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.

Guyana Blog 3

Campbellville, Georgetown, Guyana
Wednesday Evening
January 30, 2008

After we completed the previous blog, we got a phone call at 9:30 Saturday night from “our” driver. His name is Roy and it seems that he has become the liaison between us and the local pastor, John Smith, who is also the superintendent of the Guyana Assemblies of God and has the final say about what goes on at the Bible School. Roy informed us that a car would pick us for church between 9:30 and 10:00 a.m. Sunday morning. We had previously understood that there would not be a service for us to attend and so we had planned to just take the whole day off for a much-needed “day of rest”. After a brief attitude adjustment, we were looking forward to attending Central Assembly and hearing Pastor John speak. We understand that it is one of the largest churches in Guyana (if not the largest). When we arrived at 10:30 the service had already begun nearly an hour before, and we were escorted to a row of reserved seats near the platform. We had to dodge a lady standing in the aisle waving some sort of a small flag (she almost hit me in the head since she didn’t know I was coming up behind her, and I misjudged her movements as I passed by her). The church was nearly full and we felt conspicuous, but soon were distracted by 6 or 7 ladies in colorful long dresses who were up front, swaying and dancing to the music as part of their worship service. We were so upset that we hadn't brought our camera. I think we could have gotten some great and colorful photos and videos wiothout disturbing anyone. It seems that we had arrived on a special day of celebration – the pastor’s 67th birthday. For the next couple of hours different groups and members of the congregation spoke, sang or presented brief skits honoring the pastor. They finished the celebration portion of the service with a presentation of gifts where virtually each person in attendance (I think Al, Dorothy, Don and I may have been the only exceptions) lined up to present their birthday gifts, usually in the form of money, for which they in turn received a hug from their pastor who looks like a 6’6” football player. It’s hard to “guesstimate” the number of people, but it took them about a half hour for everyone to bring their gifts and get their hug. (I know because by this time I was definitely watching the time.) It was about 12:45 when the pastor started to preach and I guess I was expecting him to make it short and sweet and wrap it up by about 1:00. That was not to be. The closing prayer ended at about 2:15 (yes, that’s nearly 5 hours after the service began), and then we were invited to stay for refreshments!!! By then our backsides were numb from the very hard wooden, straight-backed benches and our stomachs were growling. Fortunately, our driver was ready to take us back to the hotel so they quickly put a piece of cake wrapped in a napkin and a small soda in each of our hands so that we could be on our way. When we got back to the hotel we immediately went to the hotel restaurant for lunch where we learned that they were shorthanded and that it would take awhile to get our meal. We finally got our lunch at 3:30 and wolfed it down before heading back to our rooms for some much-needed rest. Needless to say, it was an experience that we will not soon forget.

We have been putting in long days at the library, doing our best to get all of the books documented and into the library management computer system. Based on what we accomplished last week, we had expected to complete that phase of the work by this afternoon. However, we had not realized that the second half of the library was much more difficult to document since it contained books that required much more research, not just copying information that was readily available in the books themselves as was the case with the first half. We are now hoping to complete the documentation tomorrow and then undertake the daunting task of putting spine labels on about 4,000 of the approximately 6,000 books. Once that is done we will be able to begin arranging books in Dewey Decimal order. I doubt that we will be able to finish by Saturday night, since the last library we arranged took 3 people two full days to do about 2500 books. Don and Al have been training a couple of ladies, and it will be up to them and others to finish the task when we leave. One thing we have been able to do that has made our work easier is to take down all the plastic sheeting that had been protecting the books from dust. Now that the library is air conditioned the windows can be kept closed and the plastic won’t be necessary, but we had to get special permission to get rid of all that plastic. The library already looks so much better without it and now we have easy access to the shelves.

At this point we are planning to check out of our hotel Sunday morning and go to the mission house next to the Bible School until we leave for the airport. We are hoping that they will receive the Super Bowl broadcast which should help pass the time. We will take a taxi at about 10:30 Sunday evening for a 2:00 a.m. flight to Trinidad. We will have several hours to kill in the Port of Spain airport before our nonstop flight to Atlanta which arrives at about 1:00 EST. We will be exhausted I’m sure, but glad to be back.

Guyana Blog 2

Saturday evening January 26, 2008

We have had a good first week here in Georgetown. It was somewhat frustrating getting here. We had to fly into Trinidad where we stood in line over an hour and a half to get through immigration and customs. Although we had booked a room for the night (I just couldn’t face 10 ½ hours in the airport before our flight out Tuesday morning) we only got about two hours sleep. It don’t know whether it was the very uncomfortable bed, the noisy neighbors or just being on edge, knowing that we had to get up at 4:00 a.m. to be able to leave for the airport by 4:30. Our flight out was uneventful, taking just about an hour, followed once again by lengthy immigration and customs lines. It was wonderful to get settled into our nice hotel room. We have a TV which has a couple of U.S. stations, a microwave and a refrigerator, as well as a chair and desk to work on. Watching TV is very interesting because they override the U.S. commercials and put in their own (which are very poor quality and seem to represent just a handful of sponsors). Their timing is usually a bit off so you usually see a bit of the U.S. commercial before the local ones begin and then sometimes the program has obviously started without you while the local commercials finish playing. While channel surfing we discovered one station that is just devoted to obituaries. They will play Christian-, Hindu- or Moslem-style music depending on the deceased’s affiliation and there will be a picture of the deceased along with written messages from various family members in memory of their loved one. The names of the surviving family members are then listed along with their relationship to the deceased and where they are presently living, often in other places in the Caribbean or the U.S.

After dropping off our luggage at our hotel, we headed for the Bible school to begin our work there. There is so very much work to do in the library and we realized early on that it would be impossible to actually get the details on all of the books entered into the library management system with only two weeks and five workers. Fortunately, Al has devised a way to capture just enough data to identify the books and get them entered into the system in a minimally-useable format. The details will have to be added at a later time by others. We had been told that there would be three locals for us to train, but so far only one lady showed up for a few hours. After working for three full days and two half-days we have probably documented about half the books in the library. We are finding that they are not shelved in proper order and some of our time may have to be spent getting the books shelved properly.

Dorothy, Al, Don and I have fallen into a routine that begins with a nice continental breakfast in our hotel at 7:15 each morning. They serve pineapple, papaya, watermelon and banana, along with toast, cold cereal, a tasty cheese and juice, tea and coffee. Then we wait for our driver who is supposed to pick us up at 8:00, but is nearly always late. We arrive at the library to work by 8:30 and find “Dr. Jeannie” already hard at work. We work until 10:30 when we are called into the lunch room for a snack. It’s great to have a little break before going back to work until 12:30 when they serve us a hot lunch. It generally consists of some kind of a rice dish with a small piece of chicken or fish and either a vegetable salad or cooked vegetables. They also provide some kind of juice with that meal. We usually take a short coffee break in the middle of the afternoon and have been quitting sometime between 5:00 and 6:00 depending on when the driver is available to pick us up. The Bible school is arranging for our transportation, for which we are grateful, but we can never depend on when we will be picked up, even though they give us a time each day to be ready to go. The problem is that it takes us so long to shut down, and we are so weary by quitting time, that it’s not practical just to work until the driver arrives. On Wednesday evening we sat around in the lobby waiting for over an hour,, during which time the mosquitoes decided to feast on my legs. I have about a dozen miserable bites, but I was able to buy some anti-itch cream today which is a great help. I made sure I got some repellent as well and will be using it liberally.

I think one of the reasons for the mosquito problem here is that there are drainage ditches filled with water throughout the city, one of which runs just outside the Bible school doors. This land was once under water, but was reclaimed by the Dutch who built a sea wall and a drainage system to hold back the Atlantic. The reclaimed land was originally used to raise sugar cane and that is how there came to be so many of African descent here. They came as slaves, but revolted in 1763 and gained their freedom. We saw a monument when we went sightseeing today which is a reminder of the slave revolt. There is also a very large Indian population (much like we found in Fiji). Most of the native peoples live in villages in the interior. They tell us that the entire population of Guyana is only 750,000 with about 400,000 living in the Georgetown area. There is also a significant Asian population and it seems they all run Chinese restaurants. There are probably 15 of them between our hotel and the Bible school. We decided that a change was in order from the hotel restaurant where we have been having our evening meals (it’s kind of expensive and not that good) so we asked our driver to recommend one of the Chinese restaurants and then we invited him to join us for dinner last night. It was a wonderful meal, and we enjoyed talking to him and learning more about him and his country. He actually worked in the gold fields on a claim owned by his brother-in-law for 12 years. Apparently he made a good living, but was home so little that his wife left him and went back to England (her homeland) with the children. Now he is working for the local pastor and the Bible school as a driver. He made a great tour guide when he drove us around the city this afternoon. We saw lots of beautiful government buildings, passed a couple of large outdoor markets, and I even got to have my picture taken sitting on one of the horse-drawn wagons which are not uncommon on the streets of the city. As part of our “tour” we were able to go into the largest wooden cathedral in the world. St. George’s Anglican Cathedral was completed in 1892 and had barrel ceilings, lovely stained glass and a very old pipe organ.

Because of the lengthy British colonization (replacing the Dutch), everyone speaks English, although we often have a great deal of difficulty understanding them because of their heavy accent which is similar to what you hear in the Caribbean. We have found them to be warm and friendly people, but are struggling a bit with their concept of time. For example, we found out that the driver had made arrangements to take three of the missionaries who are here temporarily teaching classes out on a sightseeing trip at 10:00 this morning. He was to return at 1:00 to take the five of us who are working in the library. At 2:30 he still had not showed up to take the first group and when he did arrive shortly thereafter he only had a 5-passenger vehicle. Then we had to wait for him to call a cab so that the two vehicles could accommodate all of the sightseers. Apparently this is a universal problem here. We understand that when our former pastor from San Diego, Dr. Richard Dresselhaus, was here teaching for a few weeks that the local pastor kept him waiting for more than two hours for an appointment one day. Those of you who know Pastor D and his concern for punctuality will understand that he was “not a happy camper”!

Tomorrow will definitely be a needed “day of rest” and we will be ready to get back to some very long work days in order to accomplish what needs to be done in the library. It is tedious work, but it will be rewarding if we can leave it in a useable state with the hope that there will be those who will complete the work and maintain it. They have installed air conditioning for us, which is a huge blessing, but we struggle with having adequate work space and dealing with very old and dusty books. Now that they can keep the windows closed (because the room is air conditioned), they may be able to remove the plastic sheeting which protects each book shelf, but makes it very hard to access the books as we are working with them. We are all definitely finding that “patience is a virtue” and it is definitely a much-needed one.

Guyana Blog 1

January 24, 2008

This is the first blog for Guyana. We left January 21st and flew to Port of Spain Trinidad. We had a 10.5 hour layover and arrived in Georgetown Guyana the morning of January 22nd. We will be working at the Guyana Bible School library. What we have been told is that there are between 5000 and 6000 books that need to be input, cataloged and organized. We will be working with Al and Dorothey Anderson from Houston Texas. Al has written the software for the library system that we use. We will also be working with Jeannie Lowell, one of the missionaries to the area. She and her husband Jim live in Springfield, MO, and travel to Guyana several times a year. They are both PhD’s and he will be teaching at a seminar while we are working with her in the library.

What we intend to do is set up a local area network with the computers in the library along with our latops we brought and then install the library software and start inputting books. At the same time we will train some locals that will maintain the library after we leave. We plan to be there for two weeks and will return on February 4th.

The first picture was taken the morning we were leaving the airport in Port of Spain. They are getting ready for Carnival in a week, so there are several huge costumed mannequins in the airport advertising the event. The other was taken just as we got off the plane in Guyana. Georgetown is about an hours drive from the airport. We were picked up at the airport by several of the people from the Bible collegeand driven to our hotel in Georgeown. It was a long and bumpy drive. Our driver hardly ever stayed in his lane. He mainly drove in the middle of the road or on the wrong side and beeped his horn often. Driving here is something else. The roads are narrow and in bad condition.

I had prepared a detailed blog and we were getting ready to add pictures when the internet went down and we lost it all. It’s getting late now, and we have to get up early in the morning, so I will try to send out another blog with more detail tomorrow night. Hopefully, this time I will have more sense and back it up so I won’t lose it!