Stagnant

With all of the hustle and bustle of life here; going to the Centre, planning a bunch of big events/activities, going to Market to get groceries, walking to the post office, planning to have company over, church activities, singing, teaching singing, teaching English, getting to know Guyanese people, cooking, eating, dealing with lice, and whatever else may come along, it is sometimes difficult to make personal time to spend with God. Even when we try, it seems we get interrupted, and sometimes, it's by someone asking, "What are you reading about?" or "Why do you read your Bible all the time?" (a false concept) which leads into an opportunity to tell them about the God we serve and the Bible we follow.

Lately we have both been feeling a little stagnant, a little on the lifeless side. Kinda like we're not on fire for God, just lukewarm. This is partly because of what is going on in our lives, and how much is going out, but also it is because we need to completely focus on Christ and not have our minds wandering in the clouds. Sometimes I feel like this is all fake, and that we're just here in a dream. Its like I am missing my "real life", but I'm not. I really am living this part of my life in Guyana. Please pray that I will be able to better focus on that, and that God will draw me closer to himself, and burn a fire in me that others will see more clearly.

This is Ellen now. Double post.
To let you know what inspired this post. Katie and I were just sitting on the bed wondering aloud about the events of tomorrow, what has transpired today, about all of our frustrations over time wasted, about our frustrations that we waste so much time talking about the frustrations. I looked at her and just said "I feel like I'm in a spiritual drought". She knew exactly what I meant right away. We get too busy with everything that is going on and then we just sit around and talk about all the things that are going on.

We need to be better stewards of our time! Every minute is a minute used for something. Every thought, action, motive, word, deed is to be subject to Christ, who lives in us. We need to draw so much closer to Him! It's almost like we have these mental barriers sometimes too. Like five free minutes can't be used to read or pray because that's not the proper amount of "God allotment" at one time. Or I feel like I'm not in a place where I'm "spiritual" enough or in the perfect frame of mind for reading or praying. Even meditation and memorization is difficult. We could do that while we walk through the market even, or as we're on a tapir.

I'm so happy we are going through this together though. We stopped belly-aching and started praying as we discussed how we felt about all of this. We need to pray more. We need the desire, the Spirit to fill us. Completely.

It's a struggle, it's a fight. But it's so worth it. I love it.
.

Men Trouble

When I came to Guyana, I was warned that the men would be a problem, but I didn't realize just what that meant. The longer I am here and the more Ellen and I do things on our own, the more comments are made, and interesting situations are encountered. Almost all of these situations are from complete strangers and happen on our random excursions.

Ellen is engaged so whenever there's trouble, she just lets them know about her man, but I have no such safety net to fall back on. As soon as she mentions Daniel they seem to lay off, but then they find out I am not engaged or married and are suddenly quite attentive. This happened on the bus with a man and he was just being inappropriate and made me very uncomfortable. I was completely angry and just very upset about the whole situation, mostly because I felt like I was an item for men's perusal and there was nothing I could do about it. The first "Katie tears" fell in Guyana. I was pretty shaken up. Ellen tried to console me and then proceeded to lecture me on how to slap inappropriate men. Ellen decided that we needed to go to the Silver store and buy me a ring, and that I am to tell people that I am married. We're not quite sure if this is a lie, but, we figured I am married to Christ in a sense (or betrothed) and I do have a wedding coming up in August (Ellen's). Also, we decided we could carry around pictures of someone back home (even if it was our brothers or friends) and show people pictures so they would lay off. Hopefully this will take care of the men problem, and I have a very pretty ring on my left ring finger:)

Us.

These pictures always upload backwards, but here goes.

This is me sitting on the steps inside our house in the morning, trying to get my mind all-together and remember everything I need to take with me that day- Ellen and I have to remind each other of what we have to do or else we forget something. So, I was talking through my checklist to Ellen, though she may not have been listening, its just the fact that I could say it out loud to someone that helps me

Mornings are not particularly my high point of the day, I am not a very chipper individual until a little later in the day. I'm getting much better though.



We found this picture rather humerous, and thought some of you may as well. We have been sleeping downstairs in our livingroom rather often lately, because of sleepovers, then because of bedbugs in our bed, and now because of lice. This was Saturday morning, and We had some girls from #57 spending the night, and they woke up before us, (big surprise, right?) and decided to grab Ellen's camera and take a picture. We are zonked much of the time, and sleep is such a beautiful thing!


This is us going to the market. We carry those bags with us to put all of our items in, and everyone here has those bags. They cost $200, and are very handy. The market is straight ahead, past those semis. There are fruit and vegetable stands straight ahead, and then if you go to the right at the fruit and vegetable stands, you enter the market. I would say the entire market is about the size of WalMart, but much more crammed with stuff.


Oh boy. This was a fun evening. One of the ladies we work with at the Centre wanted to give us some "cherries" (they don't taste like cherries I'm used to eating, bing, etc., they are more tart, and a little like an apple taste) from her tree at home, so we picked them up. The next day, we realized that they were already fermenting, so we decided to make juice out of them. We took the cherries, and smashed them into a collender, and had the very pulpy juice left in the bowl underneath. Then we proceeded to drink it. We felt silly for smashing up cherries, but that was the best way to use them before they were wine, so we did!



This is a crazy picture, but I wanted Ellen to take it. There are NO hills in Guyana. It is completely flat. This "hill" of sand looked like something my brothers would love to play on, so I jumped on top of it. Too bad none of them were there to play King of the Hill with me.

Ellen, Christina, Cynthia, and I were on a walk, going to meet the bus to go to #57, and we had made dinner for Beerbal and Faniza, so we were carrying the food to take to them. We got many strange looks, as people here typically don't carry around pots and bowls full of food. I am coming to see that we are strange in many ways:)

Faces with the Names

This is us leaving Salomi's birthday party, and the guy in the front is Troy. Troy is one of our escorts, and one of the guys in the church training to be a pastor.



This is Ellen and our friend from the Corriverton church, Ashmond. She is deaf, and mostly mute. She only makes noises. It is surprising how well we can communicate with her, through body language and writing things down. She has taken a special liking to Ellen.



This is Ellen yesterday with Sister Shirley. They were at a Hindu wedding, which Ellen says is just strange.



These are some of the girls from #57 that we spend time with. From left to right, Ellen, Cynthia, me, and Christina. They are really sweet girls, and we have enjoyed getting to know them.




This is Brother Terry, who is the pastor of Roadside Baptist Church, and Hemdath, one of the guys in the church who is training to be a pastor, and also one of our escorts. They are the electrical teachers at the Centre as well.

We will continue to take pictures of the people here so you can see what they look like!
I hope you enjoy.

Transportation

Aside from the Hunters....we take buses and tapirs.

This picture was taken while riding to #57 from Roadside Sunday morning. Hemdath is wearing the yellow shirt, and Raymond is in the black shirt, smiling, (Moti's son who is in college at Georgetown), and the rest of the people are church members.

Ellen and my first experience on a bus....(we thought we were going to die...death grip on seat in front of us, holding onto one another)

This is the view in front of us on the death grip bus.

This is a Tapir. We expected them to be much more primitive, (we were told they were pretty much pickup trucks with a railing to hold onto) but they're actually fairly nice. There are 2 benches that go along either side of the back two windows, and a pole that goes along the top in the middle to hold onto.




Some more Tapirs.

Helping Hands

This is Beerbal and Faniza, and Salomi and Angeli.



This picture was taken at Salomi's birthday party back in December, around Christmas time.

This was also at Salomi's 2nd birthday party. Kirshan is the Beerbal's son, and is 6 years old.

Last Monday, Ellen and I spent the day at Beerbal and Faniza's house helping out by taking care of their 6 children because she was in bad condition, and needed to be taken to the hospital by Mr. Hunter. Here are some pictures that we took while we went through our day:
AAAGHHHH! It put this at the bottom of my post. Grr... (moved by the mystery editor)


Me trying to cook in their kitchen, which is exactly what you see, while watching little girls. I was making soup on a gas stove thing, that was definitely interesting. I have never seen one of those things before. I had to have the oldest girl, Shaneeza, how to light the burners and show me how to work them...:)



These are all of the kids in the process of killing these bees that were in their bedroom. They are called malibunters, and Ellen headed up the killing bees process while I cooked. they are pumped because they have some bees in the bucket. I would hear random screaming, and Ellen yelling, and I would be like, "What is going on?" Then I would hear Ellen urgently yell "Where's the scissors??" or "Get the bucket!!!" "They're flying, DUCK! AAAAAAHHHHH!!" "There's one, there's another. GET THE SPOON!" She was running around smashing them with a metal spoon to paralyze them, and the kids followed with the scissors to slice them in half. She also had soapy water in the blue bucket which was placed over their hives. Salomi was the only one stung. Figures. It was a dead one too. In the meantime, I was yelling "You kids get in here, don't go in there, I don't want anyone getting hurt because I don't have a car, and there's no hospital to take you to!" Nobody seemed to be listening. Then I would be like, "You guys better not hurt yourseves!" Wow. That was an event.




Ellen washing clothes....



Ellen smiling at me while washing clothes.....


The dishwashing sink area.


Shaneeza (8), and Salomi (2)



Me and the girls.
Angeli (4), Sanika (3), me, Salomi (2), and Shaneeza (8)

Bedbugs and Lice

I just scratched my head. I looked under my fingernail and something squirmed. Yay. I had plans for my day, but now it looks like lice removal time. Praise the Lord! There must be something good to come from this. I prayed for my pride to be abased. God has some interesting ways of answering.

Katie and Mrs. Hunter have had trouble with bed bugs. Life here is interesting.

Guess you could pray for my lice too (and that Katie doesn't have it...we haven't thoroughly checked her yet).

Thanks!

Neil, she tried!

This post is a response to Seth (I think) wanting to hear the cebu story from someone other than Katie.

Saturday afternoon Katie, Dian, Christina, Priscilla, and I took off down the main road for a nice walk, pretty much for exercise and enjoyment of each others' company as we waited for brother Moti to pick us up in the bus and take us to the #57 youth mission meeting. We met a cebu.

Katie has had somewhat of an obsession with cebus since our arrival, which I share to a much lesser degree. This obsession has a few roots. She and I both first really became acquainted with cebus through Silly Songs with Larry on Veggie Tales, the part of the story where Larry came out and sang a silly song about cebus.

While researching Guyana I came across the animals in Guyana and the website I was reading on spoke of cebus wandering the streets of Corriverton. I relayed this delightful news to Katie who in turn told all of her little brothers that she would get to meet cebus when she went to Guyana (even though none of them appear to be sick, sad, or mute). Neil (Katie's 6 year old brother) responded with excitement and wanted Katie to get a picture with one, even riding one if she could. Note: even riding one. If you click on an older post you will find a picture of Katie with a cebu a few weeks ago.

Well...Saturday came and there we were strolling along. Even strolling isn't exactly proper terminology. People here don't really walk, or even hardly stroll. They like to mosey, saunter, poke along. Our normal pace is their power walk. So, I was moseying with Christina and Dian who just couldn't keep pace with Katie and Priscilla who were at a moderate stroll.

They were about 100 feet ahead of us and Katie spotted a cebu in the ditch, munching on grass. It was a large tan she cebu, had the nice curved horns, and looked quite friendly. Katie decided maybe this was the one she was meant to perch on for a photo. As she approached and started to reach out for the cebu, she (the cebu) turned, looked at Katie and decided to let her know what was up. She wasn't in the mood to be messed with by a white girl.

Next thing we saw and heard was Katie waving her arms and running into the road, then realizing that she could be schmucked by a tapir driving by and reverted to running toward us as she was hollering and calling out something like "oh dear! my goodness...ahhhh". She ran and hid behind me, while all the other girls cowered as well.

It's just a cow was my thought, ignore it and keep walking past it, it'll leave us alone. I walked bravely on ahead, ignoring it...until I got up next to it and it decided it was my turn. It didn't approach me with the same tenacity though, and I just had to kind of shuffle around her as she realized I wasn't seeking to ride her, much less touch her. The other girls had had it. They saw Katie flipping out, me sidestepping her, and they made a bee line for the other side of the road.

The funniest part about the whole experience was probably the audience. Katie had a tapir slow down for her, a bicyclist commented as he pedalled by and every neighbour and their brother seemed to be outside just lounging and observing whatever there was to observe. We all had a pretty good laugh and I'm quite certain Katie learned that riding a cebu will be no easy feat. It probably will not be one she attempts again either.

And that's the end of the cebu story.

When you pray for us...

The computer has been fixed! I am really excited about this little detail that makes a big impact on everyone in our house.

Everything here has been going. Not always really well, but going nonetheless. I'm really enjoying the experience. There are many ups and downs, but the Lord has been good throughout. Sometimes I find myself wondering what even caused me to want to come here, I reflect on my purpose here and what I'm to do next and it just overwhelms me. More and more I find myself needing to look to and cast all my cares on my wonderful Saviour. I am so thankful He cares for us!

Tomorrow marks six weeks for us. It seems like it's been forever in some ways, but then it feels so transient at other times. It is difficult to deal with the different religions (namely Hinduism and Islam). Katie and I have both had conversations with quite a few people in these religions and the self-righteousness is so hard to get past. If they can't see their sin, there is no need as far as they can see for a Saviour. I guess that isn't the most accurate way to phrase it though. Most of them definitely do see their sin, but they rely on their own righteousness to get them to heaven and to justify them before the Perfect Judge. I wish I were better with words, with the Word. I want to show them so much of all the love that Christ has, the beauty that is found in Him alone, the awesome intimacy and love and joy and peace felt from a personal relationship with Him.

We need so much prayer. Prayer for God to open people's eyes and hearts to the Gospel. Prayer for strength and boldness and joy to present the Gospel. Prayer for communicating and dealing even with the professing Christians. Prayer for boldness to speak out against sin, especially that which is blatantly wrong. We need understanding and effective communication with the people here. I sometimes try to stretch myself and become all things to all men, but sometimes it just doesn't work. I can only be one place at one time and I wish I could just divide myself between so many things and people.

We also need prayer for endurance! I sometimes do just wish I could crawl in a hole and hide from situations or responsibilities. I don't like that feeling and know it's just my own selfishness that makes me feel that way. I'm being stretched and put in positions that are outside of my comfort zone and it's really good for me. Sometimes being moldable and praying that God will shape you as He sees fit is painful. It's a really good pain though. Pray that we would decrease and that He would increase in every aspect of our lives.

Living in Guyana has given me a better sense of how my life needs to be. I have been more focused since being here on trying to tell more people about Christ. I love that, but it has made me realize that my life needs to be this way all the time. I need to show His love through my life regardless of my living situation and location. I have found it pretty easy to get into spiritual conversations here, partly because people seem more open, but mostly because I have sought it. I want this in my life when I return also, it's who I am, I want to live it more.

Computer Problems

Sometimes, in this age of computers and easy communication we forget how dependent we are on computer chips and electricity and satelites and fiber optics and other things I don't even comprehend. We take for granted that what we want to know we should be able to find out RIGHT NOW. And that is just how I felt when I hadn't heard from Ellen and Katie for a week. I have a whole new appreciation for the early missionaries and their families whose letters took months to get to their destination.

Ellen was able to send me a very short email explaining the situation and I am posting an exerpt here for all of you who are interested in and praying for the girls.

I wish I could write you more often. I wish I could blog. I wish our computer hadn't crashed!! Last Thursday night ( ed. note--Jan. 15) it just freaked out and decided to stop working. I'm on a computer at the centre right now and actually need to get off soon, time here at the Centre is really, really limited and the computers are old and slow. I just wanted to let you know about the breakdown in communication. Maybe you could let others know too? Our computer is going to Georgetown tomorrow, maybe it will be fixable. If not, I'm not sure what's going to happen. I could talk on the phone, but it's so expensive. Just know everything here is going so well. Just continue to pray, we need prayer! So many things here are spur of the moment, requiring quick thinking and good reactions from us. We have had a few people ask us how to be saved, it's cool. Time to go help Christina with homework....it's tough math, you could pray that way too :D

I love you!

Ellen

Teaching Moments

I have to share what I'm experiencing as a teacher, so I can let you in on my feelings.

After teaching a "counseling" class to the Remedial students (Math, English, Social Studies, etc.) on wisdom, and taking counsel from God's word (1 Peter 1-6), I asked my students to write a question to me in their book about anything. It could be a question about a problem they are having at home, about me and my life, about something from the bible they don't understand, etc. I collected their books, and wrote answers to them in their books.
Here are some of questions:

Do you love Guyana?


What is it like in a USA?


Why did you come to Guyana?


Did you like it in Guyana or the place that you came from.



and my favorites...


I want to know if God make people sleep at night or you sleep by yourself.



Question?
Can u teach me what u no about Jesus Chrish our Lord?

Pleace

Thank you

(yes or no)

These are some of the moments that make my heart burst and praise God. I thought you would like to share some of my enjoyment and pleasure in teaching, and the opportunities God gives to share about himself with these children. Thank you for the prayers.

Tomayto or Tomahto?

We were talking about the different ways Guyanese express things, as opposed to what we're used to. Christina, a girl from #57 says that another way to say...

"chill out" = "Humble yourself!"

"What's up?"= "What's da latest?"

"She has an hourglass figure" = "She have a shape like a coca-cola bottle"

"You're ticking me off" = "Don't disgust me" or "Don't fatigue me"

"What did he do?" = "What he did?"

So, there's some of the great sayings we get to hear out and about!

Purchasing meat

So In Guyana, meat is purchased in much different a manner than what you're used to...let me explain: In the market, there is a meat section, with tables of meat like this, sitting out, flies buzzing all around. Though this vendor seems to be pretty sanitary.

This guy has some of his meat hanging up to display. This past Saturday, we saw 2 cow heads, freshly detached from their bodies, laying on one of the ends of the tables. It was rather disgusting.

This lady is selling fish and beef. They chop it up right there in front of you on that board in front of her. She's actually cutting up a fish right now.

This lady is selling all types of fish...yummy.

And to end on a more appetising note, here is a fruits and vegetables vendor. These are all in the market, a BIG building, probably as big as walmart, CRAMMED full of stuff.

There's a look at how we purchase meat here.

Tapiers and Buses

So, I finally got to ride in a Tapier and Bus all in 2 days!

Saturday morning, we went over to Emily's house (a 26 year old lady in our church), and spent the day with her and her daughter, Shannon, who happens to be adorable, and I want to bring home with me! We went to the market, which is right by their house, and we looked at a lot of clothing shops. Then we bought some shrimp and some vegetables, and Emily cooked some concoction with shrimp and Okra, and we put it over rice, and then tomatoes and cucumbers. It was pretty good, but I got really sick after eating it, again. I seem to get sick all of the time here. Anyways, so around 2:00, Mrs. Hunter called me and asked if I had forgotten about something, and apparently there was a misunderstanding between Hemdath and myself, and he thought I was teaching him English, so he was at our house, around 3 miles away from Emily's. So he came to get me from Emily's so we could go back to our house and have an english lesson before the Pastor's class at 3:00. This, was my first experience on a Tapier.

So, we walk out to the road, and I say, "Are we supposed to just stand here, or is there a designated place to go for the Tapier to pick us up?", Hemdath smiles and says "yes" (He's a man of few words, unlike me) After about 2 minutes, a Tapier stops, because Hemdath put his hand out, kind of like waving at someone by your waist. I get in and whack my head on the top because there's about 3 feet of space between the floor and the ceiling, and then when you keep going, there's still only 3 feet, so you continue to scrunch your body while trying to sit down. Luckily, there were only 3 other people in the Tapier, because I've seen 10-12 people in Tapiers before. Anyway, so I finally sit down, and he gets in and sits down, and the driver jerks us as he speeds up rather, shall we say, rapidly. I go flying into Hemdath, because I didn't know you were supposed to hold onto anything, so Hemdath tells me to hold onto this bar thing that goes all the way across the top of the Tapier. So I did. Then I realize that all the windows are way low, about 1 1/2 feet off the floor, so I duck WAY down, so I can see out the window as we're flying down the road. Meanwhile, the guys on the Tapier are a little fascinated with the fact that I'm white, and are trying to talk to me. I'm overwhelmed with the whole experience, and don't understand what they're saying anyway, so I look at Hemdath. He proceeds to interpret, and I slowly have a conversation. They want to know if I like the Tapier, and Hemdath laughs as he tries to explain that question to me, (its obvious to him that I'm not too big of a fan) and I tell them they drive like crazy people. The guys bust out laughing. After a few minutes, we arrive at our road, and I try to get out, whacking my head again on the ceiling. Then we uneventfully walked to our house.

2nd experience:

The next day, Sunday, we went to Sister Shirley's house after church to teach some of the teenage girls singing. Afterwards, Hemdath always takes us home. Last week, someone offered us a ride, and they took us the whole way home (about 3o minutes) because they were going that way anyway. This time, we caught a bus. Ellen and I climbed in, and went to the very back row. The vehicle had around 8 people, which again, was a small amount of people. This was probably because this bus travels so far away, and the time of day we were traveling, was not a busy time. Ellen and I could not sit up completely straight because we hit our head on the top of the vehicle, so for the first 10 minutes we sat very slouched. The bus driver for some reason thought we needed to get to Skeldon very fast, so he drove so fast Ellen looked down, and I hid my face behind her, because I was seriously concerned that we were going to have an accident. They had to be going 100 mph, but they have kilometers, so I don't really know how fast it was. Hemdath laughed at us, but it was not funny. We stopped a few times to let people off, and zoomed off again- they drive like maniacs, and if there was something in the road, I'm not sure they would stop, they swerve. Thankfully, that was a safe trip, and they took us all the way our stop once more. They have a driver of the vehicle, and then they have another guy who sits in the back with the passengers, and collects money and directs. So the guy that was directing in the bus was staring at us, probably because of our skin once again, and trying to talk to us about going to the beach or something, but I couldn't quite understand him, so once again, Hemdath interpreted, but I didn't really feel like talking to this guy alot, because he was making gestures about women we were passing on the road. So there's my 2 experiences of public transportation.

Hope that wasn't boring, sorry no pictures yet!

The Important Buildings of Guyana

I was just plain shocked at some of these. There are some extremely nice, beautiful private homes and buildings. I don't know exactly what to think about the apparent lack of concern.

This police station is directly across from our house/church. There is some humor in this to me. I feel like I should feel safe since we have this so close, but I've not seen it occupied yet (though I'm not outside much), and it appears to be very old and run down. I've heard the inside is much better, so that's a plus.

This is the post office in Skeldon, the town/village right next to us. The blue vehicle is what we drive most often. (I still find myself forgetting that the driver gets in on the right side. When I ride shotgun I find myself looking for a steering wheel to rest my arm on.) Anyway, back to the post office. The faded paint reads "SKELDON POST & TELEGRAPH OFFICE". Our p.o. box's location is just in front of our vehicle's front end. There's that window, then about 25 boxes. If you walk inside the door and turn, you can see who has mail for yourself. There's a padlocked cage around it, but you can still see all the mail. During the day, when the post office is open, the doors and gates are left wide open, making it nice and breezy. The flooring inside is wooden planks, some uneven. To send letters/packages/whatever, you approach the "window" (small slot opening below a fence/cage of sorts) and pass your item underneath. I think they just look at it to determine the price, probably feel the weight and thickness too. A thicker regular letter cost me $200 GD (is that correct for "Guyanese dollars"?) and a thinner regular letter cost me $80 GD. When I handed the woman my three letters, she looked at them and handed them back with correct postage in the lick and stick kind of stamps. I haven't used one of those in a really long time. It was cool. I kind of like this building, it's fun for me to just observe the differences.

This just made me realize how practical a hospital really is. I think my favourite part of this picture is the sign "stray animals will be impounded". I'm guessing that means shot.

This is right next to hospital, actually it's an extension of it. The building you see in the picture above is the building on the right in this picture. If you look closely, you might be able to read the signage on the light blue building. It's the x-ray department.

This last picture is just to give you a little taste of the Centre and Roadside, the other church. On the right side of this picture you can see the sanctuary of the church, upstairs. Look closely on that wall under the window, those are the times of services, etc. The pastor of this church right now is Terry, with help from Mr. Hunter. Preaching here rotates between those two and brother Moti.

Below the sanctuary is (as far as I've seen) a double for classes for the Centre, and a nursery of sorts for the church. The children's area in the basement is very nice and looks like it would be fun if I was a child. The kitchen and cooking area is below the sanctuary as well, around the building to the right. I'll have to post pictures of them cooking a large meal on their open fires. It's really cool. They do have two gas stoves, but when cooking in mass amounts, the cook is handy with a huge kettle/bowl thing and regulates the fire herself. It's impressive.

The large tent thing you see covers a large open area where the children all stand at attention during the "morning exercises" (during this time they have a devotion, sing the anthem, and recite something...maybe a pledge?). This large area is also used for a couple of other things: OVC (Orphaned and Vulnerable Children) which runs from 3-5 four days a week and youth group every Friday with Troy where we usually play basketball and other games after hearing a short lesson.

I want to say some things about the OVC group. I've had some time with the kids already. The first day (Monday) I was with them didn't go so smoothly. I just didn't understand them and some didn't seem to really care whether I was there or not. I need more compassion for them. They do a class time and sometimes have crafts, songs, or games. Next week I'll be doing some food art with the kids. I'm looking forward to it, but they are a tough group. Think of the name of the group, and you may understand why. Katie and I played games with them on Tuesday and we really enjoyed the time. The older ones really enjoy hangman, but don't really get too in to expressing themselves with songs or anything else that draws too much attention. They are always fed a meal when they come, it's part of the program. I really wish I could be more involved in some of their lives and really help. I do realize there is only so much that can be done though, I am only here for five months (closer to four now) and some ideas are just unrealistic and impractical.

Back to the picture. The two windows on the building, under the tent, are from the office part of the Centre. The window on the left is Miss Indru's office. The library, computer room, and one classroom are on this level. Upstairs to the right is a large classroom with dividers, creating four separate classrooms. That's where I've spent some time this week with one of the remedial groups of kids. They're really cool and really want to learn. I love helping out there. I'm singing with them sometime next week. Okay, I need to move on. There's so much I could say about the building. Oh, I do want to mention though, on the bottom level there is also an electrical classroom and sewing classroom. All the sewing machines are pedal machines. It's cool to watch them work.

I need to go put something together for us for dinner now. I hope all of this is helpful and you experience a little more of our lives through it.

The Hunters' Perspective

Sometimes a third person's point of view helps you get a better overall picture of a situation so I thought you'd enjoy reading some of the Hunters' perspectives of having Ellen and Katie with them.

We here in Guyana had a joint service between the three major groups New Year's eve: #57 Baptist Mission, Roadside Baptist Church and the Corriverton Baptist Church hosted by Corriverton Baptist. The evening was one of our high points in our time here. The service was well attended. We sang and had 3 specials through the evening. Two from Ellen White and Katie Matthews from Rhinelander, Wisconsin. I spoke from Acts 1:9-11 on the duty of Christians to be witnesses until Jesus returns. Some seemed greatly moved by the message of God's Word. We also had some speak of what they wanted the Lord to do in the New Year as well as some special prayer requests, all of which we then carried to the Lord in prayer. After that we all went downstairs for a typically American meal of spaghetti, home-made dinner rolls, cookies and watermelon. Katie and Ellen worked all day with the help from friends to prepare it. Most really enjoyed the meal. We played games until the New Year and then we took many of the folks home which gave us more opportunities to speak of Christ's power to forgive and give strength to live for His glory. I could hardly ask for a better New Year's Eve. Katie and Ellen are proving to be a real hit with the people and a great help to Kathy and I. Everyone loves them although they make quite a stir in the market; two very tall, very white girls.
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Kathy says the girls have taken Guyana by storm and are ambitious and enthusiastic in their desire to serve the Lord any way possible while they are here. They have a real heart for seeing souls saved and being as busy as they can be.

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Cindy White

This was Christmas Day spent with the Singhs. We had a very good time talking with them and ate some really good food. We also had opportunities to talk with them about spiritual things, and a relationship with Christ, which was good. NEIL- this is me with a cebu! I'm sorry, I didn't get on him, hopefully before I leave Guyana, I will get on a cebu and Ellen can take a picture, but this one didn't seem tame enough, and we had just gotten home from church, so I was dressed too nice. This was a mama, and she had 3 babies with her.

This is Ravini- she's the girl that I teach piano to. She's also Moti's daughter. I so enjoy her.

This is a panoramic picture of the church in Corriverton, also our home. The truck is the church's, and we take that thing and pile people in for special events or church. They can fit SO MANY people into vehicles here, its crazy! We live in the right side of this building, so the white part. There are gates around everyone's homes here, and they lock everything because of the dangers of theft.

This is Diane! She's our housekeeper, and also a member of the church. She is such a sweet, genuine lady, and I love her! The coconut she is chopping came from her tree, and she had her husband get it down for me because I was fascinated by them. Drinking coconut "water" as they call it, is not what I had expected, but I do like it.

Today we went to town. Actually, in Guyana, there is one big long road that makes up the country. Everything revolves around this road. So, all the stores and gas stations, etc, are on this road. So we drove to the bank, and stopped at a couple stores, got our keyboard repaired, and ate lunch at Yang's. I was struck once again, by the animals that are everywhere here. There are dogs running around everywhere I look, and if I stick my hand out the window, I can nearly touch a cow or a cebu sometimes. One time we were coming home from a youth meeting at night, and there was a herd of 5 cows in the middle of the road, 3 of them were sitting down. So, we put on our flashers, and went into the other lane to get around them. This is a normal occurrence here. By the way, the dogs here are pretty ugly, not like the ones back home. And they are not celebrated- you will never see a dog in someone's house here. Yes!

I spent around 3 hours practicing piano today in the church (the church is connected to our house), we got our keyboard fixed, so I can now play without the entire keyboard freaking out and making loud buzzing noises and then shutting off. While I was playing, our housekeeper, Diane, came in and started singing with me- she LOVES music, and loves to sing hymns.

Earlier today, I asked Diane what Guyanese think of a woman marrying a man that is shorter than herself. She screwed up her face and said NO! O BOY, NO! She said here in Guyana, if a woman marries a man shorter than herself, they say "she could eat soup on his head." So I gathered, that that's weird here.

I spent time getting Hemdath's lesson ready today, and reading the bible, we never know when we're going to be asked to speak, and I want to have some study done and ready to go in case. Please pray that I would have wisdom as they want me to teach Access to the faculty at Roadside Skills Training Center. I feel very incapable, I've hardly touched Access since graduation in May, and I need God to help me! Also we had an awesome chance to talk with 2 women from the Corriverton church on New Year's Eve while taking them home, and I am so excited. Their names are Emily and Meena, and they were expressing how difficult it is for them to feel like they can express their sin, and that they feel so unworthy, and like God can't really forgive them. Emily is especially burdened about her soul, and as Pastor John preached on the 2nd coming of Christ that night, she was telling us that she's not really sure where she will go, and that scares her. There is much confusion in the minds of people here, and I think they have a very legalistic view of Christianity- if I go to church, abstain from sex, wear the right clothes, and don't drink alcohol, I will go to heaven. They think that once you are a christian, you live perfectly, and so they feel they will never be a christian because they mess up all the time. Pray that we will continue to have opportunities to share Christ with these women especially and that God will continue to stir their hearts.

So there's another day's experiences in Guyana.

Posting in Pictures

So, I wanted the pictures in a different order (the bottom one on top, so on) but...they take forever to download and I don't know how to re-order them. Anyway, if you want the chronological effect, start at the bottom of this post!

(Moderator's note: The girls have let me have access to this blog to help out when they are crunched for computer time. Therefore, I'm putting these in reverse order for Ellen. Cindy aka Keithslady.)

This is one of the first pictures I took in Guyana. I didn't have the presence of mind to pull out my camera upon arrival, so this is the first picture I have of Guyana. This is taken in Nigel's, one of the largest supermarkets in Georgetown (it was still small to me). I just had to capture the hilarity of a "Special" to my foreign eyes. ONLY $2,395. The exchange rate took a little while to get used to, but I've got it down pat now. It's good for my rusty math skills :)

Georgetown was nothing like I expected it to be. Even getting off of the airplane was an experience. Actually, back that up, the entire journey down was an experience. It was quite interesting to go from Rhinelander (all typical Americans on board) to Minneapolis (once again, typical Americans) to Ft. Lauderdale. Ft. Lauderdale was interesting. We had to get our tickets since we had an airline change. Finding that was interesting, we were misdirected a couple of times, but finally found "Caribbean Airlines". We were the only white people to be found in that line. That was strange. Then we got on our flight later on, once again, two of the very few caucasions. Disembarking was cool. There were coconut trees, the sound of steel drum bands, and a big "Merry Christmas" sign over the tunnel that led into the airport. We had no trouble getting through customs, or getting our passports stamped. God was very good to us with all of that. Georgetown=biggest city. In my mind that meant it must be the best city to represent Guyana. The place was crazy. We walked through the streets in part of the city, ate breakfast, tried to find a bathroom. We finally found the public restroom after being led on a wild goose chase by a man who said he'd guide us there for a small fee. The public restroom was astonishing. After paying your $20, you could go inside the cardboard-floored building with vile odors, then use their toilet. I didn't get to fully experience it. I glanced inside and decided I could wait.

This is taken from the ferry as we left Region 5. Everyone refers to the ferry as "The Stelling" (see the sign). We got off the ferry at New Amsterdam, about an hour and 45 minute drive from Corriverton. The ferry has just lost most of its business though as the bridge that was being built across this river has finally opened up. Note the water. I wasn't tempted to dive in, despite the heat.

This shows the church and the house in one shot. The stairs lead to the main sanctuary. We have services below though, in the room directly below because one of the women in the church has heart complications and shouldn't use the steps. The window you see on the white part of the building, the right hand side of the picture, is the room I'm sitting in as I type :~) That's the house. The bedrooms are both upstairs, as is the computer room, study, and both bathrooms. Downstairs has a living room (which is rarely used), entryway, dining room, and kitchen. It's fairly small, but really we don't need any more space than we have. Plus..."love grows best in little houses, few walls to separate". You can hear just about everything everyone says no matter where they are. Okay, so that's a bit of a stretch. The windows all are open all the time, with screening and bars, and you can easily hear conversations taking place in the kitchen from the bedroom. Another strange thing about Guyana: all of the windows on everybody's houses are barred. All of them. I don't think I've seen one unbarred yet.

This is our beautiful bed. The room is pretty small, but we definitely manage. It was kind of different for me to walk into a room, bed made, no comforter. We wouldn't end up using it anyway.





This is the view from our bed, everytime we lie down at night. This is Guyana's version of air conditioning, actually, we have it pretty good. We enjoy having some air movement, especially on the 85 degree nights. I must say the mint green walls were a bit disconcerting at the beginning.


Anyway, that's just a snapshot of that day for you. I need to go. It's pretty late here and I want to be up at a decent time tomorrow. I will post more pictures (hopefully in the right order), but, like I said, they take a while to download and I can only seem to do five at a time.