December Festivities

Christmas came and went for us like the birth of Christ. It was humble, but glorious in its own way. We spent Christmas day on the campus of BMMC. The only other people there were the Sissons. Michael and I had wrapped several gifts for them and didn't worry so much about ourselves. It was nice that way. We had a wonderful feast with their family and then enjoyed a relaxing day together.

We did give a gift each to each other, but we didn't go too crazy like many people I know at Christmas time. My gift to Michael was a nice set of chisels for wood working.

His gift to me was better than anything I could have ever hoped for. It was a hot water heating system for our shower. It's not professional grade or anything, but it heats my water. You don't know what a blissful state of elation I am in when I shower now. Before I showered kicking and screaming. I HATE cold showers with a vengeance! Michael is wonderful! He very creatively took some bricks, a huge pot, some copper coils, some PVC pipe, some wood, some saw dust, and a single match to make my dreams come true! Did I mention that Michael is wonderful? He's WONDERFUL!!!








Michael and I also just celebrated our 2 year anniversary on Saturday. Yea us! I had prearranged a little gift for Michael that he could munch on for the day. It was delivered to us after church. Michael is quite fond of a little snack in town called a Pine Tart. Pine is simply short for pineapple, so you can use your imagination to fill in the tasty details. I commissioned a lady to make me some heart shaped pine tarts that I could give to my sweet husband. She did a brilliant job, and since she is quite fond of food coloring, she added a little something special to spruce things up a bit. She's so cute! Michael gobbled them up with me with absolute delight shining from his big brown eyes. It was fun!


After church and a nice lunch we borrowed a boat from the same family that produced the Pine Tarts and went for a beautiful paddle through the jungle. It was so nice! I miss paddling, a lot! It was so quiet and peaceful where we went. It was like we were the only two people alive, living in a jungle paradise! I had a tiny taste of what Adam and Eve must have felt like in Eden. Beautiful! I could get used to that!

A Christmas Celebration

School ends on the 12th of December for a three week break. During this time practically everyone will be going to their respective homes to celebrate Christmas with their families. Since some of our staff members will be traveling back to the States for the holiday before break officially begins we decided to have a little campus Christmas party to bring in the holiday spirit.

We announced the Saturday night party on Thursday night and opened it up for any students that wanted to be a part of the program. We were hoping to do some fun little skits and songs, and maybe a story or game. Anca and I were the main instigators of the event, so of course all the planning fell on our shoulders. We didn't come up with a plan until Saturday afternoon. We were cutting it close, but we pulled it together.

I was abundantly grateful for Melissa's help in the kitchen. She got out the cookie cutters and made a batch of Christmas cookies and frosting and some of the traditional Guyanese Black Cake. While things were being cooked in the kitchen, we put together a fun little BMMC version of the 12 Days of Christmas song and practiced a song with all the female staff here that we would also be performing. None of the students said a word about being a part of the program until right before we started. Then Valissa said she had a couple skits and a poem she wanted to do. I was delighted to have a student presence in the program. It always makes things more fun when more people can participate.

We invited two families from the village to join us for our get together and we all enjoyed a simple supper of bread and pumpkin sauce, popcorn, and a very interesting hot chocolate substitute made of carob. Somehow I ended up being the emcee of the program. I was amazed at how smoothly things went with our very minimal discussion and pretty much no practice. Things went well and people really seemed to enjoy the program. I know I had a fun time. We had songs, skits, a story, a poem, a game, and even cookie decorating!

The night was finished up with the dedicated clean up of Michael and two other guys (Kurt and Delvin) who spent quite some time working on washing up the mountain of dishes from the nice dinner. I helped them a little bit too, but then I had to go practice a song with my fellow female staff members. There would be a little Christmas program put on at the primary school the next evening and we had decided to sing a song for it. It is a pretty song, but we only had a couple days to learn it, and even less time to practice all together. We had performed it acapella for our BMMC party, but we would be doing it with accompaniment at the other program so we wanted to practice with Floyd, our pianist.

As we practiced that song my heart went out to Anca. She is very serious about her musical performance and has been burning with the desire to put together a group of people who could actually sing and perform a choir piece. This is her first attempt and as our director, she wanted it to sound just as it's written on the sheet music. The singers sounded pretty good together (if I do say so myself), but our dear accompanist kind of did his own thing. Melissa had assured Anca that he could play the accompaniment to the song, but he apparently is not that well trained because he wasn't able to quite play things how they were written. As far as I'm concerned he was fine. The people of Guyana sure won't know the difference. They are used to Floyd's unique sound since he plays the keyboard at church every week. But I could see Anca's heart sink at certain parts of the song. There are sometimes when the accompaniment really gives the passion behind the song if played right. Floyd just wasn't getting it. But if there's one thing for missionary's to know and practice daily in the mission field it is to be adaptable and work with what you have. If you're not willing to do this, you will live a life of constant frustration.

By the way our performance at the primary school went just fine. It wasn't concert quality, but it sure did the trick.

Bora Bora

Gilbert was right! Those hungry iguanas LOVE bora. Bora is a vine plant that produces a tasty bean that resembles a long string bean. Lately the bora we planted has been the most thriving crop in the garden. That only means about one full handful gets picked per day, but we are excited about that! It is really nice putting the tasty bean in our salads, soups, rice dishes, whatever! But growing things seems to be a constant battle against the jungle critters. Those iguanas are the biggest threat to the bora as they will chomp down heartily on the entire plant and eat it down to a sad little nubbin.

Michael has seen up to three iguanas in his garden at one time. The best thing to do to keep them away is to catch them and relocate them far, FAR away from our campus. Four young iguanas have already been caught. Michael said all he wants for Christmas is for the granddaddy of them all to be caught. I have not seen this large iguana, but from the descriptions he is roughly 2 feet in length, not including the tail. This guy loves his bora too! Michael has seen him the most frequently as he runs full speed into the safety of the jungle at a person's approach. The students say the only way to catch him is to stay out all night and wait for him. Any volunteers? You might catch the jaguar at the same time! :D

Michael has planted his next round of bora in an attempt to keep a steady flow of produce growing. I guess some other invaders have started in on these. Michael is suspecting crickets this time, and he has seen the acoushi ant going at it as well. Each creature eats the plants a different way, all are destructive!
By the way, the fogger seems to be a success with the acoushi ants. However, when one colony is obliterated, another always seems to find out and move in from somewhere else. There have been a steady supply of these ants that have taken a keen fancy to our campus. At least we know they aren't coming from the same place twice though.

Things That Prowl in the Night

Things That Prowl in the Night
When I think of the jungle there are many things that enter the imagination. To me the jungle is wild, awesome, full of hidden dangers, dense, beautiful, untamed, teaming with life, a book of lessons, mysterious, and full of wonder! The jungle seems to have little surprises around every corner. Some people are quite intimidated by the jungle. Admittedly, there are plenty of dangers in the jungle, but thankfully we are fairly safe here on campus.

We have seen many tantalizing hints of the presence of a jaguar or puma on and around campus. Isn't that exciting?! Whoever this feline visitor is seems very interested in the Sissons' little dog, Lulu. These large jungle cats are referred to by the locals as "tigers" and for some reason everyone seems royally terrified of them.

I don't quite understand the fear that people have as no one has ever been attacked by. The only exception that I have heard of was last year when someone shot and wounded a jaguar. Wounded animals are definitely a threat as they go into defense mode. That jaguar did attack one of the men, mauling him pretty bad. But in general, as is true with pretty much all wild animals, these cats won't bother people.

I guess it is a bit unnerving to know that these tigers will get bold enough to enter villages and sometimes snatch peoples dogs right off their porch in the night. One night the Sissons didn't lock Lulu in her little dog house as usual. She was sleeping up on the porch of their house. Sometime in the middle of the night she woke the family up with uncontrollable barking. Gilbert wasn't there at the time and Melissa didn't have the nerve to go out and look, but she pretty much knew it was a tiger. She opened the door to let Lulu into the house. Poor Lulu was pacing frantically along the porch and barking into the darkness below. When Melissa got her inside, the dog was shaking from head to toe.

The next day Melissa's fears were confirmed as she and her kids saw large cat prints coating the sand at the base of the house. Poor Lulu was very paranoid that whole day. She would go around sniffing each paw print, look off to the bush in the direction the prints led and bark and bark. Poor thing. Talk about PTSD!

I personally am dying to see one of these jungle cats. Man, oh man! If I would have been Melissa, you better believe I would have been out there on the porch with our spotlight and my camera to try to see our unwelcome visitor! Maybe someday I will get to see my "tiger."

Honestly the thing that scares me more that a jungle kitty is the other prowler we have lurking around these parts. He is an escaped convict, a thief and murder they call Black Boy. I guess this guy was adopted and raised in the Adventist village of Bethany. I don't really know when the troubles started with him, but he had stolen some things from the village and even our school campus two years ago. Get this, over that Christmas break there was a period of time where Melissa and her two kids were the only ones on campus. During that quiet break, Black Boy made himself at home in the men's dorm, unbeknown to Melissa. He set up someone's hammock and mosquito net and lived quite comfortably there for probably a couple weeks. When he left, he thanked BMMC for their hospitality by helping himself to various items from the dorm that he took with him.

He did get caught for his thefts and was in prison last year but somehow got out. Since he is a bush man, he has been hiding in the cover of the jungle and the authorities haven't been able to track him down. We have heard rumor that he has family that is hiding him, making it virtually impossible for the police to catch him.

Black Boy has definitely been in the area recently as we have a report of a stolen chainsaw in the village of Mashabo. It is really sad when things like this happen. Typically everyone in the village is quite trusting of each other and there are no problems to speak of. But when reports like this come up, people put up their guard and feel the need to lock up their usually open homes. Man truly can be the scariest beast there is!


PS Don't worry mom, we are locking up our house :)

Thanksgiving in Guyana

One of the the challenges of being out of your home country for long periods of time is facing the holidays. You have to make an extra special effort to do something to celebrate since no one around will really be celebrating your holiday. I remember hearing Jared and Jodi's account of Christmas in Thailand. They got together with their fellow Americans, blasted the air conditioner to make it feel like winter, made hot chocolate, and watched a Christmas movie in their flannel pj's. I love it!

Though Thanksgiving isn't quite as dramatic of a holiday as Christmas is, it was one that was especially meaningful to the few of us who were US citizens here on campus. We definitely had to make a special effort to do something for this holiday as it is one of the major, uniquely American holidays back home. Last year at this time we had a very special treat for Thanksgiving. There was a small group of Americans here to install the septic system and they brought all the ingredients we needed for a full Thanksgiving feast. It was awesome! This year was very different.

The Sissons would be spending the Thanksgiving in Georgetown with some other friends of theirs, so we were left to fend for ourselves. There would be four American staff left to share the responsibility, but we all wanted to do something. Michael and I decided to host a Thanksgiving feast at our house so we set to work cleaning things up and getting ready.

The food situation is always a bit touch and go around here. We had pretty much just what we could get in the little markets in town. There was no way we would be able to reproduce a full Thanksgiving feast, but we would sure do our best. We delegated different portions of the meal to each person involved to make things go smoother. I was so excited to have received a package from my sweet mother and sister-in-law containing some pie filling and spices, among other goodies that reminded us of fall. With this in hand we preceded to bring together what we all had and create our masterpiece!

There were five of us involved in the process. Michael was in charge of making the pie. He had to get a little creative with milk as condensed milk was not among our assets. A coconut fit the bill though, and after blending up some coconut milk the process went on like normal. Saray, our Venezuelan kitchen manager, helped us out by making a nice crust. I was kept very busy chopping and preparing sweet potatoes for a Guyanese version of candied yams, cubing bread rolls for stuffing, and chopping and boiling potatoes to be mashed up later.

Later that afternoon our duties were taken over by the willings hands of Liz. She had a lot of fun getting away from the typical cooking here and cooking with home in mind. Anca eventually jumped in too, giving the meal a nice finishing touch. After hours of busy toil our feast was complete! We had made stuffing, cranberry sauce, candied yams, mashed potatoes and gravy, bread rolls with pumpkin butter and Michael's home made peach and blackberry jam, fruit salad, pink lemonade, and the crowning glory - pumpkin pie!

I had attempted some mediocre decorating at home for the occasion. I had written out some thanksgiving focused Bible verses and put them up on the wall. I had collected some nice big jungle leaves to put up with them to give as much of an autumn feeling as possible. I used an old pair of sheets with leaves all over them as my table cloths. We put a few new little candles on the tables to add some ambiance, and we were finally ready to feast!

We all could hardly contain our excitement about the meal. About a half an hour before our meal I had seen Anca running up and down the stairs of the girls dorm, doing jumping jacks in between sets. The poor girl had had a very late lunch and wasn't feeling hungry enough to really get into a Thanksgiving feast. She wanted to be hungry SO BAD that her sporadic exercise session was in wild hopes of creating some hunger. It made me laugh.

As our guests arrived, we all made ourselves comfortable around the small table. When we were all settled, we bowed our heads together and sent up a most genuine prayer of thanks for what we had, and the wonderful company we could share with each other. While we ate, we shared some things we had been blessed with in the past year, shared some favorite traditions and memories of the holiday, and told the original Thanksgiving story to our honorary Venezuelan guest that we had invited to feast with us.

Every single dish tasted amazing. We almost had to remind ourselves that we were still in Guyana. We had a great time eating and fellowshipping together, but, as is common on Thanksgiving, the main meal was so filling that we couldn't possibly fit pie and fruit salad in our bursting stomachs without a little break. So we all went on a walk together in the pleasant dark of night. After the walk we had worship with the students, and then made our way back for dessert.

We helped ourselves to the fruit salad and pie and then, when we had reached our limit, we played a fun round of Apples to Apples to close the evening together. We had such a nice time together that the other girls asked us if we might be able to get together for meals at our house a little more often. I was delighted at their request. We don't get enough company at our little house, so this sounded wonderful. We have talked about getting together one night every other week or so. Sounds good to me!

God Delivers Right on Time

This is one of the few posts actually written by Michael! I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

There we were working away on the wood shop with our 6000 watt honda generator, everything going well. You know the devil doesn't like progress though and our generator started having troubles. First it started with trouble with a low idle setting that saved fuel. That was not a problem because we could run it at full power and it worked fine, it just burned more gas. Then it was having trouble starting up at all, but would usually work with a little tinkering. This is when I thought it would be a good idea to get another cheap generator, just in case.

Well the time came for us to go into Georgetown and get our goods, and I went around to various shops looking at generators. Most were way too expensive or bigger than I wanted. As my options began to dwindle I prayed that the Lord would find the perfect generator for us, and lead me to it. The next store I went into had just what I wanted. A small, affordable generator, about $750, that would be perfect for us. I had the cash with me and was ready to buy it, I asked the salesman about it and he told me it wasn't even for sale! It turned out it was used and he wouldn't sell it until the mechanic could check it over. I was a little bummed, but I planned later in the day to go back and make an offer on it, pending the mechanics inspection.

This all happened at the same time as we picked up our shipment and as you may have read, things didn't go as planned. We ended up leaving the same day and I didn't have time to go back to the store. We got back to the campus and the next day guess what happened, the big generator finally refused to work at all! I thought, boy, sure would have been nice if we'd have come back with that generator, but we put our trust in the Lord that he would provide.

The next day Gilbert called the States to check out prices there and found out that David Gates, our sort of boss, was flying down the day after in his plane. He got a hold of David and asked him if he had any room for a generator on the plane. The answer: if it's under 120 lbs, sure! He told him what we were looking for and David called back a few hours later. He had found a 3500 watt Honda generator on sale for $1000. (Much better quality than the one I had looked at) And guess how much it weighed, 118 lbs. We also didn't have to pay the $500 or so dollars in import duty because it came down on his plane.

Four days later Gilbert went and picked it up and we got back to work right away. The new generator has been in almost constant use around the campus and should last for many years. Our big generator has been out of service for almost 2 months now, but should be back in another week. The Lord truly provided what was best for us just when we needed it.

Don't Make Me Get the Chainsaw!

As you may know, part of how our campus at BMMC functions with building projects is by providing its own lumber. We have a skilled lumber man named Oswald that works for us full time. He is kept busy fetching and cutting wood for various projects. For all you environmentalists out there, you will be happy (happier) to know the he is definitely not clear-cutting our beautiful jungle. In fact, Michael has gone out with him a couple times to find trees and it has taken literally all day to bring back one log. They drive the huge tractor deep into the jungle, locate a choice tree, cut it, and haul it back by chain behind the tractor.

As you can imagine, being gone all day and only coming home with one log can be a bit discouraging. That is why we recently purchased a log trailer that should be able to hold 3-4 logs on it at a time. This will save around $100 per trip in fuel and also 2 days worth of work, so we are very pleased about it. They've made 3 trips so far and it has performed well, although they had to reweld a portion and change the wheel bearings. We bought the trailer on the condition that we would be payed back in lumber for our treehouse. It's going to be a little while before we can start that project though.

The current project that this lumber is going toward is the mission house we will be building in Mashabo. Last year BMMC had a large wood mizer sawmill donated to the cause. It is used to cut whole logs into boards. The wood mizer uses bandsaw style blades, think of a hula hoop with teeth, that stand as tall as I do, and though we have several blades to work with, they get dulled fairly quickly. That is why they are training me to sharpen them. I will write more on that a little later with pictures, but let me just say that until I learn it, it is a rather dangerous job for me. Luckily I have only cut myself open once. No biggie! :)

Speaking of building things in Mashabo, we have some more good news. Gilbert got together with several of the SDA leaders in Mashabo yesterday and talked over a formal proposal he had of building a church. As I understand it, this will be one of the school's mission projects. The villagers were very excited about the prospect and have offered to go out and cut all the logs for the church and even some for our mission house. They will then be cut at the campus on the wood mizer. This will save Oswald a huge amount of time as he will be able to focus his energy on cutting and preparing the lumber.

Michael build a little drying rack this week to help keep the lumber in good condition. Basically when boards get cut they just throw them into unruly piles. As such, there are a lot of boards that are almost unusable because they get so warped. Michael's rack will at least give the wood a chance to start to dry on a level surface. This is going to be important because they're going to be using the woodshop to mill all the floorboards and wallboards.

It's amazing how much goes into these projects! I so admire the patience and strength that goes into everything. Hopefully it won't be too much longer before I am writing about these promised buildings going up.

Have Patients

When Aaron went home his apartment became available for visitors and patients of BMMC. Right now it is occupied with a jovial lady named Urma. She is the second patient BMMC has seen. Lila was the first. Lila left us after about a month of living here. I guess she got tired of the diet they had her on. No enough goodies for her liking, so she left.

Miss Urma (as we all affectionately call her) is almost the complete opposite of Lila in every way. When Miss Lila left us she was literally skin and bones. She refused to eat hardly anything. She was giving up. It was truly sad. Miss Urma has a very amiable disposition and has given only the most positive feedback. I was a bit shaken the first night she was here when I found out that she snores. I was marginally worried that the two weeks she would be spending with us would have to be two week of ear plugs for me (our walls don't keep anything a secret!). However, I quickly dismissed any negative feelings as I learned what a jewel of a person Urma is.

Urma has befallen several ailments that she is here to have treated. She has heart disease, edema, arthritis, and diabetes. She is on a very strict diet with a lot of blended up fruits and veggies. Because of the diabetes, all of them are of the more bitter sort. She is not allowed to have anything sweet. Just to give you an idea what she is going through, one of her juices is a Garlic/ Grapefruit blend. Can you imagine?! I can't even fathom how wretched that must taste!

Despite her drastic change of diet and all her new treatments, Urma continually demonstrates a heart of gold. She can often be heard singing hymns to herself throughout the day. She takes time for thoughtful devotion with God. She is very friendly, especially with the students, and often has quite a gathering of guests visiting her in the evenings. Her hearty laugh can be heard anytime she is talking with people. I love her laugh. It really makes me smile.

I am not directly involved in the treatments this time so I can't testify to her progress. But from what I have heard she is feeling better in several areas. They take her out for short walks and do certain other anaerobic exercises with her at home. They are doing massages for her on a regular basis. They are also doing things like hot foot baths, charcoal and clay poultices on her knees, and salt scrubs.

They had her out on the grass in front of our house one day and were painting the dear lady up with clay. Apparently clay is kind of like charcoal in that it draws toxins out of the body. That's the theory anyway. She was so cute, she got a call on her cell phone while they were covering her legs up with clay and she was eager to tell her caller what she was doing. She chuckled as she had to repeat herself a couple times as her friend probably had no idea what she was talking about. People don't do this every day you know!

One part of her "treatment" that I really appreciate is having her help out in the kitchen and garden. It's not so much that anyone needs the help but they want to keep Urma active, interacting with others, and having a nice change of scenery so she doesn't get too lonely or depressed. I think that's one thing that Miss Lila was missing out on. Lila didn't have the strength to stand up and do daily chores. She was much too weak and frail. Miss Urma certainly moves slow and with much effort, but she is quite capable of doing daily chores. Just this morning she was out sweeping our front porch, bless her heart!

I desperately hope that Urma benefits from her time here and learns a better way to live. I know we have certainly enjoyed having here here with us. I also hope that any patients we have in the future are as amiable and fun-loving as she is!

November 13

Last week I was asked to finish my class. I pulled together an idea for a final exam by Monday, and now I am the first and only teacher to be done. Why did they want me to finish so early? It's because they needed my class slot for outreach.

Outreach is a wonderful part of the curriculum that gives each student some very practical experience in the medical missionary things they learn at BMMC. Obviously they can't do outreach from the beginning of their school session since they need to learn the stuff first. That's why they are just starting their outreach now.

Currently the outreach takes place in the villages of Mashabo and Bethany. The students go out in groups of 2 or 3, with a staff member for each group and visit different families in these communities to do either Bible studies or medical work with them. The Bible studies that they do are based on an Amazing Facts Bible study series that goes through I think 27 different topics. They are quite thorough and are very much based on the Word of God.

Since today was the start of our outreach efforts we started by visiting a few homes at the top of the Supaanam River. There were 5 of us and we basically just introduced ourselves, told the families what we were doing, and found out if they were interested in receiving Bible studies. We were very well received and everyone said they would like the studies. How cool is that! We even got to give one unscheduled study since it started pouring rain before we left the first house we visited. It didn't sound very fun to be riding down the river in that kind of weather! It was nice too since we were definitely able to clear some things up for Vera (the lady we were studying with).

It's kind of strange for me to be going with the Bible study groups as I wouldn't say I am that knowledgeable about the Bible. But that was actually one of my main motivations for signing up to go out. I am hoping to catch a few new bits of Biblical information as the students lead out. We'll see how much they learned in their Bible studies class!

Part of the medical outreach we will do is to have one group help out at the Bethany clinic every week. The health care system in Guyana starts with community health workers. There is one health worker assigned to each village to take care of the basic medical needs there. Health workers only get four months of formal training but are expected to do a huge amount of work. From what I have heard, most health workers are rather lazy and usually not that compassionate. Luckily the village of Bethany has an incredible health worker named Ramona who is extremely good at what she does. Melissa has worked things out so the students can work with her to learn the proper way to work with people.

The group that did medical work at the clinic today had an interesting experience. There was a man who had chopped off part of his finger yesterday who didn't come to get it looked at until today. Ramona, the village health worker, was all mad at him for waiting. She probably could have saved the finger, but he said he had thrown the finger tip away. He was there because the rest of his finger kept bleeding and bothering him. So one of our students got to change his dressing and actually cut away some of the dead skin around the top. She claims the experience has dissuaded her from ever becoming a nurse. Too much blood for her liking!

It's really neat to hear the stories that everyone comes back with . Outreach is definitely a blessing for the students, staff, and those receiving it!

Wood Shop Update

It has been about two months since we've been here in Guyana and so many things have been happening. One of the most exciting things has been to watch the steady progress that's been happening on the wood working shop. When we arrived at BMMC the shop was only a frail skeleton of the floor. There was MUCH to be done! Both Michael and Aaron got involved with the project within the first week of arrival (I even helped a little!). Since then people have been working on the project on and off as they can.

It would be lovely if it could be diligently worked on day after day until completion, but (as always) there have been fairly regular setbacks that have slowed things up a bit. Some of the obstacles that the crew has faced have been things like rainy days (I mean REALLY rainy days), broken generators, projects leaders being away, broken equipment, lack of laborers, etc. Despite it all, they have really done a lot and the shop is taking shape.

Now the floor is solid, all the walls are up, and the rafters have been set in place. The last step is getting the roof on. Then of course they will have to figure out the installation of doors and windows, build work benches and storage for the smaller tools, and get all the shop equipment set up inside but that will come in time.

The goal was to have the roof on by the time the rainy season hit. We have had some rain, but we aren't in the thick of it yet. Michael suggested putting wooden shingles on for roofing since it is about $2000.00 cheaper than the typical zinc roofing. Gilbert seems quite interested in that so they are doing a bit more research before they start putting anything up. I having a feeling they will figure something out pretty soon though. The rain's a comin'!

Monkeys in Mashabo

The seminar in Mashabo had been going on all week long. Michael and I had decided to go back to BMMC and resume weekly duties there so things would keep going relatively smoothly on campus while most of the staff was spending their time in Mashabo. I felt a bit guilty leaving as we had basically been the ones running the whole kids program in Mashabo. But I knew that the remaining staff were quite capable of pulling off a brilliant program with them too, so I wasn't too worried.

We didn't leave until early Monday morning of that first weekend we spent out there. Remember how I told you before about our coconut gathering experience? Well before that we had been visiting with a really sweet lady named Orlinda. She was the one who had actually inspired the coconut collecting idea.

Orlinda had several lovely coconut palms at her house and she had Michael get a bunch for her. The poor lady is a widow since last year, and unless one of the village boys happens by to gather the tantalizing coconuts for her, she has no way to get them. Michael has not yet mastered the art of climbing the palms, so he just knocked a bunch down with a long pole. However, there were many more that were out of reach, so Michael promised her that we would be back in a week to get more down for her.

True to promise, we woke up early Sunday morning and made our way across the lake just as the sun was starting to peak over the trees. This time we brought some climbing gear along with us. Michael was able to climb up one of the taller palms in her yard and collect about 35 coconuts for her. The sad thing is, Orlinda wasn't even home! Michael wanted to get them for her anyway since we had taken the effort to make it out there. While he was climbing, he attracted the attention of a young boy who skittishly came over to watch the spectacle. I was glad to have the company of this adorable little guy since Michael's attention had to be focused on his climb.

Calwyn (the little boy) was probably about 5 or 6 years old and was just as energetic as you might expect a boy of his age to be. Amazingly he warmed up to me (the children of Mashabo tend to be VERY shy) and we had some fun playing around on the ground while Michael was hard at work.

I chased him all over the place until we were both so hot and tired that we (I) required a break. Luckily Michael's loads of coconuts that he lowered came often enough to supply a little resting time from the fun.

Even when we were resting in the shade, little Calwyn didn't stop moving. He started showing off a little, practicing all kinds of acrobatic stunts for me. It was really cute. He was a big help to me too, carrying the coconuts from the lowered backpack to the pile several feet away. What a little cutie!

Bible Seminar

On the first of November BMMC began a Bible/Health Seminar in the village of Mashabo. The seminar was quickly thought of when we heard that someone from a Pentecostal Church was poking their nose around in Mashabo. In fact, since there is no other spiritual organization for the villagers, this church really was bringing the people in. They have been having meetings every week for a little while now underneath someone's home. Since they have moved in, teaching these people whatever it is they believe, BMMC thought it was urgent for us to make our move and share with them the truths we have found in the beautiful word of God.

Calwyn is one of the teachers here at BMMC who decided to head up this project. He is a kind little Guyanese fellow that is teaching a class on Christian Living and co-teaching Hydrotherapy and Massage class as well. He is very knowledgeable in natural remedies and hydrotherapy and is extremely well founded in the Bible. His passion for sharing these wonderful things is unmatched. He sensed the urgency of bringing a stronger SDA presence into the picture in Mashabo and the seminar was his idea to get our foot back in the door.

Within a matter of only a few days he had gotten various staff members to commit to helping lead out in his effort. So with the strength of his persistent passion, and the organization and equal drive of Anca (another one of our other teachers), they were in Mashabo on the evening of the 31st ready to deliver their first meeting. Unfortunately a few days wasn't really a sufficient amount of time for the hard-working leaders and they went a bit more unprepared than they had thought.

The meetings were scheduled for 7:00 every evening. Since they would be happening after dark, one of the vital things they were needing was lighting. They had thought of it, and even arranged for it. But it wouldn't be arriving until the next day when Gilbert would be bringing the tractor with all their other supplies.

In the dark of night, the villagers started to come, but of course didn't see anything or anyone that resembled a meeting and so went back home assuming that something had gone wrong and there wouldn't be any meetings. They even spread that message to their neighbors, so that first night the only people we were able to share with was a small group of teenagers that were hanging out in the dark. Andre, the speaker for the night, produced his message loud and clear, but it was easy to detect the disappointment in his attitude as he reflected on the event.

We were all slightly discouraged at our weak start, but we doubled our efforts on Saturday afternoon by splitting up into groups of two and going out into the village to let them know that the meetings were indeed still happening. While Michael and I were out we visited a family that had a very curious little pet monkey. The lady of the house said it wouldn't bite so we got to pet the cute little guy. He even climbed from his little perch on the house onto our arms. He probably would have crawled all over us if he hadn't been tied up. :D I was definitely sad I didn't have my camera.

That night the people did come. There was a pleasant turn out with around 20 adults and 30 kids or so. Michael and I were in charge of the children's program while we were there so we thought up some good stories to tell and a fun game to play. It was funny because although the adult program was nicely equipped with two bright, generator-powered lights, we had no lightning for the kids. We all packed into a little building lit by the brave efforts of two small Mag Lights. It worked for us though and things went just fine.

It was kind of nice to have a change of scenery from our school's campus. Though we were definitely living more primitively in Mashabo, we had a really nice time fellowshipping with our fellow staff members. It's nice to be in a more relaxed environment with people. You get to see another side of them. We enjoyed a couple nice swims in the lake, cooking over an open fire (we even made a couple batches of popcorn!), and tent camping. It was nice to be in our tent again. It's been a while.

One of my highlights was paddling to the other side of the lake with Michael, Andre and Natoya (two married students from Barbados) to collect coconuts. Andre climbs coconut palms very well so we appealed to his talent to help us. He was delighted. He climbed a palm that was probably 35-40 feet tall. I was impressed! He stayed up there until every last coconut had been plucked from the sturdy tree and tossed down. Several of the coconuts that he tossed broke open upon impact. He was trying to aim for a pile of leaves to pad the fall, but didn't always hit it spot on. In the event that one broke, the ground crew had to act quickly. Our goal was to fill a couple large water bottles with the sweet coconut water to take back and share with the others.

Michael and Natoya worked furiously to take care of the ones that had burst open. They wanted to chop a hole and pour it into the bottles before it all leaked out. I ran around collecting the nuts as they fell and delivered them to the others. The family who owned the trees were all standing out there watching the entertainment. The mother even helped us chop open the coconuts for a while.

Finally Michael found a bag laying in the bush and used it to catch the last batch coconuts as they were flung down so they wouldn't burst open too. He was pretty good at it, only dropping a couple. We all made a great team!