Big Plans and Little Bananas [Bruce Westfall]

Hard to believe it hasn't even been a week since we arrived. Really getting to know the town and congregation well. Here is a rundown of activities so far:

THURSDAY, FRIDAY

Airports and a boat. That's all the energy for that. ( I said I would do a separate post about the boat,but decided not to. Much more fun stuff to talk about.)

SATURDAY

Got to the dock around 7am, unloaded, unpacked. Before we could finish, a boy comes to the house with fresh pastries a sister had made for us. Delicious, of course. About half hour later another boy stops by and asks if we would like to buy some pumpkin. So we got a quarter pumpkin ( not a huge one – a little bigger than a cantelope ) That cost the equivalent of less than a dollar.

We then went for a walk around the village. If you want a map, go to openstreetmaps.com, then search for Orealla. I think it says it is in Suriname, but it is not. Anyway, click that then zoom into the town. No aerial view, just a map. All the way near the bottom is the police station. Joshua lives 2 doors down. If I had to be a policeman, that would be my first choice. The only siren you ever hear is a bird that sounds like a british police car. Bwee-do-bwee-do-bwee-do-bwee-do.

Kingdom Hall is about in the middle. Pretty sure it is labeled too. ( Offline while writing this.) The main boat dock is very near to he hall. All docks are called “stellings”. I mean, what else would you call them??

Along the “main road” are little shops. One place just has eggs, another has snacks, but the main store is called “Carl's” or “the shop”. It is the Orealla equivalent to Walmart. They mostly have what you want and need, but sometimes are out of stuff. Here's a picture:

SUNDAY

Made scrambled eggs and some other thing that is now in the distant past and I cant recall. But it was good too, of course. Then to the meeting at 9:30. Hellos to everyone and names are a blur. Local brother Lennox Johnston (David White likes that name) gave the talk and great participation at the watchtower study. 60 in attendance with 33 publishers.

Came home ( for ease of description, of course), had a quick lunch, gave the hammocks a real workout, then back to the hall for the broadcast at 6pm. Around 30 people showed up for that. Charles and Pamela Chacon ( pronounced Chalk In ) handed us a bag with dinner that was still hot and fresh. Sorry, no pictures, but more yummy stuff. Apparently we looked very hungry because Brother and sister MacKenzie handed us a tote bag with breakfast for the next day.

MONDAY

Ate previously mentioned breakfast. Southeast Ohio and the rest of the country could learn from the following. Every Monday a large percentage of the village spends the day cleaning up. Picking up trash, hacking down overgrown lots and other types of upkeep. I must admit, if Joshua had not warned me ahead of time, I could have really been worried sitting in the hammock drinking coffee and snacking on the breakfast remnants when I look up and see about 15 people walking toward the house with machetes. It was for the lot next door.

Speaking of cleaning, the congregation met around 9am to clean and do touchup paint at the Hall in preparation for the Memorial. The group kept changing in size but there were always at least 15 there at any time throughout the day. Around 3 oclock was a meeting to coordinate Memorial preparations, then finishing setting up and decorating.

TUESDAY

The Big Day Out. Around 30 friends from the hall including the visiting Memorial speaker and his wife went out to an area called “The Resort” It is a clearing in the jungle with a slow clear little river flowing alongside with shelters and cooking areas, along with a small house that is used by whoever is care taking. Open to anyone in the village that wishes to use it. Takes around an hour to walk there or 15 minutes by motorcycle ( 2 people) or 20+ minutes using an ATV( 5-7 people). ATV's are kind of like an SUV here.

So we all had a great time rowing up and down the river in a dugout canoe, swimmins and splashing, playing with a soccer ball, cards, following a guide thru the jungle as he clears a path with a machete so we can see the howler monkeys ( yes, but too far for a photo to do any good. ) also eating, roasting the largest marshmallows the world has ever seen and just gaffing ( chit chat ). The only issue came when the 4 wheeler that was supposed to be there by 4pm was still not there after 4:30. So we started walking, Some stayed behind a bit hoping the ATV would show up which it finally did. But we fulfilled the scripture “the last will go first and the first will be last.” But it really was a gorgeous walk along the jungle trail and into the savanna, then down to Orealla again.

WEDNESDAY

Meet at the Hall around 8am, get everything organized, make sure we are forgetting nothing and then 6 of us into K-Pro the boat (Kingdom Proclaimer) and off to Siparuta about ½ hour upstream from Orealla. ( Refer back to openstreetmaps – the only site that has not just the towns in the right location, but even the streets are fairly accurate.)

We get there, unload some things at Yanets house and take what is needed to the Health Center to setup for the Memorial there. Once that is done we freshen up, get into service clothes and split up to either finish an area that was partially worked or do return visits. I was working with Geno Chacon (our boat captain and a quiet humble man who can do nearly everything.) We approached one house and I was extremely thirsty. Some children were washing something off at an outside faucet and I asked if I could get some water. The lady looked confused at me so I asked “Can I fill up my water bottle here?” She said of course I could with the puzzled look of someone when you ask if you could breathe oxygen in their presence. The only people who did not take the invitation were ones who already had one.

Setting up for Memorial. Had plenty of posters to cover up at the Health Centre.

Then back to Yanets house, relax a bit with that incredible breeze that is almost constantly blowing and get fed more food than I could eat. Finally time for Memorial clothes and we walk the very short distance there. As time approaches, 2 women show up, one of whom is studying and was expected to be at the congregation farther south and across the river in Apoera, Suriname. She was worried about the sister who studied with her not knowing where she was. I'm sure she has found out by now. By the time to start 8 had shown up, with 5 more coming slightly late and 3 who were very sad as they got there as the closing prayer finished. It's OK, we talked to them for another 20 minutes. We all felt it was a fine turnout for the first Memorial scheduled with invitations and all. 14 years ago, 2 brothers do go and did the Memorial in Siparuta since a visiting speaker was coming to Orealla to give their talk. 6 showed up then. Next year will be better since it was a Hindu holiday and soccer (Editor's Note: Football. It's football) tournaments were going on all day long.

So, pack up, back on the boat with calm smooth water and an amazing full moon lighting the way.

THURSDAY

Wakeup, start some coffee on the gas stove, then off to borrow the Toyota Pickup of Orealla, the wheelbarrow. Neighbor by the water who repairs boats is not home, so walk down the road about 3 houses away to ask the Miguels ( Queeneth and Kates family ) but it is currently out to bring home a load of cassava. So over towards the hall and up 2 streets to check with Chacons and success! They give Carol some peppers, then next door to buy Corrillia ( wrong spelling I'm sure) and Okra from Allen. I ask how much it would be and he says “lemme see what I have”. Comes back with 8 of these and 8 okra. A dollar.

Next stop is The Mall. So at Carl's we get 2 water bottles, baking powder, some cookies and a few other things. Heading home we stop at a house that raises chickens and get 6 eggs. Pretty sure the grand total was less then a happy meal.

Return the wheelbarrow, then back home and start cleaning, cooking and laundry.

FRIDAY

Field Service! Breakfast of okra, onions, eggs and rice. And several cups of coffee.

Then we get ready and meet at the Hall at 9. Or that was the plan. Joshua left first since he was leading the group. Carol and I were getting our service bags together and running a bit behind, but finally got out the door. A breezy cool cloudy morning. Partway to the hall the sun peeked thru and scorched off a layer of my skin reminding me I forgot my hat. It is a very necessary thing here for a freckled old man. So back to the house for that and got to the meeting in time for closing prayer.

HAT!!

Had about 15 meet. Some went to the upper part of town – uphill. The majority worked downhill, the main part of town and a couple did the cart. Our group went to the farthest south part of town finishing a few houses that had not been worked.

Since the Memorial was Wednesday, the mid week meeting is tonight, but all I got assigned was to be a householder. That is a new record here for a visitor, I believe. So now post a blog, say hello to all and get ready for the meeting. Been a busy week and all 3 of us are worn out.

Oh yes, Little Bananas. Here they are.

"Ladyfingers" as the Arawak call them.

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Editor's Note: I may possibly post something of my own soon. Or not.

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.


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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!"

Preparations For Memorial

Big, big, big news this time around! After years of trying, we've finally been able to establish something for this year. Namely, two Memorial observations! One in Orealla, and a second simultaneous one in our neighbor village Siparuta. This has been impossible up to now due to the severe lack of brothers in our area (and in all the other congregations in Guyana) so we could barely even cover all the responsibilities for one Memorial. This year however, we've been able to snag someone from overseas to come in to aid us. Fella named Bruce Westfall, not sure if that'll ring a bell for anyone.

Even this though, we weren't sure would cover it, until finally all the brothers involved agreed to go ahead and pitch in even more so than usual so we could still hold both programs at the same time. This will lead to some of us handling three or four assignments at once, but we're confident that we can get it done. Here's hoping! And lots and lots and lots of nonstop praying.

Anyway, we of course need to have an invitation campaign in order to let everyone know what's coming up, and today was the beginning of our Memorial campaign over that side, so here's the stories of what happened.

For starters, the reason we've been so eager to get over there for a Memorial is due to the amazing response we get in the ministry each time we go. We've gone for each Memorial campaign the last three years, and each time the reaction from people was the same.

"It's so hard to get over to Orealla. When are you going to start a Kingdom Hall over here so we can come all the time?"

I'm not even joking about that. Unfortunately though, only a small handful could make it each time to the Memorial in Orealla. So today, we go with fancy schmancy invitations that listed date and time in two locations. The Orealla Kingdom Hall and the Siparuta Health Centre. The first door I took was Raymond (whom I have spoken of in several previous blog entries on Siparuta), and as I was showing him the invitation, and he immediately recognized what it was. But then after seeing his recognition, I opened it to the inside and pointed out "Not only is it in Orealla this year, but we're having it here in Siparuta too." His eyes popped out of his head (not literally) and he shouted "It's here this year? Finally! I'll be there!"

Next house my partner Geno takes the door. He points out the two locations to the woman, and her eyes pop out and she shouts "It's here this year? Of course I'll come!"

This happened at nearly every single door.

In fact, remember how we were instructed to offer the March Watchtower at any door where they showed interest? Well, that became every house we took. We also showed the Memorial video at about 80% of the houses.

Geno walking away from a house, disappointed at
only placing an invitation and Watchtower.

I pointed this out to him, how at every door we had covered the options for what to do on an initial call during the campaign. Immediately after this we took a house where a man was swinging in a hammock reading a book. As he sees us approaching, he puts his book down and gives us his attention. As Geno talks with the man, I kept getting brief glimpses of the book as the hammock swung. It seemed decidedly small and yellow. Finally my curiosity got the better of me and I asked what book he had. He holds up a copy of What Does the Bible Really Teach? After recovering from my brief shock, I pointed him to pages 206-208 in the appendix on the Lord's Evening Meal and encouraged him to read more on it after we'd left.

"Sigh... only 9 placements at the last 3 doors."

There was also one house where we were invited inside and did the (by this point) usual routine - invite, video, Watchtower, promise to return - and then prepared to leave. The people there looked shocked and brought out a Teach Book and New World Translation and asked "But aren't you going to study with us?"

See, this is why we need to start a Kingdom Hall over there...

On that note, the top priority on each of these trips has become to visit a woman by the name of Yanet. She had lived in Suriname before and nearly become a publisher when her husband's work moved them back to Siparuta, their original home. Thus being away from a congregation for so long she wasn't able to progress further, much to her own disappointment. She's in fact the one in Siparuta who's helping to put the Memorial together. She works at the Health Centre there and was the one able to secure it for us as the site for the meeting. So after we finished covering the village (the whole village, top to bottom) today, she took us all over so we could take a better look at it and see what would be needed in preparation.

Note to dad: Memorize what this place looks like.

As excited as we are to have this set up, it is gonna take a lot of work to get it ready. Since it's a Health Centre and not exactly built for public speaking, we'll need to set up a basic sound system and find a way to get a lot more chairs. At first we were estimating about a dozen total would be attending the Memorial, which would easily fit on the benches there (which can hold about 25 or so). But after the ridiculous reception of the campaign work today, it could easily get to 40 or more.

Oh yes, and it's mostly outdoor. Has a roof, but still.
(The red hat is the woman helping us, Yanet)

So after getting a good look at the place and figuring out what work needs done, it was time to head back to Orealla. We were absolutely exhausted, but excited about the coming weeks, and happy in a job well done.




In a closing note, yes I reference lots of older posts about trips to Siparuta and all. If you don't feel like digging through a lot of old posts, then use this handy list of links.

My first trip there, September 2010
My second time, with some river witnessing thrown in, January 2011
A very brief mention of a trip there, March 2014
My favorite trip so far, where we re-encountered an old friend, April 2014
The last time we walked to Siparuta, November 2014
Where the saga of Raymond and James begins, May 2015
Further details on Raymond and James, November 2015

Stranded. Sleep Deprivation. Beavers.

Our story so far. I had traveled out to Skeldon for a one day trip in order to print off a territory map, pick up our literature, and download all (or most) of the videos we'll be watching at the meeting for the next month. We reached Skeldon around 3 am and I walked from the dock to the home of a brother who'd offered to let me crash by. I'd intended to sleep, but as soon as I got access to his internet connection I quickly forgot about sleep. After a mere three hours the sun was up and I set about doing all the projects that needed done.

After all had been finished (and I'd had a few leisure minutes) it was near 6 pm and time to get back on the boat.

Here's where the story gets interesting.

After the boat gets loaded and pulls out, we ran aground on (I assume) a sand bank. That was 6:24 pm, Friday. It is now 6:24 am Saturday, and we're still there.

Now I should say, as nice as sleeping on a hammock can be, when you're attempting to do so on an overcrowded boat that keeps getting tossed about in waves (while still somehow managing to NOT get unstuck) sleep is much more difficult. So I'd say at this point I've had a full night's sleep in the last three days.

Further, I'm pretty sure some of the passengers have slowly been losing their minds. I say this because just a few minutes ago I was honored to be audience to a passionately moving rendition of Ed Sheeran's "Thinking Out Loud" wherein one word each line was replaced by the word "beavers". Amazingly, I'm not making this up.


So beaver now
Take me into your beaver arms
Kiss me under the light of a beaver star

'Cause beaver I'll be
Loving beavers til I'm 70

And so on.

Rumor has it we'll be leaving soon-ish when the water level rises high enough again for us to float and continue down the river more.

Which I like the sound of. After 12 hours I know the interior of this boat better than I ever thought I would.

So beaver now
Take me into your beaver arms

Quick Trip Upriver

The last update on this blog focused on one of the wonderful new uses of our congregation boat, namely being able to exchange speakers with our neighboring congregation in Suriname. This time though, we shall dwell on the other new thing our boat allows us to do.

See, up to this point we've been using the Kingdom Proclaimer VII to reach the second village in our territory, Siparuta. However, between those villages there are houses and farms and work camps scattered along the river, along with even more up river. Those places, we have not yet been able to try to reach.

Until now.

Early this morning Brother Chacon and I gathered a good pile of literature and piled into the boat. Two others were originally planning to join us, but then they had Bible studies who requested their presence that same morning. So with just the two of us, we decided to still go ahead and see how many of these houses we could reach.

For a visual aid, here's an idea of where we were going...

In this image, the red dot is Orealla and Siparuta. That's so far all we've worked on the river, despite the fact our territory is everything on the river from Corriverton up top until about halfway down that map. So the goal for this trip was just do the closest houses to Orealla on the way up to Corriverton.

I'm going to say today was a half success. See, we didn't actually cover much distance. Well, we didn't cover hardly any at all. Okay, we did one house.

BUT, the reason we only did one house is because it was a really really really good call. If you look at the picture at the top of this entry, you can see a red roof off in the distance (and you can admire our nice green river. Don't worry, it's only like that immediately after rainy season). As we approached, we saw two people standing in the doorway who had heard the engine approaching. I was startled to realize this man and his wife knew a Bible study I'd had the previous year who apparently has since moved to Kwakwani (another Amerindian village, sorta nearby-ish. Well, head into the savanna, and run through the jungle for about 20+ hours). After talking with them very briefly they invited us inside their home so we could get out of the sun. We sat down on the corner of a large bench inside that wrapped halfway around the inside of the house.

I began the presentation for the January Watchtower on the back cover, asking about death. After reading Ecclesiastes 9:5,6,10 the man asks "Isn't that just about the body though? I thought the soul lives after death." So we read the verse in Ezekiel about the soul that sins dies.

"So then," he asks "Is it the spirit that survives death?" After talking about that a while he says "But if nothing survives death, that what gets sent to Hell?"

We tackle that. "But if Hell isn't a real place," he adds "What's Satan's domain then?"

We show how 1 John says the wicked one controls the world. "So then," comes the next question "Do good people go to Heaven and bad people stay on Earth?"

We remind how at death that's the end of everything, but then show how only certain ones go to Heaven and most will be resurrected on Earth and Satan's influence would be removed.

At this point we realize it's been several hours and he has to get back to work (in fact, we'd been there so long the tide went way down and beached our boat, so he came and helped us lift the boat and get it back in the water). As we're about to leave, he asks "When do you have services?"

"At our Kingdom Hall?" we ask. "Sunday morning 9:30 and Wednesday night at 6:00."

"Okay. I'll come by sometime. And I'd like you to come back here too sometime. We've got more to talk about."

And then I realized I'd only taken one picture the whole day, and
would have to cleverly mirror the image so it would LOOK like
I'd taken a second one. Genius move, I thought.

At this point, the river was quite choppy and we had to return to the village. As much as we wanted to get to some more houses, it was quite simply too dangerous to do. Even just returning back to Orealla, what little distance we'd come, we nearly flipped over twice. But we made it back fine, so now we're making plans for another trip up the river next Tuesday. Only this time we'll leave at a different time so we can avoid the choppy waters, and therefore reach more houses.

Until then!

Visitors From Apoera

This last month has presented us (and I personally) with some interesting new developments. For beginners, with our new boat (Kingdom Proclaimer VII, read all about it!) we've been able to extend not only our territory, but also our realm of visiting speakers. You may recall we have a village near us in Suriname named Apoera, where we're able to travel without visa or passport or any of that nonsense since it's another Amerindian village. Two years back I was able to deliver a public talk there (it being an English congregation) while visiting a nearby waterfall/generally cool place. However, this was a rather isolated event as doing this regularly would get very expensive and involve being away from my congregation for at least three days. Boat schedules and all...

However, with the Kingdom Proclaimer VII we've been able to institute a program of regular speaker exchanges between us and Apoera, which had its inaugural event just this last Sunday. We sent over our COBE McKenzie (along with his wife, plus the son and daughter of another couple and a fifth brother to pilot the boat) while Apoera sent to us their COBE Norah along with a need-greater from another part of Suriname and a need-greater couple visiting from the Netherlands.

Poor photo, sorry, I was confined to the sound booth for the meeting.
Our boat captain is also unfortunately our go-to sound guy, so I got to sub.

Had an awesome time with the four, and afterwards a large group stayed behind at the Kingdom Hall and provided a meal for the guests. They stayed around until after 3 PM, after which they piled back into their boat to return home to Apoera.

I'm unclear if their boat has an awesome name too, but seeing as they're Dutch it'd probably be something like "Ikbeneenverkondigervaneenkoninkrijk Berichtnaariedereennummerzeven".

Of course, the new meeting arrangement has been a huge change for us as well. The biggest concern for us was the matter of there being so many videos with each meeting. We've got a projector with which we've been watching the JW Broadcast videos each month with the whole congregation, but it takes a little while to set up, to tear down the whole stage arrangement to view the video on the back wall, etc etc etc. However, two of our brothers were able to work up a great way to make it all function smoothly and easily.

Brother Chacon, our boat captain, sound guy, and "Hey how do I make this
work oh never mind let me just call Chacon he'll know" guy.

By moving the year text up to the front of the stage, mounting the projector behind it in the ceiling (and upside down so we can reach the power switches) and permanently moving the speaker stand to one side, we're now able to activate the projector and get videos playing in just seconds. Way better than the ten minutes we were taking before.

Testing the video setup. Our two pioneer sisters in the front approve.

A personal change for me which I'm quite pleased with is a water arrangement I now have. I still don't have running water, but I do now have a 55-gallon drum to collect rainwater in!

Hey, for me this is the lap of luxury.

Of course my home has no running water (as most of the houses in the village), but someone had offered to get it for me before. I would involve a large 300+ gallon water tank to collect water and some piping, but all in all wouldn't be too expensive. I thought about this offer for a few moments but quickly declined. Here was my reasoning.

When I first moved to Guyana in 2010, I was in a home that had electricity but no running water. Nearly every day I thought to myself "Man, if only I had running water."

After that I moved into a home with running water but no electricity, and nearly every day I thought to myself "Man, if only I had electricity."

Then I moved to a house that had electricity and running water, and definitely every day I thought to myself "Man, if only I had internet."

Then I got that internet, and every day I thought to myself "Man, if only I had faster internet."

Then I moved into a home with no running water and electricity just four hours a day, and of course every single day I began thinking "Man, if only I had running water".

The lesson I learned: I am never satisfied. So might as well keep myself at the lowest living standard and just accept it.

But having a 55 gallon barrel of rainwater at the bottom of my stairs is very nice. Now instead of running to the river five times a day with buckets, I can just take it to the bottom of my steps. May sound like a small thing, but it's been a huge and fantastic change for me.


One final and random note. I really enjoy learning to live more like an Amerindian. Here's the latest thing I've tried. For a long time when I would mop my floors and steps, I would use some floor-cleaning liquid chemical cancer-causing (probably) thing that I'd buy from Skeldon. But while visiting with one of the families here, I noticed they picked a large amount of fruit called Burambi and smashed it into a bucket, and used the juice to clean the floor with. So, I decided to give it a try!

Burambi + bucket + water...

... + foot = SMASH!

I gave it a try, and was shocked to note that a few spots I'd been trying to remove for weeks came off with zero effort. You can also use these fruit things to polish woodwork with too, plus remove stains from clothes and fabric.

But, that's all I've got for now. Upcoming we've got a few other things, each of which suddenly escape my memory. But until then, vergeef mijn slechte vertaling van nederlands.

A Surprisingly Moving Account of My Stove Running Out of Gas

Ever have one of those weeks (or several) where you feel as though you're forgetting something very important? You check your to-do list, you call everyone you typically have arrangements with, etc, and you're definitely up to date with everything. And yet, something eludes you.

Then you remember, "Oh yeah, I have that blog some people read. Oh, and I haven't added anything in a month and one day? Yikes."

Or maybe that's just me...

Anyway, apologies for the huge delay. Been really busy, yadda yadda. Here's a quick recap.

"One of these things is not like the other..."

After the departure of the Camachos, Charlie and I had another brother come and stay with us a little while, Shane (something) from Grenada. If you recall my mentioning Kojo several times (my former roommate and COBE in Orealla for a time) Shane had attended the final School for Single Brothers with him. He'd heard much about Orealla so decided it was finally time to come see for himself.

As you can see from the picture, he's quite tall. You could always tell when he was coming up the steps because the entire house would begin to rattle.

After a week with him, it came time for Charlie to depart back for Ohio, thus leaving Shane and I. A few days passed uneventfully until a group of my friends from Hopetown congregation (for more on my time in Hopetown, see any blog post written between 2011-2013) came for a visit. As much as I was looking forward to it, it did present a slight problem seeing as five of them were coming, and I have only a two bedroom house. Which already had two occupants.

The whole gang. L-R: Shane, Jehu, Kepler, Jared, Randy, and Aaron.

After some searching I was able to find a house that would take in three of them, then another two in my house. It would be crowded that way, but it would work.

Unfortunately (that word that always pops up when you're discussing well laid plans) when we were coming into Orealla the boat was having some issues, so we weren't even close to the village when the other hosting household was preparing for bed, so the decision was made to simply have all the guys crash in my house that night.

So instead of a tight squeeze of four people in there, we had an incredibly tight squeeze of seven. Two in each room, plus one on each couch and one in a hammock strung in whatever available spot we could find.

Don't get me wrong though, I'm not at all complaining. It was a ton of fun, especially since I hadn't seen these guys in about two years. Plus they were only there from Friday-Sunday (and wound up just all staying in my house the whole time) so it wasn't for long enough for the cramped space to get uncomfortable.

Finally Sunday came, and all five Hopetown boys left, along with Shane. And thus, for the first time since May, my household is just me. I've never experienced this much quiet before.

Hmmm... brief recap of guests in the 11 months I've had this place. Dustin, Chris and Fern, Dale, Neil, Jake, Gavin, Charlie, Michael, Jonatan, Shane, Aaron, Randy, Jared, Kepler, and Jehu.

16. Not bad.


The only downside to the last burst of guests is the gas for my stove ran out. Which isn't surprising at all, but is a major inconvenience in a place like Orealla where the closest place to replace it is an eight hour ride away. Plus also consider the boats only go twice a week, and that's assuming everything is going well.

So here's what happened with me. I know the man who owns Orealla's largest shop pretty well, and he has his own boat with which to ship in goods, so therefore he makes his own schedule when he goes out. I asked if he could take my empty gas cylinder out and replace it (since he'd offered several times before to do so). He agreed, but was unsure when he would be going out next. So this left me with the question of, where would I get food until then?

Around this same time, in my personal Bible reading I got to Romans 10:11 which says "No one who rests his faith on him will be disappointed." This struck me because almost immediately after, a brother from the congregation came by and said "We were making lunch but accidentally made too much. You want it?" and hands me a box full of already prepared food. I hadn't told them my gas had run out, since I'd just discovered it. But I took the food and was very happy.

Shortly after finishing I began thinking about dinner. What was I going to do about that, since Orealla hasn't got restaurants or anything of the sort. Either you cook on your own or you go hungry, and now I couldn't cook. As I'm thinking this I get a call from a family asking "We're making dinner right now, you want any?"

So I had a fully prepared, free dinner. But of course, I begin wondering about breakfast.

"Inside!!" I hear someone shouting at 5:30 AM, waking me from a peaceful (if perhaps excessive) slumber. I open my front door and see a brother on a bike holding up a box saying "Mom wanted me send this over for you. She made you breakfast."

In case you haven't gotten the gist of where this is heading, this happened for six days. In all that time there was exactly one meal that no one provided for me, but I was still content with the frankly ridiculous amounts of fresh fruit growing in my yard. But what really struck me in all this is that at no point did I tell anyone I was out of cooking gas until after I'd gotten it replaced. No one knew, there was just a sudden outpouring of support. And believe me, missing meals in this place is not a good thing. Considering how much walking is done in the ministry, and anytime in general, you simply cannot get by without three full meals. And at no point did I ever have to worry about if I would get it.

If I may digress briefly, the following verse after the one quoted above is "There is the same Lord over all, who is rich toward all those calling on him." This verse has stuck in my mind a long time, due to a conversation I heard between a missionary and a need-greater who was just starting out.

It went like this: the need-greater was only spending a short time in Guyana because he was concerned about losing his job back in the States. The missionary encouraged him to pretty much just quit and use his savings serving where the need was greater, since that's what the brother was hoping to do someday anyway. Most foreign brothers serving here will simply work in the States, save a bunch of money, then live here as long as they can until they run out of finances. Then they return to the US and find another job and repeat the process.

The need-greater expressed worry about doing that since he would then be unsure where he could find money and work when he returned, then sighed and said sarcastically "If only I just had a rich father I could beg money off of."

The missionary was silent for a moment then read that verse, Romans 10:12. "There is the same Lord over all, who is rich toward all those calling on him." Then after another pause, the missionary asks "So if you would feel confident trusting in a rich human father, then..."

And of course he didn't finish the sentence since he didn't need to. The point was made very well already, and that verse has ever since stuck with me.

Continuing on. After the departure of all my guests came the other thing that's eaten up my time. Our elders also left in order to attend Elder School all the way in the capital, Georgetown. This means that from last Thursday up to next Wednesday all will have to be handled by myself and our other ministerial servant, Mark Herman. So far all's going well and we haven't been horribly stressed out, though we definitely have no spare time to kill.

Which is why after a month and a day, when I finally had two hours with nothing left needing to be done (clean house, clean dishes, public talk prepared for Sunday, Watchtower studied, lunch eaten, dinner already prepared, no guests, no calls or studies scheduled for today) it suddenly dawned on me how long the blog had been neglected, and how I actually have time - and electricity! - with which to update it.

That's right, I said electricity too! The village generator has finally begun working again, as of last night!

I am waaaay more excited about having electricity than any American has been since 1893.