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.