Port Number 1...

TRINIDAD!!!

So, I have landed in my home from home - Trinidad. After having come here a year ago for the ASL pioneer school, I have been able to return to Trini (TT) a number of times now - it is such an amazing place with such amazing people.

So, with free flights on offer to travel to America for work, I couldnt help but wangle a few days stop-over in TT to see my lovely friends - Che and Natalie. They are just so hospitable and relaxed. The word that sums up TT is 'hospitality' - say it together now: 'hospitality'. I remember at pioneer school, the class ended up singing to us 'Guyanese' a song that was written for the International Convention called 'Welcome'. The thing is, in many places, this is said in jest, with levity, or utter hypocrisy. In TT, it comes from the heart. It was so funny last night, Natalie was complaining that they have not had the privilege of feeding the speaker for about 8 weeks - so funny, here they WANT to host the speaker!

Anyway, so I flew from Guyana after being dropped off my my friends who wanted to drive me up and say goodbye. We hired a car and travelled up to the capital to go to the movies, eat and play around until the early hours when they would drop me at the airport. It was cool, but I regretted it, as the flight was delayed by about three hours.

So, here I am in Trinidad, ensconced in my cocoon of luxury working whilst my friends are out at their jobs. Last night, a brother - Carlos - came over to cook for us. He is a chef at a five-star hotel here in Port of Spain and a great personality. He is flying out on Thursday to Uganda to cook for the government! But, he spared time to come and cook for me - so cool. Okra, pig tail and swordfish pilau... was lovely!

Carlos - the TT Ainsley Harriot

Pig Tail... Yep...

Smells awesome

Enough to feed 20

So, today I am heading off to New York - actually, tomorrow at 0040. Thankfully, I have a business class ticket, so me and the minibar are going to be fine friends. Two of my sister's friends that served in Nigeria with her are meeting me - the Priscos. They are an amazing couple whom I hope to get to know better over this month.

Ill be trying to make my blogs interesting... sorry in advance.

It has been a while!

Hey campers...

I must apologize for the elongated hiatus from the bloggersphere - things have been variable manic or dull, thus either no time to talk or time to talk about nothing...

So what has been going on? Well, the biggest thing has been the convention: twice. Much time prior to convention was spent doing prep work and the days all seemed to mush into one. I am involved in the oversight of the sign language department which is a lovely privilege. Our deaf from skeldon and the deaf from new Amsterdam all attend our convention and we have a great little team of interpreters. Before we can embark on the real thing, all speakers have to be contacted to gain all the scriptures to be used and this all needs collating into handy packs for the interpreters. I am the office slave in the department so this all falls on me. The upside of this was that I can count the time against my hours and we have had terrible rainstorms of late!

Georgetown convention - the big one!

 

Convention came and went with an amazing turn out and some lovely talks and releases - no spoilers. The great thing was that we got the releases in English, along with four new releases for sign language. The turn out was over a thousand at our site with many coming for the first time, or ones returning to the fold. There were less deaf than normal, but the ones that were there are showing their determination and faith which is great to see.

I then got to do it all over again! I was invited to help out with the interpreting in the capital at big convention for the rest of the country. This was a much bigger stage! Friday - three thousand. Saturday - four thousand. Sunday - over five thousand! It was immense compared to our small affair on a race track. There were 60 baptised with two deaf. The prime minister even came with a police escort!

The only other real news I have is that I am going to be going to the states, yes the united ones, for a month and a bit from August. One of my clients in London has been given the opportunity to come to America and work and he needs an interpreter for a month! As I can sign ASL and BSL - thanks Jehovah! - flying me to America to work actually saves them money. So, I am heading off on August 18 to Trinidad for a few days to see my lovely buddies Che and Natalie and then going on to JFK. I will be fulfilling a long time desire to attend an ASL convention, and what is more, this is a bethel circuit so most of the speakers are from the translation team at bethel. I'm so excited. I then have a week by myself to relax in the big fruit bowl. Jo has some lovely friends who are going to escort me to the bethels and take me out for a day, and I hope to connect with a few Guyana need greaters who are based there.

My client and I don't want to waste money on hotels, so we are taking the route of renting an apartment for the duration we are in the states. We will be in NYC, Washington, D.C. and then Rochester, NY for September. I have been given a website to use from our employers - www.airbnb.com - and it is hard work to find a place that is big enough to house two people who get on but who don't want to share a sofa, yet not pay thorough the nose! I am excited tho as some of these places have gyms and pools and are in the Camden of Brooklyn.

After the America trip it is back to Guyana, where I will be thrown back in with our special assembly day and the annual general meeting. Then... I am being flown to Qatar to interpret at an international conference for two weeks!

It all sounds glamorous but is going to be really hard work. Honestly. But Jehovah really is blessing me with these opportunities as money is running low and this saves an expensive plane ticket home.

Apart from all that secular stuff, studies are doing well here. I am trying to reconnect with lots of them whom I have had to neglect with convention assignments, yet I have had some amazing chats and two of my studies came to the meeting the last two weeks for the first time. Another today re-expressed his desire to get back to meetings and get back to progressing towards being a publisher. Another I started on his way to preparing for baptism questions. All in all, a lovely day in the ministry. It is amazing that I saw ten studies today and had amazing chats with all of them - only in Guyana people!

Right, I did a ten hour day today on the ministry and have another planned for tomorrow, so I must turn in. Haven't eaten yet, but might just nibble on one of the amazing chocolate treats brought by my friends Luke and laura from England and purchased by my darling twin (33 today!).

Hope all are well and you are all in my thoughts.

 

David

 

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So I Am New At This...

In response to the vitriolic, patronising comments, I have changed the setting on the youtube link to public so you can view it!

LOL  - nah, no one was mean, but I just wasnt sure how to limit the link... Oops... Anyway, fixed now... I think.

Today is Independence Day in Guyana, celebrating the expulsion of the British in 1969 - so far it is very low-key but I am sure the music will be resounding in no time at all and sleep shall elude me for another night.

Ciao peeps...

The things you see...

Guyana is filled with so many amazing and beautiful things: the animals, the plants, the crocodile I saw today on ministry, the rare butterflies you just squat without a thought ;)... It is easy to take things for granted after such a long time of being here.

Well, today I share with you the dancing monkeys of Guyana. Only found here in Guyana, these monkeys are amazing and yet tinged with sadness. Born with Caribbean rhythm in their bones, they are dropped at a young age by their mother in a designated spot, and there they remain, dancing... Til they can American slide no more and they drop dead with a stillness they had never before known. I hear there is going to be an NGO set up to try and drip feed these poor specimen to keep them alive beyond recorded ages and perhaps give them a life they have never experienced.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JvzBY-rlk9U

Donations can be made on the link below...

Www.suckergivemeyourmoney.com.org

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I was in a car crash!

Hey there Peeps!

Well, before you see this picture and weep for me, let me save you the lamentation - this was not a picture of us! I just thought it looked more impressive than the vehicle in which I was travelling.  ;)

Myself and my friend Lizzie (from my cong in London) were travelling to town. Lizzie had been visiting us on the coast before heading down to Lethem to resume her do-gooding in the jungle. It had been an 'interesting' weekend for a whole host of reasons, but I digress.

We got in a car and the dude seemed mostly with it, then about ten minutes into our journey, there was a line of traffic ahead. It got closer, and closer, and WHAM. We ploughed straight into the back of it after skidding for about ten feet, once the brakes had been applied, the wheels locking and us skidding in the rain. Lizzie hadnt seen it coming so was relatively unscathed as she hadnt tensed up or anything. She whacked her leg on the seat in front, which later ballooned. (This was later topped by her toe being nibbled by a rat in her hotel, but again, I digress!)

I seem to have come off a bit worse - as most of you know I have all kinds of wrongess in my joints and shoulders and back etc. Well, I did see it coming and duly braced for impact, which jolted my neck and back and blah blah. That morning, I had used the shower and something had popped between my shoulder blades. Post-impact, I now am having trouble breathing in deeply as the knot in my back is right between the blades and absolutely kills. Throughout the day, both of our necks and backs were hurting and I came out in a huge headache.  Gotta love whiplash.

A four hour bus ride back into Skeldon and I was in agony with every bump and bounce of my adopted country's stupid infrastructure. Despite having unearthed 800mg ibuprofens in a shop, the pain wont go away and I slept really badly and today am feeling far more sorry for myself than humanly appropriate. I desperately want the Hagan Daz chocolate chip ice cream that is in the supermarket, by it is ten quid and far away from me and my ability to hobble.

It is a bit scary the roads here and how quickly one becomes used to them, until something happens. I was very thankful that we were unhurt and definitely have a renewed appreciation for wearing a seatbelt.

So, in all, a bit of excitement to blog about. My inspiration for blogging has waned a little of late, so at least it gave me something to share! ha.

Laters... going to eat the chocolate orange I bought in town yesterday!!! Tres excitement.

DTG.x

You guys have winter to ruin your pioneering...

My excuse

Click the link...

Anyone out there...?

Apologies friends for the lack of posts, I know you have been lamenting my absence from the bloggersphere.

We have had a really mean vomitting virus going around just lately, which then made friends with a diarrhea bug, that then brought a weird dizziness/fatigue condition along as a plus one. It has systematically been wiping out our cong. So, three weeks later, I am out of adult nappies and can face the world once again.

It is hard when one has been sick for a time, or away on holiday or something, to get back into the physical and mental routine of pioneering. I am finding it really hard to get the motivation to go out. I think Jehovah knew that so sent one of my studies to my house to request me to come to his house and study with him and his wife! Shamed! I went down and turns out they have been having really bad troubles of late in their marriage. I was able to sit with them for three hours and look at various scriptures (and draw on my wide knowledge and experience of marriage).

It was one of those true experiences where you feel an angel was your assistant. I am terrible at remembering scriptures, but literally, I just opened the bible and it was the perfect proverb, the perfect psalm, the perfect Ephesians verse. I really felt supported by spirit and it was so lovely to see the couple take in the wisdom and be so thankful after.

Well, that lasted two days. I then go round on Wednesday for our scheduled study and all hell is breaking loose again and the man is threatening to move out. So once again we sit down and go through the same scriptures and talk and three hours later, they are in tears and declaring their love and saying how Jehovah is keeping their marriage together! The next day, they came to their first meeting! They were both so effusive about how Jehovah is helping them and they are so thankful for his support and wisdom. It made me smile a lil.

I just got in from a lovely 8 hour day of walking and burning hot sun but met some lovely people today and had a great time with my group.

Feeling a lil better about the min for next week.

Hope all the pioneers are doing okay and feeling Jehovah's support in their ministry too.

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