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.