Blog Hijack [Guest Writer, Bruce Westfall]

In the last two days, my father and mother have each arrived for a one month Guyana stay, coming in for our Memorial and until after our upcoming Circuit Assembly. Since I'm in the habit of updating the blog roughly once or twice per month, my father has stepped in to share things from his perspective. So here goes.

-------------------------------

Welcome to the first installment of The Blog Hijack.

Month long trips out of the country require the following:
Long boring waits in airports followed by moments of rushing and panic in airports followed by long boring waits in airports followed by moments of rushing and panic in airports followed by..... Oh. We made it.

I would provide photos of the trip from the airport thru Georgetown, but my fingers were clinched so tightly I would not be able to hold my phone. 

Here is our amazing taxi driver, Brother Nankumar. If I become a movie producer and need a stunt driver, it would definitely be a No Problem job for this incredibly talented man.

You know how you feel on a two lane road and someone decides to pass a large truck in the other lane at the last second?  Panic, right?  Picture that happening every 30 seconds on a 4 hour drive. But it's OK because EVERY SINGLE CAR on the road is driven like that.  I recommend the back seat and close your eyes.

Then the boat ride from skeldon to orealla.  That's another entry.

So, after all that waiting, panic, boredom and terror comes...

The first view you get of Orealla. You can faintly see the chalk hills
off in the distance. The word Orealla is Arawak for "red ore", so named
because of the cliffs.

Paradise.

As soon as the boat docks, we see several brothers waiting for us.  Then the second it is close enough 2 brothers jump on and begin unloading all our stuff. We try to help, but only end up carrying the absolute last little things we can find.

The dock in the heart of the village.

Some of the brothers who arrived to aid with the luggage.
Note to self: Next time bring a wheelbarrow to the airport... and Brother France.).

So, go to the end of the dock, turn left down the main road and in less than 100ft, we see this:

Sister McKenzie, one of the Special Pioneers in the Orealla congregation.

Now just to clarify one point.  The main road is a sand footpath about 6 feet wide.  There are NO CARS in the village.  Foot traffic is the majority, followed by bicycles, men with wheelbarrows, powered scooters, motorcycles and the rare 4 wheeler.  One of which is the Police car.

Everybody smiles and greets you as you pass, you can walk up to any house and take pictures of the macaws in their tree.  If you see a piece of fruit, you take what you can eat right then and all is fine...

Paradise?

I think so.


-----------------------


So there you have it. He'll periodically post blog updates throughout the next few weeks, possibly interspersed with my own. 

But until then, here's another picture he took that didn't necessarily fit into the storyline he'd constructed.

"Welcome.... to Jurassic Park!"