I knew immediately after my first bus ride here that at some point during this trip we would hit an animal or person. Well, today it happened. We hit a dog. And since the windows were all open we heard every second of it. The conductor was very concerned. About the bus. We stopped and he inspected the front bumper. No worries, it was unscratched and we went on our way. Pretty sure the dog don't do as well. We arrived in Allness Village with no more casualties.
There in Allness we had two bible studies. Pearol was the first. She is about 25 and likes to copy every sign you do. She's very good at explaining the pictures that we draw to help sum up the lesson. After that we went to Pammy's. Last week she was sleeping so we didn't get to study. This week we we were told she was at the hospital. Nothing too serious though. Everyone goes to the hospital for everything. The man said she had some stomach pain. Hopefully we'll catch her next week.
Next we caught a bus and headed to study with Atri, Athang and Trevor. Atri and Athang are twins that live near each other and they always study together. Trevor is usually riding his bike around and joins us also. While we're sitting there watching the DVD they all smack each other around to make sure their all paying attention. They also will correct each other if they sign something wrong. So today while their physically abusing one another to keep focused, Atris son is talking on the phone to his Mom. Telling her he's giggling like a 12 year old girl because he had a couple drinks and is drunk. Then hangs up and picks up a machete and starts trimming the bushes on the side of the house. We're trying to study with the others and in the background we hear the "swoosh" of the swinging machete followed by the occasional "ouch". Before we left I made sure to leave the current magazines with the him. I pretty sure he didn't realize that the one is about alcohol. Maybe he'll make the connection later and actually read it.
Remember the guy across the street? Well, his son has been studying with a Brother in our congregation. This Sunday both father and son were at meeting. That was very nice, yet slightly awkward. Considering the last time we had seen the dad he was being beaten on the side of the road. But he seemed to enjoy the meeting. So who knows, maybe he'll accept a study also.
This Sunday is the full ASL meeting in New Amsterdam. I think we have 4 bible studies going with us this time!
We've been making lots of roti and curry. And I must say we're getting pretty good, lol. I think its good we're practicing because Abi will be here soon and we need to make sure and have the process down really well so we can teach her properly. At least that's my excuse for making it all the time. Speaking of Miss Abi...we are heading to the airport bright and early Tuesday morning to pick her up!!!!! We can't wait to see her:)
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Thursday, January 21, 2010
We found one!
Since we've been here we've done some search but haven't been able to find any new deaf in the area. Normally the only ones that people know and tell us about are ones that we already study with. So today Dana and I headed to the village next to us, 46, and decided to do some search there. Everyone is very friendly and will talk for as long as you'll let them. They all kept telling us about the deaf man and wife at the tire shop, Navin, and the deaf girl with the blue drive, Sumentra. We visit the two of them every Friday to study. Then we came to one house and I asked the woman if she knew any deaf and dumb in the village or in any other villages. She said yes. She then told us she was deaf. We didn't really believe her because she was talking clearly and obviously understood the question. We tried to figure out what was going on but it was kinda hard because of her accent, but she took the magazines and chatted for a while before we left very confused. Oh and Dana broke the poor womans bench. We like to leave a lasting impression on the people we speak to. After we left we continued down the road and met a man that was visiting at one of the houses we passed. We asked him if he knew anyone. He told us his wife was deaf and then proceeded to describe the house that we had just met the woman at. She was telling the truth! We're guessing that she maybe went deaf later in life and that's why she can talk and read lips so well. We made plans to go back and visit tomorrow. He talked with us for a little bit and once again the accent made it difficult for us to understand what he was saying, but I think we may have one of the Brothers come back and visit him. After we said goodbye to him we were called into another yard to visit with a man and woman and they gave us these huge bananas. They were about the size of a large cucumber and really good. Then another man next door to them called us over and said that him and his wife have some sort of peppers growing in their yard and next time he sees us walking he will have her bring some to us. We are getting all sorts of food from people. As we were starting to head back home, the man with the wife that's deaf caught up with us and gave us some nail polish as a thank you gift. It was very sweet of him, but I'm sure his wife wont be too happy next time she goes to paint her nails.
Monday, January 18, 2010
Zone/CO Visit
Hi Everyone! Hope you all are doing good.
Last Sunday, the 10th, was our Zone Visit. We loaded up 2 buses full of Brothers and Sisters and made the 3 hour trip into Georgetown. There were over 3,000 in attendance and around 45 were deaf. The talk was really encouraging! It was all about endurance and looking at the examples of Abraham, Noah, and many others. He used many experiences from the new yearbook, which we have yet to see. I can't wait to read it!! I took lots of notes, but wont put them all up here because their about 4 pages long and I don't have the endurance to type it all out, hehe. But if you want, I can share them with you when I get home. Aside from the talk, our favorite part was that we were able to see DC and Sara Campbell. They were in our Portland congregation and DC was one of our teachers for the ASL class. We thought they had already left for a month trip to visit family in the states. But there they were:) We were able to meet many new friends from all over the country. Hopefully we can see them all again before we leave.
We also had our CO visit this last week. He is from Louisiana and she is from Mexico. Our Sunday meeting had 115 people in attendance! We didn't have power for the last half of the meeting. I think everyone was surprised at how well everyone sang the songs without any music, especially since they were the new ones.
One of the bible studies that was there is about 12. Her family is Hindu. I think her dad studied for a while but stopped. She began studying and immediately started witnessing to her schoolmates. She also told her mom she would no longer worship any of their idols because it was wrong. Shes been taking a stand for the truth and witnessing to everyone she meets for about 6 months now, but had never even been able to make it to a meeting! Sunday was her first one, and she said she absolutely loved it and can't wait to go again. We were pretty excited to have another one of our deaf bible studies at the meeting with us. So we got to interpret for 2 instead of 1:)
Last Friday another Sister moved in with us. Her name's Dana and she is from Indiana. We've been showing her around and are very excited we now have someone to help us with our studies and interpreting:)
Oh, one little mental image for you before I go. This afternoon we walked outside and the first thing we see is this little woman with a long rod beating and yelling at our neighbor across the street. He was drunk and passed out on the ground next to the road. She was beating him like a dirty rug. He just laid there. Then she walked off like it was an everyday thing to beat some random guy laying on the ground. Which here, it probably is.
Last Sunday, the 10th, was our Zone Visit. We loaded up 2 buses full of Brothers and Sisters and made the 3 hour trip into Georgetown. There were over 3,000 in attendance and around 45 were deaf. The talk was really encouraging! It was all about endurance and looking at the examples of Abraham, Noah, and many others. He used many experiences from the new yearbook, which we have yet to see. I can't wait to read it!! I took lots of notes, but wont put them all up here because their about 4 pages long and I don't have the endurance to type it all out, hehe. But if you want, I can share them with you when I get home. Aside from the talk, our favorite part was that we were able to see DC and Sara Campbell. They were in our Portland congregation and DC was one of our teachers for the ASL class. We thought they had already left for a month trip to visit family in the states. But there they were:) We were able to meet many new friends from all over the country. Hopefully we can see them all again before we leave.
We also had our CO visit this last week. He is from Louisiana and she is from Mexico. Our Sunday meeting had 115 people in attendance! We didn't have power for the last half of the meeting. I think everyone was surprised at how well everyone sang the songs without any music, especially since they were the new ones.
One of the bible studies that was there is about 12. Her family is Hindu. I think her dad studied for a while but stopped. She began studying and immediately started witnessing to her schoolmates. She also told her mom she would no longer worship any of their idols because it was wrong. Shes been taking a stand for the truth and witnessing to everyone she meets for about 6 months now, but had never even been able to make it to a meeting! Sunday was her first one, and she said she absolutely loved it and can't wait to go again. We were pretty excited to have another one of our deaf bible studies at the meeting with us. So we got to interpret for 2 instead of 1:)
Last Friday another Sister moved in with us. Her name's Dana and she is from Indiana. We've been showing her around and are very excited we now have someone to help us with our studies and interpreting:)
Oh, one little mental image for you before I go. This afternoon we walked outside and the first thing we see is this little woman with a long rod beating and yelling at our neighbor across the street. He was drunk and passed out on the ground next to the road. She was beating him like a dirty rug. He just laid there. Then she walked off like it was an everyday thing to beat some random guy laying on the ground. Which here, it probably is.
Friday, January 8, 2010
Sorry its been a while...
Where to start!? Ok, last Tuesday we went into Blackbush again. It was pouring out there! Our feet were completely covered in mud. Not that I minded. It was kinda fun and squishy. We only found one of our studies home, but it went really well. She was very excited to see us. Shameniel was also able to bring home the puppy she fell in love with the week before. Today we went and studied with Sumentra. Shes usually really quiet and sometimes acts like she doesn't really want to study. But today she seemed like she was enjoying it more. Although I don't think she really understood the pictures Faith drew for her, she was making fun of them:) Her family made us roti, which is like a fluffy tortilla. So good! Then we headed over to Rani. Her family is a little odd, and does a lot of drinking. We have to watch our bags when we're there because Grandma has been known to start looking through them. Today they said Rani was at school, which I found weird. Since she doesn't go to school. They said to come back tomorrow. Not sure what's going on there. After that we took the bus to see Natalie. She's one of our studies that came to the meeting in New Amsterdam with us a few weeks ago.
Our last study today was with Jem. She lives with her mother and her two little girls. When we got to the gate we noticed it was locked from the outside with a chain and some wire. Looked like someone didn't want them to leave. Then her mother came and said Jem wasn't home. Jem was standing right behind her. So we figured out how to undo the lock and headed in with Jem. As we're walking towards the stairs the mother is being very talkative and tells us "Grandma is dead upstairs". What?? So we went up, didn't see any dead Grandmas, and started the study. It went really well. She's studying the Great Teacher book, the lesson on Gods name. She showed us her notebook and shes been copying some of the paragraphs from the book. She writes really well, which is not usual for the deaf here. Faith thinks maybe she can read a little also. Not sure though. It's obvious that she's really smart, but doesn't sign much. Kinda shy. While we're studying with her on the upstairs balcony, her Mom is sitting just inside the door talking to herself. She was saying she's going to beat Jem and us. Shes about 70, so I think I could take her. Then she says that Jem needed to get up and do her hair for her. My favorite part was when she turned and looked at us while pulling down her bottom eyelids. Not sure what she was hoping to accomplish by doing that. We finished the study and headed out, locking the gate behind us. We got out to the street and looked back. There she was trying to undo the lock and escape. I guess shes been known to hang out at the rum shops. Never a dull moment with our studies and their families.
The other night me and Faith are just sitting in our house and I see this huge roach crawling up the wall. I sprayed it with bug spray and it went crazy! Started running all over the place. Up the table, onto the couch, into my bag. We kept spraying it and hitting it but it wouldn't die! Finally Faith was able to kill it. Then I noticed the huge green bug that was also in my bag. It was about as long as my hand. I wish we had this on tape because it probably looked really funny! That thing chased me around the room. As in, knowingly came after me. Not just aimlessly flying around. It looked like a giant mutant grass hopper. That was thirsting for human blood. These bugs here are insane. Yesterday there was a huge beetle on our balcony. The normal ones are about the size of a quarter. This one was about the size of my camera. Crazy.
Well, Sunday is our Zone visit. We're really excited! I'll let you all know how it goes next time I post an update:)
Our last study today was with Jem. She lives with her mother and her two little girls. When we got to the gate we noticed it was locked from the outside with a chain and some wire. Looked like someone didn't want them to leave. Then her mother came and said Jem wasn't home. Jem was standing right behind her. So we figured out how to undo the lock and headed in with Jem. As we're walking towards the stairs the mother is being very talkative and tells us "Grandma is dead upstairs". What?? So we went up, didn't see any dead Grandmas, and started the study. It went really well. She's studying the Great Teacher book, the lesson on Gods name. She showed us her notebook and shes been copying some of the paragraphs from the book. She writes really well, which is not usual for the deaf here. Faith thinks maybe she can read a little also. Not sure though. It's obvious that she's really smart, but doesn't sign much. Kinda shy. While we're studying with her on the upstairs balcony, her Mom is sitting just inside the door talking to herself. She was saying she's going to beat Jem and us. Shes about 70, so I think I could take her. Then she says that Jem needed to get up and do her hair for her. My favorite part was when she turned and looked at us while pulling down her bottom eyelids. Not sure what she was hoping to accomplish by doing that. We finished the study and headed out, locking the gate behind us. We got out to the street and looked back. There she was trying to undo the lock and escape. I guess shes been known to hang out at the rum shops. Never a dull moment with our studies and their families.
The other night me and Faith are just sitting in our house and I see this huge roach crawling up the wall. I sprayed it with bug spray and it went crazy! Started running all over the place. Up the table, onto the couch, into my bag. We kept spraying it and hitting it but it wouldn't die! Finally Faith was able to kill it. Then I noticed the huge green bug that was also in my bag. It was about as long as my hand. I wish we had this on tape because it probably looked really funny! That thing chased me around the room. As in, knowingly came after me. Not just aimlessly flying around. It looked like a giant mutant grass hopper. That was thirsting for human blood. These bugs here are insane. Yesterday there was a huge beetle on our balcony. The normal ones are about the size of a quarter. This one was about the size of my camera. Crazy.
Well, Sunday is our Zone visit. We're really excited! I'll let you all know how it goes next time I post an update:)
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