Where we hang our hat

Looking down our street, our place is the first house on the left. Here's our neighbor, Sister Larsen from Parowan, who lives upstairs with Elder Larsen.

And here's where we live. We have two front doors, one on each side of Elder Bullock

Here's the cute house that is just a couple of houses down the street. Notice the little blue outhouse on the right.

Here's the house that is directly across from us. Somehow they are going to lift this little house up and build a story under the one you see.

And here's where we do our cooking and sterilizing of all the dishes we use.

The view from one side of our living room. Elder Bullock is in his favorite pose!

The living room from the other side. The mission just bought us this nice desk and bookcase. We are feeling like we're living kind of rich.

This is our cold shower. Mostly we use a bowl to pour the cold water over us after we have soaped down. Sometimes, the cold water makes me really shudder!

These are my things.

These are Elder Bullock's things. Notice BYU still has it's proper place!

Here's our bedroom with it's mosquito net over the bed. I get tangled in it everytime I try to get in or out of bed.

Shhh, Elder Bullock is sleeping!

Needing Rubber Boots

Dad is asleep in the chair near me in the living room. His chin is on his chest. The fan is blowing and it feels great as I type. It is 10 pm. We’re both tired and a little sunburned. We had several errands to do today, and rather than drive through town, dodging cows, dogs, people, wild drivers and huge potholes full of water in the roads, we preferred to walk our errands. It was very overcast and we forgot we might get sunburned. One of our errands was to buy me a pair of rubber wading boots to the knees. Dad had already inherited a pair and we wondered why we might need them. Last night we discovered why. We also bought 3 folding chairs, a few groceries, including a bunch of canned goods and fresh fruits and veggies from the fruit stand, and carried everything home. We were gone for hours and our arms were aching by the time we carried it all home.
Here is one of the places we walked by as we did our errands today. Check out that nasty guard dog!

Then, we rushed over to the chapel where we had planned an activity of games for the youth. We played the “running for the 3 chairs” game and the one where two teams compete to build something like a flower using everyone’s bodies. They squealed and seemed to have a great time, especially the 2 branch presidents. There were about 30 there, including about 17 youth and the 4 elders. I was a little worried about the chair game because I had been warned that many people don’t read and they might get embarrassed. One of the Branch Presidents can’t read and the wife of the District President can’t read. Here in Guyana, if a child can’t afford to buy a uniform, they can’t go to school. There are many very poor people here, so there must be many that don’t go to school.

The coast of Guyana, where all the villages are, including New Amsterdam, is under sea level. It is like New Orleans. That is why there are trenches and water everywhere. There is no shortage of water around here. It is one big swamp in most places. It covers the parking lot of the Post Office and there are little bridges from the roads to each person’s house. The trenches are nasty looking. There is lots of trash in them and the water looks very brown and dirty. All the rivers and the ocean are very brown. Here are some typical houses in the poor areas. Most are on stilts. I took them today when noone was watching.

The neighborhoods where the elders spend most of their time, where many of the members live, are very poor. The paths through these areas are made of dirt and when it rains, the dirt turns to squishy mud. Sometimes there is a line of boards to walk on, but not always. Then, of course there are the trenches everywhere on the sides of the paths. So, mud, water, and potholes full of water are a big factor. You watch every step as you walk. Behind some of the houses, there is a place where the elders claim there are alligators. They want to go on an alligator hunt.

Last night, the District President planned an activity and invited the branch members, including us, to meet at one of the trench bridges at 4 pm and his plan was that we would break up into small groups and visit the inactives. We were to just tell them we miss them, we love them, and we would love to have them come back to church. One of those we visited was the new Branch President that was just called 3 weeks ago after being a member for 2 ½ months. He had been offended last week and wasn’t going to return.

The group dad and I were assigned to consisted of one elder, the district president and the 2 of us. The district president led the way, and when we got to the path he wanted to take, I looked down it and all I could see was squishy mud. The elder and the president were wearing rubber boots to their knees with their dress pants tucked in. Of course, dad and I weren’t as prepared. I had on my new sandals and dad his new black missionary shoes. The district president looked at us and said, “Oh, I think we’ll be ok.” Well, I trudged on forward and immediately the mud squished up between my toes and squished and squished some more with each step. I just kept moving and thinking, “I’ve got another pair of sandals for Burt to de-mud tonight”. I took a photo just before we arted down this path. The elder is looking back at me as if to say, “Come on in, the water’s fine!”

As we walked, we saw some of the most incredibly poor living conditions I had ever seen. I was wishing I could take out my camera and just snap away at all of the shacks…but I just couldn’t. I would have felt like a complete jerk if I had. So, you’ll just have to imagine with me as I try to help you envision it.

Each of the two homes we visited were “guarded” by a host of 3-4 mangy dogs. When we walked to the front doors, the children would have to hold on to all the dogs so they wouldn’t…well, you know what…bite us! Gingerly I would walk by them thinking all the while, “Oh please don’t bite me. I know you probably have rabies.” Then, we’d leave our muddy boots/sandals/shoes at the bottom of the stairs. As I walked inside, I looked down at the wet mud still oozing between my toes.

The second home was that of Pres. Lewis, the new branch president who had been offended and wanted to quit. We sat there and talked with him in his tiny humble home with 2 of his 4 children and his wife. He very sweetly agreed to come back to church while the others just listened silently. As we sat in the tiny living room, I noticed that there was one area of the square home that had sheets hanging to serve as two walls to form a bedroom. I wondered, “Do they all sleep in this little bedroom together?” The only other area of the home was the living room.

As to bathroom facilities, the elders said there was a toilet right by the front door with a bucket or some kind of container under it to “catch” everything that would later be dumped outside. I didn’t notice it.

As we talked, darkness enveloped the room. No lights ever came on. I wondered if there were any.

We left their home , walking through the pitch darkness and their muddy walkway that led from their home to the main muddy path. Suddenly, I noticed two little naked boys about 7 or 8 running towards me and their house. Then, I noticed an outside wash tub and realized they must be taking their evening bath and were darting back inside their home now that we were leaving.

I was glad I had my flashlight as we weaved our way back through the sloppy mud to the bridge where we all met. The group was all waiting for us. We had a prayer to end our over-24 hours of group fasting, and we all separated to walk on to our homes. As I slipped my dirty feet out of my muddy sandals outside my front door, I thought, “Tomorrow, I’m buying me some boots!”

As I pondered what little these people had and how fine the line is between when they have barely enough to eat and survive and when something occurs in their life and they don’t, I felt guilty. Why did I have so much and they have so little. “Why does prosperity have to be so unevenly distributed?”, I wondered. Am I happier because I have more? Does the Lord expect more of me because of what I have? How can I help?

Later, the elders told me that Travis had been out of work for 2 weeks because of a cane cutters strike and that he and his 17 year old wife, Jade, have no food. Travis and Jade are the new members where we have the heavenly family home evening. They had gone fishing in the trench in front of their home yesterday and caught 3 tiny fish about 4-5 inches long and had eaten them for dinner. I cringed thinking of the garbage in the trenches.

So, tonight when I went to the activity, I took a bag of rice and gave it to her. She said to me, “We had to pay all our money for the rent and we had no money to buy food. I have been praying all day that somehow we would have food to eat.” So, after the activity, dad and I gave the elders more food to take by her house. I couldn’t imagine what I would do if I just had no food to eat and no way to get some. I have been panicky since being in Guyana about starving here and I have a cupboard full of food. How silly I am!

Dancing Through The Rain

Dancing Through The Rain…with my best boyfriend!

We had the wildest, wettest, funnest day today. We live next to a large brown river the size of the Mississippi, the Berbice River. There is a ferry that crosses back and forth all day long. It takes about 25-30 minutes to make the crossing, but it has no schedule so you just go to the ferry and wait. Usually, you don’t have to wait for more than an hour, but…..if you are wanting to take your car on the ferry, you will have to wait anywhere from 3-7 hours, depending on how many cars and trucks are in front of you in the line. Trucks have first precedent.

The ferry is very old and twice in the past little while it has “gotten loose” and headed towards the floating bridge they are building across the river not far downstream. The ferry has hit the bridge both times, damaging it and setting back the schedule of when the bridge will be finished.

This is the view from the ferry as you land on the other side of the Bervice River.

We have 4 elders who live across this river who are part of our zone of 16 elders. The senior couple upstairs and we are in charge of looking out for these elders, paying their rents, checking on their apartments, finding them a new apartment when needed, visiting their District Meetings, etc. We are getting 4 more elders added to our zone next week. We were assigned to find another apartment for 2 of the new elders who will be living in a village across this river.

Dad and I agreed to go look at the apartment once more that we had viewed last week to make sure we could find a spot for a washer, hook up the water filter system at the kitchen sink and fit 2 beds in the living room. Elders have to sleep in separate beds but in the same room and the living room was the only room that might hold both double-sized beds.

Dad adamantly said, “We are not taking the car on that ferry!” There was no discussion about that and I fully agreed. There is only one main road that connects all the towns. There are taxi buses that are on the other side of the ferry that will take you wherever. There are no addresses so you just have to look for landmarks to remember where any place to where you want to return .

We met the elders just as we got off the ferry and they insisted that a man in their branch, Samaroo, knew a perfect place that was new and much better than the apartment we had found. So we decided to track it down and look at it before we committed ourselves to our find. They said we just had to tell the bus driver to take us to village #30 (apparently the villages are numbered but we never saw any numbers displayed) to the 7th Day Adventist Church and then take a right and a left and we’d see the longest wooden plank bridge we’d ever seen over the swamp to the front door of a house and we would know that that would be Samaroo’s house. We drove 30 minutes before the bus driver finally said, “We’re here.”

Everything went fine except the rain. The taxi driver happened to know Samaroo and took us right to his house and let us out. By this time we were fairly wet because it had been raining all morning. But now it was a downpour. We had two houses to visit, Samaroo’s and his mother’s across the street. The one board wide bridge that extended across the swamp to Samaroo’s was longer than I could ever imagine. I just kept imagining myself if I lived in that house as a young mother carrying my baby with me on that wild adventure of walking to and from the front door every time I wanted to leave the house.

I counted the steps as I walked and there were 103 of them. And, oh dear, it was elevated up about 3 feet above the swamp and those planks had been there a long time. There was just a very small wobbly railing along most of one side. If you fell, you’d fall in the swamp. I looked for alligators but didn’t see any signs of one. It was a real experience to traverse those boards. Some of them were barely tacked down and bounced up and down as we stepped along them. I was so disappointed I didn’t have my camera with me. But I found someone who had some photos of the "bridge to Samaroo's house".

The trip to Samaroo’s house was a wild goose chase but I loved it. By the time we caught the next taxi bus back toward the apt. we had originally set out to rent, the panty girdle I was wearing and the money in dad’s wallet were soaked. When the 2nd taxi let us out, we had 6 more blocks to walk to the apt…and back…all of this through this wild rainstorm. We had one small umbrella with us and the wind was blowing so the umbrella was of no use most of the time. We made all the arrangements to rent Auntie Baby’s apartment for the elders and made our way through the storm back the 6 blocks to the main street to hail another taxi bus back to the ferry.

By the time we made it back to the ferry, rode it back to New Amsterdam, and then walked the 1 ½ miles to our apt. there wasn’t one part of us that was dry. We had been gone 7 wet hours, and no, there hadn’t been anything for us to eat until we made it back home. But, I kept telling dad, “That was the funnest day. I just loved being with you all day in the rain!”

Baptisms in the Sea

Beautiful baptisms in the sea at Rosignol, Guyana – March 8, 2008

It was Saturday am and I was just so tired, I was wishing we could go home and sleep because I had been awake several hours during the previous night that we had spent in Georgetown. But... we had promised the 4 elders in Rosignol we’d come to the wedding, baptisms and activity they had planned for Saturday. And I hated to let down the elders. We found them in their apartment, and knelt together with them for prayer before we all left together for the chapel. One of them threw me a rubber flip flop to kneel on and I noticed each elder had one to cushion their knee against the hard tile floor as we prayed. Why hadn't I thought of this before?

The minute we entered the Rosignol chapel doors, my sleepiness vanished and I knew we were in for a very special day. I noticed an Amerindian couple, seated off in the far corner of the hall facing a small table. A little girl cuddled with the woman as she and her partner talked seriously with the man seated across the table from them. I guessed that this was the wedding and it was already quietly in progress. The man across from them would be the protestant minister, who had been hired by the elders for $25, to perform the wedding. Apparently, he earns this marriage fee regularly from the weddings he performs for those wanting to be baptized. The elders generally pay the fee from their own allotment of money. The mother and daughter were dressed in new pink satin dresses and the father was all dressed up in a suit and bowtie. There was no audience, no fanfare, no wedding cake or other signs of celebration. Their wedding celebration would be held later that day when they would be able to be baptized into God’s true church.
The group for the baptism were gathering at the chapel and I found a spot in the middle of them. There are just so many children in the church, many without their parents.

Meanwhile, a group of young boys played an exuberant and noisy game of dominoes on a table in another corner of the same room. I loved watching them slam the dominoes down when it was their turn. I can hardly wait to slam my dominoes the next time I play! On a third table was a large stack of mud stained, very off-white baptism jumpsuits waiting to be put to good use. When the wedding ended, I rushed over to hug the mother, and to be introduced to her family, which included a total of four children. The oldest daughter was also dressed in a beautiful new pink satin dress and there was happiness in everyone’s eyes. I snapped their family picture and they looked beautiful and radiant. All of those who were to be baptized had come dressed to the church in their very best clothes. When all were accounted for, the 4 elders, dressed in their mud-stained baptism clothes, began doling out the baptism suits to those who were going to be baptized that day…all except one little girl. She would have to share some else’s wet jumpsuit . There were only 8 jumpsuits but there were to be 9 baptisms.

When all were dressed in their baptism clothing, the elders called for a taxi bus. We all crammed in the bus and we began our ride to the muddy waters at the Guyana beach. Three carloads later, we were all there. A delay occurred before the baptisms could begin. Three of the children didn’t know their last name. These were the 3 that didn't know their last name. The little girl is their little sister. The elders ran to find their parents so they would have their complete names for the records.

Here you see the 4 elders with the nine to be baptized. The little girl with the green sash and white dress will later change into one of the wet jumpsuits in the bushes so she can be baptized, too. Here is the rest of our group all ready for the service. Notice the handsome man with the white hair in the middle of them. He's my companion!

The service finally began as the tide was quickly rising. We sang a quick song, a prayer was given and I began my short talk on baptism. As the waves lapped at my feet, I realized I’d better talk fast or we’d all be standing in the surf. The talk on the Holy Ghost was short, also, and soon the group, 4 elders plus 8 to be baptized, began its way through the cool chocolate tide until they found a spot deep enough to immerse everyone completely. They formed a circle in the sea and I watched as the elders took each person one by one and baptized them in the muddy seawater. Parts of three families were baptized that day, including two sets of 3 siblings and the newly-wedded parents with their 13 year old daughter. They all looked pretty muddy and bedraggled as they walked back from the sea. Who threw that elder a football?

Their spiffy Sunday-go-to-meeting look was gone, but as dirty as they looked on the outside, I knew they were sparkling clean on the inside. In fact, they were probably cleaner than they would ever be again, all through the ordinance of their baptism. I wondered how they felt inside. Could they even imagine a small portion of what joy and happiness lay ahead of them if they will only stay true to the covenants they had made this day.

I hugged and kissed the little girls and boys and told them how much Heavenly Father loved them and how proud He was of them. I was proud of them, too. They were all very quiet and subdued after their baptisms and I sensed that they knew and felt that something of great value had just happened in their lives. Aren't they darling. These are the 3 that didn't know their name with their little sister. The older girl is the one I helped change in the bushes. They almost didn't get to be baptized because they didn't know their names. They were so sweet. I just kissed them all.
How about this little girl? Isn't she just a doll? I just kept taking her photo until she finally smiled at me. She was part of our group.

I remember my baptism. It surely was different…in a lovely clean font in a beautiful chapel in Los Angeles with warm, clean water. But, I knew my baptism had no more merit than theirs that had taken place in the cool, brown waters of the sea at Guyana.

How thankful and privileged I felt to be able to attend that special baptism day. “Please invite us again”, we begged the elders. The elders kept asking us, “Was everything ok?” “Did we do it all right?” Dad gave them each a big hug and we reassured them what a great job they had done. I was wishing I could hug them, too.

Four precious angel elders had made this beautiful day possible and blessed the lives of these 9 new members. How thrilled I was that we had been there to witness it! Later that day, we learned that in our zone a total of 23 had been baptized and 22 the week before.

Driving to Thanksgiving Service

All of the following photos were taken as we drove to a special Thanksgiving service that was held in this area of our town, New Amsterdam. We were invited by the District President to come to the service about 2 hours before it began. All the roads in this neighborhood are dirt and there are some really big holes that were tough to negotiate, even with our missionary truck. It was dad's first experience driving in a dirt road neighborhood and having to drive on the left side of the road, like England.

Here come the cows at the end of the road. Zero in closer to see them. We passed pigs and horses just all on the loose with no one making sure they didn't run away.

Notice Porky is outside the fence, not inside. But of course, the animals here are as free as the people.

Every street in this town has a trench on both sides of the road, so a bridge (or board) has to extend to each house. This is one of the bigger trenches.

More trenches.

Here's where we had the "Thanksgiving Service". Dad was asked to speak by the District President as we arrived. 65 attended and 2/3 were nonmembers. We didn't know why they were holding the service but dad did a great job of speaking about trusting in the Lord.

After the program, each were given a drink, a small paper sack with sweet breads and garbanzo beans in it and a full chicken meal in the black plastic bag.

This photo is of me looking into my little brown sack of garbanzo beans. I already ate the 2 slices of cake on top of the beans. Notice the wrapped candies, too. Those bottom things are some type of dumpling. I never made it that far into the sack!

Every day is full of surprises. Tomorrow we have to teach a fireside. I guess I'll sign off because it is about time I prepared!

More Guyana photos

Walking to Church on our 1st Sunday along one of 3 main roads of New Amsterdam. This one has huge potholes down a little further that are a real challenge to dodge with the car.

Watching the baptism from the balcony of New Amsterdam Branch building.

Another view of Main Street, New Amsterdam. No curbs, sidewalks, or street lights.

A horse cart. They use it to haul everything and the horse waits patiently to do his duty.

These are just some little kids being escorted home from school by their moms. The elders just happened to be there at the same moment.

A special family home evening

A Special Family Home Evening - March 4, 2008

We had the sweetest experience last night with the zone leaders. They took us with them to the Family Home Evening of a family that was baptized 2 1/2 weeks ago. We left at 6 pm so we walked the whole way in the pitch black with 2 flashlights down a dirt path that took at least 20 minutes to walk. We had to really watch every step because the path was full of large dried muddy ruts from past rainy days. We dodged animal droppings as we made our way. When we got to their house, we had to walk a narrow plank that was stretched across the sloshy mud of the trench that separated our walking path and their front step. I teetered and nearly fell in the mud trying to make my passage across it. The elders explained to us on the way over that all the houses in this area were squatter’s houses. The people have built shacks on land that they don’t own. This family consisted of the mother, 17, dad, 21 and 18 month old baby. Also, included in the FHE group were various little brothers of each of them. When I got to the top of the steps, I expected them to open the little wooded gate so I could pass through but soon realized it was nailed shut and I would have to step over it in my skirt.
The little brown shack, about twice the size of our shed, was made of wooden slats…no paint...no electricity, no bathroom, or running water. What they used as a refrigerator, was just a small closet. We entered the tiny living room and my eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness. I could see that besides the mom and dad there were 4 darling little dark faces of the little brothers and tiny son that were present. The only light in the room was an oil lamp that hung on the wall. There were two chairs which were offered to dad and me. Dad declined to sit and offered his chair to the mother. Everyone else sat on the floor, which included the elders. Dad stood in the corner.

We began the FHE by singing. It was difficult to see the words on the pages of our little hymnbooks, but we managed and there was the sweetest feeling in the room as the FHE began. The dad prayed a beautiful prayer and then gave a short lesson he had prepared. He later told us he had been teaching the 3 young boys (about ages 5-10) about the word of wisdom every day after school. He reviewed what he had obviously taught them about the Word of Wisdom by asking each of them to name the 5 things they were to never use. They each named: alcohol, cigarettes, tea, coffee and drugs. Then, he briefly explained repentance and had them recite the 4 parts of repentance he called the “ABCD’s of repentance”. A – accept, B – be sorry, C-correct, D-don’t do it again. I’m not sure where he got that, but it works. We sang another song and all knelt to pray on the bare floor.

During the lesson some other teenage young men had quietly slipped into the small room and sat down on the hard floor to listen. Eventually, there were 12 of us huddled in this dark little room. After the prayer, we played a fun game and they all laughed and squealed and they shared two bottles of pop and some cookies the elders had brought. The spirit was so sweet in that tiny living room and I just felt so strongly how much Heavenly Father must love this faithful little family who lived in these humble circumstances and were trying so hard to live the gospel and teach it to themselves and their little brothers. We felt so privileged to be there. I’ll never forget how I felt as I witnessed that father taught his family while his 17 year old wife reaffirmed all that he taught. Wow! It felt like a Family Home Evening in some little corner of heaven.

At the end of our evening, the father led us the 20 minutes back through the pitch dark and muddy ruts of the dirt road back to the street that leads to our house and walked the rest of the way home alone. Believe me, walking back at night, with no street lights anywhere except our 2 little flashlights, is pitch dark. We met a few walkers during our walk, and we couldn’t see them until right as we passed each other.

We are very happy here. It is another world we’ve never experienced, but we are going to be fine.

Love, mom and dad