Our trip to Grande Riviere and the turtles

pictures of our adventures

Sylphil children Our trip to Argyle Falls in Tobago

We are here in Trinidad having a great time. We Finished the Sylphil Home for abandoned children's project in Tobago. We had a fun closing ceremony. All the children were there and we had drinks and a strudel type treat, they loved it and we had a great time. We are working on some other projects here in Trinidad. We have a container coming in with clothing,shoes,school kits,heigine kits, new born kits, toys, and about 40 wheel chairs and we are working on a container of 250 Wheel chairs. It is great be in the service of the Lord in helping some of his children. We also have time for us to do some sight seeing. The last two days we have been at the Grande Riviere, this a place where lot of turtles come in to lay their eggs. During May and June there can be 300-400 turtles a night come to the beach to lay their eggs. It is the end of the season so we only saw 3 turtles, they are the leatherback turtles and they were from 4' to 5' 6" long. They are huge turtles. There was another one, a hawk bill but she went back into the ocean and we didn't see her. We saw the whole process, digging the nest,laying the eggs, covering them, then she made it so know one could find the nest and went back out to sea. It was great. We saw a lot of little baby turtles. They have to dig out of the nest which is 2' 6" to 3' 6" deep. When they get to the surface the local dogs and the vultures are waiting for them. Most of them don't live for 5 minutes after they reach the surface. It is very frustrating to see them killed so quickly. If they make it to the water there is a large bird that circles and when they come to the surface to breathe they swoop down and grab them. Some of the people walk the beach and gather up the turtles as they hatch and keep them until dark to put them in the sea. We were able to hold some of the baby turtles and touch the large females. It was a good experience and we learned a lot about turtles.
We are getting ready to fly back to Guyana at 6:45 in the morning. We have a lot of work to do there. We now have 4 new projects approved. Wheelchairs for the Ministry of Health, school supplies for the St Paul's boys Orphanage, desks and benches for the North Georgetown Primary School and books and video equipment for the University of Guyana Library. It is very rewarding to identify projects and have them approved by the Area Presidency. They also approved an NRT project for Guyana so we are going to be very busy when we return. We are working on projects for St Vincents, St Lucia and Grenada as well as more in Guyana. We are excited to get back to Guyana, it is coming home when we get there. We are posting some pictures on another blog. Until next time!!

Anrika

Brazil this way

Our trip to the interior

pictures July 5, 2010

Family transportation


Brother Henry and his daughters, he is the
carpenter we will use on this project. North Georgetown Primary
School students in their
school uniforms

July 5, 2010

Greetings form the land of many waters, we understand why they call Guyana this. There are rivers and canals everywhere. We were checking on a project in Friendship, yesterday after church, with a group of families in Cuffy Dam East bank Demerara. There are about 30 families who live in this area and there is a canal running in front of their homes. We cross little foot bridges ( sometimes three 2X6's ) to get to their homes. I asked one of the ladies if there were any fish in the canal and she said " yes a lot of them and alligators" when I asked how big the alligators were she said they were very big. I asked her if they ever had trouble with them and she said " they don't bother people, sometimes they take a dog". They have small children who cross these small bridges all the time but they don't seem to worry.
We are learning our way around and the driving is getting much better. I still can't relax when I drive because we have to be on watch all the time. The buses will whip past when there is oncoming traffic so I have to move onto the shoulder and then they pull in and stop to pick up passengers 100 feet down the road. It is always an adventure when we get into the car.
We got our first project approved last week. We will furnish a container of wheelchairs to the Ministry of Health. We are also working on a Neonatal Resuscitation Training for later this year.
We have submitted a project with the St Paul's boys Orphanage but haven't received approval yet. There are many groups who would like a container of clothing and kits from the sort center. We only know of one organization that can get the container cleared through customs so we are working with Bernice Mansell, it is her organization, to bring in two containers to divide between the groups. Bernice is in her 80's and has been doing this work for 40 years. She is very lively and energetic and very fun to be around. She is very sharp and very honest so it is great to work with her. If we have a question about another group we just ask her and she will tell us if they are good to work with.
There is so much corruption in the Government and other organizations that we have to be very careful who we work with.
We are working with the University of Guyana to furnish books and equipment for their Library and with the Georgetown North Primary School to help them with some desks and equipment.
We are enjoying going to the Diamond Branch and are learning the name of the members. They are great people and have so much faith in the savior. They have many challenges in their lives.
Last week I became a bus driver, we borrowed the mission van ( they are called buses ) and we went into the interior. We took President Ramdeholl, the Linden Branch President and his wife along with 4 Elders and 2 Sisters and drove into the interior a ways. We went to Anarika which is an Amerindian village on the Essequibo river. We had a great outing with the missionaries. The river was very high so no one caught any fish but we were able to try some of the local jungle fruit. Some of it was good and some was OK but we prefer the bananas, pineapples and mango's we buy at the markets.
We are grateful for the opportunity to serve the Lord and the people of Guyana and the West indies. Every day is a new adventure and we are learning so much. Especially how blessed we are and how generous the Lord has been to us and our family. We need to be very grateful and share what we have with those who are less fortunate.