Lethem here we come!

Ok everyone, sorry its been so long since I wrote last, much has been going on. But in all fairness I did warn you all on my last entry that I probably wouldn’t be writing for a few days, although I know it has turned into weeks. I have to write all of this down in about 3 different entries, so much is going on here. We came down with the idea that we would be here for maybe a week at the most but it has now turned into a week and a half. Who knows maybe it will turn into moreJ So for all of you who don’t remember where I am at the moment it is a town named Lethem. I am literally a few minutes away from the border of Brazil. So here is the tale of our adventure…

On Tuesday Dana, Abi, and I set off with a brother and sister from our congregation into Georgetown. It is the capital of the country I am in and the biggest city in Guyana. It was a very bittersweet moment because while we knew we would have fun we also had to say goodbye to my beloved Danielle. I haven’t been this sad since the day I arrived and thought what am I doing here. Thankfully that feeling went away, this one I don’t think will. Love you DanI!! Ok so we rode in with them, then they dropped us off to go and catch a bus into downtown so we could go and find DC and Sarah’s house. For all of you who don’t know who that is, DC is the brother who taught my sign language class and then he and his wife left us to go and help in a sign group here in Guyana. So after about an hour of traveling around Georgetown we figured out where they live. This is however after hearing some of the most inventive “calls” that I have heard since being here. Their imagination astounds me sometimes. So we finally figured out where they lived and were met by DC wearing flip flops, yes isn’t that a nice visual? I found it very amusing myself. They are doing great for all of you who know who they are. We were able to meet one of their bible studies that has been baptized and now can have a full conversation with you in ASL, its amazing and really gives us hope that one day those we are working with will be able to really communicate with us in the future. It’s a light at the end of the tunnel you could say. So after a nice visit with everyone, we had to take off to go and meet the rest of the group so we could head out into the jungle, yes I said it the jungle!

We grabbed a taxi to the intra-serve bus station where a few others from our group have gathered. When we arrived we received happy news, some of the boys in our group were off getting pizza for everyone! I had pizza for the first time in 3 months. There are pictures of us really enjoying our pizza. Oh wait I guess I should go back in time a little bit here, we did do one more thing before we went to the bus station. I went to a café that we were told about and enjoyed coffee and free wireless internet! Once again for the first time in 3 months I was able to enjoy something I hadn’t had but loved so very much. I sat there in the café with my blended coffee and smiled more than I have in a very long time.

Ok so after that then we get back to the whole bus station and pizza thing. This place is a karaoke bar in the front and a bus station in the back, so a few of us brave sisters got up and sang, while the brothers looked at us like we were crazy and they had no idea what they just got themselves intoJ Yes there is video of this for those of you whom would like to know. So after waiting for about 3 hours we loaded onto the bus and headed out into wild blue yonder, or really the dark blue yonder considering it was 10 at night. After 3 hours of staying awake to look at the “scenery” which was mainly trees surrounded by black, I fell asleep until we reached our first checkpoint. The checkpoints that I am talking about are really just to make sure you didn’t hide on the bus or getting kidnapped at the one before. The places we stopped at were prisons. Two of which had prisoners in them staring at you. The funny part is these were our bathroom stops as well, so you would walk into what looked like a jail cell to go to the bathroom. It was disgusting but you do what you have to do, that is something I have learned from my 3 months in this country, sometimes you do things you really don’t want to do because well you have no other option. So I will spare all the other details except a few. I rode on a ferry across one of the most beautiful rivers I have ever seen. It was just as the sun was coming up so it was hitting the fork in the river, absolutely gorgeous. Then we drove through the jungle. Oh my goodness, the smell of it is so different from the coast. On the coast the second it gets wet and you can smell the garbage from a mile away. Here you can smell the rain and it smells so clean. Oh my it’s a nice feeling.

Ok so we arrived in Lethem at about 11 in the morning and headed off to our hotel. Ok so everyone knows we have moved hotels about 4 times and as I am writing this I am currently staying at the Kingdom Hall with some very sweet sisters who have opened up their apartments and hammocks in the front yard. So I wont go into why we have switched so many times, you can ask my parents. It is a very long explanation and I hate explaining things in full detail, that is what pictures are for. Ok so our first day we hung out in town and kind of got the lay of the land so to speak. It reminds us of the old western towns with tumbleweeds and cowboys, except here everyone is Guyanese. As we were walking to go and meet some of the other group to get Brazilian ice cream, which by the way deserves its own blog just kidding, kind of, we ran into a sister named Leah Lopez. Her and her husband live here but were on the coast for a while before this. We picked her brain a little bit and that was it. So we met with the group and had ice cream, it was absolutely amazing.

For all of you who don’t know this, I was interviewed along with the 2 other sisters that I live with on this assembly. So that night we headed over to the rest of the groups hotel to rehearse with Tom, he is the brother that asked us to help him out. Once again you will have to read another blog entry for that one. Rehearsal went really well and we stayed and had dinner with them then headed back home. After a good nights rest we went got ready in the morning and then had to head out for our dress rehearsal with the circuit overseer. Everything went really well and we had no problems at all. So later we came back to the hall to attend our first meeting in Lethem. The congregation here is amazing, the second you walk into the yard you feel at home. They are all so sweet and really show an interest in you. I think I met the majority of the brothers and sisters by the end of the meeting. It really made me think of home and that feeling you get when you walk into a place that you just feel how much everyone loves each other.

After meeting we headed out to dinner at the Brazilian restaurant. It is “the” place to go when there is a big group. The food was so good, it was barbequed everything with beans and rice, oh my we have gone a few times since then. We had about 20 people all sitting around the table talking or gaffing as the locals call it, and laughing. As we were sitting there one of the local need greater girls told us there was a deaf woman sitting over at another table, so we went over and met her and arranged for us to go and visit her the next day.

So the next morning we headed over to the meeting for service in a place called culvert city. It is literally a few blocks wide and our meeting place was under the mango tree as usual in any city in Guyana. I was paired up with Dana and a need greater here named Deseree. She has been here for awhile now and has a great story behind her, I once again wont go into details I will make it short. She hasn’t been in the truth very long but you would never ever guess that from talking to her, she was a person who was really looking for the truth and was found. After starting pioneering she decided she wanted to do more and well here she is. She has served on the coast before this and is amazing to watch in the ministry. But anyway, she directed us to the deaf woman, who she studied with for a year, but she doesn’t know very much sign so she wasn’t able to really get her to do more unfortunately. So we went and had a great study with her. She really seems to get big ideas and concepts easily, so that is very helpful. After that we went out and started doing English service, thankfully it was invitation work because my English is very rusty, after this trip not so much but I will explain later. We met many who were very sweet and said they would be there for the assembly, many of which we did see come. After service we all were to set out for Moco Moco Falls, but I will put that in my next entry.