Jehovah really answers prayers!!!!!!

Just a small but amazing experience I have just heard.  A special pioneer couple in the next cong down from us called the Josephs car died.  They live in our territory as they cant get anything in brighton area.  So for a few months they have been using buses to travel sometimes a hour back and forward for meetings and ministry and rainy season is so here.  So they told me their specific prayers was for a scooter.  Remember I said rainy season too on a bike.  They knew they couldn't afford a car again so asked Jehovah to find them a affordable scooter.  I think that was a very humble request.  Well they got a phone call next few days asking them to come to a store in town and bring along their documents.  WELL the store was a car dealership and after handing over documents they were given the keys to a brand new car.  A brother was aware of their situation so anonymously bought them a car and now they can get to their studies and meetings all happy and dry.  Isn't that so lovely!!!!  I thought so so wanted to share it with you.

And for those that saw my blog last time that is the car with the best steering wheel in the world......

Great campaign day!!!!!! And other funny things

Hey guys

Hope you are all doing ok.  Im keeping up to date with the decline in weather in Uk and Us.  Really dont know how Im going to cope coming back in march.  How will I stay warm.  If it gets below 80 here I feel a little cool........

So hope all are having fun with their tract campaign and now we have to count them too.

WE finished our whole territory within 10 days.  Oh yeah thats right.  Felt so proud of everyone.  Wow alot of walking but great results.  So we went to help another cong with their territory.  They have a group of villages far back from the public road near the back dams and it takes them 1 and 1/2 years to cover so we went along to help them with the tract campaign.

So we arrived at 8.30 am.  58 turned up from both halls but we are all sure more came during the day. .....

WE all had a great day.  It was a bit cooler which was Jehovahs blessing for the day.  I worked with a young brother from our hall Denzel and we had a lot of great success.

Reading it straight away

For those who know me well you know why I
took this picture hehehehehe

 And we saw alot of "nature".  Cayman (small alligators)

Can you see the eyes???????????

alot of cows and horses and beautiful flowers too. 

We finished about 6pm after feeling we had walked about 10 miles.  But you know my hall by now, that was not the end.  We then had a fabulous party to celebrate our campaign success and just because we are Skeldon.

This is really one of the best games I have ever played.  All you
need is a pen some paper and 2 dice.  We had the best laugh till it almost
hurt.  Cant wait to play it back in UK.  Maybe the laugh and speed will keep
me warmer...........

 So we played mad crazy games and had some scrummy yummy food.  Then finally off to bed.

Well friday I was invited to go to town with 2 local sisters.  And I have been here for over 5 months now and have been kind of mad craving a nice coffee.  And town has the only western style coffee shop in guyana.

 So off we went.  Left at 5am.  4 hours later I was sitting in air conditioned cafe drinking a spectacular cappuccino with a smiley face on it feeling so so happy.  Simple things in life are great.  So that will keep me going till march now for sure.  A bit of shopping with the girlie's in the "north east" style rainy weather

then it was 4 hours back home again after sitting on the bus for about 2 hours waiting for it to fill.  You may think Im mad but hey I really do love a nice coffee and to me it was really worth it.  So 10 hours on a minibus and 300 miles round trip.

Another guyanese language lesson.  I had to stay by a local sister and her daughter for the week as melindas guests stayed in my room.  Each morning they cooked toast on a "towa" which is like a pizza stone but heavy metal.  Well this was the conversation each morning between mother and daughter.  "Don't cut my bread too tick(thick) I like it more tin(thin).  And let it go crips(crisp) on the towa girl I don't like it sof(soft).  So each morning as you can imagine was a whole lot of laughs then me bringing my geordieness to the table too added to the fun of it all.

So that is my life up till now..... Cant believe Ive been in Guyana all together for over 1 year now.  Time flies when your having fun doesn't it.  And next month is my trip to Suriname for my visa for the last time till I leave in march.  I'm hoping to visit peter and alice todd my geordie friends who are special pioneers there in the english field.

Take Care and lots of love to you all and stay warm

Natalie

Funnies from guyana

Hey guys

So this is just a mish mash of guyanese funny stories and things that I have heard that are just crazy mad....... give you more of a taste of where I am eh!!!!!

So I have told you before about the public transport.  Buses packed beyond imagination then the driver stops for just one more to squeeze in.  Well to catch a bus you have to use hand gestures.  Putting you arm in the direction you want to go and low down for short journey and high up for long journey.  Then the bus drivers themselves have their own signals they do to each other.  The main one being for police.  Well as you can imagine here the government is corrupt as is the police force.  So expression number 1 is right or lef (as in left).  So you think that means directions but its not.  Right is as in write.  So if you get stopped by a policemen he can write you a ticket or lef as in leave a money bribe.  So whenever the driver and conductor come back into the bus all the passengers start calling out lef or right and now I know what that means.  

Oh and the craziest sign I see everywhere is Life and Pluck chicken and duck.  Will try and get a picture of it for you to prove it.

Hassa trench fish about the size of your hand

Then its made into curry.  So to start you have to "kiss the hassa" as in suck its
mouth so you get all the fish head brains and yucky stuff.  I have literally kissed it
but not to guyanese standards hehehe.  Then the scales are rock solid so you have
to peel them off.  The fish meat isnt much for all the effort but its the cheapest
fish around.  When you see whats in the trench well lets just say its
best not to think about it.   It does actually taste yummy.  Then the guyanese chew on the
head to finish off.  I give them my head usually.  Im so kind like that.

Some  funny things I have been told by the guyanese ................

If you drink a cold drink on a hot day you can have a stroke.

If you take a cold shower (which is the only one you can as there is no hot water) you will have a stroke.

Open the freezer and you can have a stroke

If you eat cucumber you can cure a stroke.

If you walk on the ground without shoes you will get flu

Food from the fridge is poison

Black drink (coke and pepsi) damages your eyesight

And a whole lot more I will share with you in time.  So we have to just listen to them and sometimes try not to laugh.  What you believe in your culture is hard to change though isnt it.

I have included this list before but I know alot more read the blog now and they are just really funny.

GUYANESE (CREOLESE) PHRASES

"Da ova der" = "That over there"


"Wa me ga do?" = "What am I going to do?"


"Wa me try fa say" = "What I am trying to say"


"Shya Quam" = "She's comming"


"Ma Quam" = "I'm comming"


"I be go" = "I'm going to go"


"You na mine me business" = "You don't worry about my business"


"Me ga look it afta" = "I will look after it"


"Me na Get" = "I dont have any"


"Leff it, Leff it!" = "Leave it!"


"He na ga Dead" = "He's not going to Die"


"How ya Do?" = "How are you?"


"Ya Carryin any ting?" = "Are you buying anything?"


"How Far ya Reachin?" = "How far are you Traveling?"


"Rain Ga Fall" = "Its going to Rain"


"Ya Gettin Troo?" = "Are you having Success?"


"Sun Heaty!" "Place Hot!" = "Its hot today!"


"Dey Teef it out" = "They Stole it"


"Walk wit ya Bag" = "Bring your bag with you"


"Ya Gettin me Cleea?" = "Do you Understand Me?"


"Bring it" = "Carry it"


"Masquita Plenty!" = "There's lots of Mosquitos!"


"Nobody na de home" = "No One is home"


"De na dea" = "They arent there"


"He gan till so de back" = "He went out to the back"


"He gan just over so" = "He went not too far away"


"Me na no fer Read" = "I dont know how to read"


"Alright, take keer" = "Ok take care"

"Nice mav top" = Nice mauve top

"Me tryin" = In answer to the question how are you

"You finish" = We would say are you ready

"Busa lime"= Having a nice chat with friends

OR

"Gaffing" = Also talking

Liming = walking with a boy or girl courting

So as you can see its a whole new language to tune into.  And then alot of the expressions are also from the US so for my pals in the UK I say cell phone now instead of mobile.  Cant stop saying it hehehehe.

So that is just a little taste of guyanese culture and lingo.  On wednesday we have a huge pioneer day helping the next cong down with there territory.  WE have completed our tract campaign territory in under 2 weeks.  Literally we were like swarming locusts eating up our maps.  It was so exciting but wow so much walking in the sun.  WE have all slept very well these past weeks.

So will share our adventures on wednesday.  There are alot of crocodiles and anaconda in the back dam so may get some great photos!!!!!

Take care and stay warm

Miss you all lots of love

Natalie

First day of our new campaign

Finding people everywhere

We had great support for the whole day and covered loads of our territory.  So much walking in the heat but by the evening group it was nice and cool.  Even had a little shower that made the lovely double rainbow and then we had a great sunset.  

Hope campaign is going well for you all too.  We also had alot of fun at the meeting yesterday.  Black out and then the back up generator went off and on and off and on and off and on.  So in the end we had 3 small light bulbs for over 100 of us.  The speaker had a torch and we had no microphones or music for the kingdom melodies.  My minion headlamp too the rescue.  WE all managed and even the deaf still got to have the meeting translated.  Jehovah was with us all.  Fun times with electricity in this country.  

Have fun 

Love Nat

Fun filled action packed weekend hence the big blog !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hello to you all.

Well this is a blog full of everything.  So we have our 1 day assembly so no meeting thursday.  So we decided to have a random dance party.  To teach the kids some of the US line dancing.

 It was so much fun.  Our plan was to do popcorn and snacks and drinks.  Well 2 fab cooks in our hall made some yummy dishes.  

We had fried plantain called bakabani with a scrummy peanut satay sauce and guyanese chicken curry and dahl puri.  Kind of like a flatbread filled with crushed spiced dahl.  Mmmmmmmm.  You eat it with your fingers.  And we danced the night away and then the boys played baseball and soccer(football) and just laughed alot.

Then friday am a bus full from skeldon joined the ranks of cleaners at the assembly grounds.  So we were assigned to clean the whole upper seating area.  Oh yeah that means sweeping with our TWIGS.  Then wiping all the walls and benches to clean off the geko and bat poop then mop all the floors.

Its me I promise.  Be glad Im blurred after
all the cleaning I did in the hot sun. Not a
pretty sight

Then the brothers had to build and then paint our contribution boxes from giant egg boxes

Our secretary Sateesh needed to take a 5 for a moment and then back to work

Everything had to be set up for the baptism pool and the deaf translation 

Our happy helpers.  Its there anniversary tomorrow so they are even more happy

My lovely friends tom and michelle

What a fabulous 1 day assembly.  All about Gods word exerts power.  Especially with our new bible too.  So fab.  We had 8 new sisters baptised too which was so lovely including a new sister from our hall.  I had 7 studies there.  So nice.  My new study donella and lisa who is a 7th day Adventist and who loved the whole day and both took notes and my lovely family from Crabwood creek.  John tina and their 3 boys.  They only could come for the morning but said they loved it all.  Cost them a full weeks wage to make the journey.  

Then we were invited to a "need greater party" that night.  Now remember our dance party on thursday.  Well guyanese by nature are shy so its a bit of a battle to get them on the dance floor.  WEll for need greaters that is not a problem at all.  So we had great food, scrummy puds and dance dance dancing all night long. YEAH

THEN TO SUNDAY

So we went to splashmin which was about 4 1/2 hours away.  Had a great day.  Its black water unlike the milky coffee coloured 63 beach ocean.  And the water was cooler and really refreshing.  So we had a great day.  Nice white beach.  Yummy food and some little extras to keep us warm after being in the water hehehehe.  

We never left the water all day really.  

Then after a trip to a amusement arcade it was home again.  Driving back slow and steady in the dark dodging donkeys and cows and a huge pig along the way. Something I take for granted is going up a escalator.  Well they had one in the arcade and a few of our guyanese sisters didnt know what to do.  They had never seen one before.  Makes me realise what I take for granted.

So what a fun filled weekend.  Spiritual blessings and a lot of congregation fun and association.  How blessed I am to be here and be part of this beautiful congregation.

Hope I havent bored you all too much.

Lots of love Me