Shell beach

Took a much needed break and spent three days relaxing on white sands, clear blue water, basking under the coconut trees, and drinking fresh coconut water. Well not quite, there was sand but it was coarse shells, there was the ocean but the water was so brown you couldn’t see the palm of your hand while cupping water, we don’t sit under coconuts trees because too often the coconuts fall, but I did enjoy plenty fresh coconut water.

The other three student missionary boys and the family I live with took off on a Tuesday morning in a Dutch style motor boat. We piled our stuff in the front, covered it was plastic, and then squeezed into the bench seats trying to get as comfortable as possible on the hard wooden seats.  We took an hour and a half boat ride to shell beach. When we hit the open water the waves splashed over, everyone huddled together and ducked under plastic to try keep from getting drenched. I LOVED IT! (Hard to beat the smell and taste of salt, the wind blowing through my hair, and bouncing along looking out at the endless horizon of water.)

Upon arrival to the beach our boat guides warned us that on command we would have to jump out of the boat and into the water so the boat could get as far onto the beach as possible. They yelled “get out” and we obeyed! Luckily the water was nice and warm and only waist deep.  At first I thought unloading the boat was hard, then we had to push the boat up the sand bank and into the “boat house.” In order to move the boat up the sand back we used the “Egyptian style technique” we placed logs under the boat and with man (and yes women power) we moved the boat! I have a new respect for those who built the pyramids and basically any one that has to move heavy objects with logs.

For three days we were able to just relax on the beach, swim in the water, collect shells, play cards, make local baskets, and search for the famous giant leather back turtles. Our first night searching we came up empty handed. We had gotten up at 11 and stayed up till 1 searching for turtles on the beach and hiding in a palm branch hut from the rain. But, on the second night we lucked out! At only 7:30pm a turtle was found laying her eggs. When I saw her in the distance I was impressed with how large she was, getting even closer I became a bit more nervous. But, the guides said she was too distracted with her mission to worry about us. We got to hold an egg, touch her, and measure her shell length. Just her shell was 6 feet!! Once the excitement of the turtle over and the turtle had finally made its way back into the ocean we all crawled into our mosquito net beds and fell asleep. At two in the morning someone came and woke us up saying, “do you want to see baby turtles?” Of course we did! Immediately we all jumped out of bed and ran to the beach. Hatching turtles had been found by the wild dogs. After digging up the rest of the nest only 16 babies were found. While we were taking a group photo of us holding the baby green sea turtles, a large leather back turtle decided to join in and we had to part the way so she could crawl through. We all laughed thinking it was one of the best “photo bombs” we could ask for.

As we boated away from our little escape I thought of how blessed we were to experience leatherback turtles, baby green sea turtles, hold whale backbones, see scarlet ibis, visit with the locals, relax in our hammocks, drink fresh coconuts, have a clear sky with the milky way, and most of all being able to reflect on God’s amazing creations!  This mini-vacation was the perfect break to help finish out my last month here.

It’s hard to imagine, but now I have less than a week left here in Mabaruma, Guyana. Keep me in your prayers as I prepare to say my goodbyes and get ready to come back to the states!

Visiting Jana in Guyana

Jana is the engine that gets things done through planning and a significant sense of responsibility.  Jan, Julia and I wanted to experience Jana in action as a student missionary.    Visiting exotic Guyana, part of the Amazon Rain Forest would be an added benefit.

Jana and Smokey the cab driver met us at the capital city of Georgetown.  An hour cab ride from the airport allowed us to hear Jana’s new pidgin dialect-laced conversation with Smokey as tour guide.  Bumpy roads with wind blowing through open windows gave a feel for the humidity and smells.  We took cold showers and went to bed under the ineffective mosquito nets at a house used by Adventist World Aviation’s Wings for Humanity when in “town”.

Georgetown was built by the Dutch.  As you might guess from Dutch tradition, Georgetown is below sea level with a sea wall and manifold series of canals that once worked with the tides but are now clogged with foliage and rubbish.  Wings for Humanity pilot, Laura Labore gave us a walking tour of town visiting a small 4-story department store with one entrance/exit (scary), tourist huts, the tallest wooden structured church in the world and Bourda – the densely-erected open food market where we could get lost if we didn’t pay attention.

That afternoon we headed to a different airport where the single engine 6-seater awaited us 6 passengers, our luggage and Bourda food purchases.  Laura packed carefully and we took off for the hour plane ride to Mabaruma, only accessible by air and boat.  Saw mostly trees but some big rivers, occasional clearings from gold mining and several forest clearing fires.  Laura landed our plane on the hilltop landing strip and we stuffed everything and everybody into a vehicle for the short trip to the Van Fossen residence.  This house was also the residence for a family of 9 below the 4 Van Fossen’s and Jana.  Jan, Julia and I moved into a tent on the second story veranda.  Our veranda-mate was Jana’s second premature lamb named Kai-ewe that she was bottle feeding every 3 hours.

After traveling all day we were able to sleep in spite of the 5 hour time difference, warm temperature and high humidity.

The next day was sabbath.  We traveled a short distance by car and then by foot over a log path to a small church.  Nearly 20 congregants, mostly children, also walked to the church where Jana assisted Crystal Van Fossen with singing, a bible story and crafts.  The children were so attentive and friendly to Jana.  What proud parents we were.

Over the week we did several hikes with the 3 other SM’s and Van Fossen teenagers.  The barely readable Mabaruma welcome sign indicates these hikes as: Tiger Cave, there is rumor that a dead dear was found at the entrance; Kissing Rock, that includes a very muddy swimming hole and Hosaroro Falls where Red Howler monkeys were sighted and photographed.

Mabaruma is the headquarters of Region 1 in Guyana.  It has a small police station, government guest house and hospital.  Jana volunteers at the hospital weekly.  She took us on a tour where she confidently showed us around the facility and introduced us to everyone we ran into.  The open wards, empty beds and paper charts stacked in neat piles gave the impression of a very casual work experience.

Jan and Julia spent time helping Jana with meals, breadmaking and lamb feeding.  Ron spent time “swimming” in White Creek which was anything but white and experienced the fishing trip that Jana blogged about previously.

Guyana is part of the Amazon Rain Forest.  We were very fortunate to be flown to the National Park of Kaieteur Falls by SM Brenden and Greg Van Fossen for an overnight stay.  Many of you saw the pictures of the 700 foot waterfall on Facebook.  It was a natural wonder that inspired us to sit on its banks and just look around. 

We also searched and found rare golden frogs and large orange birds named

Cock-of-the-Rock.  The Scarlet Ibis was another amazing color against the lush green that prevailed in the rain forest. 

Jana works very hard supporting the day to day activities of the missionary family efforts in the community – meal prep, cooking and cleaning up, baking, laundry, modest gardening, lamb feeding, sabbath school prep, weekly hospital clinics, soccer, playing with children, plane flights and overnight stays in Georgetown, weekly food market shopping and journaling.  She has developed a work ethic and spiritual strength that will benefit her and all she shares with for life.

I do live in a rain forest!

I woke up at 6:15 to go fishing and had no idea what I was getting myself into. Okay, well I had a slight idea. When the local told us to wear rain boots I knew we were not just walking along the road. I figured we would have some sort of adventure and was ready to begin! I had my granola bar for breakfast, backpack with water, and my phone for pictures; long pants were on to keep the mosquitoes off, and rain boots were in my hand.  I didn’t want to wear my rain boots until we actually were off the road and in the jungle. Then we had to start worrying about the deadly Labaria snakes.
We walked along an old road for over an hour, while walking we enjoyed the sounds of birds and  howler monkeys, macaws flew over nearby. Turning off the beaten path and dove into the jungle, at first the going was slow. We were walking through knee deep decaying leaves and mud. Wanting to try and stay as clean as possible we tried to step on roots and stay on the shallow parts. Wished our “guides” would have told us it would be a useless effort. I put “guides” in quotations because they are our friends who live downstairs of us.  While in the jungle we were walking in mosquito heaven. Had to stop and apply  mosquito repellant three times to cover the spots that we had missed. As I was getting more comfortable with the thought that I was hiking in the middle of the rainforest, nature decided to remind me that I was in a wild jungle. Two minutes after I mentioned that we had been snake free, we ran into a Labaria. Labrias are one of Guyana’s most deadly snakes. Our guides grabbed a stick and hit its head until it died, then we began walking again. Not more than 10 minutes later they found another snake! It’s amazing how easily they can spot the snakes hiding amongst the grass.  By this point I was beginning to wonder where the fishing place was. We reached a little creak about 20 feet wide and I thought, “well this looks like a nice place to fish.” I was out of luck; instead of fishing there we had to wade across the stream/pond/river/creek. Our guides went first; we had to balance on floating logs, no floating sticks that would submerge when you stepped on them.  While we waited for everyone to get across we got to enjoy seeing multiple Blue Morph butterflies! They were beautiful!
Finally we reached the fishing spot and made our fishing poles by cutting down some long palm branches, removing the leaves, and tying a hook onto it. Our guides went on to a more secluded area. They left us to fish off a log. An hour later the two other SM’s with me had both caught one fish, and then accidently let them go. The men that had gone beyond returned and we started our trek back towards civilization.  This time we moved along at a much faster speed. We were no longer scared of getting dirty. Mud filled my boots and I was wet from my hips down, getting dirtier actually helped cool me off and keep the bugs off. Seven hours later we arrived back home to a delicious lunch of leftovers.
Then, after this seven-hour adventure, it was time to begin preparing for Sabbath and the weekend…

"Current News"- Nursing along the river

 During the past two weeks I had the opportunity to experience nursing along the river. I went with a few of the nurses from the hospital here in town. We jumped on one of the local boats and went house to house checking children’s clinic cards and gave vaccines when needed. The second house we arrived at had children that had never visited the hospital for their vaccines. One was six years old! Needless to say I gave them their first set of shots and emphasized the importance of them coming to clinic, which is a short distance away by boat and then a 10 min bus ride.  By the fifth house a system fell into place where one nurse would look at the charts and tell me what vaccines to draw up, I would pass them to the other nurse, and he would give it from the boat. When there was a new baby that had not gone to clinic yet, we got out and went into the house, did a well baby check up and filled out the baby’s new chart. I enjoyed going into the houses, sitting on the floor, and working with the locals.  As we were boating down the river enjoying the wind cooling us off four wild macaws flew over. Seeing the Macaws was a friendly reminder that I am living in a rain forest. (A jungle story blog will be coming soon!) I did the river trip two days in a row; because the places were nearby we didn’t need to spend the night on the river. There are a few later on that might require that, I am hoping to tag along! We gave vaccines to countless children, did new baby assessments on 3 babies, and “admitted” two pregnant women into the hospital.  “Admitting” a patient basically is a chart with their name, blood pressure, blood sugar, and how far along they are by measuring their fundal height. Then we attempt to hear the babies heart beat with a plastic cone instrument and try to encourage them that at the signs of labor they should begin to make their way to the hospital) I also had the pleasure of enjoying some local food, a Casava bread and chicken sandwich. Casava is a root, some people compare is to a potato but I would compare it to taro but white.  The chicken is, well a real chicken, and it was delicious!

On another day I went to a health post along the river. There we helped out with clinic day. Women came to visit the nurse practitioner and have their health questions answered. Again I was assigned to the children, where I weighed, measured, and gave shots. We had a box of clothes that was donated from the states that we handed out to the patients. When clinic was finally over we climbed into our boat and drove to a calm spot where we were able to relax and enjoy lunch of beans, rice, and fresh avocado. The water looked so inviting. We drove to the center of the river, to get away from the edges were we are not sure what is lurking between the mangroves, and jumped in, scrubs and all. We figured that on the drive back we would become mostly dry.

I am continuing to volunteer at the hospital. Because the hospital has enough staff, on slow days I go to learn. Not only am I a nurse but also a student.  I am working with the lady in charge on Malaria for the region and she is slowly teaching me how to diagnose malaria. I have a test coming up where I must identify objects from a blood smears in the microscope.

 While I am not doing as much nursing as I originally imagined I am still busy!  There are three different villages that I have visited and simply checked their blood pressure and glucose. I am a teacher by helping assist teaching a woman how to read.  I am a mom, by raising my sheep. Lamb chop is doing well. She is now integrated into the sheep flock and only comes to me for food. I am a gardener planting egg plant, tomatoes, bora (long bitter green beans) and other vegetables. I am a student learning many things, but most of all I am a friend. I am enjoying getting to know the children and families that live in my neighborhood. Walking home from the hospital is an enjoyable experience because I actually recognize people now and can stop and talk to them.

A little over half way through my stay and I’m so glad I still have 3 months left! Please continue to keep me in your prayers!