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.