A box of clothes

One Sunday after church, we went visiting with a bag loaded with little dresses sent to me in a box from my good friend, Carol, who lives in the US.

The little dolly in pink was the first to have her choice of the dresses. She chose this pink one and two others. I was hoping she would choose the pink one because she looks so cute wearing it.

She is standing with her 2 brothers 6 and 7, 12 year old sister, and mommy. They are the Apple family.

We saw the family married and baptized in the sea when we first arrived in Guyana. Do you remember these pictures?

The dad was a little embarrassed when I told him we had something for him, too, as I held up some nice new underwear. He took them but didn't wish to model them in front of my camera! This family is one of the few families lucky enough to have their dad living with them.

The 6 of them live together in the little yellow house. They do their cooking outside. The dad hopes to build a new house with lumber he has collected from a house that was torn down.

Here is their neighbor, wearing just a pair of undies, which isn't uncommon, especially for boys.

Here's another neighbor. As we walked passed this house, we called to the young elders who were inside getting a baptismal record signed for someone that had been baptized the day before.

As we got in our car to leave, these children approached us to show off today's "catch", which was a bucket full of little fish. I asked them to each hold one up for my photo. They didn't need coaxing. Check out those proud grins!

A second visit was to Tasha's family of 9. One of the little boys was a cousin.

These are just the boys. The little guy in the blue plaid pants has long dark curls and we keep thinking he is one of the girls. They seem to wear whatever they can find...even if it is pink!

Here is the family all together. Tasha, the mother, is one of my special friends. She is a primary teacher and the whole family was baptized within the last year. They are sitting on a bench under their house. Notice the dirt floor. That is where the family hangs out together.

She does all her cooking, dishwashing and clothes washing outside in an area just to the right of where they are seated. How many of you like to go camping? They live like they are camping every day of the year.

And here are the two precious little girls, each wearing a dress we had brought for them. We had enough dresses for the older one to pick one and for the little girl to pick 3.

They are standing in front of the stairs that lead up to the house where there is one bedroom with 2 large beds where they all sleep and a living room with a couch.

Notice the big boy is holding three size 4 underwears we had brought for the little boy with long hair who is hiding behind on the step. The next time we visited them, this big boy and his other two big brothers were each wearing a pair of them. Most people here aren't very chubby!

Now I have to show you something amazing that Tasha made for us:

Can you imagine her embroidering this pillowcase while she waited for her food to cook on an open fire?

Can you imagine her keeping this clean as she sewed while her children played on the dirt floor?

And here is some of the callaloo and corila that she grows and shared with us. Callaloo tastes like spinach and I love it.

Now I'll show you a couple of photos I took while out visiting with the Relief Society sisters. Can you tell that Samantha's baby is due any minute? She is hoping for a girl after having 3 boys. They have a hospital here in town but I sure wouldn't want to have a baby there. You have to bring your own sheets, pillow, food, toilet paper, etc.

In this photo, Samantha's husband, Amir (wearing the Tommy Hilfiger shirt), had just driven his family up and parked his red car in the middle of the dirt road in front of their house.

Instantly, his two buddies appeared carrying this odd-shaped board and a set of dominoes. The 3 chairs appeared, seemingly from nowhere, and the board was quickly placed "just so" on their laps barely in time for them to begin to play dominoes. Would this be what we consider a "stress reliever"?

It was a hot afternoon and these little kids had just come bursting out of their school. Is it a club meeting they are holding as they sit on the cab of one of the many old abandoned cars?