The Christmas bed

It's the raining season, again? Where is your first clue?

It is that time of year when we have to wear our boots when we walk and visit families. Sister Radica, our Relief Society President, is our guide.

There is an area in our branch where all the houses are surrounded by water and the only way you can walk from house to house is to walk a network of long skinny boards that have just been collected from anywhere. Some places there are no boards and you just have to step down into the water, unsure of how deep it is. I have been wanting to take Elder Bullock visiting with us into this area so he could see just what it was like.

The three of us carefully walked the boards and when we had to step into the water it was nearly to the tops of our knee boots. Elder Bullock kept warning me to be careful and not to do anything clumsy...like fall.

Whoops! Somebody stepped on a board that split and ended up flat on his back in the muddy swampy water. Guess who?

We still had several families left to visit so we just kept on going, despite the fact that one of us was a soaking wet muddy mess. We walked from house to house visiting until it was dark, laughing with each family as we showed them what Elder Bullock had done to himself.

The next day I had to take lunch to Jade, who was sick. Elder Bullock dropped me off and waited in the car while I made my way to her house...wearing my boots!

When I had walked part way down the road I turned to take a photo of where he was parked.

Can you see him waiting in his car?

Here is how the road looked as I turned and proceeded ahead. It was too muddy to take the car in and it will get much worse as it continues to rain. Past the truck I had to take a left turn and follow a path through several homes. Here's what the path looked like.

First, I had to cross the trench by way of this board. (Where did that ugly green stripe come from?)

The path continued. Good thing I was wearing my boots, right? Do you still see the path?

I even had to climb over two makeshift fences, twice...once coming and a second time going. This was one of them. The lunch was delivered and when I made it back to where Elder Bullock was waiting in the car, he asked, "So, what took you so long?"

Well, the rain has gotten worse and worse. It seems to come down by bucketfuls rather than drop by drop.

When Elder Webb, who taught and baptized our special friends, Jade and Travis, asked us to buy them a Christmas gift... from him, we immediately knew what we wanted to buy for them...a bed! They have slept on a piece of foam on the floor of their small wooden house since they were married.

(Here is a cute photo of Travis and Jade with little Travis a few months ago.)

The first challenge was to get the bed made and the second was to find a way to deliver such a large item through the mud and rain to their small house.

Our good friend, BJ, is a cane cutter who works at carpentry in his spare time.

He and his wife, Asha, are standing in front of the home he built for his family. The house has a small grocery shop attached on the front of the house that Asha runs.

He has built lots of chicken coops in his side yard where he raises chickens that he slaughters and sells. We asked him to build the bed for Travis and Jade.

Three days later it was complete and ready to be picked up. Who is the silly guy who introducing us to the bed? Notice everyone is wearing boots. Does that give you an idea of where they are expecting to have to walk with the bed?

The elders loaded it onto Elder Larsen's pickup truck.

We drove together in the truck down one of the main dirt roads into Cow Dam towards Travis and Jade's house. We expected the elders would have to carry the bed the last stretch of path (about a short block in distance) trudging through the mud with trenches on both sides of the path.

Suddenly, Elder Larsen asked, "Do you want me to take the truck right to their house?" We all shuddered a bit at the thought because the path did not seem wide enough for the truck. And, let me tell you, there is a trench on either side of the path....

One of them is the deep alligator trench I fell in several months ago. Surely you remember, Elder Webb! Yes, I remember so well how hard you laughed at me as you tugged and tugged in your efforts to pull me out of the muddy water!

The grassy areas on the sides of the path look harmless but they are the trenches! The truck glided and slid down the path and pulled up right in front of their home.

We were lucky it was a sunny day...the last one I remember. They unloaded the bed...

Carried it across the bridge...

Through the front yard...

Through the front door...

Through the living room passing Granny and the small kitchen area. The bedroom door was on Granny's right.

Passing the kitchen sink that is set outside the only window in the front room...

Here's a closer look at their little kitchen... The kerosene burner they cook on is green with a pot sitting on top of it.

The bed was finally in place and I couldn't stand far enough from it to get the whole bed in the picture.

Elder Larsen, bravely backed up his truck across the neighbor's bridge. (Notice, again, the deep alligator trench right in front of the truck.) If the truck had lurched forward...gasp! Well, he didn't and off we drove for home, with our mission accomplished. Later, that day we purchased and delivered a new mattress to Travis at work. Mattresses here are lightweight and it was rolled up and tied so he was able to carry it home.

Here's Jade with little "bump", her unborn baby.

The bed was a complete surprise to Jade. Jade was at the medical clinic when we delivered the bed. Granny had to unlock their empty house so we could carry the bed inside.

I would have loved to have seen the surprise and excitement when she arrived home and walked in their bedroom and discovered their new bed.

To say the least, they were thrilled and immediately wanted to write and thank Elder Webb and his family.

Here's a little note from Travis and Jade and little Travis and "bump" (the baby to be) to Elder Webb: "We love you. We thank you for the wonderful surprise. The gospel has blessed our lives. I remember you telling us to strengthen our faith and we have! And we will keep strenghtening it. We will continue to share the gospel and to be married in the temple. We thank you so much for your time and effort on your mission letting us know about the true church of Jesus Christ. Things have changed so much for us. We are so grateful for the Bullocks because they help us keep our faith strong. We miss you and we will continue to pray, read our scriptures, keep the Sabbath day holy, obey the commandments and do the things that are necessary. We thank you so much, Elder Webb. We love you, your girlfriends and your family. Merry Christmas and a joyful new year. Say hi to your friends in England." Bye Bye

Here is what New Amsterdam looks like today after raining solid for a week.

This is my friend, Jackie's, house. She lives in the downstairs with her husband and three sons. Her son is waving at us. The water flowed right through their house. As they sat on their beds, they felt like they were sitting in boats because the water was surrounding them.

Many of the streets look more like rivers than streets.

How do you suppose the mom will get her clothes off the line? Some of my friends that have to cook outside are standing in the water to cook their meals.

This is supposed to be a street, not a lake, in front of this house.


Elder Green is standing on a street in water that is almost to the top of his boots.

I think we got the bed delivered just in time!