Bob and our first ambulance ride

Hey everyone, so today was our black bush day. Thank goodness they were home today! It would be terrible to go in again and not find anyone at home once again. So we met Shameniel at the black bush bus shed. While we were waiting for a bus to come along, it can take up to an hour to get a bus, a sister from the Brighton congregation pulled up and offered us a ride in. This sister and her husband are the Hollenbecks. They are a missionary couple that have been assigned to Guyana. They have served in the Ivory Coast and Ghana. We look forward to getting to know them better and hearing some of their experiences as it seems they have much of it. So after she dropped us off we walked about 20 minutes to go see Shabahna. She lives in the Yakisiri village, its my favorite village that I have been to so far. Everyone in the area is so nice, and its a very quiet peaceful area. When we got there we had to wait about 10 minutes until they were ready for the study, but it went really well. The other people who have worked with her before have taught her quite a bit of sign and her family is very involved in helping her learn sign as well. So we did 2 paragraphs out of the learn from the great teacher book, then worked on her alphabet and reviewed some simple signs. She kept looking at me like it was ridiculous that she had to do this again. She is 12 and has a lot of personality. She is constantly trying to talk to us and is keeping us busy keeping her focused.

After Shabahna we started walking to Andrea our other study on the opposite side of black bush. Everything was going fine until a car full of guys drove up beside us and started asking where we were from. They continued talking long enough for us to tell them to be quiet and leave us alone. Once they realized they werent going to get any information out of us besides that we really didnt want to talk to them, they drove off. Apparently they thought the second time was the charm, it however wasnt. They stopped and opened by calling me sweetheart, not a good idea. He told us that they would give us a ride wherever we wanted. After telling him that there was absolutely no way we were getting in that car they started asking for names. Danielle at this point decided that she was going to chime in, as we continued walking away she yelled that her name was Bob. They looked very confused and said Bob? really? It was rather amusing to see the confusion on their faces as they looked at each other wondering if that was really her name.:)

So we kept on walking and realized there werent any buses going by so we thought we would have to walk all the way to the other side of black bush. Then we noticed an ambulance driving up behind us. Shameniel came up with the idea that one of us should lay on the ground so they would pick us up thinking we were sick. Before we could do that the guy driving the ambulance pulled up alongside us and asked us if we would like a ride. We were so excited to be in a car again out of the dirt and mud. So we got in the ambulance which had a stretcher, an oxygen tank, and a box of what looked like medical supplies, come to find out its full of needles and band-aids. I would like to point out at this time that the oxygen tank had nothing to hook to it, making it completely useless. So hopefully nobody needed it. We are chatting with the driver and his partner and they tell us that we are going to make a few stops with them. The first one the girl got out, pulled out a needle and a few viles of medicine. No gloves. She went over there poked the poor kid and came back. She put the used needle back into the bag with the what I am assuming are not used needles and zipped up the bag like it was no big deal. I dont even want to go into how many health code violations I saw in that ambulance. The other stop wasnt for medical reasons. We stopped and the girl jumps out and runs into a vegetable field and grabs a squash of some sort and hops back into the ambulance. Yes we were involved in someone stealing vegetables. The guy dropped us off at the road we were going to walk down and after saying thank you we went off on our way.

So we got to the final study named Andrea and as we sat down we noticed puppies:) For all of you who dont know this, I love puppies. Actually anything is cute when its little, but especially puppies. So while Dani did the study Shameniel and I played with the puppies. We fell in love with one in particular. Shameniel spent quite a bit of time thinking about if she was going to take this puppy home with her. Finally the decision was that she had the girl promise not to give the puppy to anyone else and we would come back and pick up the puppy next week!! So I am going to be an aunt to the puppy:)

So we went and found a bus shed to sit in and wait until a bus drove by that was heading out back to Brighton. As we were sitting there it started pouring down rain. I started to go out and stand in the rain but was told that if I was soaking wet they wouldnt let me on a bus, so I quickly found my way back to the shelter. After a while a bus drove by and picked us up. Now some things are the same here as they are in America. When it rains like that things get slippery. Especially wood. The bus has to go over quite a few bridges that are made completely out of wood, it was a frightening experience. As we started across the bridge it felt fine then we started to feel it sliding. Suddenly we realize the bus is sideways going across the bridge. On either side of the bridge there are no barriers and there is water. This water has alligators. I dont know about any of you but I am not a fan of alligators, except when they are in a tank with glass they cant get through. So we are sliding across the bridge and Shameniel, who is supposed to be used to this sort of thing, grabs my arm and hides behind me. All the while we are trying to not scream, because they already think we are crazy white girls and we shouldnt add to those thoughts. Finally we get across the bridge, but there were more like that. Thankfully our bus driver understood that driving quickly across the bridges wasnt a good idea. We did make it home in one piece. Ok well that is it for now.

New Amsterdam

Hey all, so today was the once a month full ASL meeting in New Amsterdam. It was so nice to finally be back in a congregation where we arent interpreting everything that is going on. As wonderful as it was our day did get off to a rocky start... I was woken up this morning many times by various things. One was that I had a dream about a spider falling into the bed so I had to wake up and check all the bedding and everything. Then we had a horrible rain storm that made me think the house was going to cave in. The final waking up happened at 6 this morning when the stupid rooster at the front house decided that I had enough sleep. I wasnt very pleased with the rooster. Anyway, I got up and studied for meeting, then we had the sudden realization that the deaf girl Niasa that comes to meeting with her grandmother would more than likely be going to english meeting as well as sign language later. So we made a few phone calls and found out that she would be there which meant we had to make new plans for the other studies that were attending. So Shameniel offered to go and pick up the other studies on the bus and meet us at the kingdom hall. We got ready for meeting and went to go and wait for a bus, it took 25 minutes before a bus drove by. We got to the kingdom hall right before the meeting started so we got all setup for our interpreting. Towards the end of the watchtower study we realized we were running short on time before Shameniel was supposed to meet us on the road. So immeadiately after meeting we rushed outside with Niasa to wait for a bus. We waited 10 minutes when a sister from our hall offered to take Niasa in her car to New Amsterdam so she wouldnt be late. After 20 more minutes we were starting to get worried and then the bus pulled up with Shameniel. I sat by a man and his son who were baptist. He was very interesting....asked many questions that made no sense in a quite voice which doesnt go well with the bus full of people and reggae music blasting. So I witnessed to him for about 30 minutes before he got off to get on another bus.
So we were becoming more and more late as we continued driving. However Shameniel convinced the bus driver to drop us off directly in front of the kingdom hall. He wasnt going to but the conductor of the bus who is also the owner of the bus told him that he was going to. We spent about 10 minutes befriending the driver and conductor when we got on so they were ok with doing that for us:) The people here love Jehovah's Witnesses so the more you talk to them about what you are doing here the easier time they give you and they are more helpful. Finally we arrived with our bible study natalie in tow and we snuck in the back. We were so happy to be back in an ASL meeting, seeing people use signs we understood. There arent words to describe it.
So in the middle of the watchtower study Natalie started copying the answers of others who were commenting and then adding her own thougts to it. So I asked her if she would like to comment, she told me that she was waiting for me to ask her. So I helped her to quickly prepare a comment and then helped her practice. When time came for her to comment she raised her hand and signed it perfectly. I have never seen a happier person after commenting. She was so proud of herself and is now looking forward to the next meeting she gets to go to. We think she will be joining Niasa at the meetings from now on:) My favorite part was after the meeting when she went around and introduced herself to people that she had never seen before.
We were able to stay for about an hour after meeting and get to know some of the people in the congregation. They are all so sweet and excited to have some new faces, we are looking forward to going back again next month. We hope to also at some point be able to head into Georgetown for their once a month full ASL meeting. Get to see some old friends.
Tomorrow is our day off and we are going to spend it in Rosehall with Shameniel. She has just told us that there is a place where we can buy chocolate cake. We dont have an oven or at this point a fridge so we are going to go and get some cake. Also we are going to take this time to go and see the market that has things such as clothes and toys. Hopefully soon we will be able to get some pictures up so you all can see what it looks like here.

Hey everyone so today we went out some bible studies in them 50 village area. It was the most productive day we have had so far, not saying much considering we have been here for a little over 2 weeks now but we were pretty excited. We went to 4 studies-Sumintra, Natalie, Rani, and Jem. My favortie is Sumintra. She is about 30 and lives with her mother, brother and sister. Her family was really supportive of her, they helped her learn enough sign to get by in a conversation. The family is so sweet, they have us sit and we chat for a while and they are very hospitable. Today we finished the first chapter of the bible teach book. She is very shy but is starting to warm up to us, so she was very happy when we told her we would be back next week. Then we went to Rani, she is an 8 year old girl that is blind her left eye. She has a very short attention span and her living situation isnt good. She lives with her grandparents and father, they all act as though she is choosing to ignore them rather than realize that when they call her name she really cant hear them. She doesnt know any sign so we are working on teaching her practical signs as well as spiritual signs. Today though we were showing pictures from the you can be god's friend brochure and her grandmother started asking questions. So while Dani worked with Rani I was able to talk to her grandmother and place the brochure with her. It looks like I will have something to do while Dani works with Rani on her signing:)

After that we went up to see Natalie who is a young mother about 28 years old. Her little boy came up during the study and he wasnt too happy he wasnt the center of attention so he took his moms pencil and was writing on the wood. My favorite though was when he started licking her elbow in his desperate attempt for attention. Natalie just acted as though it wasnt happening. He finally gave up and decided to stand by his mothers side and whine. After the study was over we asked her if she would like to join us to new amsterdam this sunday for the full ASL meeting they have once a month. She said yes, she has come before but stopped because there wasnt anyone to go with her. More exciting news is that the other bible study Jem that we went to next will also be going with us. So with those 2 and Niasa who goes to all the meetings anyway we will be bringing 3 deaf with us to new amsterdam. There possibly will be more depending how the studies go on Saturday.

Other than service we dont do too much. We went to the market yesterday, it was nice because its getting easier for us to do things and not feel so awkward. Like walking around and buying things, we actually look like we have a slight idea of what we are doing. But otherwise we spend a lot of time at our house. Shameniel stays with us a lot and looks like in addition to Abi coming in February there is another sister that will be staying with us starting in January. Her name is Dana and shes from the states, it will be nice to have another person in the house. Oh something interesting about Guyana is that Christmas time people dress up like they are half dead and walk around with pans singing. It is supposed to ward off the evil spirits in the village. It was pretty scary walking by them while they are screaming at the top of their lungs and they are halfway dressed. Oh and for all those Napoleon Dynamite fans out there here is a good story. We got on a bus to come home and I was sitting by the guy who works the door to the bus. He asks me how my day is and if I am ready for the holidays. Instead of continuing to speak to him I just said no. He looks at me and asks me if I have made any cakes yet. I once again told him no and looked forward. Right before we were getting off the bus he looks at me and asks me if I would build him a cake. Either he was serious or he has a very good serious face because he looked very serious. Thank goodness we got off when we did because I was trying so hard not to laugh that I was almost in tears. That is my great Guyanese men story for today, it seems I get a new one everyday. Tomorrow I have the pioneer meeting with the elders and a gathering after, it sounds like a fun time to me. I will fill you in on more tomorrow night.

Black Bush

Hey everyone, today we went into an area called black bush. You walk down to the entry way they call the polder and have to wait to catch a bus that will take you in. The ride into black bush is an experience. The road is half dirt and half concrete thats been driven on so often that its almost dirt. So the bus driver is swerving all over the place and you are sliding back and forth on the seat hitting people in the process. It was a 10 minute drive into the area we were heading. After we got off the bus Shameniel told us that it was time to walk. We walked for 20 minutes to get to our destination. The walking in this place is interesting because you have to cross a lot of bridges. We arent talking about the bridges you see in america with rails and boards that are secure. These bridges are 3 planks laid across a stream sometimes in the middle they are connected with nails. The wood is rotting and the 3 planks arent even with each other, they are all different heights and the wood bends when you walk on it. We are deathly afraid of falling in the water, especially after we were told that there are alligators in the water. They tried to make us feel better by saying that normally the alligators know they are smaller than you and will leave you alone. I am not so sure I believe them.

We walked to the house for a good 20 minutes only to find that nobody was home. Thankfully the next door neighbor was home and gave us some information. They were so friendly, they had us sit down and gave us something to drink while they were tracking down the girls mother. The people here are so sweet but sometimes they do things that are awkward. Like this family for instance has a son about our age. Now today he was home and sitting in the hammock listening to our conversation. The mother told us that he recently became without a girlfriend, and that now that we will be visiting this area one of us should be his new one. Because of the whole accent thing it took a minute for us to figure out what was meant. So its very possible that when we laughed at that comment we were agreeing in the process. At least it makes for a good story. Finally though the mother of the daughter came over and we were able to meet her and setup next weeks study.

So when we were able to leave after visiting for a while we started to head in the direction of the other study in that area. We walked for another 20 minutes when we met up with a herd of goats. There were about 100 goats all being led by a little boy. I have lots of pictures because the little baby goats are so cute. I really want one. There was one that was standing behind a barb wired fence and he wanted to go but didnt want to get close to us so he tried to make a run for it. Apparently when goats are little they dont have good eyesight because he ran right into the fence and was knocked over. We had to back away from the fence before he would go and even then he made a break for it. Another goat made a noise that sounded like a man yelling at the top of his lungs.

It seemed like we were going to walk forever when a group from english pulled up alongside us and offered a ride. We crammed 7 people in a car that wasnt made for 7 people. Once again the person we were supposed to be visiting wasnt home:( So all in all today was us getting used to the area, but at least we tried. The most eventful time today was definetly our ride home.

So we waited for a bus for 25 minutes and when we got on the bus I think I would have prefered to wait for a different one. The guy didnt try to miss the potholes but instead hit them at full speed which made me fly up in my seat and slam my head against the ceiling. The whole time home we had to hold onto the seat in front of us and the local women that were sitting in front of us were laughing at us the whole time. By the end of the ride we were laughing so hard that we were crying. It was either that or we cry. So when we pulled out of the black bush area there was another bus waiting for us to load into it, there were more people then spaces and we were going 120mph. That isnt a joke and its not kilometers, I asked. We were going around a corner and i swear we almost tipped over we were going that fast so I looked up at the speedometer and it said 120. I signed that to Dani who was sitting behind me with Shameniel and Dani said that she thought it was kilometers so when I told her I was pretty sure it was mph she asked Shameniel who confirmed that I was in fact right. I always wanted to ride in a race car. I guess that it was in a bus instead. We think that if there is any possibility of us getting in an accident while we are here it will definetly be in a bus. Ok thats it for now:)

First bible studies by ourselves

Hey all so today we went up into the 50 village area and did some bible studies. Our first stop was Ashna, she is about 13 and knows a little bit of sign. Many people here that are deaf dont know hardly any sign language at all unless they go into new amsterdam for school. This little girl is studying from the you can be gods friend dvd. A lot of times with studies what we do is draw pictures for the student and help them put themselves in the picture. Deaf are very visual people. So Anasha watched what dani drew and copied it into her own notebook from previous studies.

From there we went to Andrea. She is a 7 year old girl from Barbados. She lives with her grandmother because her mother wanted to stay in barbados and couldnt take care of her daughters. She is a very smart little girl who is learning sign from the people who study with her and also at school. Today she was more preoccupied in showing me the dress she was going to wear to a wedding this evening so we didnt get very far:) She has a very short attention span and when she gets bored she tends to nod her head yes to everything to get me to stop asking questions.

Lastly we went to Rebecca. She is about 40 and doesnt know any signs except jehovah, son, friend, and today we learned the word bible:) She cant sign but she lipreads and likes pictures so we borrowed Shameniel's white board that she carries with her. Good thing someone is prepared:)

We mostly walked today...except for the ride home which was interesting. Remember the entry about the minibus? Well i think i mentioned they are supposed to have about 15 people in them, today we were in one that had 24 people crammed in. There were little kids sitting on people they dont know. I wish I had a picture, but i forgot my camera and really you cant move when there are people sitting on top of each other. Another funny thing that happened today was we were sitting waiting for a working bus to pass and a young boy across the road started singing to us. He wanted to get our attention and all we could make ourselves do was laugh. Wow people here are interesting. Ok hope everything is good up there and hope to hear from you all soon.

taking it easy

hey everyone, today we stayed at home and got caught up on some stuff. The first week or so is a testing period to see what our schedule is going to be. Also we stayed home because Dani wasnt feeling good and since all the bible studies were done we decided it wasnt a big deal to stay home. Oh and there was the little fact that our shower had no water in it this morning. Its really funny that we have water in our sinks but not in the shower, so we thought going in public that way wouldnt be a good idea:)

So we got up and did our laundry. For all of you who dont know how we are doing it its done by hand. So I am not sure how clean our clothes really are but at least they dont have dirt on them anymore. We didnt get any pictures of it this time(mom) but I am sure there will be many more oppurtunities for that.

After we did our laundry we started cleaning and I asked Dani to grab something from downstairs to use as a garbage can, so up she comes with a bucket. After a minute she realizes that she forgot something downstairs so she goes down and yells at me to come down right now. When I get there she is pointing to the big yellow bucket under a table that she just grabbed a little bucket from and I see the biggest spider I have ever seen. Come to find out that wasnt the one she was looking at, on the opposite side there is another spider equally as huge. So we ran upstairs and got the bop and we sprayed the spiders. However they apparently are resistant to the poison and they freaked out and ran in circles on the outside of the bucket. When we realized the bop wasnt working Dani left me downstairs by myself to hide upstairs. Thankfully the sister named Shameniel is visiting us right now and she grabbed a broom and killed it for us. So i guess the bat is no longer our biggest concern, its the maneating spiders. Well tomorrow we are doing 5 bible studies up in the 50 village area. We are looking forward to getting more into our routine and seeing how the bible studies are progressing.

transportation and the bat saga part 2

Hey everyone, so today was our first trip to the market by ourselves. Fortunately for us a brother and sister took us down the road further towards the market so we didnt have to take the minibus all the way down. So we went to a store named Spreadys. It is probably the most american place in this area. It looks exactly like a grocery store, excpet they make you leave your bag at the front. We werent aware of this at first so when the guy told us to leave our stuff there we started digging out our money and other valuables and shoving them in our pockets. I am sure the man thought we were nuts but when he keeps saying it safe it sfe leave with me and he walks away i think our actions were justified. So we enjoyed the nice cool store and walked around. We bought pretty much all the american food we could find, its hard to cook the guyanese food without someone guyanese here. So oreos it was:)

So about the going back and forth places. We dont have a car so we like so many here take the minibus. That is an experience in itself, you get on and they dont ask you where you are going. Partly because they cant hear you over the blaring music and screaming people and partly because they dont care. So you get on and cram in with about 14 other people all sitting on top of each other, this bus is about the size of a minivan. So you are driving along and the driver is going about 90 miles an hour. That is no joke. So when you want to get off you have to yell over the people in front of you to the guy who is working the door and collecting money and he tells the driver. So the driver slams on his brakes and everyone and everything goes hurtling forward. In addition to this its important to note that animals roam free here so there are donkeys and pigs running in the road in front of the vehicles, so when that happens we tend to honk the horn loudly and swerve to avoid the animals. Its funny they dont really do that for the people in the road though....
The bat hasnt left yet. He is not coming as often as before but when he does he likes to leave with a bang. I dont believe that bats cant see because everytime he comes in he flies right at one of our heads and i think he does it on purpose because he thinks we invaded his territory. This afternoon when we came home from the market we walked in and didnt see him so we thought we were in the clear and just when we got comfortable there he goes making noise as he flies out the holes in the roof. The good thing is that we arent screaming and running up the stairs when we see him anymore, so improvement has been made. We still do the whole stomping around and banging on the walls thing when we go down the stairs. Its just a warning for him to leave and noone has to get hurt.
Yesterday we went in service with a group from new ansterdam. It was chris, renee, karen, jonathan,and anna. They did one last final walk through with us and handed over the territory to us. We are the proud new owners of 25 bible studies:) It is truly a pioneers dream. We dont have to get them ourselves and they are already started and wanting to continue. What more could we ask for? Ok well i have to go so Dani can have some computer time now. I love you all and will try to update more often:)

week one

hey everyone!!!! so it has now been one week since we have left our houses and got on the airplane. we finally got our internet up and running this morning. we have had our account setup for a few days but we had an issue with a modem and then a misspelled password, who wouldve thunk it huh? us have problems? lol. so as of now we have taken it pretty easy. we are finally moved into our house and we have bats. not the ones you hit balls with but the ones that fly around your head. we have a system to scare them out...we jump up and down on the second floor where we spend most of our time then hit the walls as we walk down the stairs. yes we have a video of this if anyone is wondering. now we have named them, they are thomas and shakira:)

now we are interpreting the meetings for a young girl named niasha. she is a very dramatic little girl, she is constantly keeping us laughing. we really havent done too much service yet. we did spend a day out with a couple from new amsterdam, they took us on the bible studies in this area so we could get an idea of what is expected from us. it was really nice. so the last saturday of every month is new amsterdams full asl meeting so we will be going and will hopefully have some pictures up at that point.

as for our house....in addition to the bats in the downstairs we also have a rooster that apparently doesnt know what time of day he is supposed to start waking people up and a dog that barks all the time. we have considered going down to make the animals be quiet but that would require us going down the stairs where the bat has claimed his territory. so that is a no go:) i hope everything is good up in the northern and snowy region, send us some snow!!!! we want it so bad. until next time

market

hello everyone!!!! we have successfully survived our second day in guyana with only one sunburn and one near death experience, i blame michelle. so today we went to the market with the sister we are staying with for the first few days, and learned how to get all the things we need for our house. which we are moving into tomorrow. The market was a very interesting experience because its so many people moving around and yelling. we got to haggle:) for all of you who have heard my experience in china town you understand how much i love to haggle. we also learned how to clean all of our vegetables and prepare our food so we dont get a parasite and become very ill.

so i will hopefully keep you posted, just so you all know and can pass the word around, we are still figuring out our internet situation. we will be going into town friday to get it all figured out but im not sure how well its going to work, so if you have any questions feel free to email me or my parents. my email is SayAnything853@wavecable.com. hope to hear from you all soon and hopefully ill get some pictures up so you can get an idea of what its like to live here. love you all and i miss you already. hopefully there are brothers and sisters in our congregation who remind me of you all:)

first day

hey everyone sorry about the delay but we are here in brighton and are staying at tom and michelles. we spent about 24 hours flying and are now getting ready for bed:) and we just had our first experience with the power going out. hope all is going well.