited to one really big meeting in Georgetown. I promise there'll be a blog entry all about it, with plenty of pictures.
Monday, January 24, 2011
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Goodbye Levi & Sage
After a full month, the time has come for Levi Schulz and Sage Lamoreaux to depart from Hopetown. Levi is heading back to Ohio, while Sage has managed to extend his stay another month and a half, but he will be switching over to the Orealla congregation (along with Dan Grazier). So I just wanted to use this opportunity to be able to share some of the unique things they've been able to experience. Number one:
Climbing the dreaded Coconut Trees!
(To be fair, this is Levi's third time in Guyana, so a lot of this stuff he's already done. But it's still fun.)
The dangers of the coconut tree....
And on the way back, we ran into this snake.
Surprisingly, this is THE FIRST snake I've seen since being here.
Another thing we got to do was visit several congregations, some nearby, some far away. The funnest was Fyrish.
And this is a couple in Fyrish who are from Chile (they even invited us to go snowboarding next winter in Chile with them)
Fernando and Cindi. They actually learned English just so they could come to Guyana to help preach.
After the meeting in Fyrish, we decided to join the field service group that was going out. Unfortunately, they were working a far-out territory, and they hadn't initially intended for us to work with them. So this was the solution:
Four fit in the trunk quite nicely.
Then of course, we have the recent Suriname trip. This is a park right next to a river. Fantastic view, and more cheap food than you can believe.
(okay, so a lot of this is stuff I've already talked about. I'm mainly doing this because I just got a hold of all Sage and Levi's pictures, so I'm spreading those around now)
Now we move on to the recent Orealla trip. The boat ride there:
You can ride inside it, sling up a hammock and all, but that's not half as fun as riding on top of the boat all the way there. That way, you get to see views like this:
Sunset in Orealla
Followed by sunrise in Orealla
Since the Orealla trip, we've had a little time back home to enjoy.
Me and Sage cooking dinner
___________________________________________________________________________
Climbing the dreaded Coconut Trees!
And on the way back, we ran into this snake.
Another thing we got to do was visit several congregations, some nearby, some far away. The funnest was Fyrish.
And this is a couple in Fyrish who are from Chile (they even invited us to go snowboarding next winter in Chile with them)
After the meeting in Fyrish, we decided to join the field service group that was going out. Unfortunately, they were working a far-out territory, and they hadn't initially intended for us to work with them. So this was the solution:
Then of course, we have the recent Suriname trip. This is a park right next to a river. Fantastic view, and more cheap food than you can believe.
(okay, so a lot of this is stuff I've already talked about. I'm mainly doing this because I just got a hold of all Sage and Levi's pictures, so I'm spreading those around now)
Now we move on to the recent Orealla trip. The boat ride there:
Followed by sunrise in Orealla
Since the Orealla trip, we've had a little time back home to enjoy.
Me and Sage cooking dinner
___________________________________________________________________________
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Suriname/Branch Tour/Orealla/Siparuta/etc
Wow. This past week has been hectic. As I stated in the last post, we went over into Suriname, just to take a vacation. One of the highlights of the trip, we all agreed, was this:
Oops. What I mean is, THIS was the highlight of the trip.
The Suriname Branch Office! The Branch there is fairly small, though it's bigger than the Guyana branch.
Also, Suriname is smaller than Guyana, but they have to do a lot more work. For instance:
These are the frequently used languages in field service in the capital of Suriname. Dutch, Portugese, English, Chinese, Haitian Creole, Sranan Tongo, and some other language whose name escapes me.
The day after the branch tour, we wanted to find a Kingdom Hall nearby and go to a meeting. There was only meeting that night in walking distance, and it wasn't English. Instead, it was a Sranan Tongo congregation. Still, we went anyway.
Me and Micaiah went (Levi and sage were pooped out...), but we showed up pretty late. Student talk 3 was almost over. During the meeting, the attendant ran up to us and asked for names and what congregation we were from (an English speaking brother). Then, during announcements, he goes up on stage, interrupting the speaker, and whispers in his ear and hands the guy a paper. He leaves, and the speaker continues. Then amongst the stuff we couldn't understand, we hear "Gudfvrlp fewohife rkfqe podf Micaiah Jong dewazm lofg Yoshua Westfall!"
(Applause)
Then we hear "Olfesjef foejwqw mnqew gpfewonj pogr aqre gfezr!"
(Laughter, applause)
At that meeting we fully experienced the Worldwide Brotherhood. Two brothers go to a different continent, go to a meeting where we don't understand a word, and we're still treated by everyone as if we were lifelong friends. Where else do you find that?
Plus, they didn't mind that we hadn't shaved, and were wearing wrinkled dress shirts, dirty/stained jeans, and mud caked shoes!
_______________________________
After Suriname, we went straight over into Orealla (see a previous blog entry, don't know which one). The last visit, Tom Sanches, another brother named Martin Miguel and I worked in a faraway village named Siparuta. But after some investigating, Tom found that there's a lot of houses on the river next to it, so he organized a trip back to preach to those people.
The plan was to rent a boat and load up the brothers who wanted to join the trip, but the only boat available was a monster 20-seater. After debating what to do, Tom realized "Hey! We have only 7 people gathered to do this. Why not invite publishers from the nearby congregation Orealla to join us?"
Thus, our preaching group went from 7 to 18! And thanks to that, what was going to be 12-hour preaching was accomplished in 4 hours!
(right around this point, pictures are scarce. Orealla was having some major power problems while we were there.)
That's all I have pictures for now, but I do have two left to share. These show some souvenirs we picked up in Suriname.
Brace yourself....
Oops. What I mean is, THIS was the highlight of the trip.
Also, Suriname is smaller than Guyana, but they have to do a lot more work. For instance:
The day after the branch tour, we wanted to find a Kingdom Hall nearby and go to a meeting. There was only meeting that night in walking distance, and it wasn't English. Instead, it was a Sranan Tongo congregation. Still, we went anyway.
(Applause)
Then we hear "Olfesjef foejwqw mnqew gpfewonj pogr aqre gfezr!"
(Laughter, applause)
At that meeting we fully experienced the Worldwide Brotherhood. Two brothers go to a different continent, go to a meeting where we don't understand a word, and we're still treated by everyone as if we were lifelong friends. Where else do you find that?
Plus, they didn't mind that we hadn't shaved, and were wearing wrinkled dress shirts, dirty/stained jeans, and mud caked shoes!
_______________________________
After Suriname, we went straight over into Orealla (see a previous blog entry, don't know which one). The last visit, Tom Sanches, another brother named Martin Miguel and I worked in a faraway village named Siparuta. But after some investigating, Tom found that there's a lot of houses on the river next to it, so he organized a trip back to preach to those people.
The plan was to rent a boat and load up the brothers who wanted to join the trip, but the only boat available was a monster 20-seater. After debating what to do, Tom realized "Hey! We have only 7 people gathered to do this. Why not invite publishers from the nearby congregation Orealla to join us?"
Thus, our preaching group went from 7 to 18! And thanks to that, what was going to be 12-hour preaching was accomplished in 4 hours!
(right around this point, pictures are scarce. Orealla was having some major power problems while we were there.)
That's all I have pictures for now, but I do have two left to share. These show some souvenirs we picked up in Suriname.
Brace yourself....
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Back To Suriname/1 Or 2 Other Things
This past week has proved interesting. The two brothers staying with me and Micaiah wanted to cross over into Suriname to see what it was like.
We arrived Sunday, and as of Tuesday afternoon we're still here, planning to stay until Thursday morning.
While I have been taking plenty of pictures, I forgot to bring the cable that allows you to move the pics onto the computer. So here's the deal: I'll fill this space with other stuff, and write in detail about this Suriname trip later.
_______________________________________________
What I wanted to do here, basically, is recruit need-greaters.
Well, not quite. I want to make information available to help you decide if this is something you may be interested in trying.
For instance, ASL is a huge need in Guyana. There are many, many deaf people here because health care is lacking in most areas. This means that if someone gets an ear infection or some similar illness, chances are very high that it will damage or completely eliminate their ability to hear.
So this is the condition the country is faced with. In spite of all that, there is only one ASL congregation in the whole country. As far as I know, there are three different groups attempting to get established, but they're having a very hard time of it. Why? Not enough support for the ASL field. There are simply not enough need-greaters coming in to help out.
Now, I only know of three groups, but odds are there's many more trying to get started.
Also, Guyana has a huge Chinese population, the majority of whom either can't speak English, or don't speak it well. There are whole neighborhoods of nothing but Chinese-speaking people. But despite this, there is not one single Chinese congregation or group.
In fact, there are no foreign-language congregations in the entire country. There's many language groups among the Guyanese population, but no one to preach to them.
It's not just foreign language fields that are in need of help! I know brothers and sisters who have come from Spain, Russia, Holland, and Chile, and who learned English simply to come help in Guyana.
________________________________________
The last time I was at the branch, the District Overseer told me about all of this, but you know what he said after this?
"Surprisingly, that isn't where we have the greatest need in this country. What we need more than anything else is.................
........................
......................
PEOPLE SKILLED IN KINGDOM HALL CONSTRUCTION!"
There are at this point 14 congregations that need a new Kingdom Hall. That list is not including halls that need repaired or remodeled. For instance, our Kingdom Hall was built it the 1970's when the average meeting attendance was 30. At the last Sunday meeting, we had 150 show up. Imagine trying to fit that many people into a space about the size of the Library/Utility room in the North Athens hall. That is what the brothers and sisters in Hopetown have been dealing with for years.
In addition to Kingdom Halls, the branch has purchased land to build Guyana's first Assembly Hall. They've had the land for over 5 years now. But it hasn't been built. Why?
Not enough brothers experienced in construction. They've got the money for it, but not the hands.
Now, all this isn't even mentioning the help Suriname needs (in the fields of Chinese, Portugese, Sranan Tonga, Surimese Sign Language, ect.)
That's it for today. But I hope this information helps. There are so many ways you can help in not only this country, but anywhere. Just ask.
It's not that hard....
We arrived Sunday, and as of Tuesday afternoon we're still here, planning to stay until Thursday morning.
While I have been taking plenty of pictures, I forgot to bring the cable that allows you to move the pics onto the computer. So here's the deal: I'll fill this space with other stuff, and write in detail about this Suriname trip later.
_______________________________________________
What I wanted to do here, basically, is recruit need-greaters.
Well, not quite. I want to make information available to help you decide if this is something you may be interested in trying.
For instance, ASL is a huge need in Guyana. There are many, many deaf people here because health care is lacking in most areas. This means that if someone gets an ear infection or some similar illness, chances are very high that it will damage or completely eliminate their ability to hear.
So this is the condition the country is faced with. In spite of all that, there is only one ASL congregation in the whole country. As far as I know, there are three different groups attempting to get established, but they're having a very hard time of it. Why? Not enough support for the ASL field. There are simply not enough need-greaters coming in to help out.
Now, I only know of three groups, but odds are there's many more trying to get started.
Also, Guyana has a huge Chinese population, the majority of whom either can't speak English, or don't speak it well. There are whole neighborhoods of nothing but Chinese-speaking people. But despite this, there is not one single Chinese congregation or group.
In fact, there are no foreign-language congregations in the entire country. There's many language groups among the Guyanese population, but no one to preach to them.
It's not just foreign language fields that are in need of help! I know brothers and sisters who have come from Spain, Russia, Holland, and Chile, and who learned English simply to come help in Guyana.
________________________________________
The last time I was at the branch, the District Overseer told me about all of this, but you know what he said after this?
"Surprisingly, that isn't where we have the greatest need in this country. What we need more than anything else is.................
........................
......................
PEOPLE SKILLED IN KINGDOM HALL CONSTRUCTION!"
There are at this point 14 congregations that need a new Kingdom Hall. That list is not including halls that need repaired or remodeled. For instance, our Kingdom Hall was built it the 1970's when the average meeting attendance was 30. At the last Sunday meeting, we had 150 show up. Imagine trying to fit that many people into a space about the size of the Library/Utility room in the North Athens hall. That is what the brothers and sisters in Hopetown have been dealing with for years.
In addition to Kingdom Halls, the branch has purchased land to build Guyana's first Assembly Hall. They've had the land for over 5 years now. But it hasn't been built. Why?
Not enough brothers experienced in construction. They've got the money for it, but not the hands.
Now, all this isn't even mentioning the help Suriname needs (in the fields of Chinese, Portugese, Sranan Tonga, Surimese Sign Language, ect.)
That's it for today. But I hope this information helps. There are so many ways you can help in not only this country, but anywhere. Just ask.
It's not that hard....
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Q & A
I've had several questions asked, through blog comments and through e-mails, so I thought I'd use this as a chance to answer those questions. First up:
How Do You Get to the Meetings?
Mini-Buses. Since most people in the country don't have personal cars, a huge throng of buses have popped up. Sadly, because there's so many of these, there's usually competition between the drivers as they try to pick up a passenger. In some places they'll literally grab you and throw you on their bus. That's primarily just in the capital, so it's not something I have to deal with a lot.
Usually the fare for one of these is 50 cents U.S, so it's fairly cheap to get a ride. Speaking of 50 cents, that brings us to the next question.
What Is the Currency?
They use the Guyana dollar, which is actually a very weak currency. The current rate is approximately $200 Guyana dollars (GYD) to $1 U.S.
The largest bill is the $1,000 GYD. So really, a five dollar bill is the largest.
Try paying one month rent in $5. That makes for a large stack of money.
Who Put the Bomp in the Bomp-ba-bomp-ba-bomp?
-Barry Mann. It is a Doo-Wop style hit song from 1961 co-written (with Gerry Goffin) and recorded by Barry Mann. He was backed up by The Halos[1], who had previously backed up Curtis Lee on the song "Pretty Little Angel Eyes". The song was originally released as a single on the ABC-Paramount label
How Do You Get to the Meetings?
Mini-Buses. Since most people in the country don't have personal cars, a huge throng of buses have popped up. Sadly, because there's so many of these, there's usually competition between the drivers as they try to pick up a passenger. In some places they'll literally grab you and throw you on their bus. That's primarily just in the capital, so it's not something I have to deal with a lot.
Usually the fare for one of these is 50 cents U.S, so it's fairly cheap to get a ride. Speaking of 50 cents, that brings us to the next question.
What Is the Currency?
They use the Guyana dollar, which is actually a very weak currency. The current rate is approximately $200 Guyana dollars (GYD) to $1 U.S.
The largest bill is the $1,000 GYD. So really, a five dollar bill is the largest.
Try paying one month rent in $5. That makes for a large stack of money.
Who Put the Bomp in the Bomp-ba-bomp-ba-bomp?
-Barry Mann. It is a Doo-Wop style hit song from 1961 co-written (with Gerry Goffin) and recorded by Barry Mann. He was backed up by The Halos[1], who had previously backed up Curtis Lee on the song "Pretty Little Angel Eyes". The song was originally released as a single on the ABC-Paramount label
Thursday, December 23, 2010
The Past Week...
This week has proved to be very interesting. First up:
Hopetown/Paradise Congregation Pioneer Meeting
The Hopetown congregation is now up to 13 regular pioneers (woo-hoo!). However, our neighboring congregation, Paradise, has only 4. So when it came time for our congregation pioneer meeting, we had a joint meeting with us and Paradise.
The following Sunday, Micaiah was giving the Public Talk in their congregation. But before I get to that....
More White People!
The pioneer meeting was on Wednesday. Friday we went into the capital, Georgetown, to pick up not one, but two new brothers. One was Levi Schultz, who's Micaiah's cousin.
See the resemblance?
The other is named Sage. I'm unsure about the spelling of the last name, but it's pronounced "Lam-row" (I think it's spelled like Lamreaux or something French-ish. Odd since he's from Tennessee.)
He's usually a lot happier than this. Maybe I had something in my teeth when I took this picture.
They came Friday night/Saturday morning, and then they went with us to Paradise on Sunday. It's a small congregation (about forty publishers) but they have a great Kingdom Hall.
And Now For Some Really Fun Stuff
We did two things this week that were fun enough they deserve a blog entry. First was a congregation party on the beach. Directions to the beach/Atlantic Ocean from where we are: Turn left, and walk for three minutes.
A variety of things that we did there:
Played cricket (sadly, I have learned how to play cricket)
Played a popular Guyana game called "Dog and Bone" (it involves running, tackling, and pain. A lot like American Football.)
Learned how to Wave Surf (that was fun)
And we did this...
Another recent event: We went over into Rosignol (the bordering congregation on the OTHER side) to have dinner with a need-greater couple named Travis and Kristen. Come to think of it, I don't know their last names.
Is it just me, or is this a recurring problem?
A picture of them from the Circuit Assembly. They're the two on the right. The guy on the left is Mark, and he used to be in Hopetown, but that's a story for another time.
That's all I have for this time. However, I'd like to leave you with an inspiring picture:
Hopetown/Paradise Congregation Pioneer Meeting
The Hopetown congregation is now up to 13 regular pioneers (woo-hoo!). However, our neighboring congregation, Paradise, has only 4. So when it came time for our congregation pioneer meeting, we had a joint meeting with us and Paradise.
The following Sunday, Micaiah was giving the Public Talk in their congregation. But before I get to that....
More White People!
The pioneer meeting was on Wednesday. Friday we went into the capital, Georgetown, to pick up not one, but two new brothers. One was Levi Schultz, who's Micaiah's cousin.
The other is named Sage. I'm unsure about the spelling of the last name, but it's pronounced "Lam-row" (I think it's spelled like Lamreaux or something French-ish. Odd since he's from Tennessee.)
They came Friday night/Saturday morning, and then they went with us to Paradise on Sunday. It's a small congregation (about forty publishers) but they have a great Kingdom Hall.
And Now For Some Really Fun Stuff
We did two things this week that were fun enough they deserve a blog entry. First was a congregation party on the beach. Directions to the beach/Atlantic Ocean from where we are: Turn left, and walk for three minutes.
A variety of things that we did there:
Played cricket (sadly, I have learned how to play cricket)
Played a popular Guyana game called "Dog and Bone" (it involves running, tackling, and pain. A lot like American Football.)
Learned how to Wave Surf (that was fun)
And we did this...
Another recent event: We went over into Rosignol (the bordering congregation on the OTHER side) to have dinner with a need-greater couple named Travis and Kristen. Come to think of it, I don't know their last names.
Is it just me, or is this a recurring problem?
That's all I have for this time. However, I'd like to leave you with an inspiring picture:
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
A Typical Day
For reasons that take waaay too long to explain, I don't have any pictures to share with you.
On Sunday morning when I woke up, I decided I was just going to record what happened on that day and use that as my blog post. Fortunately, the day turned out very well!
Woke up around 7:30, went into the living room, plopped in the hammock we have hanging there, and remembered I had forgotten to study the Watchtower the previous night. So I spent about forty minutes going over that, and then ate breakfast (which Micaiah had made while I was studying).'
From there, went to the hall for the meeting. I don't recall the name of the speaker, but his theme was "Decisions You Face" (there was more to the name than that, but I forget)
Following the meeting is what has turned out to be the best part of the week: Sunday afternoon field service! We meet in a little covered area behind the Kingdom Hall to have the meeting. After field service, me and Dan (who it turns out has a last name! Something like Grazier....) went to see some return visits we had. For a while, it was very uneventful, until we got to ther last two calls of the day.
The first was Dan's, and we didn't actually get his call home. Instead, we got his Dad. Apparently, he's a Hindu, so we spent about a half hour talking to him about the Bible. During which he gave us things from his garden to eat while talking (the Papaya was the best, but the cucumber was good too)
After that call we saw some ominous rain clouds gathering, so we considered high-tailing it out. But then I remembered a call I had gotten just a few days before that was down the road so we went ahead and went to the call.
Good thing we did!
I had only talked to this man once before. We was busy, so I left him with the "Life In a Peaceful New World" tract, and asked "What do we need to do to be there in that world?"
When I returned, he had a torrent of questions for us, mostly regarding how the tract talked about Paradise earth, while preachers always refer to going to heaven.
After about one full hour of this, he says "You know what, I'm kind of busy right now. Maybe what you guys need to do is come over here sometime, spend about an hour, and explain the Bible to me."
Ummmm.... okay!
Then I made the mistake of saying "When would work for you? I have a very open schedule."
The time he picks: One hour before our meeting Thursday night.
So now we get to see if me and Dan manage to pull this off.
_________________________________________________
In recent news, we have yet another need-greater coming to Hopetown on Friday: His name's Levi,a dn he's Micaiah Young's older cousin. This will actually be his third visit (I think. Maybe just second), and he'll likely stay about a month.
And he's bringing us a projector!
And that's all that I can think of in recent news. Next time I hope to have pictures.
On Sunday morning when I woke up, I decided I was just going to record what happened on that day and use that as my blog post. Fortunately, the day turned out very well!
Woke up around 7:30, went into the living room, plopped in the hammock we have hanging there, and remembered I had forgotten to study the Watchtower the previous night. So I spent about forty minutes going over that, and then ate breakfast (which Micaiah had made while I was studying).'
From there, went to the hall for the meeting. I don't recall the name of the speaker, but his theme was "Decisions You Face" (there was more to the name than that, but I forget)
Following the meeting is what has turned out to be the best part of the week: Sunday afternoon field service! We meet in a little covered area behind the Kingdom Hall to have the meeting. After field service, me and Dan (who it turns out has a last name! Something like Grazier....) went to see some return visits we had. For a while, it was very uneventful, until we got to ther last two calls of the day.
The first was Dan's, and we didn't actually get his call home. Instead, we got his Dad. Apparently, he's a Hindu, so we spent about a half hour talking to him about the Bible. During which he gave us things from his garden to eat while talking (the Papaya was the best, but the cucumber was good too)
After that call we saw some ominous rain clouds gathering, so we considered high-tailing it out. But then I remembered a call I had gotten just a few days before that was down the road so we went ahead and went to the call.
Good thing we did!
I had only talked to this man once before. We was busy, so I left him with the "Life In a Peaceful New World" tract, and asked "What do we need to do to be there in that world?"
When I returned, he had a torrent of questions for us, mostly regarding how the tract talked about Paradise earth, while preachers always refer to going to heaven.
After about one full hour of this, he says "You know what, I'm kind of busy right now. Maybe what you guys need to do is come over here sometime, spend about an hour, and explain the Bible to me."
Ummmm.... okay!
Then I made the mistake of saying "When would work for you? I have a very open schedule."
The time he picks: One hour before our meeting Thursday night.
So now we get to see if me and Dan manage to pull this off.
_________________________________________________
In recent news, we have yet another need-greater coming to Hopetown on Friday: His name's Levi,a dn he's Micaiah Young's older cousin. This will actually be his third visit (I think. Maybe just second), and he'll likely stay about a month.
And he's bringing us a projector!
And that's all that I can think of in recent news. Next time I hope to have pictures.
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