We had lots of sunshine the first week we were here, but now we are experiencing quite a bit of rain.  Well May and June is rainy season here in Guyana.  The heaviest rain seems to fall and night and early morning.  It has been clearing up for the afternoons though.

So there is no garbage pickup in our town, although some of the bigger cities do have regular pickup.  So we were wondering what we had to do with all our garbage.  Well we had to burn it!  Yes, we are experiencing lots of "firsts" here.

Sorry friends!  It's been a while since we updated.  We have so much to tell you.  We'll go back a few days and fill you in.

We started 2 bible studies today.  One was with a really nice man affectionately known as "Buddy".  His religious background in Muslim but he knows the bible quite well.  He reasons very well and is very sincere and kind.  He also has a great sense of humour!  Sadly his son was murdered a few years back.  It was wonderful to be able to share the resurrection hope with him and to let him know that he can be reunited with his son right here on a cleansed earth.

Yep, we skipped a day.  Yesterday we spent the day with Troy's family and took a drive to the edge of Guyana, where we could see Suriname across the river.  We are going to share our experiences from the past few days in pictures, so check out the "picture this" section.  We'll be back to share our ministry experiences later in the week.  Take care friends, we love you all!  STAY WARM!  LOL!

The friends pictured here are need-greaters from England.  The couple on my left are Chris and Fern.  What a wonderful example. This couple was working full time back home.  After having a opportunity to see another couple's video from their preaching trip to South America, they decided it was what they wanted to do. So after saving and planning for 2 years, they moved to Guyana!  They have been here for (correction: 5 months) and are now both regular pioneering!  They gave us lots of encouragment and we are so happy to see how Jehovah has blessing their willing spirit.  The sister to my right is Abigail. She is originally from Guyana but moved away for several years.  She is back and after trying her hand at Chinese for several years she is now happily serving in the Rosignol congregation.  She is the only one in her family serving Jehovah.  After receiving a bible for her birthday as a young girl, she searched for the truth.  It wasn't until after she finished school and started working that she finally got her questions answered from her JW co-worker.  The co-worker directed her to a local sister who started a bible study with her and the rest is history!  Another excellent example of a single sister using her energy to the full in service our awesome God!!

So remember the PLAGUE we spoke about previously?  Well apparently we hadn't seen the HALF of it yet.  So it normally starts around 6:00 or 6:30 in the evening.  We were having a wonderful dinner with some of the brothers in the hall (more on that later) when we thought we heard rain.  It didn't take long for us to realize it was the bettles that were back...but this was an INVASION!  They are attracted to light so they were buzzing all over the house, disrupting our wonderful pizza dinner (homemade and fantastic).  But when we retreated to the living room we got some relief as we had no direct light there.  So now, when it came time to leave, have a look at the attached picture to see what the roads looked like!!  You see it literally blanketed the earth beneath our feet!  And they smell HORRIBLE!  This happens only every few years and to our absolute delight (sarcasm, what sarcasm??) it is happening only in our village!  Wow, well we are truly having an opportunity to experience many things and we are being helped to cope with the more challenging parts with Jah's help!

So we had another wonderful morning in the ministry!  I think we actually spoke to EVERY person we got and also have a return visits from each call.  This is a pioneer's paradise!  The illiteracy rate is quite high here, so we have to use discretion when leaving publications for the householders to read, but all are eager to converse and readily answer questions so it truly is a delight.  My stomach issues persist, but I wasn't letting it stop me today :)  Check out the pic of our morning service group.  The young sister I enjoyed working with just became a publisher and it was only her 3rd time out in the ministy.

Unfortunately I was sick today and was stuck in bed at home so I missed all the fun in the ministry.  :(  Troy went out though and had a marvelous time!
...I guess it would make sense for me to pick up from here.  First of all, allow me please to send you all loving greetings.  As Tracy mentioned, we are so happy to be here and experiencing this amazing "adventure".  Each day brings new challenges and wonderful experiences.  Allow me to share one with you:  Much of our territory is reached by walking.  It takes a while to get to some areas, so as we walk we preach.  As we were heading to a RV, I approached a man and offered him a tract.  He looked at the tract and said "Is that it? Ya don't got a book or some-ting to lef meh?"  Apparently he enjoyed reading our publications.  I had a BT book but didn't want to leave it since they are like gold and reserved only for those willing to start a study.  I pulled out a brochure to give him and an amazing conversation ensued.  About 10 minutes into the conversation, he said "let meh show ya wha book I reading."  He then proceeded to go and pull out the Isaiah book, volume 1.  I was quite shocked.  He had many points underlined and written thoughts in the corners that caught his attention.  He was well studied and expressed how he loved our publications.  I offered him a study (although it was his place of work) and he accepted and gave me his schedule.  I return on Monday to start the study. We look forward to the next few weeks of service.  Jehovah is LOVING and KIND!  Also, we wanted to thank you all for your comments and words of encouragement.  We miss you all.
TNT

Well it seems like blackouts are going to be a daily occurrence.  Apparently it's all politics.  So opportunities to use the internet cafe will be limited.  Today it started at around 9 am and the electricity didn't come back on until about 10 hours later.  In the morning we did housecleaning, washed by hand (no electricity for washer) and cooked (had to use the food in the fridge before it spoiled, but fortunately we have a gas stove). Troy stayed home in the afternoon to finish his meeting prep and I joined another need-greater sister on her study.  First time on the mini bus today.  Little scary since they drive quite fast and people are all packed in.  All our other missionary and need-greater friends will totally understand...  We made it safely there and back.  The meeting was in the evening.  It's at 5:30 pm.  The congregation is very warm and friendly and everyone came up and introduced themselves and welcomed us.  They were sad our visit was going to be so short.  We found that many were soft spoken but when it came time to sing they surely didn't hold back! What an excellent example for the congregations back home!  Troy did the congregation bible study, the Theocratic ministry school and a part in the service meeting.  He was actually scheduled to do bible highlights as well but they made a last minute change since they thought it was a bit too much to give the new guy!  Thanks to Jehovah his parts went well and I survived the "plague".  What plague you ask?  Since we arrived in Rosignol we have seen thousands of beetles (mostly dead on the roadside).  But at the meeting, because of the open air windows and the doors being open, they were coming in and literally falling from the ceiling!  One landed in my bag but fortunately not on me!  LOL!  Bug bite count at 4 today.

First day in the ministry today.  Awesome!  People are willing to spend at least a few minutes to speak with us and they all respect the bible.  Religious backgrounds vary - we met Muslims, Hindus and Pentecostals.  There are many different churches, temples and mosques in the communities.  Between Troy and I we already have 6 people to return to next week and we started 1 new bible study! And that was just from the morning!  Afternoons are usually spent doing RVs and bible studies and the friends were kind to include us on some of theirs. The students were all ready and waiting when we arrived so it is nice to see they keep their appointments and are very eager to learn more about the bible!  The houses here are generally built on stilts so most have a wonderful shaded area under the house where we can sit and talk comfortably.  Most have hammocks too where people relax and nap in the afternoons.  The cutest part of the ministry is how you get a homeowner's attention.  The houses are all gated and many have dogs so you don't just walk in.  You call out "inside" and that causes the people inside the house to come to the door or window to see who is there.  Looking forward to sharing in the ministry pretty well every day while we are here.  Another blackout today.  This one lasted several hours. Bug bite count at 10 today, plus I got bitten by red ants (fire ants) and yes, it burns when they bite!  SCARY spider in the house tonight.  Biggest spider we have ever seen. Lots of prayer to help me to get to sleep!  Oh and there was a random horse tied up in our yard today. No idea who it belongs to...
TNT

Today was a relaxed day.  We unpacked, did some groceries, hit the internet cafe and basically just got organized at the house.  Trying to get used to the Guyanese money.  1 CDN/USD = 200 Guyanese dollars.  Our groceries came to $4,670!  But that's only $23.35 our money.  Today we had to use the backup water tanks as the city water doesn't always flow continuously during the day.  Family worship later and meeting prep.  Bug bite count at 1 today.  (BTW - attached is a picture of where we are staying.  It belongs to a sister living in England and she rents it out to brothers and sisters staying in Rosignol.)
TNT

After dealing with some car trouble, we headed out Rosignol Village.  Troy's mother and aunt dropped us off.  We visited serveral family members along the way.  Saw where Troy's mom and aunt grew up and went to school.  Just as we stopped by one of the local Kingdom Halls, we ran into brother Lampley, from the Rosignol congregation where we will be assisting.  Brother Lampley works selling icee drinks.  It was my first time having one.  It is fruit juice/syrup poured over hand crushed ice and topped with condensed milk.  Delicious!  (To our Tamil friends, you would love this drink)  We finally reached the house where we will be staying around 4 pm.  Brother Lampley's daughter Roxanne was kind enough to meet us there to get us familiarized with the place and to show us how to get to the Kingdom Hall and the market.  Both are walking distance away.  We said goodbye to Troy's family as they had to head back to Georgetown and settled in for the evening.  Shortly thereafter we experienced our first blackout.  But we were prepared as the need-greater couple and missionary couple we made friends with while planning for this trip had told us about the kinds of things to expect and what to bring.  So out came the flashlights, but off went the fans and it was HOT!  It gets dark by 6:30 and the mosquitos are abundant so we couldn't sit outside.  We bathed to cool off and were praying that we could at least get a little sleep in the heat and wouldn't you know it, before we finished praying the lights came back on!  Wow talk about a quick answer to our prayer!  The blackout lasted about an hour.  Well the bug bite count today was 4.  The repellant and mosquito nets are very effective.  We will see how it goes once we start walking everywhere, especially in service.  Oh and we only had to escort one small frog from the house today.
TNT

First impressions of Guyana:
Tropical, so the heat was anticipated.  The breeze is "delicious"!  Very lush with beautiful trees and flowers.  There are many good sized houses with very pretty architechture.  Lots of "squatter" dwellings too.  Very common to share the road with cows, dogs, goats and donkeys.  Driving is on the left and driving rules are taken as optional.  For example, seatbelts are often cut off in the back seat and people are crammed into vehicles.  Saw a family of cows taking a stroll through the neighbourhood like they were just out for their evening walk...funny since it was in a city neighbourhood.  The fruit is amazing of course, and very sweet.  Have enjoyed fish curry and chicken curry that family prepared for us.  People here have the same "island" mentality as in the Caribbean.  People are polite and laid back. Everyone knows each other and/or are related.  Can't wait to get into the ministry!
TNT