Christmas in Guyana Part 2

We spent Christmas Eve with the Elders. They played a soccer game at the national field. It was soggy to the point that they raised splashes with every foot step. The Elders from the other side of the Demerara River led one team and had an investigator who does air brush art. They had their shirts painted. The other team got matching t-shirts from Popeye's. The game went from 9 to 10:30, then they went home and cleaned up and worked until we all met downtown at 6.

We arranged ourselves in front of Fogerty's Department Store and sang Christmas carols while some of the elders made street contacts and gave away Book of Mormons. It was fun and the rains came so people had to come down our sidewalk in order to stay out of the rain. We stayed until our voices wore out - about an hour and a half. The crowds were thinning and the rain was heavier. We went back to the White's apartment for soup and bread and brownies.

Tuesday we gathered at the White's at 10 for a movie, "Evan Almighty", dinner, and gift exchange. Everyone headed to their own apartments at 5:30 to receive phone calls from home.

Wednesday is Boxing Day. It is a national holiday celebrated in the UK, Canada, Australie, New Zealand and Guyana. I looked in Google and it originated, I think from the practice of giving to the poor and needy the day after Christmas. One native Guyanese said it was a holiday to recover from Christmas. They really knock themselves out preparing for Christmas. There is a big billboard downtown announcing the Big Lime. The newspaper says Main Street (a boulevard) will be closed to vehicles all day. The word "lime" means "hang out". We aren't going to go to find out what is happening. We tend to shy away from big crowds. We don't blend in because of our white skin and white hair which might make us a target. This is a curious way to spend Christmas.

What are the people like?

Good question from Grandson, Ryan. The pictures here are typical of the church members. Physically, they are very beautiful. Racially, they are African black, East Indian, Indian, and then Chinese, Indonesian, Lebanonese, Dutch. They are warm and friendly and hospitable. Some of the little ones come up to touch our skin because we are so white. Women greet other women with a kiss on the cheek and everyone shakes hands with everyone.

The church members have fervent testimonies of the gospel. They want a stake here so that eventually they can have a temple. The priesthood holders love the church but they work long hard hours for very low wages. Even the educated ones do not make much money. The only way to make money is to have a business of your own. The first counselor in the Demerara Branch presidency has a job as a security guard. He works 12 hours a night six days a week. That doesn’t leave much time for church work. He shows up on Sunday, his day off, with red eyes. Sister Veronica is a teacher and explained that the best teacher’s college in the Caribbean is here in Georgetown. But even these teachers are not paid a wage they can live on. The result is that if anyone gets ahead at all, they leave and go to the U.K., Canada or the U.S. There are a lot of vacant houses where people have gone elsewhere.
There is no “th” in their speech. This makes it a little hard to understand them. They speak English, but – it’s “dese, dem and dose”. They say “tink and tank” for “think and thank” and “father” is “fadder” and “mother” is “mudder”. When they give a scripture reference, I cringe when it is “turdy-five” or worse “turdy-tree”. We have trouble in the store understanding how much we owe because of the “th” issue.

Students finish high school when they are 17 and many drop out to get jobs before then. This creates a problem for seminary graduation. On the other hand, we have under-aged seminary students who have perfect attendance and are doing 100% homework. We are trying to get permission to enroll them properly so that they will have all the credit they need when they finish. We have to convince the powers that be that Guyana, in fact the whole third world, is different than the developed nations. If we can get seminary into them before they go off on their own, they will be better prepared and be stronger church members.

Christmas in Guyana

There are three pictures with this entry. The woman in the caftan is Veronica Edwards. She is the Seminary Supervisor for Georgetown and a wonderful story teller. This is the Georgetown Talent Show and she is reciting Caribbean poetry. The boys on stage are the Young Men from Georgetown. They are performing a skit that was pretty funny. The sleepy guy in the chair over to the right is actually the dead body. The body on the table keeps moving and scaring the assistant. The audience loved it. The last one is the Primary Nativity at the Demerara Talent Show. I love the three angels holding up their stars.

What is Christmas like in Georgetown? Well, there are some decorations on houses and stores. It looks like only rich people can do that. The stores sell garlands and plastic Christmas trees and lights. I have not seen a live fir tree but they don’t grow very well here. The kids get out of school for two weeks and have Christmas parties the last day. We noticed that none of the students wore uniforms last Friday so it must have been a special privilege to not have to wear them.
Rain is a big deal. It comes down in buckets and there is a lot of flooding. We have a water line in our apartment where it was flooded in 2005. Our city water was cut off for over a week. They were installing water meters. Our landlord installed a system to use the rainwater so that he doesn’t have to pay for city water. Unlike the U.S. where they warn you two weeks ahead of time before they turn off your water, here they just turn it off. We were kicking ourselves for having washed the car and hosed down the driveway on the day it was turned off. We ended up with no water! Now we have plenty because there is so much rainwater to use.

The church celebrates Christmas with a party featuring Santa Claus. Each child is given a gift (trucks for the boys – dolls for the girls). The District is putting on a Holiday Sing on the 23rd. The biggest thing I’ve noticed is that Christmas preparations include major house cleaning. The sisters are complaining not about Christmas cards or gifts, but not getting their cleaning done properly. Each Branch has a talent show during December. The best of the acts, go to the District talent show, held next week. Everyone participates in the Branch talent show. We’ve gone to two and taken pictures.

Thanksgiving 2007

We came to New Amsterdam Wednesday afternoon because the ferry takes so long. We were invited to help Elder and Sister Platt with a Thanksgiving celebration for the 16 elders who are on that side of the Berbice River. We took the Platts out to dinner Wednesday night and got to know them better. They are from Canada and this is their third mission. The first was a stay-at-home mission, the second was to Mongolia and now they are here. She says they are tired. President Robison is sending them to St. Martins in March to finish their mission. That will be a big change from here.

Sister Platt made baked chicken, jello and pear salad and a pumpkin dessert. She told the elders it was pot luck and they were all to bring something. I brought fruit; pineapples, watermelons and bananas and two cakes. Dinner was wonderful. We had our stuff plus mashed potatoes, pasta salad, Stromboli, cheese cake, soda pop, and stove-top stuffing. The elders were a delight. This was the first time we got to sit and talk with them. They love Guyana. Everyone in the mission wants to be in Guyana because here is where the baptisms are. The harder it is, the more they love it. They were swapping Guyana stories and saying that they were going to have so much to tell others when they get home. Elder Fox said that the best part of his mission so far was to be sent to Crabwood Creek. It is on the Guyana/Suriname border and mostly Amerindian. He said he was excited to be the first missionary to set foot in Crabwood Creek. He and his companion found a building (shack) with four walls, two hammocks and a bucket. They had no running water, no electricity, an outhouse and they loved it. He said it was like camping and the funnest thing he’s gotten to do. In teaching the Amerindians, they are more than ready for the gospel. We heard a story from the Georgetown District President that one of the tribal chiefs in the interior, got hold of a box of Book of Mormons and they were having meetings and teaching from it. When Elder Fox was teaching last week, a woman’s mother was visiting and when the mother heard them read from the Book of Mormon, she recognized it and asked when the elders were going to come to her village. She said her husband had a book like that. They recognize that the Book of Mormon is about them. Is it any wonder that the elders love the people and that everyone wants to come to Guyana.

We were impressed with their attitude of enjoyment. What we worry about, they think is a great adventure. The tougher the better because it gives them bragging rights. As they entered the Platt’s house, they all took their shoes off like Guyanese and most of them can talk Guyanese (it’s English sort of – they do not use the pronouns him or her – I took she home. And they have idioms that take some getting used to – What shall I walk with? Means do you want me to bring anything with me?) The elders are independent and capable. They were not tremendously hungry as we expected and the food they brought was tasty and well prepared. Their mothers would be proud of them. We left a little before the elders in order to get in line for the ferry home. We were lucky and got on the second boat. Elder Langford was in heaven. There is a big ferry and a barge. This time we got to go on the barge. It is much smaller and for some reason, he really wanted to do that. I just closed my eyes.

November 15

The pictures are of the New Amsterdam Chapel, and a peek over the seawall. It was rather disappointing to look at the ocean. That is it at about Elder Langford's shoulder.

Last Friday was a national holiday. It was Diwali, a Hindu festival celebrating light. It is to be celebrated on a day when there is no moon anywhere in the world. They light up their houses like Christmas and in Georgetown they had a light parade where truck were decorated all over with Christmas lights. They build a throne on each truck bed and a little girl sits there absolutely motionless for the whole thing. She represents the goddess of light. We missed the parade, because we were told it was on Friday and it occurred on Thursday. Our neighbor down the street had a decorated truck and we got to see it go by our house (speakers blasting Hindu music) Boy, they love loud speakers in Georgetown!

It is starting to rain. We have had rain every day for the last four or five days. It doesn’t rain all day, but when it comes down, it is in huge drops and the sky just opens. Last Sunday afternoon, we were out with the Canje district supervisor (Sister Bibi), her seminary teacher and institute teacher in the Canje branch visiting homes where students should be attending CES classes. I wish I could photograph where we went, but we have been cautioned about looking like tourists so I have to be careful what I photograph. We parked the car on the street and found a path between two houses. We followed the path and behind the two houses were more houses. The fourth one down was the one we were looking for. We passed chicken yards, duck yards, goats, dogs and cats, men playing cards under houses. I have to explain that houses are built on stilts. The living quarters are on the high floor. The bottom is dirt. Some people live in the dirt floor portion and rent from the people above. Anyway, we found the fourth house and on the way out, the skys opened up. The sisters we were with whipped out their umbrellas, but Wayne and I left ours in the car. We were soaked by the time we got into the car, but we still had another house to visit. This one presented the challenge of mud. I got muddy feet and you should have seen the floor of the car! Next time, we take umbrellas and wear oxfords or get long boots, which is what the Guyanese wear. The sisters washed their flip-flops in a puddle before getting into the car, but I didn’t have flip-flops.

We’ve decided that Guyana is the perfect place to have an ugly dog contest. Someday, we are going to stop and take pictures and put them on the blog and let you vote.

When we were driving through Georgetown, last week, Wayne said, “Wow! This is so much fun!” We had just had several near misses. “It is sheer terror – people pay money to be terrified like this. Where in the world can you go 35 or 40 mph and miss oncoming traffic by less than 6 inches.”
We stopped at the sea wall and peeked over for the first time. We probably won’t do that again. The sea was a long way out and there was a lot of mud and trash between us and the sea.

My birthday was on the 6th, but we celebrated on the 7th. We went shopping on Regent Street. It was like going to China Town in San Francisco. We lasted about 45minutes and I found a wonderful handbag. Then we went to the produce market and found lots of vegetables to try to cook. There is spinach only it has a lot of leaves growing on a long stem, bora beans taste like string beans only these really are stringy. You can cut them into ten pieces to make them look like string beans. We found an egg plant, broccoli, onions, a pineapple, watermelon, tomatoes, lettuce and cucumber. We had a vegetarian dinner and loved it. The Whites, Tanners and Larsens came over for brownies and ice cream. We swapped Guyana stories and laughed ourselves silly. It was fun.

Zone Conference

These are the people we work with: From left: Elder and Sister White (who corresponded with us before we got here and have nursed us along. At 8 months, they are the senior couple here)Elder and Sister Platt, Elder and Sister Tanner, the Humanitarian Aid couple who live upstairs, Elder and Sister Johnson, who is the First Counselor in the Area Presidency, Elder and Sister Robison, Mission President, Elder and Sister Larson and us, Elder and Sister Langford.

Suriname

We had a pleasant visit to Suriname. It was more new and strange for us. The plane was late, the hotel shuttle didn't wait for us so we took at taxi and traffic was terrible. For the most part, traffic is more calm and orderly than Guyana. The drivers seem to follow the rules most of the time. There was no livestock roaming around. The country seems more prosperous and definitely more international. The buildings in the picture are a Jewish Temple and a Moslem Mosque next door to each other. Our CES supervisor is Indonesian, the woman who volunteered to translate sacrament meeting for me is from Java (served a mission in Mexico - that means she speaks Javanese, Spanish, Dutch and English - I feel so dumb) We attended an inservice for the teachers Saturday morning and then stayed for a baptismal service. It was delightful. A woman and man were married on Friday (at the church) so that they could be baptised on Saturday. They have a tiny adorable daughter. Our CES hostess picked out a Chinese restaurant and we took her out to lunch. We were given a short sight-seeing tour and then taken to our hotel. There is a large park downtown that is a "people's park". It is all palm trees and very beautiful. Sunday, we were picked up by a Brother Ibrahim. He is Lebanonese. We enjoyed the block, spent time in the teenage Sunday School class and then went to YW and YM. Everything was in Dutch and we didn't understand most of it, but the spirit was strong.

Brother Ibrahim invited us to his home for dinner and we accepted. His wife is a Seminary teacher and we had met her the day before. They have two children, a boy 12 and a girl 11. She made us a meal of rice with everything in the kitchen in it. It was delicious. We visited for several hours and enjoyed it very much.

Monday morning we visited a seminary class and found the children very eager to learn and questioning and doing what they do in the model films they make at BYU. The children here are hungry for the gospel and the scriptures. They appreciate seminary and their teachers.

How did we like it? We loved it. The only hard thing is the newness of everything. I found I had a sick stomach most of the trip. It went away when we got back to Guyana. I guess it was nerves.

October 25

We've had a dull week, mostly because we haven't known what to do with ourselves. We have just about figured that out by now because we've had time to think. Monday night we invited 3 other couples over for brownies and ice cream. We just sat around and talked and enjoyed each other. Tuesday afternoon, we went back out to Mahaica to see Brother Jardine. We took him some literacy materials and a couple of novels for his student. Tuesday night and Wednesday night we went visiting families in the Demerara Branch with President Stanley. He has been recruiting for seminary and we have a car and he doesn't. Tuesday I got my first haircut and I am quite happy with my hairdresser. She isn't as good as Gerry Brooke, but I'm happy. One thing - she put a steel grey rinse on my hair. She wanted to get the yellow out. I was horrified, but remembered my vow to be happy with whatever. When she dried it, the steel grey was more silver. Fortunately, it washed out this morning. We are flying to Suriname tomorrow. This is our first visit. I think we may be going once a month. There are two pictures here. The first is "trench lillies". They grow in the trenches where the waste water is. Look how big they are. The other picture is the Presaud Nagar Building here in Georgetown. This one is the closest to where we live.

Sunday October 21

Here are pictures of the house that has been rented and turned into a chapel. It works. There is no air conditioning, but there are standing fans everywhere. It got a little muggy and uncomfortable today.

Mahaica

Friday we planned to get some paperwork copied and shipped to our supervisor, but the power went out in the city and we couldn’t find a copier that worked. We ended up at the store and bought the scanner/printer/copy machine that we saw yesterday. It cost about $150 American. We had planned to go with another missionary couple and take President Stanley (our Branch) to bring a food order to a disabled man in his ward. The other couple called and said they were tied up getting a couple of elders established in a new apartment (buying furniture, etc) so we picked up President Stanley at the grocery store and took him an hour outside of Georgetown to visit this man. It was a wonderful experience. He has spent his life in a leper colony beginning as a child. When he went to the US for surgery in 1985, missionaries found him and he was baptized. He spent about 3 years in the hospital in the U.S. and then returned to Guyana. He went back to the leper colony and worked there for the rest of his life. He is the first Guyanese to join the church. We spent about 45 minutes visiting with him. He is delightful. The building is really run down – ramshackle by our standards, but inside, it is clean and comfortable. He is teaching a 16 year-old girl how to read and write. She has never been to school because she is too poor. She comes to his apartment and he works with her. He is in his late 70s and is still serving. We fell in love with this man. I also have in the bottom of a box I found in this apartment, some literacy materials. I’m going to take them out to him next week.

Trip to Vreed-en-hoop

Wednesday we set out for Vreed-en-hoop. It is a town on the other side of the Demerara River. The river is very wide and shallow. There is a pontoon bridge across it. It wiggles and wobbles as you drive across. I tried to take pictures out of the car window and most of them were blurry because of the movement. The seminary class in Vreed-en-hoop is taught by a sister who is a fifth grade teacher. She uses her classroom for seminary. Notice the desks are the old fashioned ones where the writing surface is attached to the back of the seat in front. Two children can sit at each desk. I noticed that while the desks were wood and very old, there was not a mark on them. No initials, no carvings, nothing. The children are grateful for their school. I took one picture of some little ones peeking into the classroom to watch. The spirit was strong and the teaching was wonderful. The kids love seminary and are getting a lot out of it. We are hoping that the seminary program will produce the leaders the church needs.

October 9 More Impressions

We have been in Guyana for three full days. We are living in a third world country that is emerging. Some things are quite modern and civilized and some things are very primitive. There are five other couples here and over 30 young elders. There are from 5 to 10 baptisms every Saturday. Conference was well attended. The church building has a combination chapel and cultural hall and it was filled. The satellite didn’t work so a computer was hooked up to a projector and we were able to see and hear. The people are enthusiastic and faithful. Many of them have been members for almost 20 years. Racially, they blend well together. They are really beautiful people. We were not able to meet very many members because we were overwhelmed with the numbers. We think we are going to be assigned to the Georgetown 2nd branch. The District President introduced himself and we had an interview with him. He is concerned that the YM/YW program is not working the way he would like it to. He wants us to work with the YM/YW leaders to strengthen the “Duty to God” and “Personal Progress” programs. He also wants more activities.

On the Road: We have been practice driving, trying to get errands run without being killed. The streets are very narrow, only one lane, although two lanes of traffic use them. There are parked cars on both sides of the street heading whichever way the car was coming from. Some streets are one-way streets, but we are having trouble telling which is a one-way and which is a two-way. As we travel down the street, we must be alert not to hit parked cars, wandering cows, stray dogs, goats, pedestrians, horse-drawn carts, donkeys and other cars. The bus system is private. Somebody owns a Toyota 12-passenger van. He paints it in wild colors and then drives around picking people up. He has a “conductor” who rides on the jump-seat near the sliding door. The conductor looks for people who need a ride and stuffs people into the bus. The more in the bus, the more money. The faster the bus can reach its destination, the more money. The result: chaos! There are buses all over the place. They drive as fast as they can with their horns blasting. They pay no attention to stop signs and are disgruntled that the city has put in traffic lights downtown in the last year. Wayne is doing quite well, adapting to driving on the wrong side of the road, but it is harrowing to get through the traffic and the obstacles.

Food: We were warned not to eat anything that we hadn’t prepared, but the sister who told us that, took us out to lunch at Church’s Chicken. There are two grocery stores that cater to Americans and Europeans. I found Jif peanut butter and Smucker’s jam. We paid a high price for them. One store carried Kirkland brand, which is Costco’s brand. I think someone went shopping at Costco, shipped the stuff down here and then sold it at the store. We can get many foods that we get in California, Oreo cookies, DelMonte canned foods, pickles, all kinds of things. But they are very expensive. When we convert the cost into US dollars, it is at least double, if not more. I’m looking for a Guyanese store, to see if Guyanese food is palatable. It certainly must be cheaper. I bought some sugar and realized, it is Guyanese (one of their exports). It is more coarsely ground than our white sugar. I like it better. We found a produce stand by the road and were introduced to fig-bananas. These are miniature bananas about as long and fat as your thumb. The skin is very thin and I was hesitant to try them because they looked pretty nasty, spotted. I like my bananas almost green. When I peeled mine, the black spots went away. They are very delicious and I’m a convert. The pineapple here is a different variety than the pineapple imported to California. They are longer and skinnier. The taste is very sweet and not acidic. We’ve also been eating watermelon. They are small – about the size of the Dulcinea, and very sweet. I’m having trouble cooking. The apartment came with a huge kettle, and a stewing pan. I was able to buy a small saucepan but have been unable to locate measuring cups or measuring spoons. I must assume that no self-respecting Guyanese cook ever uses them. We haven’t found any milk that we can drink. We are working on boxed milk at the moment. It tastes like canned milk. We are very spoiled. We don’t dare try bottled milk because we don’t know whether it has been pasteurized or not.

The city: Georgetown is divided into neighborhoods. Each neighborhood has a boundry and a name. We live in Lamaha Gardens. It is a fairly wealthy area in the suburbs. The house across the street is mammoth. We are told that an American diplomat lives there. When we walked by this morning, we noticed there was a parking lot inside the fence. We think there is more than one diplomat – maybe some offices. Each of the houses in Lamaha Gardens is walled and has a guardhouse in the front. Many of them have 24-hour guards who stay in the guardhouse. Some guardhouses are no bigger than 3’ x 3’. The guards do not stay 24 hours, they work in shifts. We have a padlock on the wrought iron fence to the driveway. There is a wrought iron door with two padlocks that goes over the wooden door. The wooden door has a key lock and a dead bolt. Inside is the screen door that has two padlocks on it. Getting in and out takes time. We’ve discovered everything takes time. We do not have a 24-hour guard because most of our neighbors do. Security is a big deal. The diplomat’s house has razor wire on top of the wall. Most people have dogs that bark. They are not pets – just barkers. Our guardhouse is a storage area for the Humanitarian Aid couple who live upstairs. It was filled with sewing machines when we first got here. A block away, the neighborhood deteriorates. There are areas of the city where “squatters” have built shanties. These shanties are neat and tidy with uniformed children coming out to go to school.

Jobs: There are many people who want jobs. The kid at the grocery store works 12 hours a day 6 days a week and every other Sunday. Nobody gets paid very much, but the grocery store has checkers, baggers, unloaders (takes your stuff out of the cart and puts it on the counter), security people for every aisle and people to take your stuff and put it in your car. There must be 30 workers in a little bitty grocery store about half the size of the Safeway on Oak Grove. One of the major forms of employment is security. Every store has security people all over the place. I don’t think they can have a problem with shop-lifting! We went to a government agency this morning and had to go through a security shack to get to the office we needed. When we got there, there were two more security people just standing around while we dealt with the agent we needed.

Weather: The weather is the same everyday. The sun comes up at 6 and sets at 6. The temperature is around 85 or 90. We are not uncomfortable. There are breezes which are cooling. Most buildings have big ceiling fans if not air conditioning. We do not run the air conditioning at night, preferring the ceiling fan. It is much quieter. The mosquitoes are not bothering me. I have a good mosquito repellant lotion but Wayne has had a couple of bites. We are on daily malaria meds, so we aren’t really worried about disease. Everyday there is smoke. Sugar cane fields are on one side of the city, the Demarara River on one side and the Atlantic Ocean on the other side. They burn the cane fields in order to harvest the cane. We don’t know if this is seasonal or year round. The weather doesn’t change. People burn their trash whenever it gets mounded too high. We have to watch out for ash. I was in a church meeting last Sunday and a big ash got on my blouse. It was smeared in before I could blow it off.

October 5 - First Impressions

We nearly didn’t make our connection in New York. Our itinerary said that we had an hour and a half to get from the Delta gate to the Caribbean gate. It was late at night and everything was closed. We finally found a uniformed man who told us how to get there and warned us that we had to check in by 5 of 12 or the flight would be closed. We raced and made it before they closed the flight, but we did not get seats together. It was a long four hour flight to Trinidad. Neither of us got much sleep. The plane was packed. When we got to Trinidad, the plane had to circle the airport for ten minutes because the airport was not open. When it opened, we landed. Wayne and I were able to sit together for the 50 minute flight to Georgetown. We got there, but our luggage didn’t. Elder and Sister White took us in tow. They drove us around to see the sights. We were almost too tired and I have a cold (which flying did not help) for us to enjoy it. We are glad to be here.

Georgetown would be a tropical paradise except for the dirt and trash. Nobody picks anything up, and any trash is just dropped where the person is. Street vendors leave heaps of trash and just move to another street corner. The poverty is overwhelming. We saw huts where people have lived for generations. When it rains, the trenches fill up and flood areas with trash water. There are many horse drawn wagons. Elder White says they overwork the horses. Many are undernourished. The few cows we’ve seen are scrawny because all they eat is grass. There is plenty of grass.

It rains a lot. There are coconut palms all over. Coconuts are harvested like blackberries in the northwest. Whoever gets there first. There are bananas and plantains. The Whites bought us a pineapple at the open air market and it is more delicious than any pineapple I’ve ever had. It is sweet without being acidic. You can even eat the core.

People who work in stores wear uniforms. I first noticed this at the bank while Wayne was opening our account. I was sitting in a waiting area. Several beautiful women walked past me wearing slacks and long-sleeved jackets that fit them perfectly. They looked like runway models, except they were dressed alike. I noticed that the fabric was polyester. I assume that they only wear the clothes to work where it is air conditioned. When we went to the camera store to get Wayne a passport picture for his Guyana driver’s license, the girls there had a different uniform. It was lovely. The male employees all wear white shirts, dark pants and ties. The children all wear uniforms to school, but each school has its own uniform. I saw lime green and dark green, light blue and white, orange and yellow, navy blue and white. The schools are free, but if a child can’t afford a uniform, he/she can’t go to school.

Elder and Sister White took us where we needed to go yesterday and we were very grateful. The cars drive on the wrong side of the road here. Wayne and I are going to have a hard time getting used to that. Last night, we were headed for a restaurant for dinner and we were talking about the people. There are Amerindians who look like our native Americans, East Indians from India and Negroes who don’t mind being called negroes. Elder White was pointing out facial characteristics. I saw a tall man walking down the street without a stitch of clothes on. I said, “Oh my goodness, that man has no clothes on.” They all said, “Where?” I said, “You just passed him and I don’t know if he is Amerindian or East Indian.”

We are settling into our apartment, but need to go shopping. There is an assortment of dishes in the kitchen, but no pots and pans (there is a kettle big enough to can in). We got to the grocery store last night before I caved in completely and I had presence of mind enough to buy peanut butter and jelly. We had peanut butter sandwiches for breakfast today. Tasted good and, like camping, we just have to improvise!

October 2, 2007

We had a great trip to Little Rock to visit with Scott, Monica and baby Anna. What a joy she is and will be to her parents.

We have been in the Mission Training Center for a week and have spent our days being taught by 23 and 24 year old returned missionaries who conduct themselves like polished university teachers or corporate executives. We stand in awe of the young men and women who are here. This place has a spirit about it that can’t be described with words. The young Elders and Sisters are working hard. They are courteous (I haven’t opened a door since I’ve been here.) and kind and practice their street approaches on us. I can’t believe the change that comes over a young man because of the MTC experience. My hope is that they remember how it is here, so that when they are out in the real world, and become discouraged, they can get their enthusiasm back. We’ve had several large meetings and to hear 2300 young missionaries sing a hymn is wall-shattering. What an experience this is. We wish everyone could be here just for a short time to experience what we have experienced.

Non-Farewell

Yesterday was a big day for us. We finally gave our talks in church and can stop worrying about that. President Hunt set us apart after Sacrament Meeting. We have received awesome blessings under his hand. Family gathered from far and near and we had a picnic lunch (everything else is packed). Following is Joan's testimony:
I am grateful for the atoning sacrifice of our Savior Jesus Christ and what it means in my life. I can be clean through Him and be happy. I am grateful for Wayne and the way the Lord brought us together so that we can enrich one another's lives. I am grateful for my children, step-children and grandchildren and their love. I am grateful for the trials that I have been through because I went through them and came out alive and well. I have learned through my difficulties the kinds of lessons that I could not have learned in any other way. I am grateful for the mission experience that is ahead of us. I am grateful that the Lord has confidence in our ability to bless the lives of the saints in Guyana. Knowing what we are facing, I am grateful for the water that comes out of the tap in the kitchen. I am grateful for grocery stores that have all kinds of foods available. I am grateful for microwave ovens. I am grateful for clothes dryers. I am grateful for this beautiful chapel that we have to meet in. I am grateful for cool nights and most of all I am grateful for Wayne and his optimism. We are going to love Guyana because we've decided to love it. Attitude is everything. As Thomas S. Monson says, have an attitude of gratitude and you'll be happy. I know this Church was established in our day by the Savior through Joseph Smith. I know the Book of Mormon is a testament of Jesus Christ and is as valid as the Old Testament and the New Testament. I know we have a living prophet on the earth today, even, Gordon B. Hinckley. It is an honor and a privilege to serve Him. I pray that all of us, will remember our gifts and be grateful to the giver in the holy name of Jesus Christ. Amen

Grandbaby

We have a new granddaughter born Monday, September 10, 2007. She weighed in at 7 lbs. 14 oz. and is named Annastacia Rainn. We will call her Anna. She is Scott and Monica's first baby. Meanwhile we continue to pack and get ready. We will go to Little Rock, Arkansas on our way to the MTC to see the Edwards family on Thursday the 20th.

Contact

Today we signed up for SKYPE. It is an internet connection that works like a telephone. If your computer is on and my computer is on, we can talk to each other for free. If I call you and you are not home (or sleeping) a message will be left telling you that I am trying to get in touch with you. You can find SKYPE by going to www.skype.com Our SKYPE name is wayne.langford2 That's all you need. We have a little camera attached to our computer so that when you talk to us, you can see us. SKYPE is free if both parties are on SKYPE. If not, international telephone calls are cheaper than if you use a regular telephone.

Getting Ready

August 31, 2007

We are preparing to leave for Georgetown, Guyana. We are expected at the Mission Training Center on September 24. A couple who live in Georgetown, the Whites, have found us an apartment. We are excited to see it. We've had our shots, gotten our international driver's licenses, passports, clothes (for a hot, humid climate), first aid kits, big suitcases and packed up our home.