I've now completed month #2 in my assignment. My adventures in Guyana continue in Skeldon, which is a small area within the village of Berbice. Berbice is one of the villages in the rural part of the country. My time there was very brief but I enjoyed it tremendously.
This, as the signs so prominently indicate, is the Kingdom Hall in Skeldon.
This is Melinda, who provided me with lodging accommodations in her home during my stay in Skeldon. She probably has one of the shortest commutes that I've ever known anyone to have to the Kingdom Hall. A few short steps out of her front door and she's at the Hall. Her apartment is directly behind the Kingdom Hall. (That alone made me want to stay in Skeldon forever, seeing as how I've had my share of long commutes to the Kingdom Hall for a number of years.) Melinda is originally from new York and is serving in the sign language group.
One difference between the city and the country is the modes of public transportation. In the country, there are surprisingly no horse drawn carts. Minibuses are used in the country but not for local travel. They're used primarily for long distance travel, like between the country and city. The type of vehicle used for local transport in the country is pictured below.
This is called a tapir. And they are operated pretty much the same as minibuses, where the passenger capacity is far exceeded. Tapirs have a 7-8 passenger capacity but it's not uncommon for that capacity to be doubled. The fare is about the same as the minibus as well - $60=100 Guyanese dollars (about 30-50 cents [USD]).
I got to ride in one, which fortunately was practically empty, to the field service group one morning.
The tapir only could bring us to a certain point and then we had to walk the rest of the way to where the group met.
The group met at a sister's house who has a sugar cane field as her backyard.
The shallow boats are called punts. They are used to transport harvested sugar cane by floating the punts through the water to the factory, which can be seen in the distance in the photo above.
The 2005 Yearbook describes Guyana as a "pioneer's paradise". After having preached in Skeldon, I completely understand why. The people are so receptive to the good news that we're bringing to them. Literally everyone that you come in contact with will take the time to listen to what you have to say. I think that this would make any pioneer happy. I was ecstatic!
Many of the people will even offer you refreshments. Since many of them have fruit trees on their property, produce is among the things offered. One day I went home with a bag full of fruits.
This lady, pictured in the top center of the photo behind the leaves, even climbed up on the awning of her porch to get me a cashew pear (pictured below) from her tree.
Apparently, the cashew nut comes from this fruit. The brown part, of course, is the cashew. I wasn't crazy about the taste of the fruit portion but it was kind of cool to learn where cashews come from.
Another thing that is very common in the country is outdoor cooking. A good majority of cooking is done on this grill/stove of sorts called a fireside.
One last discovery I made in Skeldon was this little cutie pie.
I don't remember her name but she had the greatest dispostion....so sweet and friendly.....and just so cute!
I also took a day trip to another village in the rural part of the country called Vergoenugen (pronounced VER JA NOO JEN).
Preaching there is very similar to that in Skeldon - just about everyone we came in contact with there took time to listen.
We even got to talk to this man who owns this chicken farm.
Here are some of the people in the Vergoenugen congregation.
(l to r) Kelon (who is a special pioneer and used to be in my congregation South Ruimveldt), his mom Wendy (who is in South Ruimveldt) and two other sisters whose names I, unfortunately, do not remember but were very nice.
Back in Georgetown we meet up with Natasha. She's the newest person that I conduct a Bible study with.
(l to r) Natasha, her mom Marie and Wendy
It took a little time before Natasha agreed to have a Bible study. When I initially met her, she listened and told me I could come back. However, on numerous occasions when I did come back, she seemed to have lost interest and kind of blew me off. So, one day I decided that as a result of her seeming lack of interest I'd visit her once more and if she blew me off again, I would just not come back. So, when I went even though she said she was very busy, she let us in and we had a great discussion that lasted over an hour and included the consideration of the first 5 paragraphs of Chapter 1 in the Bible Teach book. Natasha now studies regularly and her mother sits in on all of our discussions. I'm hoping one day she'll accept the invitation extended to her for her own Bible study. Natasha definitely keeps me on my toes. Our discussions have covered everything from whether a person who commits suicide will receive a resurrection to does Jehovah use natural disasters to punish people. What I appreciate about Natasha is that she's like the Beroeans (Acts 17:11) - after our discussions, she examines the scriptures further on her own to make sure that she's received the truth. I'm hoping that I'll have more great things to share about her progress throughout the course of the blog.
Well, that's all I have to report for now. I'm heading to Suriname in a few days. So, next post will be about my experiences there. Thank you for watching and reading. Please tune in next time for another thrilling episode of "Adventures of Guyana".
