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!!"