Leaving the nest

Howdy folks, this is Michael, I'm sorry I have to be the one writing to you, as I'm not as exciting as Lauren is, but circumstances warrant it, as you'll see.

Last night we heard a strange noise outside our house, a person calling for us. It's only strange because we are viewed as the grumpy old couple who goes to bed at 7pm, and most people don't come to visit us in the evenings. It turned about to be Melissa, bearing a message from one of the other Adventist schools called Parima. They were looking for someone to teach 7'th graders for about a month until a teacher from the US could get down. Parima is a 2 hour plane ride away, located in the western mountains near Kamarang (click on map to see enlarged image).





It is a very beautiful area with places to hike, waterfalls and who knows what all else. Much different from our flat land existence at Bethany. So we said sure, why not?

Today about 10am James Ash, principal of Parima, also a pilot landed at our airstrip and came to give us some information. It turns out that the Parima area has only one public junior high/ high school, located about 4 hours from the village. All the young people wanting any kind of education have to attend it. Unfortunately, being a public boarding school in a 3'rd world country, it is absolutely ruining the children. The Parima school then has to try to undo 5 years worth of corruption when the kids attend the college there. This year they have started a pilot program to take just the 7th and 8th graders and educate them on the college campus. Support was overwhelming from the village, and many parents begged them to take their kids who were in the upper classes. The problem is that there aren't teachers, so just one grade can be done this year. Next year hopefully more teachers can be found to open it up as a full scale secondary school.

Where we come in is filling in teaching 5 youngsters Math, Science, and English, until a qualified teacher comes in 3-4 weeks. The old teacher just went to Venezuela. In conclusion, you're not going to hear anything from us for about a month, but at the end we should have some really cool pictures and stories saved up.

Howler Monkeys

The other day Melissa was sitting on the toilet... (I know that is a crude way to start an entry, but bear with me) she was sitting on the toilet and gazing out the window, enjoying the gorgeous jungle view. All of a sudden she noticed movement in one of the large trees and became completely attentive. As she peered into the trees she was wild with excitement as she saw an extremely rare sight. It was a family of Howler Monkeys climbing around, chowing down on the little fruits of the tree. She hurried out and shared the sight with others.

Howler Monkeys can often be heard around here in around late dusk and early dawn. We have never been fortunate enough to see these large monkeys though. They are rather elusive. The locals call them baboons because of their size and potential fierceness. I'm sure they aren't too different from their African relatives. They are large and have a good set of sharp teeth that you would definitely want to keep at a distance.

During the time of Melissa's exciting discovery I was on the opposite end of campus, building a roaring fire to heat water for our showers. I was consumed in my task when Michael hastily arrived, almost frantically asking me where my binoculars were. He didn't say a word about why he needed them, but I sensed his urgency and quickly rain upstairs to get them. As soon as I had them Michael took off at a healthy pace, knowing I would follow with the aforesaid binocs. He didn't have to say anything for me to know that I wouldn't want to miss out on whatever distant thing needed viewing. My curiosity got the best of me as I hurried behind him, wondering what on earth he wanted to look at. I typically use my binoculars to trying to spot birds so I wondered if he found some rare bird for me to look at. But then again Michael doesn't usually get that excited about birds, so my curiosity remained.

When we reached the backside of the Sissons' house there was a group of people all staring at the trees. I gave the binoculars to Michael as I looked in the general direction of the undisclosed mystery. I stared hard for a few seconds before I finally saw a mammal of some sort hanging from a lofty branch. The first thought that lunged into my imagination was that it was a sloth. When I saw the creature moving with primal agility I knew that guess was wrong. Someone's comment finally gave light to the mystery and I was delighted to be sharing in the discovery. I saw three of them, two adults and one tiny baby that was clinging to its active mother.

We stood there and watched them until they slowly climbed out of view, into the safety of the jungle. What a cool thing to see! We felt very blessed to have seen them on our campus. They didn't even seem to notice that we were standing there gawking at them either. I really hope they come back for another day time visit sometime.

Rainy Season

Rainy season... a time of glory and woe. A time to readjust your living habits by simple things like carrying an umbrella everywhere you go. If you want to stay dry (drier anyway) you must do this even if the sun is shining and there is hardly a cloud in the sky. The rainy season is a time to revel in the fact that you don't have to water the garden. You are in awe at the tiny little plant wonders that are springing up all around you. The rainy season is a time to become more aware of your surrounding. For example, you must look to the skies to see how fast you should walk from your house to lunch without being caught in a torrential downpour. If the sky has a layer of light clouds, no worries, you can take your time. If it dark with a growing layer of thick storm clouds, you better walk straight and steady. If, by chance, you look to the sky even later than that and you see a thick wall of rain heading your way RUN FOR IT!!!

The rainy season is full of surprises until you get a little more acquainted with it. Once you know it better, you can roll with the soggy punches. One of the unpleasant parts of the rainy season is that things don't really ever get dry. There is so much moisture in the air that things seem to keep perpetually damp. The funny thing is that you don't realize this fact until the mildew starts appearing. I first noticed it on my hat that hangs on a nail on the wall. Little speckles of mildew hinted around the brim and top. I washed it, scrubbing hard on those mildewy spots, and bleached it overnight, but nothing seemed to help. The mildew remains. Our folded clothes have been having problems too. I pick up a shirt to put on in the morning and am almost knocked out by the strong smell. I have tried hanging shirts that I want to wear, and that helps a bit, but is still bad. It is crazy to see everything around you molding from the wet air. Even the wooden rods that hold up our mosquito net dusted in a fine layer of mold. It's disgusting! Thank goodness the rain seems to be lessening by the day. I have a feeling the dry season will be upon us before we know it. And when it's here this girl is going to be doing some serious spring cleaning!


In case I have given you a bad taste in your mouth about the rainy season, don't worry, it isn't all bad. In fact, despite it all, it is a real blessing to have months of rain. One of my favorite parts of the rainy weather is that is is nice and cool. Sometimes it is so cool that I thoroughly enjoy the use of my sweatshirt and pants to ward off the goose bumps. It is wonderful to also appreciate snuggling up with my sheet and blanket at night when I go to bed. In the dry season it gets so hot that you feel like you will never get to sleep. The coolness of the rainy season is WONDERFUL!


Another thing I really like about the wet season is the flowers that have come in bloom. We have a gorgeous flower that grows wild on the outskirts of our campus. This flower is social, growing in groups. Every time I go out walking, I am wished farewell by these beautiful little treasures. Other jungle flowers can be seen here and there too. I love it!

Like I mentioned earlier, it is also super nice not to have to water the ever growing garden. Michael has been working on the garden as he has been able and the fruits of his labor are finally being noticed. He has been extremely grateful to have to help of students and staff alike during the afternoon work periods. It has made the work go quite a bit faster.

We enjoyed the abundance of Bora during the holiday break and now that the Bora is dwindling we are looking forward to a couple other crops that are springing up. Actually we just enjoyed our first meal where everyone got a garden grown ear of corn today. It's a bit of a novelty to have corn on the cob down here. It was very sweet and we were wishing for more. I hear we might all get another tonight. Boy oh boy oh boy!!!



Michael has also counted about 35 pumpkins that are plumping up nicely out in the field that got planted earlier. Pumpkin is a delight down here are you can use it in many different dishes: pumpkin curry, pumpkin pie, pumpkin pone (a sweet and delicious treat), pumpkin bread, pumpkin pancakes... you can even use young pumpkin like zucchini. I LOVE IT!!! I can't wait until they start getting ripe!

Reading With Yoni

Yoni Thomas is a high energy, but very well behaved 11 year old boy who lives in the village of Bethany. His mother, Ramona, is the village health worker and is well loved by all. His father, Floyd, is a logger by profession and also play the keyboard at church each Sabbath. Yoni has a highly accomplished older brother and a bright little sister. Yoni is caught in the middle in every way, especially when it comes to his reading. Why am I writing about this random child? Because he has become my little student two days a week.

I got to know Yoni when Ramona came to Melissa one day pleading for help. She explained that Yoni was having difficulties with his reading and she was wondering if Melissa knew anyone who could tutor him. I was the first person who jumped to her mind since she knows I get along quite well with kids. She asked me if I would be interested and though I have had absolutely no experience teaching reading I accepted the challenge. When Melissa relayed the request to me she made it sound like poor little Yoni basically couldn't read. I was a bit dumbfounded by this and really didn't know how to start him out. But I decided to go and see for myself what level he was at.

I was pleasantly surprised when, during our first session together, I realized that Yoni can read quite well. He is definitely a bit behind where he should be for his age, but my fears of what level he might be at were quickly dissipated as he fairly breezed through a few short stories for me. His biggest challenge is vocabulary. There are several words he can't read because he doesn't know the word in the first place. He also has trouble getting through some of the longer words, but who doesn't! I write down all the words he has trouble with and really drill him at the beginning and end of each session.

Though progress has been slow, I can definitely tell he's picking up and understanding the new words. His parents seem very pleased with our time together, so I guess I'm making a bit of an impact. At any rate I am getting a bit more exercise than normal during the 2 mile walk to his house, plus I thoroughly enjoying being read to and hearing all kinds of fun and interesting Caribbean stories!

Smoothie in the tool shed

One of my most interesting kitchen experiences took place just the other day. What made it so interesting was that it didn't take place in the kitchen at all. But before I get into it too much I should explain a couple of things to you.

You must first understand that our campus has been having major issues with it's electricity lately. We have a big set of solar panels that charge several large batteries. These batteries are able to feed the whole campus with a certain amount of power. It's a beautiful luxury that we are incredibly blessed to have. But, living in the jungle, things are bound to go askew every now and then. And now is the time for power trouble.

The problem we have been facing is that one of the main fans that cools the inverter is broken, thus the whole system can only last about an hour at most these days. And that amount of time is only if very low wattage is being used (i.e. light bulbs). If you want to run anything that takes a little more juice to get it going you can expect around 5 minutes of use before all the power turns off.

With that little amount of background I have one more thing to woefully explain. Every morning, without fail, we have porridge. It takes the form of three varieties; oatmeal, plantain porridge, and cornmeal porridge. Many times the amount that is made is a vision of grandeur compared to what we can actually eat. Since leftovers are inevitable, the cooks have gotten sickeningly creative. They almost alway make "smoothies" with it. Sounds kind of good right off, right? But what comes to mind when you think of a smoothie? Perhaps a decedent mixture of frozen pineapple, mango, and banana, with some porridge to thicken it? If only. Unfortunately our smoothies are made with blended up porridge as the main ingredient, with Mixed Essence (a poor excuse for vanilla type of liquid), sugar, and, if we're lucky, a couple bananas or plantains.

In my humble opinion it is rather terrifying. Don't get me wrong, it is certainly consumable (if you're feeling brave), but I wouldn't dare call it a smoothie. That's like a sacrilege! SMOOTHIES ARE MADE WITH FRUIT!!! If we called it Porridge Froth Surprise, well then I might be really gung ho to glop it down, but smoothie?!

Anyway, now that that's off my chest I can get on with my story.
Sandra (one of our village cooks and also a supreme fan of the Guyanese Smoothie) asked me to make the smoothie of the day (oatmeal) to have for supper. Since the power on campus definitely wasn't working that day, and would have shut off pretty quick with the blender going anyway, I was to use the generator for the job. We only have one functional generator at the moment and do you think they lovingly put it in the kitchen for us? No way! Our men are constantly doing manly projects with all kinds of loud equipment that run off that generator. So naturally it was nestled tenderly in the tool shed where it was being used for something or another.

As such I had no choice but to make the smoothie in the grimy old tool shed. I can only imagine how silly I must have looked carrying the heavy pot of blended ingredients all the way across campus, going back to the kitchen, and returning a few minutes later with the blender and a pitcher in hand. I felt ridiculous! I pulled a paint-spattered bucket over to set up on and there, wedged in that little tool shed, surrounded by fumes and the roar of the generator, I made our smoothie.
Things are sure different in the mission field!