Schooled. In a good way.

I began teaching Dani and Micah Wednesday morning. They are eight and six respectively. I’m teaching Micah first grade material and Dani is into a mix of third and forth grade work. They come trundling over to Shundel and I’s house each morning usually with Joggy (their dog) in tow. Yesterday they also brought their pet turtle Moses. But I digress. Teaching school well is loads different then doing school well. And while I could tell you lots of qualities that make a good teacher-consistency, knowledge, organizational skills, commitment to planning-knowing these qualities and living them are quite different things. It is Friday now, I’ve finished three days. It’s going relatively well despite my completely forgetting to use one of Micah’s books the first day, my flip flopping instructions, my forgetting that in first and fourth grade school still needs to be fun and listening to an “interesting” textbook is not fun. I’ve adjusted, cut down on the reading of “Streams of Civilization” and ramped up the “lets make an alphabet scroll just like the Egyptians!” I’ve started making a schedule; a “Daily Assignment” list like Mamma made for Zachri and I back when we were in first and fourth grade. I don’t know how my mother did what she did homeschooling us kids. I struggle making one days worth of an assignment sheet-she did it by the week-AND it was clear, challenging but not frustrating, AND we covered the material we needed to. School has always come pretty naturally to me; but I have also had the privilege of having good teachers. Teaching school isn’t coming naturally-but I still have had the privilege of having good teachers. Thank you to my teachers and most especially Mamma. I thank you now for the work it took to make it look seamless. I know now that it was work. I don’t know how you did taught me and made it fun at whatever level I was at.  My hope is that these kids, despite having me, will see glimpses of you my teachers and of the Master Teacher.

Arrived in Mabaruma.

Wings for Humanity eventually opted for making a special flight out on Monday to get Laura, Dani and I from Georgetown. There wasn’t going to be room with the body (which, my mistake, was actually coming from Georgetown to Mabaruma) A special flight costs them in gas, versus when they are able to bring out a medivac patient the government hospital will pay their transport costs. Currently, there isn’t lots of extra money for flights like bringing me in or transporting other non paying customers (for example THE pastor for Region 1. He is responsible for 8 churches spread over the jungle) although a Sabbath School class in Southern California gives them $500 monthly which covers about one extra flight. 

I'm smiling so you can't see my teeth chattering.

Getting into the little Cessna 182 I realized that this is truly the craziest thing I’ve ever done. Everything I had brought with me, my two suitcases, violin, computer, bible, journal, pictures, and my new kitten were packed into the plane all around and on top of me. We took off with Laura in command. Mabaruma is about an hour’s flight over the jungle from Georgetown. Greg Van Fossen flew out to get us and he and Laura chatted on the radio the whole way back while I tensed and tried not to scream into my headset every time we hit a cloud with it’s bumps. They also found that particular flight a good time to talk about emergency procedures. Since the best thing to hear flying over a remote jungle is of course a discussion of “Glide, Gas, Gab, and Get out.” It really wasn’t that bad, by the end I was able to almost enjoy it. Greg is an experienced pilot and flight instructor and Laura has been flying here in Guyana for the last five years-and hey, at least now I know they think about what to do in an emergency. Guyana from the air is pretty; very green, lots of silver glinted rivers snaking through green jungle. After about an hour of flight time we flew over the Mabaruma airstrip to check out the runway and then landed smoothly. We were greeted by a crowd of children from Hobo Hill-adjacent to the airstrip. They were mostly happy to see Dani, curious about my kitten-in-a-box, but smiled and told me their names. I showed them my violin and played “Amazing Grace”. Jud and Karen Wickwire-the parents of the third family in the Wings for Humanity Guyana trio arrived and together we unloaded the plane and loaded the taxi-it was a tight squeeze but we eventually got everyone’s stuff to the right places. I arrived at my new house in Mabaruma and met my housemate Shundel. She is medical missionary who graduated from Bethany Medical Missionary College in Bethany Guyana. Shundel spends her days visiting people and giving hydrotherapy treatments and massages and taking classes. She hopes to get into a nursing program sometime next year. I moved my stuff in and fell into bed exhausted.

Mudskippers and Other Learning Experiences

When Guyana was a Dutch colony, the Dutch, with their affinity for thwarting the natural course of water, built a sea wall to hold back the ocean. Behind the seawall they built Georgetown-about 6 ft below sea level. Georgetown still retains many of the Dutch place names (I visited Stabroek Market Friday) and, as well as the seawall, a network of canals to drain water from the city. Every road has water filled ditch beside it with a gate at the end where the water is pumped into the Atlantic ocean. By virtue of this arrangement is there is always standing water in Georgetown, wonderful breeding ground for mosquitos. Fortunately, they are not the type that carry malaria but I still don’t like getting bit up. Also, partly because of the city drain water and partly because the Essequibo and Demerara rivers have their mouths near Georgetown, the ocean is dyed brown. Laura tells me that when Micah and Dani first started coloring pictures they colored water as brown rather then blue. We walked along the seawall this Sabbath afternoon; it was quite pleasant, coastal wind and a beach that is more muddy then sandy. But they have mudskippers! Previous to today I had only seen mudskippers on National Geographic and Nature programs. They are funny looking little fish with eyes on the tops of their heads and remind me a little of crickets both in their looks and movements. At first I watched them from the seawall and thought to myself “well those look easy enough to catch” Not so. As soon as one gets close to the water these little fish high tail it out of there. Quite literally, they move by wiggling when they are on the sand but as soon as they hit the water they are able to skip across the waves on their bellies extremely quickly. I was unable to even get a decent picture. I tried sneaking up on them. I tried to cut them off from the water and then chase them up onto the beach. I even tried standing still waiting for them to make a mistake. No dice. Crazy little fish. 

My best photo of the elusive mudskipper.
If you squint there is a dot in the top left quadrant that might be one. Or maybe not. Crazy little fish.

There hasn’t been a medivac flight out yet so Laura, Dani and I have are using the time picking up supplies for the rest of the team back in Mabaruma, stocking up on food since it is a little cheaper here, and getting acquainted. The LaBores have lived here for six years now and are staying another four. They know the town, have trusted taxi drivers on speed dial, and speak Creole. I feel very fortunate to have them as tour guides as we collect everything. It is a little odd, but despite being in South America Guyanan culture has had about zero Spanish/Latino influence. People here are primarily Blacks (decedents of African slaves who worked on the sugar cane farms), East Indian (decedents of sugar cane workers who came in after Britain outlawed the slave trade), or AmerIndian (native population from who knows when) and eat curry and rice rather then rice and beans. It seems a very kind culture despite the poverty. The market vendors aren’t pushy-they post their prices for everyone (including “white-tees”, what they call us), instead of yelling “hey” or “hello” it is respectful to great someone with the appropriate “good morning”, “good afternoon”, or “good night”. Here in Georgetown they speak mostly Creole, a language I haven’t quite got an ear for understanding yet-I love listening to it though. It is a laid back language where you don’t pronounce words fully and instead of using pronouns like “her” or “him” you would just say “she” or “he”. A sentence would be something like “Dey be closed now but I dunno if dey gonna oapen bach, ya know.”, meaning “They are closed now and I’m not sure if they will open back up again.” or “We come to Georgetown to pick up she.” as Dani said to explain why she and Laura were in town. Little twists and a cool accent. I like its sound and feel. The sentences finish up regardless if there is a question or not rather then down like an English period.

Touring around the markets with Laura and Dani I’ve been seeing lots of new vegetables and fruits but I don’t remember enough of those names so I will save those explanations for a later date-maybe when I try to start cooking with them. Hopefully there will be a plane coming out tomorrow (I just hope the person who needs medivacced isn’t too hurt...it’s seems cruel to pray for a medivac), if not there is a body that needs to be flown out of the interior on Monday so we will probably get to Mabaruma then at the latest.

Arrived in Georgetown!

Dani and I at the mission house in Georgetown-about 2 blocks from Davis Memorial Hospital

After a few delayed flights but no major mishaps I landed in Guyana this morning just before 7 local time. Made it through customs no problem thanks to the help of an Adventist who works there. LaBore's had given him a heads up that I was coming and he recognized the confused look on my face and the fact that I was the only young white female around. He pointed me in the right directions and I collected my bags and met Laura, Dani, and Smokey outside with no problems. We then traveled from the airport to the mission house where I am now. So far so good! Guyana is very green, humid, but not unbearably hot. We will be here in Georgetown today running some errands. There isn't a Wings for Humanity plane here right now; Laura and Dani hitched a ride when WFH came out for a medivac so we are waiting to see if there will be one tonight or tomorrow or if someone will need to make a special trip out to pick us up tomorrow afternoon. I'm glad for the chance to rest. Time to eat something, and maybe take a nap. Dani wants to take me to Hibiscus, a craft fair/market with AmerIndian crafts this afternoon.

Where in the world?

Many thanks to Zachri Jensen for creating the snazzy map above. To be quite honest I had no idea where Guyana was when I first heard of it. I thought it was in Africa. Turns out it isn't, Guyana is in South America. It was a British and Dutch colony but gained independence in 1966. The country's official language is English which should make my trip and stay a little easier. Next Tuesday (September 20) I will start my trip to Mabaruma. I will fly from Sacramento to Portland, from Portland to Seattle, Seattle to New York, and arrive in Georgetown (Guyana's capital) Thursday morning. I plan to meet Laura LaBore at the airport and will complete the rest of my journey to Mabaruma on the mission plane.