2013 District Convention

We just had our uplifting convention in Bushlot, Corratine
we had to leave early as we could each morning as the Pontoon bridge was closed to shipping in the early mornings, and it if missed the window it could be a couple of hours before it would be open again, though the actual closing times were always slightly later than they said, which work well for us.
Our congregation went in two small buses and a one big bus, and left when they were full
The convention was held at the Horse racing course,
 but it had rained heavy the night before and during the day,
 or was muddy underfoot, and some navigation was reuired to get around,
and had to walk on planks to get to stairs

We sat upstairs there was a nice breeze and the sound quality was excellent

The Upstairs seating was good

The Sheeplike ones
kept coming all day

Many enjoyed watching the Baptism
Nine in all

Nine got baptised, of which one was from our congregation

A little wet underfoot

Block drains

We started to get ready to go out and do our calls, but then the shower started to back up and ten years of hair balls floated up, bathroom sink to blocked up, , found the 4" outflow from the house was blocked up near the ditch in the grass, cleared that, nasty'ness came out  but shower tray still blocked, I tried plunging it with a mop, no success then managed to get a pipe off outside, and rodded it with a thick hosepipe, still no success, then Abbi downstairs, had water dripping off our pipework that goes through her bathroom downstairs, I decided to renew an elbow fitting, so biked off, it then decided to rain, got the bits, rained on way back too, stopped raining when I got back then found out there's at least two types of solvent weld 1 1/2 pipes on the house, fortunately it changed to the right type by the elbow, found similar size pipe in the stores under the outside stairs, replaced it, gunged up older joints, and hoped for the best.
Everything here is badly built and unless you rebuild the house, you just do what's necessary to get by.
But adds to the experience, good news we didn't catch any germs,

Quickly Built Kingdom Halls

I've had the privilege to be able to help on two builds so far, Guyana qualifies for the Kingdom Hall assist Program, so for me to work on Halls in the UK, it wonderful too see how this program really helps here, where the local congregation struggle with everyday expenses they would never be able to afford the Land and the Materials, to build a Hall to such good standard or size.
They are still about 17 halls to do, and a Assembly Hall, right across Guyana, we visited the Reliance Congregation, they meet at a Brother house, and they spill out onto the Veranda, it gets very warm inside too.

At Reliance there's 1 pioneer, and the congregation is swamped with studies, people are coming up to them asking for studies, so it will be Huge help and relief for them when they can dedicate a Hall in the territory for the coming expansion

Me and Fern went to help at Queenstown with the roof, it is done differently here, and the Health and Safety is a little questionable.

No escape from the sun up here

Fern Making the Braces for the roof trusses

A lot braver than me

 I declined to work so far past the wall plate, especially when doing the porch area cutting the spar ends off, with a circular saw, sitting on the spars on the overhang 5' past the wall plate, the Local Brothers are more used to doing that

Everyone survived

The Team moves quickly, but the night came too, they wanted to get the Tin on as well so work could carry on inside with the walls,hope to visit again or be of help on the next one

Coming To Guyana and Reflection

What brought us here
We had a comfortable house, both had good jobs that hadn't been too affected by the recession, and lived easily within ours means.
We knew we should do more in Jehovah's service but secular work took our time and energy, in the week and weekends catching up on housework, gardening, home improvements, we were half way through doing a loft conversion, and started to wondering why we were doing it, was meant to be a hobby but took so much time and resources up, I had done so much to the house it was getting to big for just the two of us, and why, we would be losing it at Armegeddon. We started to doing some reasoning plus there had been some really great assembly and convention talks about simplifying our lives.
Our CO was visiting in the neighbouring congregations, and they had a DVD some brothers had made about serving where the need was greater in Bolivia, we mentioned it to the CO's wife, she suggested starting where they speak English as we would be more effective theocratically sooner, and while we adjust to a new culture, climate, etc.
We had some friends who were helping in the English speaking field in Suriname, so we visited them for three weeks to see if we could cope with the climate, we thought that we could, but as its a Dutch speaking county, day to day shopping, dealing with legal things will be more of a challenge, so we opted for Guyana next door, even knowing the standard of life to be a little lower than Suriname.
We then started saving, selling things, and making the building projects simpler and cheaper so we could finish the house off, for the next two years.
While writing to the Bethal as to where to go.
I tend to be of the cautious type in life, liking to know where my next step will land, but since we stated we had a lot of 'leaps of faith' and every time found something to stand on to take the next step, that alone has increased my faith just knowing that Jehovah is watching out for you, even before we came.
We found some reasonably priced flights which set or date of departure, gave our notice in at work, decided to sell our car and van, as if we ended up here for the longer term, the vehicles would seize up, (now five months in we made the right choice for us).
In all things make it a matter for prayer.
You have to be very opened minded, and willing to adapt, you will see things, hear things, experience things that will get at your mind if you let it, we can not change the world only God can.

It is a sacrifice, to give up a more comfortable life with all the norm's you are used to, but when you see the 'need' where you go, and the appreciation you see if the faces of those listening to Bible truths, you wonder how can i go back to my former life.

and here's me who thought i could never Pioneer (ever), not being a great speaker, and mininal hours less than a year ago, it is work, and a lot of preparation, but makes life more meaningful.

Step-Studies

Our 'Needgreater' elder and his wife has gone back to America, to work and gather funds, they will be back August, meantime we have taken on some of their studies, plus with ours studies and calls it been a little manic, we slowly moving them around so we can spend a whole day in an area, rather than powering away on our push bikes from one end to another, tiring us out and reducing energy levels, it makes rather interesting as some are further through the Bible teach book than ours ( being here only 5 months so far), and others using the 'applying yourself to reading and writing' So it really helping with our hours, the weather hasn't been too bad either. yours

Evening of the Bugs

It the start of the rainy season, when it rains big black beetles come out of the sand, and take to the air at night, the only good thing is they don't bite, after that it get to be a menace, they are clumsy fliers , they head to any light source, knock themselves out, and drop to the ground, either dead or crawl slowly round and fly off again, so at the kingdom hall they are dropping everywhere.
The other night we had a needgreater couple, round for Tea, and the sister is terrified of Bugs too, but the beetles were in plague format, billions of them, our house is fairly bug proof, with everything meshed up, but even so they found areas to crawl in( the wooden houses have many gaps in the walls) must have threw out over a hundred beetles, the mesh on the window was coated with them.

When the pioneer couple went back to their accommodation, they had left a light on and a window open, the house was full of beetles, in the bathroom in the bed ( her worst nightmare), took them two hours to clean them out.
The next day the sides of the road is black with em
Things do test you out.

Here a YouTube link, to someone who has filmed what's it like, this is at the bridge near us
http://youtu.be/NZgZyYAplx0

On The Way Out

Hi there to those who may stumble across this page
Well on the time of writing we been here now 3 Months and just renew our visas, so it's a little out of date by the time i got around to making this blog, but it has given me time to reflect of the up and downs and in and outs,  and still learning Ok lets start
Day Minus 1

This is our flight luggage, we max'ed out our weight allowance  so easy to do, because we didn't know the nature of our assignment or what the condtions would be like we tried to cover most bases, we both like wild camping knew a little of some basics to survive on if they weren't available when we got there.
 If anyone reading this Blog are planning to go as a 'Needgreater' to either Guyana or Row (rest of the world) i hope the things i write will be useful and the equipment that is very usefull, it is a good sacrifice if you can make room for it, and it is worth it
we flew by Air Carribean
The weight allowance is 23kg, but they charge from 24kg, so buy luggage scales to fine tune your bags as it can get expensive if you go over 24kg, also check the size of check in luggage as we were allowed one bag of 10kg and a laptop bag (with no given allowanse),

We stopped at a hotel near the airport the night before to cut out out any risk of having to rush to airport due to roadworks etc, plus it's going to be a long day before to can put your head on the pillow next.