Days 1-4...Bringin' on the Heat!

Sunday, June 01, 2008 – Day 4 nears its end, and Meg and I both agree that it feels like 4 weeks, not 4 days since we arrived! It must be the totally new surroundings, things we have to get adjusted to… climate changes. I feel like we are walking around wide-eyed and wet behind the ears as to what to do, where to go, how to act. But I must say that every day is better than the one before. And that’s how I am honestly having to take it here. The climate is cooler than I expected (bonus)…not as smelly as I was told ( at least on our street)….and not as 3rd world in many respects. Every night when we climb under our mosquito net with our flashlights and books, we hear the not so soft lull of rasta music filling our room. The sounds of people partying in the streets. We have yet to go out at night… one afternoon being followed and called “snow white” was enough to secure that we stay in after dark for now. We literally are the only 2 light skinned people here. And we either get met with 1 of 3 looks. Smiles and a greeting (I prefer this one), deer in the headlights expression (mostly with children), and the look of “what are you girls doing HERE!” (I commonly have that expression as well) J In the morning wake up to the sound of business as usual, the taxi’s honking, horse or mule drawn carts clopping down the street. All in all, it is an overwhelming feeling to the senses and the mind, but at the same time there is a peace about it all. But let me go back a few days and fill you in on our travels and the first few days….
May 28th – Miami to Trinidad: My dad dropped us off at Miami airport along with our 9 not so light bags. (can you believe I forgot SO MUCH!) Meg injured her lower back a few days before arriving in Fla, so as we are trying to get from gate D30 to D51 she just said, forget it! Lets get a wheelchair, or cart to pick us up. So we hear the distant “beep…beep…beep..” our chariot approaches! So we are riding on the very back of the car with old ladies, and the loud beep as we drive through and people stare and jeer because we just look lazy. Then the car starts to slow down…slower, slower, slower….almost to a crawl. People watching us pass are laughing and shouting at us “why don’t you just walk!” Meg and I are in tears from laughing so hard. We had to get out at D40 because the cart just stopped moving. And the driver had already put his foot out and tried to move us along Flintstone style. Mortifying! So we treated ourselves to some conch fritters and Mojitos at the airport restaurant about 15 min before boarding our flight. After a lovely flight where we made friends with the entire flight crew and a few Trini’s, we arrived at the Port of Spain airport around 10:20 pm. We were helped by a kind man who advised us NOT to stick with our original plan to spend the night curled up in an airport chair, but to go to the local Holiday Inn Express to get at least a little sleep. He arranged for a taxi, a sweet older man named Anthony who totally ripped us off for our ride to and from the airport, but he got us there safely and in blasting AC, so we couldn’t complain too much. Much to our chagrin, Holiday Inn Express was full, but I got a hug from the bell-hop who felt sorry for me. He told Meg and I that our personalities made us look like Halle Berry. Thanks? I guess?
He kindly called the Palms hotel where Mr.White was waiting for us and our 10 billion bags. Our hotel room was small but clean, all new furnishings, and most importantly, cool AC! *you will sense a theme when speaking of AC*
May 29th, 2008 – Trinidad to Guyana: We got about 5 hours sleep, and woke up to find that we were locked out of our bathroom, at 5am. So Mr. White brought us a butter knife. Meg wiggled it around a bit, then I tried to MacGuyver my way in with my swiss army knife, but to no avail. So sweet Mr. White had to come in get it open for us. Anthony picked us up at 5:30 and we were back to the airport for our connecting flight to Guyana, which we were worried we wouldn’t make…the flight was closing, the security lines were long (I got detained for my tuna cans!), but let me tell you, Island time is totally different! So relaxed… not sure what we were worried about. Our flight in was brief, a little under an hour… it felt surreal! We made a few friends on that flight as well, with the exception of the older lady that I knocked on the head with a carry on bag I was kindly grabbing for someone else. I apologized profusely but still got the evil eye. I guess I deserved it! Immediately off the plane and after baggage and customs we were getting bombarded with taxi drivers, money exchangers, people asking if we needed to use a phone. Thankfully Ramon Budden, the brother that used to be in my hall in Manhattan ASL and has been here almost a year, showed up about 15 minutes later, and whisked us to safety! He and a local brother from Georgetown picked us up and took us to get a bite to eat at roadside café. I had chicken curry roti. Yum. And a cold bottled water. It was an amazing first meal. From there we headed to the main downtown area of Georgetown where we caught a minibus to Rosignol where we would get on a ferry to New Amsterdam. Now these minibuses, seat about 10 comfortably, given we had one whole row where they would normally put 3 people, filled with just our luggage. Even aside from that row being taken up, our minibus had 3 people including the driver in the front and 9 in the back. It was packed! Thankfully the large windows were open and we got a good breeze. I think I already mentioned we got a speeding ticket… he drove even faster after that! The 20 minute ferry ride was a nice break to stretch our legs and get a pricy bottle of water that one of the passengers bought for us. I think we amused her. We arrived at the need greater home in New Amsterdam around 2 or 3.
We are on the second floor of a building, the lower portion being Sigma Labs. I have to say it feels a lot like camping living here. The first 2 days we didn’t have a light in our room, so come nightfall Meg and I scurried around with our flashlights. And our first night, the power went out just before Meg’s shower so we brought her flashlight with her into the shower…brave girl ! The power came on just as I was heading to take mine…whew! But the bathroom/shower facilities are about what you would find at a remote campground, but we are thankful to have running water. We set up our nights and had a surprisingly lovely first night. Wasn’t too hot after you just laid very still….
Friday, May 30th 2008 – The group for service meets at our home on Friday mornings, and around 8:30, our first friend in Guyana showed up. Jonathan… “jonny” as we call him. He is 9 years old with a wit and sense of humor beyond his years. We got his full life story including the death of his father 1 year ago, in just under an hour. And after that we were lifelong friends. We sang together, played dice, he even lost on purpose because I was losing and he said that he didn’t want his friend to lose alone. So precious. He stayed with us all day with the exception of the brief studies we went on when the rain had stopped. Later in the afternoon I was online letting everyone know I had arrived, and he curled up next to me, reading my email aloud over my shoulder and resting his head. He soon realized I was ridiculously hot and sweaty, so he ran to the kitchen, got a paper towel and came back, wiping down my face and neck. It was a pretty adorable moment. Then he saw my ipod and it was all over… his mom listens to a lot of Celine Dion, so he asked for that and began serenading Meg and I at the top of his lungs… dancing around the house. Don’t worry, we have video. Needless to say, this 9 year old, learning ASL, feeling so deeply for others at a young age, is a priceless addition to my life.
I also went on my first study on Friday. Myself and 2 other sisters (michelle – hearing sis, and Mairine – deaf unbaptized publisher) bicycled our way about 5 miles to E-Cosie Adonis. A 10 year old deaf boy with almost no language skill. I showed him the Bible Story book Dvd about Job, and then explained it. Although I get the feeling he didn’t understand much. You have to do a lot of facial expression and acting out. But when all was said and done, he could sign JOB and he learned the sign for “happy”. We ended our Friday in Palmyra, the neighboring town (they call it #2 here) for ASL bookstudy. There are so many young ones involved it’s really amazing. And they are all so welcoming and supportive. We walked a ways back until we found a taxi to take us back to New Amsterdam. We headed to bed around 9ish, which is the average here I’m starting to see. So all in all it was a good day.
Saturday, May 31, 2008 - Interestingly enough. Saturday isn’t a big preaching day here. Most do street work in the marketplace, if anything. Meg and I walked to Ramon and Kali’s apartment about a 25 minute walk away. In true Guyanese time, the studies showed up around the same time, 3 hours late. But it was fun helping them prepare for the watchtower and write their talks for the ministry school. I also enjoyed the cool breeze and peace that surround the Budden’s home. Its way off the Main St. that we live on, and I must say it’s cleaner and more modern by far than where we are at. It will be nice to visit there and maybe even use their amazing heated shower !! J Saturday night, after a trip to the ATM (they have AC there!!) and the Market called “Stretch D Dollar” …we came home and made some yummy mac n cheese which was such a comfort! We studied our watchtower in ASL and watched a little of a tv show we had downloaded and it was a great night. We had to close our windows before bed because the music and revelry in the streets (even with rain) was crazy loud! Oh and we bought a 2nd fan so that we can each have constant breeze while we sleep. What a difference that made. We actually used our top sheet !!
Sunday June 1, 2008 – So we are back at the present, Meg and I had our joint cook day today. Here in the need greater home, we each have cook days, cleaning weeks where we all can pitch in. So our cook days begin with going down into the dungeon, I mean basement, and turning on the water pump from 6:30 am to 8:30 am. If we don’t do that, we risk running out of water, as the city only pumps it into our large water basins during those hours. After that we slept in a little more, and then got ready for our 10 am meeting. Since we have to get our bikes fixed, we walked to the Kingdom Hall which is just off Main Street where we live, but about a mile down the road. And all over the road, roaming free are goats, cows, horses…and all the lovely “treats” they leave behind. But they are all pretty tame, just grazing, or trotting down the road like they are a vehicle…. We arrived at the KH and thankfully nothing started on time and we had 108 in attendance, including 26 in our ASL section which meets under a tin roof just off the main cinder block Kingdom Hall. All the deaf studies answer frequently, second to the children in the ASL group. Really amazing spirit to be found in the young people here. We feel so welcomed already. The meeting was a bit warm, no breeze today…but we made it. Then hurried to the market to pick up our vegetables and rice for our dinner tonight. Everything closes on Sunday (if it’s even open) around 1pm. Meg and I made coconut sticky rice with Curried Vegetables sautéed in Garlic and Onion. All the vegetables here go by different names which we are learning… Balange – Eggplant, Calangie – Spinach, Okra- okres, etc. I must say it turned out mighty tasty!
So far the mosquitoes haven’t been too bad for me, but Meg is getting eaten alive. I guess she’s just sweeter! J So, Sunday night comes to a close, there will be a cold shower and then maybe a movie on the agenda before we climb under our nets and call it a day….
Sending love to you all, I miss you, but I miss air conditioning more!
Simone

p.s. pictures are on their way... i have to get to an internet cafe as dial up is too slow to add my pics just yet. :P