(Note To Self: Come Up With Snappy Title For This Blog Entry Later On, Because For Some Reason No Good Title Springs to Mind Immediately, and I Certainly Can't Leave It as Long as This)

Between the comments I've received on this blog and the e-mails I've received, it seems there are four specific things people are mostly wondering about. I'll tackle these one by one, in order of how much people ask about them.

1. What kind of food do you eat?

Awesome food, that's what. Between the mix of Guyanese versions of food I'm familiar with and the stuff that exists nowhere else, I rarely will find food in Guyana I don't like.

The building blocks of the Guyana diet are rice and variations of bread, mostly roti and bake. For example, here's what I'm currently eating.

The rice is fried with onions and garlic, okra, and a super hot pepper called Wiri (pronounced 'weary'). The thing that looks like a burrito with a birth mark is Roti, which is made by mixing together flour, baking powder and a hint of salt. Ask you mix it together you slowly pour in water and a touch of oil. Knead it all together, roll in into a couple pieces, and cook each one separately with butter. The amount of butter is left to the chef's personal taste.

And yes, I made this. Just sayin'....

One thing that's rather unfortunate is there's some food I've learned to make here that is quite impossible for me to make elsewhere, due to there being some foods that grow here that don't grow in in the States, and which I can't even think of something similar. For example, there's...

Sorel! This thing is cool, because it's all leaves growing around a seed in the middle. It's also known as 'Bitter' by some people because of how when you bite it first, there's a bitter taste, but then it slowly becomes sweet in your mouth.

This is what it looks like if you peel off some of the leaves to reveal the seed inside.
Actually, one great thing to do with the sorel is yoink off the leaves and toss them in a tea kettle. Sorel tea. Awesome stuff.


There also happens to be a crazy assortment of fruits and things here. One of my personal favorites which sadly just went out of season is called Padoo.

This thing is small (as you can see) but the way you eat it is tons of fun. See, first you bite the outer skin/shell open a little bit...

Then you suck out a little gooey piece that's inside.

But hands down my favorite food in Guyana is Bake. It's like their version of a doughnut. And one of the sisters who lives here makes the best Bake ever!

Time to move on, I'm drooling now.


2. How are your studies going? How many do you have?

I have quite a few. In fact, starting studies is not the difficult thing here. The hard thing is finding them home regularly. Many of the people in Orealla work on the river, or off in the jungle, so they'll be gone for days or a week on end with no warning, and no idea when they'll be leaving or coming back or whatever.

However, the two calls I have that I'm most excited about are named Alistair and Charles. To speak of Alistair first...

I met a woman at the Kingdom Hall dedication a few weeks ago who had just begun studying, and she said she wished someone could study with her husband. So she asked me to go, I went, I set up a study with the man, and asked when I should come back to start it. He says "Well, I'm busy today. How about tomorrow?"

So I did. Next day after he got off work (school teacher, so fairly easy schedule to keep up with) I went over and found him on his porch reading the Teach book. So we chat for a moment and then begin the study. But here's what really impressed me - we read the paragraph, I ask the question, and he closes the book, looks up, thinks for about 30 seconds, then answers. In his own words.

Next paragraph, same thing. Close the book, look up, think, answer. So we go through this for nine paragraphs in chapter one, at which point we reach that little segment that references chapter 11, "Why Does God Allow Suffering?" and Alistair stops me and says "Actually, could we jump ahead and look at that one?"

So we jump ahead and cover fourteen paragraphs of that. I especially loved covering that with him since it uses the illustration of a schoolteacher watching a rebellious student, so that seemed to go well with him.

In fact, during the first study as we were covering that segment, the sister who studies with his wife showed up. I ask her what she's doing there, and she says she's there to study with the wife. I was honestly a little surprised she was there, since she knew I was going to be studying with him. So I ask why she's come if she knew I was coming at 3 PM.

She replies "Well, it's 4:45 now...."

So we wrapped up the study fairly quickly, and then I ask Alistair when I can come back. He says "Same time tomorrow?"

And it's gone pretty much like that since then. Moving on to Charles now....

I was going door to door with Lennox Johnston and Zandile (who I have now learned is being nice and just giving us a nickname. The full name is pronounced something along the lines of Ntombezandile Mlityehlwa) when we came across a man named Charles. He listens through the presentation quietly, and as I'm wrapping up he says "I have one of your books, but there's something I'm wondering about it. Something I don't understand in it." So I tell him bring the book and we'll talk about it.

He comes down a minute later with a Live Forever book. Like, that one from the 80's or whenever that was.
He opens to a page about Armageddon and says "There's this thing in here about Generations...."

(groan)

"...and it says the people who were alive during 1914 would live to see the end. But now it's 2014, a hundred years later! There can't be too many people still alive from 1914. Am I misunderstanding something or is this just wrong?"

So I say "Basically, it's wrong. Let me come back in a few days and explain..."

I came back that Sunday and explained generations as best I could. Wasn't easy. And so I finish explaining it to the best of my ability, after which he pauses and asks "Okay, so how did you arrive at 1914? It never specifically says 1914 in the Bible."

So I say "Let me come back in a few days and explain..."

We've now gone through generations, 1914, Tartarus, and why demons were still allowed in heaven even after sinning and misleading and marrying human women and etc etc etc. I keep telling him things will be easier to explain if we just go through a book or something bit by bit, but so far no success. But if nothing else, it's a really really great call for getting research projects.


3. You said something about you have another brother with you. Who?

For my first three weeks in Orealla there was a special pioneer brother named Kojo Burgan who's lived here for two years now, but he got accepted to the Bible School for Single Brothers in Trinidad (which is actually the reason I got assigned here, so there wouldn't just be one appointed brother in the congregation). After Kojo left, which was the day after the Dedication, then I was alone for a few more weeks, at which point a brother in Brighton came to give a talk, but loved it here so much he decided to stay for a little while longer. He'll be here until our Circuit Assembly, which is March 15-16, after which he'll be somewhere else for a little while.

His name is Dustin Reynolds and he hails from some dinky town in Oregon USA. He's a former Bethelite, MTS grad, and now Guyana need-greater. Impressive resume. We've bonded over Bethel stories, sharing tales of our own first few days in Guyana, and a mutual love for totally random topics of conversation.

Recent conversations have been hobo culture and music during the Great Depression, how centrifugal force cannot be used to harness energy, emergency helicopter repair, the history of the Arawak language, and how to build nose flutes out of bamboo. So yeah, we're getting along peachy.

Dustin in our first bamboo nose flute attempt.




4.  Is there some way I could get an awesome souvenir from Orealla, while also somehow helping a sister there to be able to get a new concrete job done on her house? And while we're at it, have any small children taken a picture of you singing a passionate rendition of Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots??

I am pleased to say the answers are yes and yes! In regard to the souvenirs things...

The Amerindians are actually the ones who invented the hammock, and they way they did it is way more awesome than any other method. But unlike many old-timey arts, the original art of Amerindian hammock making is very much alive. Even here in Orealla, they'll make genuine handmade hammocks out of handpicked cotton. It's an incredible sight to see.

They begin with the cotton...

They roll it into super super fine threads....

Which they then have to stretch out onto a loom. This of course takes lots and lots of cotton...

After working with this and weaving with this stuff, eventually over time they'll have a fully formed, all cotton hammock.

The whole process is quite labor intensive and can take up to or even over a year.

The reason I bring this up is that there's a sister here who does this pretty much professionally, and currently has three hammocks available for sale. Due to the amount of labor, they cost anywhere between $200-400 US. Now, I'm not trying to use this blog to hock stuff, but this is just such a neat item I wanted to go ahead and toss this one thing out to see if anyone wanted one. These things are ridiculously comfortable.

Now finally, you'll be very happy to hear that yes indeed, a small child has taken a photo of me passionately singing Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots.

And on that note I'm done. This coming week has lots of cool stuff to look forward to though! On Saturday we're doing a boat preaching trip up the river, and supposedly having a few more visitors (MORE??!), so there shall be an abundance of cool pics and stuff with that!

Road To Apoera

Every now and then I find myself in a situation that baffles me. For instance, I woke up a recent morning and thought I would have a normal day. Go in service, wash some clothes, find a new way to ruin rice, etc. A few hours later I found myself in a swamp in Suriname, in the bed of a pickup truck with two guys from Holland I just met, as we all sang "Iris" by Goo Goo Dolls together and a turtle tried biting our feet.

Lemme explain.

The closest congregation to us in Orealla is not in Guyana at all. Its name is Apoera (pronounced Ah-poor-ah), and it is very similar to our own congregation. Nestled deep in the woods of Suriname, it's an English congregation (Suriname is mostly Dutch), and it has eighteen publishers and two appointed brothers. Naturally, they're very excited about receiving any visitors whatsoever.

I learned about Apoera in better detail when some people from that congregation came along for our dedication a few weeks back. They invited me to come visit, give a talk, etc, but I kind of brushed it off. When am I going to be visiting Suriname again, for long enough to travel all the way there and back??

It turned out to be much sooner than I thought.

Recently it came to my attention that a small group of publishers from my congregation was going to be visiting a large waterfall near Apoera called the Blanche-Marie. It turns out that this area is accessible to us by a short 2 hour boat ride, and you don't even need a passport to visit (due to it being an Indian village). They had even called one of the brothers from Apoera and got invited to stay in his home while they were visiting! They planned to Saturday to the falls, and then Sunday to the meeting, and then almost immediately after come back home to Orealla. Kindly, they invited me along too.

It was an amazing place. Considering how remote the area was, it was incredibly comfortable. Never mind the fact we packed eleven people in there. The two who technically "live there" is a special pioneer couple named Ramano and Tryfosa, but they also had two brothers from Holland staying with them for a short while. Add to that the seven of us from Orealla, and you have quite a crew.

This here is a game known as Spade of Seven. Quite good.

The accent of a Dutch person speaking English is unique. Especially considering the two from Holland were still struggling some with English, so it led to some misunderstandings. I'm pretty sure they think I'm from England, despite telling them a few times I was born in the USA.

Anyway, after some initial meeting and greeting, we set about for Blanche-Marie. The road looked like this.

After which it became this.

Or as I called it, "Thunder Road". Just 'cause.

And thus I found myself in the bed of a pickup going through a swamp singing Goo Goo Dolls. We had the Holland brothers coming along with us, so...

Also I present to you, my first ever selfie.

So we drove along this for several hours trying very hard to not fall out the back of the truck - there was a lot of hills and mud and sliding about and things. All along the way there, we found ourselves passing by the skeleton frames of burned out Chevrolets (or whatever they drive here). Very reassuring. I got to the point of beginning to wonder if it was worth it, but the driver had a serious "No Surrender" attitude.

Anyway, after a few hours of passing through dense jungleland, we arrived at Blanche-Marie!
It was just.... whoa.

This place was huge. So it was awesome being able to go there. And also see how much of it you can climb up without falling down.


A major difference between these places and the U.S... in the United States, this would be heavily roped off with people keeping strict watch to make sure you don't go near it, for fear of you hurting yourself and suing them.

Here, they have exactly one safety precaution. Whatsoever might that be??

That, my friends, is one lone rope stretched across the river, because in that spot the current is so strong you literally cannot swim in it. So they have a rope to help you across, or to catch yourself on if you've lost control.

Why couldn't we have had something like this in my hometown?

So eventually we finished up there and headed through the badlands again to get back to Ramano and Tryfosa's place for the night. Which brings us to Sunday morning...

This was my cup while I was there. I don't much care for tea, but it was worth it just so I could use this cup both mornings.


But leaving aside my awesome cup, I was very excited to be able to give a public talk in Suriname, partly due to it being a new experience, partly because it gave the two brothers a break, but also because in Suriname you don't wear a jacket. There's a picture somewhere of me doing the talk, but I haven't yet tracked down who took it yet, but rest assured I will find that picture.

Also, in case I haven't expounded on this before, this how you spend Sunday afternoon in both Guyana and Suriname...

So all in all it was a great experience. After the meeting and some thorough napping, we then had to fetch a car to get us to the dock where a boat was waiting to take us back to Orealla. Of course, by time we actually made it back it was very dark, but you can always tell where it is as night. See, we don't have a source of electricity here, but around the docks there's an abundance of places with generators, so the middle of the village lights up like a.... I dunno, thing that lights up big. Of course, this does leave a lot of darkness on the edge of town, but I imagine everyone's used to that by now.

On that note however, we have a village generator, it's just not hooked up yet and running yet (they had one before as well, but it fried).


Well, I suppose that about wraps it up for now. I'm probably forgetting something, but someone will let me know soon I imagine. But for now I'll stop here, and in lieu of wise parting words, I'll share a picture a six year old sister named Phoebe got of me as we were waiting on the boat.

Orealla Dedication

Weesa back! Thanks to a handy dandy new phone, I can now get internet 24/7 in my home in Orealla. I can also set up a wireless hotspot which allows me to use my laptop, which is much much easier to type on (not to mention uploading pictures is easier too)!

There is a limit on the amount of data I can use, so video conferencing is probably out of the question, but e-mailing and Gmail chat and all that is totally doable.

But anyway, you didn't come here to read about my phone (or maybe you did, who knows?). Obviously the thing you're asking is "So what about the Dedication you were talking about last time??" Well, you will be happy to know I have gobs and gobs of pictures and stories to share about it. Let's begin with the guests, shall we?

First was of course the C.O. couple we had, Walter and Shawn West. They are Jamaican Gilead graduates, served and the Guyana branch while it was in operation, and were in the District work until we came under the Trinidad branch.

Next set of guests in our house was Joshua and Dian Dorris. Interesting backstory to them, Joshua was the first friend I ever made in Guyana (I mean, aside from Tom and Michelle, Mike and Lara, etc. He was the first Guyanese friend I made in Guyana). Shortly after that, I met Dian when I went to Fyrish with Micaiah, and afterward I went out in service with her. A while after that, they got married, and so it was a neat experience seeing them both again, and having them staying with us in our house.

(Joshua and Dian are the ones that are not small children)


They also had a few others from Fyrish who came along with them. There were so many people that weekend that they wound up having to sleep on the floor of the Kingdom Hall. I've included a photo simply for the awwww factor.

Joshua and his crew were very popular at the Dedication. Many years ago Joshua had been assigned to Orealla, so almost all the village knows him and were very excited for his return. Another brother who was in very high demand for this event was Jethro Rübenhagen. He was heavily involved in the preaching work there in the 1980's and 90's, and was also integral in the building of the first Orealla Kingdom Hall (seen in the 2005 Yearbook, actually!)

You see, Orealla was for a long time under the Suriname branch, so when the preaching work first opened up here, missionaries from Suriname are the ones who were sent in. You can read more about it in the 1990 Yearbook about Suriname. Yes, there is in fact a substantial section about Orealla in the Yearbook about Suriname. It's amazing. Read it.

Anyway, here's a picture of Jethro along with a local brother named Mark Herman.

And pretty much the whole Suriname bunch that came in for the program!!

After the program was over and it was time for the Suriname crew to head home, everyone gathered along with coastline to say goodbye to them as they left.

Of course, that wasn't the end of our week. This was a Saturday, so Sunday morning we still had the rest of the Circuit Overseer visit. In attendance we had.... uh, I really have no idea. Here was the crowd there.

Bear in mind we have 27 publishers.

And that was the exciting stuff then. Since that week, there's been a few other things that are of interest, but I'll save them for next time. One of the things I'll be covering is a new pseudo-roommate. He'll  be here for two weeks, but I have yet to get a picture of him. So as I said, next time.

Aloha From Orealla!!

Hello ladies and gentlemen. I am writing you from my living room in Orealla, using my computer, and am online! W00t!

If you're curious at all about what's been happening with me in the last two or three weeks, I can summarize very briefly: I have never been so tired in my life. But in a good way.

See, the congregation here has two elders and no ministerial servants. And one of those elders will be leaving in four days to attend Bible School For Single Brothers (the last one!) in Trinidad. Due to this, the congregation said they've been praying for someone else to get sent here to help out while the brother is away. I must say, realizing I'm here because a congregation was praying for it is one of the most humbling realizations of my life.

Now, because there's so much to cover, I'll split the information up in three segments:





1. My House


The house I'm is amazing. It's built on the same lot as the Kingdom Hall, so I walk out the house's front door and into the Hall's back door. It has solar panels, a generator, and two large water tanks, so electricity and running water are never a concern. It's two story, with a bedroom downstairs along with bathrooms (three of them, which are used for the Kingdom Hall as well) and the shower, along with the laundry spot.

Which is just plastic tubs that you drag into the shower, but nonetheless...

Upstairs are two bedrooms, plus kitchen, living room, and dining room.

It's a heap better than the house me and Micaiah shared for a while. Dusty, rat infested mess.

Speaking of...

I did see Micaiah recently, and his new house is quite nice. He has internet in his house that's fast enough he can watch Netflix. But I'm getting sidetracked.


2. The Congregation

As I said, we have two elders in Orealla - Lennox Johnston, who is a native; and Kojo Burgan, who used to serve at the Guyana branch before they merged with Trinidad. After that, he got assigned here. He's my roommate until he leaves for the School for Brothers.

Left, Lennox Johnston. Right, Kojo Burgan

We also have seven people serving as either Regular or Regular Auxiliary Pioneers.

Left to right: Lennox Johnston, Josh Westfall, Kojo Burgan, Ntombe Zandile (need-greater sister from South Africa), Neeta Peneux, Janet Hendricks, and a pioneer visiting us from Skeldon congregation whose name I have since forgotten.






3. Field Service

Wow, where do I begin? I think the best way to describe the field is with an example of field service from this morning. I placed an Isaiah's Prophecy book. In door to door. On the initial call. And then at the next door, I did it again!

Plus, I already have three Bible studies. One of these began this way: I was doing door to door and a man I met listened to the presentation, and at the end of it said "You know, I have a book from your people, but there's something I was wondering about with it." I say okay, get the book and we'll talk about it.

He comes back with a Live Forever book and opens to a part that talks about 1914. "Now this says something about a generation that's alive during 1914 would see the end. But it's 2014 now, 100 years later! Surely there can't be many of those people still alive, right?"

Yup. So I did the best I could to answer about the revisions and such, but finally arranged to return and explain in more detail.

Also, going on Bible studies here is simply the best. Not only because most people are serious students and really try to learn, but also because of this...

On the bench is Kojo and his young student Robert Hendricks. In the hammock is my feet and my tote bag.

Close-up of Robert, along with me in the hammock with my tote. I've got a thing for totes.


Another recent addition to the preaching work in Orealla... see if you recognize what this is.

Public witnessing hits Orealla! We have no posters for it yet, but we've got enough literature packed in it to grab attention.


Two more awesome recent occurrences are...
1. Our circuit overseer visit. Walter West and his wife Shawn, who are Gilead graduates from Jamaica who are now in the circuit work. One of the best parts of this is that they're staying in me and Kojo's house, so we're getting gobs of time with them.

(fun factoid: Walter and Shawn went to the same Gilead class as Tom and Michelle Sanches)

The other fun development is...
2. Orealla Kingdom Hall dedication is coming up on Saturday! Despite the fact that the Hall was built eight years ago, our dedication will finally be held Saturday, February 8th. So we've got tons of guests coming in over the weekend for the program. In fact, I have to wrap up soon because in a bit the first of the guests will be coming in, and it's dark out so Kojo and I need to go help them unload off the boats.

So, two final things: I couldn't bring my guitar, so I managed to acquire one here. I present to you, Laura.

The other cool thing is that there are only two other guitar players in the village, one of whom is a brother, and is grandfather to many of our publishers. He's been blind for years now, but still plays a mean guitar.

So, whenever I get back to Ohio and I begin blathering about stuff, slap me in the face and say "I can hear your stories later, now show me the video of Brother Rudolph playing guitar!!"


Aaaaaand the boats are in. Catch you later.