Guyana Blog 4

Tuesday Evening
February 5, 2008

I will begin writing my thoughts this Sunday morning, 2/3/08, but probably won’t be able to post this until after we get back home. We have accomplished a great deal in the library, doing the preliminary documentation on over 4,500 unique titles (some books have multiple copies) which included entering at least 12 separate pieces of information for each book (title, author, publisher, etc.). That’s a lot of mind-numbing data entry. Fortunately, the last couple of days it was decided that I (Darlene) should assign the Dewey Decimal number to the remaining books since that requires some knowledge of the Dewey system and often a bit of research. That way the others could just key in the data without stopping to try to figure out what number to assign. That was much more interesting, and I realized that I didn’t feel nearly as tired at the end of the day, even though the days were just as long as those where I was mostly doing data entry. We were surprised that we have been given the green light to work in the library today (normally it’s a “big no-no” to do any work on Sunday) so we will do some clean-up work of fixing errors and continue working on printing and putting spine labels on as many of the books as we possibly can. The spine label work began on Thursday, teaching the two Guyanese ladies how to do this task. This will give them a nice head start on a huge project. Once the labels are on, then they will have the daunting task of putting every book in its place in the library in Dewey Decimal order. I would estimate that a good team of about 4 people could probably accomplish that task in about a week. It is a satisfying feeling to know that we have accomplished as much as we have. We just wish that we could have done more. Dr. Jeannie Lowell plans to come back down in several months (they live in Springfield, MO) and it will be interesting to get a report from her regarding their progress.

We have met some truly wonderful people here, particularly the Lowells. Jeannie’s brother, Lewis McCown is also a missionary who works with them in the Caribbean School of Theology, along with several other missionaries. They have several campuses where they go in and teach intensive two- to three-week courses to those who are working toward their Master’s Degree in Theology. In talking to Lewis we discovered that he is very familiar with our area. His son’s family lives in Cumming, GA, not far from us. We learned that until recently some friends of Valerie and Josh’s actually went to the same church in Sugar Hill with Lewis’s son’s family. This past Thursday evening we met a couple of prospective missionaries, Rob and Colleen Gehrig, who flew down from their home in Oregon to check out the possibilities of ministering to the Guyanese pastors. In talking with them we learned that Rob went to Bethany Bible College and knew our pastor, Jason Garcia there. The Gehrig’s also have lived in Northern California in the same small town as Al and Dorothy, so it was lots of fun discussing common experiences and places and people.

Among others that we will especially miss will be Al and Dorothy Anderson. They have been great working partners in this project. Al has so much expertise that computer issues are solved within minutes, and Dorothy has a delightful personality and is an efficient and hard worker. We have shared virtually every meal with them for these two weeks and have come to love and appreciate these two very special people. Speaking of meals, our cook, known around here as “Sister Jean”, has been one of the most important people in our lives (you may remember from previous blogs that I might be referred to as a “foodie”). The first week we took all our lunches at the Bible School and this second week she has prepared all of our lunches and dinners. She is 64 years old, weighs about 80 lbs. and is a bundle of energy. What a sweetheart. The food has been hearty and sometimes interesting, but always beautifully presented. Friday evening we had pizza that was like no pizza we’ve ever experienced. It had a thick doughy crust which was quite good and the toppings included a little cheese along with hamburger, wieners (they call them sausages here), shredded carrots, bell pepper, onions. Amazingly, it was yummy! Nearly every meal is primarily rice in some form or another, so the pizza was a welcome change. This past Thursday evening all the missionaries and the library team were treated to a great Chinese meal at the “New Thriving Café” where we had gone the week before with Roy, our driver. It was very enjoyable to be all together. Pastor John Smith and his two unmarried sisters who work with him in the church he pastors and in the Bible School were our hosts.

There are some images that will always remind me of our time in Guyana. Of course it will take a long time to stop dreaming of books, books, and more books! In addition, the drives to and from our hotel were a most unique experience. They drive on the “wrong side” of the road and seem to pay little attention to keeping in the proper lane. The driver is constantly swerving toward oncoming traffic to avoid potholes, pedestrians, parked cars, bicyclists and horse-drawn wagons and seldom seems to be able to stay on his side of the road. It is very common for three cars to pass abreast on a narrow two-lane roadway. We have learned that the first person to honk their horn generally has the right of way (but not always!). Most of the time I tried to keep my eyes closed or focused on the scenery which consisted of homes and businesses. Some of the homes were large and lovely and others were old and looked like a stiff wind would blow them down. There are some little shacks and lean-tos that are a reminder Guyana is truly a third-world country. All of this can be seen within the same city block. It is not uncommon to see horses, goats and cows grazing in the grassy medians between the main roadways.

The weather has been very lovely. We understand that this is their coolest season of the year when the temperatures get down as low as 73 degrees F. It’s called the rainy season, but the rains seem typical of the tropics. It just pours for 20 to 30 minutes and then the sun comes out for several hours before the rains come again. I have been careful to take my umbrella with me every day, but have only needed it once. Needless to say, we have not spent much time outdoors.

Our last day was very memorable. We checked out of our hotel, began working in the library at about 10:30, and worked straight through (except for a quick lunch) until 5:00. We had contemplated taking showers at the house where the missionaries/teachers live next to the Bible School, but after learning that they have no hot water we convinced ourselves that showers were really not necessary! After dinner we watched the Super Bowl which began at 7:30. The television had a fairly small screen (probably about 21”) and reception was very snowy, so sometimes it was hard to follow the ball. It was also irritating that the sound would cut out for a few seconds every few minutes, but it was seldom for long enough to really matter. We’ve always enjoyed the great commercials that air during the big game, but this was definitely not the case this year. They pre-empt the U.S. commercials (as we’ve written previously) and we couldn’t believe that they basically showed the same two commercials at every commercial break! We actually missed the kickoff because they didn’t time the commercials to end before the action began on the field. I tried to take a nap in the only bedroom in the house with air conditioning during the first part of the game, and joined the others shortly after the 4th quarter started, which they told me was when things got interesting. We needed to leave for the airport at 10:30, but our driver was late. Once he arrived we felt like we really needed to get on the road, which meant we missed the last minute of the game – when the Giants came behind for the win! The drive to the airport was about 45 minutes through some unsavory parts of the city, and we were grateful to arrive at the airport without incident and in plenty of time to check in and catch our 2:00 a.m. flight to Trinidad. We got into Trinidad in an hour and then had a five-hour layover before our flights back home. Even with the slow immigration and customs and security lines, we had hours of sitting in those airport chairs alternately trying to stay awake and trying to nap. Carnival is going on and the airport is decorated with Mardi Gras-type costumes. We finally took off at about 9:00 a.m. (our flight left about 5 minutes before Dorothy and Al’s and we could see their plane lined up behind ours as we were getting ready for takeoff). We had a beautiful, smooth flight of nearly 5 hours and landed in Atlanta shortly after 12:30 p.m. Valerie picked us and it was great to see her and to be back home in the U.S.

We especially were grateful for safety during our time away, since there was an incident on Friday, January 25 that was somewhat worrisome. There was a “massacre” of 11 people, including five children, in a village just north of Georgetown on the coast early that morning. Apparently a band of criminals just randomly targeted some homes in the village, executing innocent people. There was a huge manhunt and we understand that two of the perpetrators were killed in a shootout with police, but the ringleader and the others were still at large when we left. There was a national day of mourning declared on the 31st and an atmosphere of fear was apparent among the people. Usually people congregate along the sea wall and in the streets in front of bars and restaurants late into the evenings, but the streets were deserted early as people stayed indoors in fear of further violence. One of our drivers told us that the purpose for the killings was to try to make the present government leadership look bad (not being able to provide adequate police protection for the people), but we were also told that it was a personal matter between the ringleader and the local police. Needless to say, we appreciated having tall fences and 24-hour guards on both our hotel and the Bible School, but we also are grateful for your prayers and the Lord’s protection. On top of all this we were told that there could be a war between Venezuela and Guyana due to Venezuela declaring that about half of Guyana is theirs. Of course it is the part with the gold and oil. Our driver said not to worry because Guyana is good at negotiating. However while we were there Venezuela destroyed two of Guyana's oil rigs in one of the rivers that belongs to Guyana.

We got to spend Monday afternoon and early evening with Valerie, Josh and Meagan. Meagan was very excited to see us when she got up from her nap, and we got lots of hugs and kisses. Valerie had dinner for us, which was wonderful, and then we headed for Suwanee and were home shortly before 8:00. Our own bed was much appreciated since we had little rest since 6:30 Sunday morning. We will look forward to seeing many of you in the next few days. Don’t hesitate to drop us a note when you get a chance. We always love hearing from our friends.