Adios Lethem!

Ok so this is the last of the Lethem instalments, it was a great trip and there was so much to talk about. I left off at the end of our Kumu trip and the truck ride, which means I start at with us moving into the Kingdom Hall. The three of us girls moved into the Kingdom Hall to live with the sisters there for the last few days of our trip. We came early to help out with the cleaning of the Kingdom Hall. It was us and a few of the brothers that are serving as need greaters there. It was a fun night, I was given a motorcycle ride around Lethem, and then we had a movie night. This is after we watched in amusment at the boys trying to hang the speakers from the wall and almost falling off the ladder numerous times. The funny part was the brother up on the ladder telling them that they needed to catch him if he was to fall. Then the boys said that they would probably try to catch the speaker first and if they had time they would catch him then. They are a fun group. So brother and sister Perez came over to the Hall and put a movie on the big screen for us to watch.

The next day we had the day off, so I stayed at Hall with Desiree and the girls went to go and see the deaf girl. When they came back Abi and I took off for the internet cafe so we could let people know that we were alive. We had told everyone we would be coming home Tuesday, it was then Thursday and we had told our families, but there were other people we needed to let know. So we went and enjoyed high speed internet once again, I will never take it for granted again. We got back in just enough time to get ready for meeting. It was exciting because this was the first time that this congregation had interpreting. Yes the deaf woman, named Sharmaine came to meeting. She had come before but there wasnt anyone to do any interpreting for her at that time. So we set up in the back because the front of the Hall was literally the stage and it wouldnt work. It was so nice to see how excited the congregation was about having her there, they are a very supportive congregation. It was a lot of fun let me tell you when the power went out for the majority of the time I was interpreting. They have one floodlight that they can turn on when they have blackouts so the brothers can still continue the meeting. These blackouts happen frequently all over the country, so they have learned how to be prepared. Thankfully, the power came back on shortly before the meeting ended.

After pretty much everyone left us girls sat around outside with the girls who live there named Felecia and Lizzie. We had a nice time talking to them and hearing all of their experiences. Jonathan also stuck around for a while. During this time he decided to show us how he uses gestures to explain things from the Bible. I have it all recorded:) He just loves the camera, and he feels that the camera loves him back. It makes for good conversation. So we all hung aroud the Hall and finally we fell asleep and had to wake up to the reality that we were leaving Lethem:(

We made our way down to the bus station, reluctantly I went. I kept trying to find excuses to stay, however I knew we had left our studies alone for a long time and they needed us to come back. So we waited at the station for a couple of hours. We were supposed to leave at 9:30 in the morning. In Guyanese time it means 11:30, it was nice though because a few people from the congregation stopped by to say their goodbyes. So we grabbed some snacks from the store next door where the woman speaks Portugese, and only had the ability to tell me she likes my eyes in English. We all piled into the bus and we were all prepared for our long trek home. However we werent prepared for what happened.

About 45 minutes out of Lethem our bus broke down. I thought hey this means we are going back to Lethem, so I was getting all excited. After an hour Abi and I decided we couldnt sit on the bus any longer so we got out and walked around. As we headed back into the bus because we saw the mechanic pulling up, I asked the driver if we were heading back to town. He informed me that once you leave Lethem there is no turning around. So we are stuck on a bus that has just broke down and we are going to continue for another 15 hours into the jungle, where its harder to get ahold of someone to come and help fix the bus. Great thought isnt it? After another hour of working on the bus we were up and running again, and our bus driver felt it was important to make sure we arrived at the time that was scheduled. So driving down the torn up jungle road we are speeding along. We made very few stops except when one of the Brazilian men made the announcement he had to go to the bathroom and they needed to stop the bus so he could do so. This happened frequently throughout the whole trip, I think it was more for attention than anything else.

I finally was able to fall asleep, then guess what happens? The bus broke down again! An hour away from Georgetown, why would you want to make it all the way to your destination without any problems? So instead of staying awake I told Abi to wake me up once we reached town. So two hours later we were getting our stuff out of the bus, it is 2:30 in the morning now by the way. So we got a taxi and headed over to DC and Sarah's house. Poor thing, we woke her up so we could get into the house across the way and she had to wake up a few hours later to go to the assembly. So we all crashed in the house and enjoyed the short amount of sleep we got.

The next morning we woke up to no water, that meant no shower:( Oh well, I think its a bigger problem in Georgetown than it is in Brighton. We havent been without water at all. So after hanging out around the house for a while we decided to venture out. We called a taxi and had him take us to the bank and then back to the Oasis:) Oh was it nice to enjoy some more coffee and food. Not to mention the high speed internet as well. We were there for about 4 hours, then went back to the house so we could get our stuff together and head back into Brighton. We got back and had enough time to visit with DC and Sarah for a few minutes, then catch our taxi back to Brighton. We were greeted by tons of mosquitos, its like they knew we were gone. Well that is the end of our trip to Lethem, unfortunately for all of you this means back to the boring old Brighton stories. But who knows maybe something exciting will happen around here. We have memorial and special day in Berbice coming up. Not to mention the arrival of my mom! So I should have more to update you on soon. We are just keeping busy catching up on studies and making sure we get them all invited to Memorial. I look forward to seeing you all soon, its almost a month away until my arrival home.