My last post for today...

After delighting you all with recent photographs, I thought, "enough of this loveliness and Guyana fancy. Why not have a break for a change and give the Guyanese something to look at"... So, for reasons of parity and fairness to all, I am changing the focus of this blog from GUYANA to the UK!!! 

That's right peeps - I am finally following through on my threat and am coming home. I have a few false starts on making this happen, but tickets are booked and bags... well, they are still empty, but you know what I mean.

I leave these fair shores on Tuesday, to have a week in Trinidad with my friends who hosted me for pioneer school (I know you read this Che and Nats - get cooking!) and then Dec 12 I arrive in the arctic and foreboding Gatwick airport. I am in London / Scotland / Wales (sorry Ireland, not you) and back to London until Jan 7. Then I am yo-yo'ing back to Guyana to continue with my adventures.

I am sure I won't get to see all of you in the short time I have, but I hope you know it is not intentional. It is so over-whelming thinking about coming home and seeing everyone. I can't believe it has been a year and a half - the bets were on for a return within two months! I have had some amazing experiences and am sure Jehovah has many more for me to revel in. But, it is definitely time to come home and take stock, have some mulled wine and bask in the best season on the calendar - WINTER (not the pagan festival that goes with it... naughty!!! ;) Tho Matt Humps has promised me some traditional fare in the form of cooked meats and pigs in blankets!). 

I can't wait to walk the Embankment with a mulled wine in my hand, walking around the tree in Covent Garden, taking a stroll on the Heath and having a touristy pic outside of the Science Museum and the V&A. Big jumpers, scarves, Indian curry, some good wine and some even better hours spent with long-not-seen friends. Fish, dim sum, SOUP (oh how I have missed SOUP), slow cooked lamb (actually, cook it quick and get it in my stomach), TELEVISION!!!, did I mention Indian curry!?!?!

Watch out Londondinium, your child is returning...

Coffee

Okay,

This deserves its own post. For the last year and a half I have been asking everyone who is coming in and out of the country to mule some coffee with them (thanks Jo). You see, here we cannot buy it - nowhere in Guyana! On our trips to Suriname, we can sometimes unearth a pack or two, but that is all. We are indeed in the last days...

Well - imagine our shock and horror at learning that not only does Guyana have coffee plantations, a sister owns one and another owns a factory. They process and export the coffee, but never does it touch the lips of a resident of this fair land. 

It was such a lovely smell. The sister gave us a huge sample bag and I am now in talks to hook up a supply to Berbice, through a brother who sells in the market. Good times ahead!

Pay attention now:

These, my friends, are the where the magic begins. The red beans on the right are the coffee beans in their natural state. I am not sure why the ones on the left were dried, as I dont think they are used like that... not sure... not a good start

The beans are put through the first machine that strips the skin and they make a lovely big pile

Their now naked selves waiting for a make-over

Then they are planed in this sun-bed to dry

Once dried, (perhaps the black ones up top) they are placed in this roaster. It was amazing to see the machines - it was like walking around a museum, but that is what they use everyday to do their work

The smell coming off this was amazing

And that is it - then they are sent off to grind in another machine

And are then dressed into their bags - 180 GUD for a pack, which is about 50p

And then into my belly... Mmmm

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A COFFEE BEAN - FASCINATING!!!

More Essequibo...

Sorry for the hiatus in posts - the all-day blackouts and tropical rain is thwarting my uploads: Rainy Season has begun!

Forthwith - more pics:

My transport to the assembly - soooooo cooooooool

Stayed with a family who are rice farmers. They let me drive a tractor baby!

This was our lil river preaching crew on the second time out

This is bro and sis McAlman - of the Guyana yearbook fame. They have been preaching on the river for over 30 years and pretty much everyone you talk to at the hall studied with them. Hilariously, despite 30 years on the river, neither can swim!!!

Essequibo...

Hi All

It has been a long time since my last post, or so it feels. Things have been very busy indeed. I was invited back to the north of the country - to Essequibo - and the delightful Charity. They were having their two day assembly and needed help organising and delivering sign language interpreting. I jumped at the chance to go, as it is a beautiful area, on the Pomeroon river, at the mouth of the interior and literally the other end of coast to my home, Skeldon.

So, myself and a team of brothers and sisters from Skeldon and Georgetown headed over to Charity. I stayed for what ended up being two weeks, whilst others came for just the weekend. Here are some highlights (I have to break this into two posts, I fear, else the post will be too heavy).

My adventure began with this! MMMM - I ate them all - kinda like mini-burgers

Charity is so different to Skeldon. People really take care of their house lot - so lovely

Charity is on the mouth of the Pomeroon, so we got to go river witnessing! So cool.

You just pull up to the jetty and yell 'INSIDE', like we do with the normal ministry.

More to come in the next post...

Never the Twain Shall Meet...

It is funny here in Guyana. They say it is an English speaking country and people are very proud of that. They lull us into a false pretense and we all arrive thinking we can get off the plane and get on with things. When one looks, and listens, a little closer though, a new world opens up - that of Creolese.

I seem to spend a lot of my time explaining to different foreigners, both long serving and new, that the general populace do not understand us properly when we speak, and therefore, when and what we teach. I Skeldon, our area is very agricultural and many have only a basic schooling. When I go on studies, I speak Creolese and naturally translate when I read the Bible Teach book into a Creolese slant. I have been criticized for this by some foreign brothers, as they say everyone speaks English and SHOULD learn to do so at a higher level. It is an ongoing debate.

Anyway, thanks to Nikki who posted this on her site, which I have subsequently stolen. It highlights that even in their newspapers, they use Creolese. The kids learn it at school, they speak it in their homes, they speak it to their children, in the street and when they eat. Why can't we speak it when teaching them about Jehovah, reaching for their hearts and not their heads.

Enjoy...

Dem boys seh…Dem gun lef de thiefing money

SEPTEMBER 26, 2012 | BY KNEWS | FILED UNDER DEM BOYS SEH, FEATURES / COLUMNISTS,NEWS

There is a true, true saying, Failure is an orphan, success has many parents. When a man become successful and get plenty money he does get nuff relatives. Dem got people who only got to hear that somebody rich and dem does identify demself as some far off cousin sister pickney.
Dem got all description fuh how dem tun relative.
Tek de case wid de doctor wha dead. He still deh in de parlour waiting fuh somebody bury he. Is when people hear bout de money he got in de bank and de property he own all over de country is then dem come. Some come from England, some come from Australia, from South Africa and one come from Papua New Guinea. Some of dem ain’t know wheh dem come from.
Dem boys seh that dem never know that de man had so much family. One woman come from America and claim how she is de dead man daughter. Dem boys sure is a man name Peter, called Petes fuh short, who bring she in.
She ain’t know she mother name, she ain’t know she date of birth and she ain’t know wheh she born. Dem had other relatives tun up but when de parlour people ask dem some question dem go home fuh come back and never come back.
Well dem boys seh that dem got nuff people who gun end up like de doctor. Tek de Bees, especially de big Bee. Dem tek so much from de treasury and through dem contract that dem got more money than dem and four generation can spend. Some of dem ain’t got a chick or a child because dem couldn’t get.
Imagine when Bharrat pass on and people coming fuh claim that dem is he children. Then dem got de other Bees. People gun find out that dem dead and forge documents. Dem same Bees use to forge contracts and collect money without doing any work. Some of dem, like de fat one, even forge de children birth certificate.
Well imagine de line fuh claim de palace at Sparendaam, or de wine parlour pun Lamaha Street. That is because fuh all de thiefing nobody can’t carry nutten when dem dead. That is why when some of dem realize that dem gun dead and lef all of that dem gun bawl pun dem dying bed. That is when dem gun got to prepare to answer to Peter, not Petes.
Talk half and put back wha all yuh thief while you got time.

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Going the extra mile...

Just wanted to share a story about this young man.

He is from New Amsterdam and fourteen years old. He has had a bad trot of late. Without going into it, he was taken off the school temporarily and has been labeled by many in the congregation as the 'bad-boy'. It is so sad - he has taken it all to heart and so has stopped coming to meetings.

Everyone in the hall is really worried about him, as I am. So, I came up this weekend with the goal of seeing Robin and giving some encouragement. Success! We get on really well and were able to have a good old chat about what's been going on with him. I took him out for a ride in a taxi and went to a KFC-type place for a treat. He is from a poor family, so was nice to treat him to something. We talked at length about how he feels about meetings etc and he said he would come with me to the meeting on Sunday and sit with me. I wasn't sure if he would make it, as he has apparently said this every week.

Success again! As the meeting is starting, in walks Robin - the second meeting he has attended in seven weeks. He did really well and answered a load of times from pictures in the magazine and that I had drawn. I took him out again for food and then we went and played football with the English congregation and he loved it. It was so nice to see him thriving and enjoying being with everyone.

The brothers here have asked me to come up regularly and study with Robin and a couple of others, but it just isn't possible at the moment. I am just going to try and be a friend-at-a-distance for him and try and catch him each time he falls from the net. Leave the rest to Jehovah. It is ones like Robin who make Guyana worth it for me. I had Robin on one side and another study of mine, who is fifteen, on the other - Vishal, who has also been missing a lot of meetings. It was so nice to see them attentive and eager to answer. Smiley face.

 

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Maintenance day at the hall...

 

 

 

 

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