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.