What next?

So yes, the Aciernos are back in America safely.

What next?

As you'll remember from earlier posts, we wrote 5 branches last year.  Trinidad and Tobago responded with a Guyana congregation and Canada responded with 2 congregations and a group.

Before we left Guyana, we reached out to Canada again and requested confirmation that the information they had sent us in August 2019 was still current - there was still a need in those 3 areas. We received confirmation that this was the case and so we then wrote the 3 locations asking for more information.

So where next?  We don't know yet!  All 3 have responded with information as to their need and so we are still discussing where to go.

When will we go?  We are hoping for April.  We would love to already be there for the Memorial but we do have some logistics to work out.  Please continue to keep us in your thoughts and prayers.

We greatly enjoyed our 10 weeks in New Amsterdam, Guyana.  If you have never done need-greater work before, or if you have, please prayerfully consider going (or going again).  It doesn't matter if you can't spend 3 months, go for 1 month, 2 weeks, 1 week - whatever you can do.  The encouragement you will give to the friends and the encouragement you will receive will be without measure.  You will Love it!  Go!

Lessons

So if you read the last post, in which I lightly covered some of the challenges we had to deal with during our last week, then you might wonder how some problems can be avoided, how you can solve issues quickly abroad, and what to do if you can't solve them.

Briefly - before you leave your home country, get the contact numbers of your bank/credit union and credit cards.  You'll have already done your homework to see how you'll access money abroad - that's another blog post in itself.  However, the contact numbers you want in this case are the Calls Outside the US numbers - usually these are collect numbers.

How do these work?  I don't know.  You'll get this information before you leave on your trip and you'll feel nice and warm inside - I did something, I'm prepared, if something happens, I'll just pick up the phone and call.

That is so nice.  However, here's the thing.  You'll later be trying to call this number from your abroad cell phone account.  

If you have kept your American phone account open by adding international roaming or a specific country roaming, then I am assuming that calling the collect number will work.  How much if any it will cost you, I don't know.  

However, if you've done like we did and gotten local SIM cards with local cell phone numbers for the country you're in, then calling this collect number won't work.

What to do?

Skype.

Now I know what you're thinking.  But Lindsay, haven't you been saying that you've been using WhatsApp?  And you've been texting and calling friends and family and that's been working out fine.

Yes, it has.  However, businesses aren't on WhatsApp.  So even if you're doing an online chat, if this is offered by the company you wish to contact at the time you need to contact them, they still want you to call.  Even though you patiently explain that you are out of the country and cannot call them fi though you want to, they STILL tell you that you can call a 1-800 number and all will be painlessly taken care of.  

So save yourself, and save the moron you're talking to - they don't know.  They're working minimum wage and have never been out of the country.  Use Skype.  While it is free to call Skype-to-Skype, the business you need to reach isn't on Skype either.  You'll need to purchase Skype credits to call landline numbers.

So be prepared for the just-in-case scenarios.  Download Skype, maybe get some credits - now you're prepared.  You can still get those Call from Outside the US numbers, just know that more than likely, in order to call them, you'll need Skype.

Our last day in Guyana

So our flight was scheduled to leave at 10:15am Tuesday morning, Feb 4.  However, in what would kick off the start of a "bad" week, we were informed via email on Wednesday, Jan 29, that our flight had been delayed.  Don't even get me started on how you can plan to delay a flight that doesn't even leave for another 7 days...

So Wednesday, Jan 29 was our last Wednesday in Guyana - our last day taking the ferry out in service.  I came down with a migraine, ate some lunch, drank some water, cooled off in the AC at a restaurant - still had the migraine.  Nate was fine to continue preaching so he and a brother continued on after dropping me at home.  I took some pain meds, took a nap and then woke up.  I decided to check my email.  There I see the notice from Surinam Air about the delay.

So again, the flight was to leave at 10:15 am getting us into Miami at 1:45pm.  My mom was flying down to Florida to meet us - her flight was getting into Ft Lauderdale at 6:45 pm.  However, now we were delayed until 8:45pm, which meant we weren't getting into Miami until 12:15am, and then we still had to get to Ft. Lauderdale!

And so our last week in Guyana started.

Over the next 7 days we would have countless online chats with Expedia, emails with Surinam Airways, online chats with Verizon (who had decided that after 3 months of not using our American cellphone accounts, that we must not be coming back and they had decided to disconnect our service and cancel our accounts and erase any trace of us in their system - an issue we would not be able to resolve until we were back on American soil; again not a problem in Guyana but perhaps a problem when you're trying to catch a Lyft in Miami at midnight....), online emails with our credit union and bank back in America.... you get the idea.  We found ourselves with just a week left abroad with money in our bank to use in Guyana but not money in our credit union to use in America, cell service in Guyana but no cell accounts in America, and a delayed flight, which threatened to upset the travel plans we had within America.

Nate said - it looks like we should just stay here!

After the week of pulling our air out and muttering numerous complaints out loud and over the internet, we felt calmer.  Things weren't resolved yet but oh well.

Sunday our landlady dropped off lunch for us..... we will miss the Indian food!

We left New Amsterdam Monday morning.  Our COBE generously drove us to Georgetown where we met us with a sister and a couple from the Charlestown sign language congregation.  We ate dinner out at a lovely Indian restaurant and then went to a hotel.  The next morning, just in case, the COBE drove us to the airport.  Up until now, all indications online and otherwise, were that our flight was not delayed.  However, once at the airport, they did confirm the delay so we drove back to the hotel.  They generously allowed us to stay until 4pm, at which time we took a hire car back to the airport, checked in and then waited until 8pm to board and then fly to Miami.

Nate in the Miami airport... 1am after having been up since 4:45am the day before

Get togethers

This post is a compilation of three different get togethers.

First the annual meeting with the pioneers.  Normally this is with 2 elders....we only have 1 so Nate was asked to prepare 2 talks.  We don’t have any deaf pioneers currently so the meeting was held in English.

Nate making a face...

New Amsterdam ASL Pioneers

A dear sister ordered a gift for each of us - you'll see a few being held up in the pic.  They are little pouches that can hold meeting invites on the inside, JW.org contact cards in an outside pocket.  They have I love you hands stitched on the outside and they also have little carabiner clips!

Afterwards we went to one of the pioneer sister’s home and enjoyed a meal and association.

This past Saturday was our first Saturday meeting.  Effective Feb 1, the meetings changed from Sundays at 1:30 and Tuesdays at 6 to Saturdays at 2 and Wednesdays at 6.  Local service arrangements have also changed.

After the meeting, which was also our last, we had a get together...at our place.   The original plan was for it to be outside, near the river.  However this changed so they just came to our place.  Thankfully the dear sis who was coordinating the get together brought everything since all of our things were packed up!

Lastly, on Sunday (Feb 2), we were invited to a barbecue.  The sister is in our congregation but her family goes to English.  They hosted us, another couple from sign language and then some friends from English.

Interview

So I have a guest on our show today - Nate....  I’ve asked him a few questions and the results of our interview are below.

L:  First of all, thanks for being here.

N:  Thank you for having me.

L:  How did you let your wife talk you into traveling to Guyana?

N:  Well, trips to South America often sound rational, especially when a conversation about traveling south occurs during a Colorado winter!  I was curious to see what the culture was like in Guyana and excited to check out the ministry there.

L:  And how have you found the culture? And the ministry?

N:  The people in Guyana are so friendly.  There are a mix of races - Carib or Amerindian, Indian, Guyanese (who came from Africa way back), a few Chinese and they all seem to comingle well.  We as white church people have been welcomed and haven’t been bothered or harrassed.  Everyone from older ones down to school children will greet you.  Depending on the time of day, almost every person you pass on the street, or if you’re walking by their house, they will offer a Good Morning, Good Day, Good Afternoon or Good Night.  They are very mannerly.  We of course have responded in kind and, in keeping with local customs, will address the older ones as Auntie or Uncle.

The ministry has been most enjoyable.  We often find people at home, whether we are canvassing for the deaf or if we are calling on the deaf directly.  Also, if we are looking for a particular person but are unsure where they live, the neighbors politely point us in the right direction.  Also, I’ve had it happen that we have been walking down the road to call on a deaf person, but a neighbor walking down the road will let us know that he or she isn’t home - saving us the time and energy to walk down and back!  We’ve had several nice experiences in the canvassing, in the deaf ministry, in the cart and even outside our own house!  Since we are white church people, locals will often approach us asking for Bibles, literature, Bible studies, the location of the Kingdom Hall, the days and times of the meetings and so on!  It has helped us to be mindful of how we look, what we wear, where we go and what we do when we are out, since it is always obvious that we are representing Jehovah.

L:  Those are beautiful sentiments.  What do you think you will miss the most about Guyana?

N:  I will definitely miss the slower pace of life!  We do everything slower here, even walk!  I know that things would be different and that we would have more to take care of if we moved here but for this trip, we have really gotten to enjoy Time.  We have more time to focus on spiritual things - the ministry, personal and family study, meeting preparation and more time together.  I know you’ve worked while we’ve been here so thank you for that, but I’m sure you’ll agree having less distractions in terms of just living life has been nice.

L:  Yes.  I agree that things would add back into our lives if we moved here, but even then I think life is still much slower when compared to America.  One last question for this post:  Would you come back?

N:  The real question for me is: why am I going back to America?!  Yes, I would come back to Guyana.  I have really enjoyed our time here for a number of reasons - it has been a very good experience for our family with many positive takeaways.  I have most appreciated the opportunity to be of more assistance in the congregation - I’ve really enjoyed offering more of myself to the friends and being able to serve the congregation.  Having only one elder here for right now has meant that I’ve been used more but also that I’ve had more opportunities for training and to do things that I wouldn’t do in our home congregation - simply because there are more brothers there to handle the responsibilities.  I’ve also enjoyed the personal growth as well - learning more about myself, how I do in a foreign environment with many new things to learn and adjust to.  I’m very thankful we had the circumstances and the desire to come here and I’m glad we went ahead and came.

Cooking class - round 2

Yesterday a sister invited us over to her house to show us how to cook some more Guyanese dishes.  I do apologize that I didn’t take any pictures of the cooking.

We did the cart in the morning and then the sister and her mother met us at the market.  We purchased some vegetables and then drove to the sister’s house.  She showed us how to prepare and then cook a few different vegetables.  First we fixed squash.  The squash here look like a large pale green zucchini that you left on the vine too long.  They taste like a cross between a left-too-long zucchini and a cucumber.

Then we cooked some greens (similar to spinach and it has a local name which I don’t know how to spell but sounds like cryla) and then some green beans (they look just like snap beans but have a local name that I don’t remember).  The green beans were cooked in coconut milk.

This prompted questions of the difference from coconut water to coconut milk.  We know the difference between the 2 liquids but they both come from the same coconut right?  Technically no.  Coconut water comes from a young coconut - what we drank out of earlier, and coconut milk comes from a mature (old) coconut, that looks like a coconut you see in an American grocery store.

The sister’s family has a large backyard that has many kinds of fruit trees and a garden.  We took a walk in the back.  I do have pictures of that.

New life!

Random pictures

Essentials:  Hat & sunglasses!  A sense of humor!  Feet that just don’t care how long you’re going to walk on them!  Good friends!  A spirit of willingness!

On our way home from the supermarket

From 5,000 feet elevation in Colorado to 10 feet...

My personal best - an average preaching day is 5 miles of walking....this day was 6.1!

Nate copy-signing comments at a meeting

Lindsay copy-signing

Friends

Sugarcane fields

Our friends have a pet cat - I have a new friend :-)