Monday, October 13 - off to Suriname

This trip, the Tanners followed us. They are the Humanitarian Aid couple and they had projects to look at in Paramaribo. We got as far as New Amsterdam on Sunday, spent the night and then got up early to go to Suriname. We had breakfast with the Tanners at the Little Rock Hotel and then left for the stelling at Moleson Creek. When we got to the stelling, we began the process by reporting to the police department. We were approved but the Tanners misplaced their Suriname insurance papers. They tore their car apart, but could not find it and the police would not let them go. They tried to buy a ticket anyway, and the girl told them to drive back to Skeldon and find the insurance office and get a new one. They called ahead and when they arrived, a copy of their insurance was waiting for them. They picked it up and came back, arriving in time to get through immigration and customs.

While waiting for the ferry, we met a couple from France who are seeing the world in their little truck. It is a camper and they live in it. They came to the tip of Argentina by boat and drove up the interior of South America. They turned right at the coast and are going through Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana before they head down the east coast of South America. When they get to the tip of Argentina, they plan to drive up the west coast of South America, Central America into the United States. They will take several months to tour the US and Canada and end up in Alaska. They have a map on the side of their camper with lines that show their route. They have made other trips into Asia and Africa. We admired their agenda but I think it would be lonely to never have any friends other than your companion and selfish to be touring constantly and not doing any good.

The drive to Paramaribo was beautiful. The dirt road was passable and they are working on the bad stretch of paved road into Paramaribo. Wayne got to see an anaconda snake and almost wrecked the car he was so excited. It had begun its journey across the road, but wasn’t out far enough for us to hit it. It must have been about 14-16’ long. The markings were beautiful. We found our hotel, the Best Western Elegance. We have never stayed here before and it is beautiful, comfortable and perfect. We probably won’t even call the Torarica again. We had dinner at the Torarica with the Tanners and then to bed. We were all tired.

Tuesday, October 14

We had breakfast with the Tanners and Henny Aroeman joined us. It was fun to see him again. They left together to visit hospitals and schools. We went to Digicel to find out why our phone doesn’t work. It turns out that the symcard expires after two months if you don’t use it every day. We had to buy a new symcard and get a new phone number. We will probably have to do that every time we come. I guess it is an expense just like Suriname car insurance. We have to buy that for every trip. We found Lorette Ibrahim’s dress shop and went in. I bought a blouse. I was excited. It is 100% cotton and black and a size L. When I got back to the hotel and tried it on, it is too tight. I don’t know where normal people buy their clothes, but Sister Tanner says the sizes run really small. She had that problem with Amanda when they went clothes shopping for her mission. She shouldn’t wear clothes that are really tight, but there is nothing else.

We had lunch at Burger King – couldn’t believe it was here – spent the afternoon reading. The Tanners and the Aroemans showed up about 3 so we visited with them until time to go to Tammenga to teach the in-service lesson. Attendance at the lesson was good. There were six out of seven teachers. I did “Deciding the What” and felt that with all of the times I have done it, that this went pretty well. I emphasized the fact that they can’t read all of the chapters in class. We worked on Matt. 4:1-11 which is the temptation of Christ. I discovered that there is no Dutch translation of the LDS Bible. They did not have the footnotes showing the JST. I was able to explain the corrections and why they made sense. They were very receptive. When I wanted lists made on the board, I had Natascha do it in Dutch. All in all, we accomplished a lot. It was hot in the room and at the end, Henny came in with two bottles of cold soda. Boy did it taste good!

We were able to talk to the zone leaders after the lesson and they suggested we call Elders Riding and Holtz to see if we could go out with them tomorrow.

Wednesday, October 15

We spent the morning with the Tanners. We visited the Jewish Synagog. It is big and old and we were curious. It is very beautiful and our guide was gracious in telling us about it. There is a very small community of Jews who are associated with it. The workmanship is very fine. The wood is polished and elegantly carved. There is a stand in the middle of the floor for the person leading the meeting to stand. At the front of the building, there is a large elegant cupboard where the Torah is stored. We were curious about the floors. They are sand. She said even in the women’s balcony there is sand. There are three reasons for the sand. 1) to remember the desert where they came from, 2) to remember their humility and 3) to catch oil lamps to keep the fire from spreading to the building (the first building burned down because of that). We really enjoyed our visit. We also met again our French couple whom we met on the ferry.

We took the Tanners to the Palm Garden and walked around for a little while, then let them to the road out of town to the ferry. They were going to Nickerie to spend the night and then go on home Thursday.

We called Elder Riding and Elder Holtz and arranged to take them out to lunch at 1 and then go on visits with them. They took us to an authentic German restaurant. When we got there, we realized it was a pancake house that we had been to before. They were disappointed that we knew about it but the food was really good. The men ordered “gladiators” and I ordered apple, raisens and cinnamon. Mine was good with syrup on it. Theirs was like a pizza with pancake on the bottom instead of bread dough.

We visited Sister Skipper first. She has been less active. The elders taught a lesson about the importance of partaking the sacrament. She was receptive. Wayne admired her plants. She grows plants to sell and they are beautiful. She has a huge variety and they all look very healthy. Sister Skipper has a funny tall house. I tried to get a picture of it by admiring her palm tree.

Next we visited Shahieb who is an investigator. Shahieb is 17 and when we arrived, his Aunt and four of his cousins were waiting. There were 6 of them and 4 of us in this tiny little house. The elders taught the restoration lesson. It was wonderful.

Our last visit was with Stuart. He was very nervous about having us come into his humble home. Humble is a kind word for a tiny room with a roof on it. There is no kitchen, no bathroom, just a room with a hammock and a mattress leaning against the wall. He warmed up about half way through the lesson. The elders were starting at the beginning because this was his first lesson. We don’t know Dutch so most of what went on, we were clueless about. Elder Riding said that they taught Stuart in a different language. It is a street language that is part Dutch, part Portuguese, a little Spanish and a lot of slang. It is even more primitive than Talky Talky which is the slang Dutch most Surinamese use.

Thursday, October 16

The elders were having planning meetings, so we spent the day reading and planning ourselves. We had an appointment with President Kabenda in Uitkijk and so we drove out there to see if we remembered how to get there. We made the same mistake we made the first time we went, going through a banana plantation. But we wrote down the correct route on the map. We met with President Kabenda at 6. He had arranged with three students to go with us. They knew where their friends lived. We visited nine young people. These are the kids who went with us.

Friday, October 17

We spent the morning reading and then exploring. Wayne wanted to see the ocean. This beautiful road led us nowhere, but we enjoyed the ride.

We found a road on the map that looked like it went to the ocean and drove down it. It led to a big Hindu shrine. Men were busy building a statue of a Hindu god out of concrete.

The tide was out so the shore looked pretty ugly.

Saturday, October 18

We got up at 4am and were on the road by 4:45. The hotel gave us breakfast in a bag, but it was more like lunch. The Dutch eat sandwiches for breakfast – so we saved it for lunch. We didn’t have much of a problem driving the bad part of the road. The light was coming on and they have repaired it so that the giant craters are gone. We got to the ferry two hours before it sailed. I tried my Guyana phone to see if the Tanners got home safely. They did, but upon returning, they were invited to a couples dinner at New Thrivings. Elder Hyde’s parents came to pick him up and wanted to meet some of the couples. Tanners had enough time to unload the car, take a shower and go. They opened their bedroom window to let some air in. While they were at the restaurant, a burglar got into their apartment and stole, both of their computers and their router. They got some cash money, but left Sister Tanner’s wallet with her credit card and driver’s license behind. They stole backpacks to get the stuff out. They were devastated. Sister Tanner had all of her pictures of her kids and grandkids and mission on the hard drive. They also took all of their CDs, so everything she backed up was gone too. They have five projects that were awaiting approval from Santo Domingo before they could be sent in, those are gone and they have to redo them. The break-in did not have anything to do with the trip to Suriname. The thieves were watching for an opportunity to get into their apartment. They can’t get in to ours. The window they used is the only window in the building that does not have iron bars on it. No one thought anyone could get into that window, since it is over the carport. These pictures are of our house. Our front door faces the carport. The thief left dirty footprints all over the wall.

Egg Basket

We followed this truck across the Demerara River. I could not believe how many eggs were stacked there. When the truck turned the curve after the bridge, I found that there were 8 stacks of eggs in front of the ones we could see.

We were invited to the Seenaraine home for a "thanksgivin". I asked what a "thanksgivin" was and Samanta said it was Daddy's bir-day. So we went with our little bag of cookies for a gift. When we arrived there were several members of the branch there including the Branch President. The Branch President conducted a little Family Home Evening and taught the most wonderful lesson about Salvation and Exaltation. He used Elder Nelson's talk in April, 08. No one else brought gifts. They served dinner afterward. What a wonderful custom to have a "thanksgivin" instead of a bir-day party.

Seminary

This is Sister Nurse's class. There are six girls and one boy. They all smile except the boy. He is too cool. She called this week and has added two more. I asked her where they sit. She says she sits on a chair away from the table and one sits on the couch in the livingroom.

Home Depot

Not quite - in fact we saw a sign this last week that said "Tiles, Paint, Food, Motorcycle Parts". And yet we can not buy shoelaces in a supermarket.

Color Schemes

Guyanese love color. Houses are either unpainted or white or like this one.

Fishin'

We were headed for the North Street market, which is open air in the median between North Street and Church Street. On the corner we discovered quite a group of boys fishing. They were having a great time.

School has started

Here is a windshield shot of school children dressed in their uniforms headed for school.

Goodbyes

The bad news for us is, the Myers have been transferred to Trinidad to work in the mission office. They are needed badly there and they have the skills to do a wonderful job - but we are back trying to do both Georgetown and Canje.

This is the last we saw of TK. We don't know where she went but she is gone. She liked to perch up on top of the kitchen door and watch us eat. We refused to feed her so I like to think she found a family who would feed her.

The Myers Arrive

We were able to go to the airport and pick up Elder and Sister Myers. They are going to Canje/Berbice to serve for two years. Their assignment is 50% proselyting and 50% CES. We are anxious to turn over the Canje District to them so that we can concentrate on Georgetown. We found them to be delightful. They are from the Dallas-Ft. Worth area and have extensive experience in seminary and institute. What a blessing!

Carifesta

Carifesta is a ten-day celebration of the arts in the Caribbean. There were shows in four different venues every night. All of the countries in the Caribbean sent someone or something to display. We toured an exhibit of Amerindian arts and crafts in the Sofia Exhibition Grounds and thoroughly enjoyed it. We used our umbrellas to shade us from the sun and also to shield us from the rain. It was hot and humid and we also had a Guyana downpour.

Perpetual Education Fund

We received word that the Perpetual Education Fund has been approved for the country of Guyana. Elder and Sister Pettingill are PEF missionaries stationed in Santo Domingo. They flew to Guyana to train us. They brought with them Brother Aybar who is a full-time church employee over welfare in the Carribbean. We had some good training and a little sight-seeing.

Christopher Gets a Special Assignment

Christopher has been called to a special assignment to make the number of missionaries even in Guyana. He will move into an apartment with a missionary companion and serve six weeks (one transfer) while he waits for his own mission call to come.

Guyana Highway Patrol

Sunset - Berbice River

Sunsets are glorious. We are enjoying the cloud formations and the colors that appear on the clouds. This one was spectacular

Pictures from home

First birthday - Anna Edwards (Scott)

Graduation from high school - Jonathan Sterling (Karen)

Nolan Edwards (Janet) Homecoming date

Kristi Edwards' (Janet) school picture