my week in the mission field. (part the fifth)

Day 5 (7/14) Thursday.  Awakend at 6:00 by either Melissa or mom, too sleepy to tell which one.  Somehow manage to get air mattress deflating and tent broken down within 3 minutes of being awakened.  As we break down camp, breakfast is being served.  Today we have egg-in-the-hole.  It's fry-bake batter made doughnut shaped with an egg fried in the middle.  It's a little like egg the basket, but only a little, and like everything else Sister Lorna made, it was awesome.  After breakfast and breaking camp, we're back on the river.  Today I get to see some kind of snake (not sure what kind, but I tell myself it was an anaconda), and a sloth.  We stopped and turned around for a better look at the sloth after Sister Lorna pointed it out chillin' in the tree as we passed.  We got close enough for some great pictures of it, and it was utterly undisturbed by our presence, it just went right on eating.  And let me tell you, if you're into cute, this sloth would have been right up your alley.  After several hours on the river, we stop at Pastor Adam and Sister Lorna's home.  It's a big farm most which Pastor Adam has cleared mostly by hand.  He's got corn and cucumbers and okra and several other things of which I forgot to take note.  As we were walking back towards his house, we pass a young lady and (I believe) her young (3 years old-ish) brother.  That little boy took one look at me and screamed and took off running like his shoes were on fire, running over plants and roots and paying no attention to where he was going.  I guess the monster under his bed is a big harry white guy.  Then photos with the family and mom and I offer advice on how to eat radishes (Pastor Adam grew them, but no one was sure how to use them), and then back on the river.  By mid-afternoon we reach Hotaqui (Hotakwai, I believe there are two spellings for this village) the last place that I'll be participating in missions.  We set up camp (this time in an unused school room), and gather children for a late afternoon time of fun and Jesus.  We play many of the same games, and our memory verse is the same.  I do the same puppet show with Billy the Lamb.  The kids love it!  Today, before we dismiss, we let them each choose a finger puppet.  These adorable things were made by my mom and sister and several ladies in our church.  The kids loved them!   After we send the kids home, Melissa convinces me to take a dip in the river with her.  We jump in, in all of our clothes, and holy cow is that river cold!  A welcome change to the (nearly) unbearable heat and humidity of the rain forest.   Children gather, amused to see adults swimming.  The kids swim all the time, but the adults don't swim for fun nearly as much.  They decide to strip down to their underoos and join us.  As Melissa and Gladson decide to swim across and back, I get out.  Swimming is fun, but (obviously) I'm very out of shape and already winded from the light splashing around I've done.  Thoroughly cooled off, I grab a nap before evening service.  That evening, as we gather at the church, we meet the local pastor.  He's blind, but that doesn't get in the way of his passion for God or his love for life, both of which spill out of every word he speaks.  After we sing, Melissa is introduced (again, she's been here, folks know her) and again, I'm up first.  I give the same micro-sermon I gave last time, and it is well received.  Mom and Melissa each give their message, and the service is handed back over to the pastor.  It's obvious that we haven't spent enough time in communal worship, so the pastor and his wife lead us all in a few more songs.  As the worship winds down, we have the usual meet and greet, and then back to camp for a nice long night of sleep.

my week in the mission field. (part the fourth)

Day 4 (7/13) Wednesday.  Slept in, didn't get up until 7:00.  Breakfast made by Pastor Adam's wife, Sister Lorna.  She'll be largely responsible for meals for the rest of the week.  Scrambled eggs and a bread called fry-bake.  Pan fried dough, but slightly salty like soda bread, not at all sweet like the fried bread I love to eat for breakfast.  Tasty.  So very, very tasty.  Despite the fact that we've got events planned all day in the church, we don't break down camp.  We push the tents to the side walls and tuck our gear away between one tent and the stage.  After some time spent making preparations for the kids that will be arriving at 10:00, mom and Melissa take a hike to the creek, leaving me to put the finishing touches on the hand puppet I'll be using later.  Kids begin arriving, and after several minutes of puppet fluffing, I decide that something must be done, so I engage the kids in a sing-a-long until Melissa and mom return.  The latter part of 1 John 4:4 is our memory verse for this event, so we sing "Greater is He that is in me/Greater is He that is in me/Greater is He that is in me/Than he that is in the world," over and over again.  Mom and Melissa return and take over.  Mom presents the memory verse, and plays some games with the kids involving the verse, and she tells them the story of David, and his accomplishments due to his relationship with the Greater One.  Now it's my turn.  I introduce the children to Billy the lamb.  He's a sock puppet.  He retells, for the children, the story of David vs the lion and David vs the bear from the point of view of one of David's flock.  Then game time, and some how, while playing doge ball, we manage to pop one of the kick balls we brought with us.  Finally our time with the children comes to a close, and mom gives them each a bracelet.  After the children are sent home, we have a couple of hours of down time before the evening service with the whole congregation, during which time I put together my first sermon for the week.  It's about love.  According to Hebrews, it's impossible to please God without faith, but according to 1 Corinthians while both faith and love (along with hope) abide eternally, love is the most important.  How can love be more important than faith, if we cannot please God without it?  Because (according to 1 John) God IS love.  His very nature is love, therefore, when we show our brethren love we show them God's very nature.  To love our neighbor despite whatever wrongs he has made against us, is to know and reveal the nature of the Creator of the Universe.  At this point I need a 'washroom' again.  The church has its own outhouse.  Another wooden hole.  This one, however, does NOT empty into the river, it has been sanded for comfort, and it gets cleaned, with bleach, regularly. Much. Better.  Night closes in and the generator is set up, the keyboard and mic turned on and tested, and the tambourines and maracas are set out.  Shortly, service begins.  During the first two songs, I help keep the rhythm with a tambourine, but a blister develops on my thumb and I have to stop.  After praise and worship, Pastor Adam introduces Melissa (most folks know her, she's been here more than once) and she immediately introduces me.  I say my piece on love.  It's not a long sermon, but people seemed to appreciate it.  Mom preaches next, then Melissa.  Then we ask if anyone one needs prayer.  One brother comes forward.  He's getting married soon and asks for prayer.  I'm up, so I pray that the union will be one that glorifies God, and I ask for His guidance as they move forward in their lives together as one.  Service ends with the usual post-service meet-and-greet.  For several hours after service has ended, Pastor Adam's sons and nephews play (the SAME EXACT TUNE on) the keyboard accompanied by various singers on the mic.  The speakers are old and fuzzy and the keyboard is turned up far too loudly.  My mom would love some post-service quiet time, but none is to be had.  We spend a few minutes packing things up, so we can leave right after breakfast in the morning.  Finally the keyboard is retired for the evening and the generator is shut down.  I crawl into bed needing to get to sleep quickly, tomorrow morning we must break down camp while Sister Lorna makes breakfast.  No worries, though, sleep comes quickly.

my week in the mission field. (part the third)

Day 3 (7/12) Tuesday.  Up around 6:00 to break down camp and get back on the river.  The river and surrounding rain forest are beautiful.  It rains.  And then it rains.  We stop in a town to make our final food purchases, and good lord the whole place reeks of urine.  Also, I'm not the only one in that market place who hasn't had a shower for two days.  Our final destination for the day requires it be high tide, so we have some time to kill waiting for the tide to start coming in, and we decide to take a 'bus' up the mountain to the next village Mabarumba.  The road is mostly just red clay, and it's horribly pock marked and pitted.  In Mabarumba we find a little eatery where we order egg balls and rohti with split peas.  They're served with chick peas, which (I think) were cooked with curry.  The egg balls were boiled eggs in a bread dumpling kind of thing, and rohti was a flat bread with the split peas baked into it.  Tasty stuff!  We ate it outside in a gazebo, while it rained some more.  Then back down the mountain.  We meet up with Pastor Adam who informs us that he needs to buy gas for the boat and then we'll be off.  While he's doing that, I have to take a crap.  The only public 'washroom' we can find is little outhouse that empties directly into the river.  Without going into too many details suffice it to say I got a splinter in my butt cheek, an ant bite on my nut sack, and a local played tug-o-war against me with the door and had the gall to look surprised to discover someone occupying the 'washroom' when I lost my grip and he finally won. Finally back on the river, and eventually to our destination.  As we set up camp (again in a church), Pastor Adam's sons Godfreed and Gladson build us a room with a tarp and bungee cords that Melissa brought and small trees they've felled with their 'cutlasses' and Pastor Adam makes a floor with some random lumber he had at hand.  This is our shower.  Nothing American about this, it's a three walled room with one side open to the jungle where we can pour water over ourselves from a 5 gallon bucket  filled from a rain water reservoir...and it's the most refreshing 'shower' ever.  Ever.  In bed fairly early, tomorrow begins the actual missionary work- day camp for the village's kids!

my week in the mission field. (part the second)

Day 2 (7/11) Monday.  Up at 6:00.  No running water in either room in the hotel, no shower today.  Meet Ian the taxi driver at 7:00 for breakfast at the Oasis, and our last cup of brewed coffee before heading into the rain forest.  Then to the port to hire a boat to take us to Supernam.  After waiting for the boat to fill, we're off.  In Supernam we meet up with Sam the taxi driver.  Much driving ensues (which included a lame goat in the middle of the road) through towns with truly super names, but alas I have forgotten to write them down, so you'll just have to take my word for it; the names were epic!  We arrive in Charity (but not before stopping to have one of the best hot dogs I've ever tasted) where we pick up Mom and Melissa's luggage, and meet up with Johnnie the speed boat captain.  Then ensues much waiting.  In the sun.  I got burned.  Finally we're off.  During this leg of the trip, we see two types of lilies, both beautiful, lots of air plant varieties, and some awesome water foul.  Then we meet up Pastor Adam and his son Godfreed, in a little village where it costs me $20 Guyana to use the "washroom" (read that lumber covered hole in the ground.)  And we're off again, this time with Pastor Adam piloting the boat.  Along the way we see monkeys!!  There were easily more than half a dozen mature monkeys, and a couple of little baby ones, the most that Pastor Adam has ever seen at once.  We experience a little boat trouble, not much but when added to the extraordinarily long wait in Charity, it is enough to make it impossible for us to attend the service at which we were expected to speak that night.  Night falls, the moon is nearly full, temperature drops, everyone else starts shivering, and the fat man is comfortable for the first time since arriving in Guyana.  As the hours progress, I finally get a tad chilly too, and put on the rain coat I brought with me (it's rainy season in the rain forest, after all), and shortly there after Pastor Adam spots a gator, and decides to stop and circle around.  The decision to kill it is quickly reached, and Godfreed is armed with a "cutlass" for the task.  It takes a few whacks, and both Godfreed and Pastor Adam take swings, but the gator is finally dispatched, and then gutted with Melissa's knife.  After a few more hours of travel, we come to the place where we'll be staying for the night.  We set up camp in a church, which, I was to discover, is normal practice in Guyana.

Observations thus far: pine means pineapple, cutlass means machete, and pear means avocado.
Beeping a car horn is its own language.  Variously it means: "You on the shoulder of the road, don't re-enter traffic, I'm coming around you."  "You, going slowly in my lane, I'm coming around you."  "Be warned, I'm now going to be driving down the single lane of traffic allowed by this road construction."  "You, driving in the opposite direction, in your correct lane, following traffic laws, I too am driving in my correct lane, following all the traffic laws." And finally: "get outta the road you stupid cow!!"

my week in the mission field. (part the first)

Day 1 (7/10) Sunday: Up at 4:30 for a shower, out the door by 6:00.  Got to go to Gainesville to print my flight itinerary and buy one last thing from Wal*Mart.  Finally off to Jacksonville for my 9:00 flight to Miami on a jet so small I have to duck and walk sideways to fit down the isle.  Get to Miami, and my next flight is all the way at the other end of MIA, requiring a long angry walk in the Florida heat, and another trip through security, where I score my first ever enhanced pat-down.  Middle seat, 6 hour flight to Georgetown Guyana, and those little vents are never enough to keep the fat man from sweating.  Arrive in Georgetown and fill out immigration form for which I was completely unprepared.  Address while in Guyana?  I put "Charity," the name of a town I knew we'd be passing through.  Custom's agent asks if I'm married, seems shocked that I'm not, and warns me not to become so whilst in her fair country.  Finally: outside where I meet up with Mom and Melissa who're waiting with Ian the taxi driver.  It's somewhere between 11pm and midnight.  30 minute drive through Georgetown to the hotel where we're greeted by aromatic clouds of ganja smoke and thumping Caribbean-style club music.  In the room, Melissa grabs a shower, while mom and I grab a bite to eat and marvel at the windows as they rattle to the music.  In bed by 12:30, up by 1:00.  The power has gone out, so the a/c and ceiling fan are both dead, room now stifling.  Batteries into travel fan, toss and turn for 30 minutes, then down to the front desk to ask if they know the lights are out.  Yes they know, the whole block is out...except club crappy music, which apparently has its own generator.  When inquired, she assures me that the club will shut down by 2:00-2:30.  Back to the room and the travel fan.  More tossing and turning, and a little sleep.  4:00 music finally stops, and a knock on the door.  Management wants to move us up a floor where some electricity has been restored, so we move.  Still no a/c, but ceiling fan works.  Better, but the window is broken, bugs fly in at will.  Two hours left until the alarm goes off.  Fitful sleep ensues.