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.

4 June 2010

These are pictures of some of the children at the Sylphil Home for abandoned children, a project in Tabago we are finishing for the Whiteheads. They were the cutest girls! The two smaller girls attached them selves to us when we first got there so we carried them around while we saw what they needed. We took pictures, they were so excited. It was hard to say goodbye. It is working with the people and helping them that makes it all worth it. We are Enjoying it here.

We see this fellow and his friends when we
walk on the sea wall in the mornings .This is a church in Suriname.This is a members house in Suriname.

21 May 2010

This is a brick road in Suriname it is about 15 miles long
This bug is for Reagan
This is how they deliver building material and other things in Guyana

Today is Sharon's birthday so we are going out to dinner to celebrate ( if we can find the restaurant we want to go to) we had two locations and could not find it at either one. We have been in Guyana almost amonth now and we can find a few things and we don't get lost much any more. We haven't mastered the streets yet, there are a lot of one way streets but no signs. We found one sign indicating one way. I'm not sure why a street is designated one way or two way, they are about the same size ( about 18' wide) and people park on both sides of all the streets. We are learning our responsibilities and it is getting better. We had a handing over ceremony on one of the Whiteheads projects this week and another next week. We will be going over to Trinidad on the 27th and we have a handing over ceremony over there the following week. We have a few more projects to finish up for them. We went to Suriname last weekend with President and Sister Ricks. We drove all day. It took us 12 hours including the ferry over the river. We are starting a wheelchair project here in Guyana, a Neonatal Resuscitation training, possibly books for the library at Georgetown University, furnishing prosthesis' for a group here in Georgetown and President Gould wants to talk to us on Saturday the 29th about projects he want us to do in Trinidad. There is so much need down here that the challenge is going to be which projects to do, not finding projects. The members of the branches are great people, the have a sweet spirit about them and strong testimonies. Many of them don't have very much and it is a challenge for them to fulfill their responsibilities because they have to take a taxi to get to church or do their VT or HT and every phone call cost money. The church is growing fast in Guyana, it is outgrowing the Priesthood necessary to run the branches. Sometimes the Branch President will only have a clerk and no counselors. Sometimes the Branch President has only been in the church 6 months or a year. They have a real problem with young adults going inactive. It is a great work an we are grateful for the opportunity to be part of it.

08 May 2010

This is the compound where we live. The couple who first rented this house got robbed several times so the landlord put the razor wire around the top. All of the homes in this area have the iron fences. We have place for two padlocks on the gate and two padlocks on the metal door on the front and two on the back door. The front door also has a dead bolt. The back door has two barrel bolts. You would think that we lived in a terrible neighborhood but is very nice by local standards. We never hear the neighbors, just their dogs. There are a lot of dogs here and they are very noisy. When we went to church this morning we attended the Diamond branch. They are such friendly people and they have such strong testimonies. The church is very young in Guyana but the people are very committed to the gospel. They had a primary Mothers Day program and the children are so cute. They did a great job.

02 May 2010

Hello from Trinidad,
We left the MTC on the 26th of April at the early hour of 2:00am and spent all day on planes or in airports. We arrived in the DR about 9:30 and by the time we made it through immigrations and to our Hotel it was late. The next day we had more training, our brains were saturated before but they gave us the fire hose training method. The next day we spent with E/S Francom and had some OJT. It was very informative and enjoyable. That night we went to the Santo Domingo Temple. The next day we were off to Trinidad We arrived about 10:00 and it took us over an hour to clear immigrations. They didn't want to let us in because our paperwork was not complete but they finally gave us 30 days to complete it. The next day we met with President Gamiette, he is a great man full of enthusiasm. The rest of that day and yesterday we spent cleaning our apartment. Today we went to the branch for church and it was so great. The members shared great testimonies and the Stake President taught the Priesthood lesson. After the meetings they served lunch and we were able to sample the local food, it was quite spicy but very good. In the morning we fly to Guyana and start all over again. I guess we need to get use to Immigrations and customs because we have eleven countries that we will be working in and all of them will have them. Our biggest challenge in our lack of computer skills and dirty apartments, Sharon about worked me to death in Trinidad and Guyana will be at least as bad. I know that with the Lord's help we will be able to accomplish what he has sent us over here to do. We are very excited to start our adventure in Guyana and all the other islands of the West Indies. We appreciate all of your prayers and support. We miss all of you.
Mom and Dad, Grandma and Grandpa, Lynn and Sharon