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.
Tuesday, January 21, 2020
Tuesday, January 14, 2020
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.
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.
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| New life! |
Wednesday, January 8, 2020
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!
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| On our way home from the supermarket |
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| From 5,000 feet elevation in Colorado to 10 feet... |
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| My personal best - an average preaching day is 5 miles of walking....this day was 6.1! |
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| Nate copy-signing comments at a meeting |
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| Lindsay copy-signing |
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| Friends |
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| Sugarcane fields |
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| Our friends have a pet cat - I have a new friend :-) |
Tuesday, January 7, 2020
Highlights of the past month
We have reached the halfway point of our three month stay! Time has been going quickly.
Preaching highlights:
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| Two sisters - you go first, sis! |
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| Deaf Bible student & a Pioneer sis |
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| Deaf Bible student - she’s not angry, don’t worry. And yes, her shirt says Bozeman, MT - the last best place! |
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| 1st time meet! (Initial call) - Nate, a pioneer sis & a deaf unbaptized publisher showing a video |
Food highlights
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| Tea & biscuits! We do this every day at 4:00 pm |
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| Friday night = pizza night! |
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| Local beers - the only one not pictured is Carib. |
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| Nate’s cooking! Black beans, coconut rice & fried plantains |
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| We love this biscuit company: they make Bourbon, Vanilla, Chocolate & Custard Creams. |
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| The wall of Tang |
On a side note: Given the numerous changes to our diet, we do eat differently here. There is thankfully, one gluten-free pasta option in the supermarket. Every week, I buy a box of gluten-free pasta twist - they are more like egg noodles than like rotini. We are not really rice fans but we do eat rice frequently. I do make my pizza dough and baked goods with regular white flour. Mainly we eat a lot of fresh fruit - banana, pineapple, papaya, guava, passion fruit, etc!
We do eat vegetarian for the most part. We still eat eggs and cheese. Almond milk is expensive here so we drink whole milk.
Scenery:
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| Cows in front of our house |
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| Goats following us on our walk to the Kingdom Hall |
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| Coconut palms |
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| Trees lining the canal near our house |
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| Watermelon patch |
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| Flowers in a canal |
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| Banana palm |
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| That large green object isn’t edible - instead you hollow it out to make bowls or maracas! |
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| Walking in the territory |
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| UV Blocker umbrellas for 2 please! |
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| Nate & a local brother walking to the Kingdom Hall - even the locals carry umbrellas for the sun |
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| Road work - and yes we had a call down this road and no, no one stopped us from walking through the work zone! |
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| Sometimes there’s a lot of sun and you need the umbrella; sometimes there’s a little sun and you need a hat - I’m prepared either way! |
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| This little house is the perfect size! |
Wednesday, January 1, 2020
Preparations
A number of you have asked to talk a little bit more about our preparations big and small for this trip. Some of you have seen some of the pictures below on Instagram.
As I’ve written about in an earlier post, Nate & I set a number of goals around November of 2018. Then in January of 2019 we decided to focus on need-greating. At that time, we were already working part time and living in an affordable-for-our-area apartment. However, we knew we would need to reduce our expenses so as to save up for a trip.
We decided that time to just focus on reducing our main expense - rent. Later that summer, Nate did increase his secular work so that we could save up more money.
Jehovah provided us with housing from April through November - thank you Randy & Lauren, thank you Keith & Dee! We lived with another couple in their house in April & May, and then moved into an RV in another couple’s backyard in June. We stayed in the camper until November.
Since we no longer had a home of our own, our belongings went into an 8’x8’ storage unit. Over the summer, we went through each and every item, some items multiple times, and decided what we would keep, throw away, donate or sell.
Here are the items we kept - they all fit into 7 storage totes. These items are all being stored at our host family’s home in America - thank you Rita & Jerry!
Takeaways from all of this - yes you can do this. Yes you can live with less than you perhaps are already. Yes this takes time, energy, planning, blood, sweat and tears. Ok, maybe not blood - depends how accident prone you are when moving objects. I’m thankful we had the time to do a step-down approach. That way we didn’t have any feelings of separation anxiety from our things - from going from a 2 bedroom apt full of things down to 2 suitcases apiece quickly. Also, I’m thankful that we had so many friends willing to support us in this endeavor. Certainly with having a goal to move to another country, there are a number of unknowns. Having friends to lovingly help you through this time of transition is priceless.
Those were some of the bigger plans and arrangements we made. Smaller ones included reading online blogs of others who had moved abroad or traveled extensively. What clothes should we pack? What things should we bring? What items could we buy once we arrived? What could I bring with me that would help me feel settled or more at home quicker?
We ended up packing one large bag apiece with all clothes. Since we were here for the ministry, the majority of clothes are meeting and preaching clothes. All are cotton or linen. I made the mistake of bringing one skirt that is 100% cotton but has a lining that is not cotton. The skirt does not breathe. Therefore, it is resigned to being a meeting skirt. I can make it through 2 hours of sitting - I cannot make it through 8 hours of walking. Also, since this area has Muslims, I was advised to bring tops with a sleeve of some sort. I did bring some sleeveless tops but for the most part, I only wear these at home. Of main importance with these choices was the material they were made of. Also, we picked our shoe choices wisely as we knew we would be dealing with a lot of walking and also rainy/muddy conditions. I brought one pair of leather closed toe shoes and 2 pairs of Crocs - washable! One pair of Crocs is a sandal and I wear those to meetings and out in service. The other pair are flip-flops and I mainly wear those inside our house.
Our smaller bags - one apiece - had toiletries and our iPads. Since this area is mainly Caribbean with ethnic hair, I chose to bring shampoo. I haven’t had to shop for that here so I don’t honestly know if I could find it or not. I have seen advertisements for Head and Shoulders so I’m assuming at the very least, I could buy that locally. The other toiletry items we brought were in travel bottles so that we at least had face wash and soap and other things for when we arrived and then we could buy these later. In my small bag, I also packed pictures and cards so that I could display these around our apt. As every renter knows, the small things you can put up help a new place feel like home. So pictures of our friends are on our fridge and a calendar from our dear friends in our Colorado congregation is on the wall - the friends signed or drew on different pages.
We also did cursory research on things like electrical outlets and foreign SIM cards. Guyana has a mixture of 110 vs 220 volts, and a variety of outlets. As it ended up, our apt is 110V with regular North American plugs & outlets. We didn’t know that for sure before we came so we limited the electronics we brought to just our phones and ipads and figured we could just buy an adapter and/or converter once we arrived. We ended up not needing to buy anything so I’m thankful we didn’t buy these items in America and then not be using them. Also, we waited until we arrived here to purchase local SIM cards.
Lastly, we tried to pack some practical things, both for the actual travel and then for living here. Two key items were power banks and flashlights. We had heard that there are blackouts here - times when the electricity goes out. We have been here 39 days and have had blackout 10 times (9 at home and 1 at the Kingdom Hall). So since you don’t know how long you’ll have blackout for, we tried to keep our phones and iPads fully charged. If we need a battery boost, we just connect our phone to the power bank. The same reasoning was for the flashlight - our phones do have flashlights on them as well, but why use the phone and risk draining that battery? So Nate brought a headlamp and I brought a flashlight. I think 8 of our 9 blackouts have happened at night so we try to at least know where our lights are, then when the power goes out, we carefully get our light.
As I’ve written about in an earlier post, Nate & I set a number of goals around November of 2018. Then in January of 2019 we decided to focus on need-greating. At that time, we were already working part time and living in an affordable-for-our-area apartment. However, we knew we would need to reduce our expenses so as to save up for a trip.
We decided that time to just focus on reducing our main expense - rent. Later that summer, Nate did increase his secular work so that we could save up more money.
Jehovah provided us with housing from April through November - thank you Randy & Lauren, thank you Keith & Dee! We lived with another couple in their house in April & May, and then moved into an RV in another couple’s backyard in June. We stayed in the camper until November.
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| Camper living |
Since we no longer had a home of our own, our belongings went into an 8’x8’ storage unit. Over the summer, we went through each and every item, some items multiple times, and decided what we would keep, throw away, donate or sell.
Here are the items we kept - they all fit into 7 storage totes. These items are all being stored at our host family’s home in America - thank you Rita & Jerry!
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| 3 large totes, 4 small totes, Nate’s hockey bag & sticks |
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| Denver to SC trip - 4 bags each |
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| Miami to Guyana trip - 2 bags each |
Takeaways from all of this - yes you can do this. Yes you can live with less than you perhaps are already. Yes this takes time, energy, planning, blood, sweat and tears. Ok, maybe not blood - depends how accident prone you are when moving objects. I’m thankful we had the time to do a step-down approach. That way we didn’t have any feelings of separation anxiety from our things - from going from a 2 bedroom apt full of things down to 2 suitcases apiece quickly. Also, I’m thankful that we had so many friends willing to support us in this endeavor. Certainly with having a goal to move to another country, there are a number of unknowns. Having friends to lovingly help you through this time of transition is priceless.
Those were some of the bigger plans and arrangements we made. Smaller ones included reading online blogs of others who had moved abroad or traveled extensively. What clothes should we pack? What things should we bring? What items could we buy once we arrived? What could I bring with me that would help me feel settled or more at home quicker?
We ended up packing one large bag apiece with all clothes. Since we were here for the ministry, the majority of clothes are meeting and preaching clothes. All are cotton or linen. I made the mistake of bringing one skirt that is 100% cotton but has a lining that is not cotton. The skirt does not breathe. Therefore, it is resigned to being a meeting skirt. I can make it through 2 hours of sitting - I cannot make it through 8 hours of walking. Also, since this area has Muslims, I was advised to bring tops with a sleeve of some sort. I did bring some sleeveless tops but for the most part, I only wear these at home. Of main importance with these choices was the material they were made of. Also, we picked our shoe choices wisely as we knew we would be dealing with a lot of walking and also rainy/muddy conditions. I brought one pair of leather closed toe shoes and 2 pairs of Crocs - washable! One pair of Crocs is a sandal and I wear those to meetings and out in service. The other pair are flip-flops and I mainly wear those inside our house.
Our smaller bags - one apiece - had toiletries and our iPads. Since this area is mainly Caribbean with ethnic hair, I chose to bring shampoo. I haven’t had to shop for that here so I don’t honestly know if I could find it or not. I have seen advertisements for Head and Shoulders so I’m assuming at the very least, I could buy that locally. The other toiletry items we brought were in travel bottles so that we at least had face wash and soap and other things for when we arrived and then we could buy these later. In my small bag, I also packed pictures and cards so that I could display these around our apt. As every renter knows, the small things you can put up help a new place feel like home. So pictures of our friends are on our fridge and a calendar from our dear friends in our Colorado congregation is on the wall - the friends signed or drew on different pages.
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| Colorado calendar |
We also did cursory research on things like electrical outlets and foreign SIM cards. Guyana has a mixture of 110 vs 220 volts, and a variety of outlets. As it ended up, our apt is 110V with regular North American plugs & outlets. We didn’t know that for sure before we came so we limited the electronics we brought to just our phones and ipads and figured we could just buy an adapter and/or converter once we arrived. We ended up not needing to buy anything so I’m thankful we didn’t buy these items in America and then not be using them. Also, we waited until we arrived here to purchase local SIM cards.
Lastly, we tried to pack some practical things, both for the actual travel and then for living here. Two key items were power banks and flashlights. We had heard that there are blackouts here - times when the electricity goes out. We have been here 39 days and have had blackout 10 times (9 at home and 1 at the Kingdom Hall). So since you don’t know how long you’ll have blackout for, we tried to keep our phones and iPads fully charged. If we need a battery boost, we just connect our phone to the power bank. The same reasoning was for the flashlight - our phones do have flashlights on them as well, but why use the phone and risk draining that battery? So Nate brought a headlamp and I brought a flashlight. I think 8 of our 9 blackouts have happened at night so we try to at least know where our lights are, then when the power goes out, we carefully get our light.
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