Guyana Buckeye: 1 Corinthians 11:23-27

In that scripture, the Apostle Paul related some of the many hardships and sufferings he had to endure in his foreign ministry (ie. shipwreck, beatings, muggings, ect).

Not that i would compare anything I have experienced to this account (for instance I am now sitting in a AC coffee shop using free wifi to write this post...the coffee of the day was ethiopian organic) nor would i dare compare anything I have accomplished to this anointed elder of the Bible. But some recent experiences added to other experiences in the bush a few years back make me giggle a little. If I were relating my much smaller "hardships" it would go something like this:

I have been car-wrecked, stranded on the road, broken down, beaten by cows, drilled by immigrations, sun-burned, in sleepless nights because of mosqiotos, because of heat, because of cold, rained on, without food, without water,parasites in the intestions, in jorneys often, in dangers in the cities, in dangers from rivers, in dangers in the jungle, and arrested.

Car-wrecked? Cows? Arrested? Yes!

I decided that I could make life a little easier by getting some sort of personal tranportation, and for the most part, it did...

However, on the road, you have to compete with cars, semis, insane taxi and bus drivers, bicycles, children, people who dont care enough to look before crossing a highway, plus chickens, goats, sheep, dogs, and cows. Traffic moves along at about 50-80 MPH.

Drivers are very aggressive. It's like NY on steroids. So you can see the 'trickiness.'

I drove to an assembly in Georgetown, staying with a special-pioneer brother in the area. On Sunday afternoon, i decided to go home rather than spend another night there. I left before six, but it gets totally dark by 6, so soon it was night. I was driving on a part that has no lights, so i reduced speed a little. Without any notice, a black/dark brown cow runs onto the road and BAM, before I can even apply the brakes I collide with the cow. The bike flipped foward and both me and the bike met the road.

Fortunitly, a group of men hanging outside a nearby house witnessed the entire incendent, and came running to my aid. They help me and push the bike into the yard. They give me a hose to clean up with. The one who lives there used to study with the brother I stayed with, and gladly gave me a ride to his house.

Once I get there, I realize that my entire shoulder, side, wrist, leg, and ankle are scraped/burnt/bruised and decide to go to the hospital. My host scrambled trying to figure out who could get us there, or what taxi he could call when the phone rang. A study happened to call, one who has a mini-bus. As soon as he was informed to what was going on...he rushed to pick me up, take me 20 miles to the hospital, went in with me, and took me back without accepting anything in return.

A sister works at the local hospital near my house so I was able to go in everyday to get dressings, bandages, medication and everything. And medical care here is FREE to the public.

Me with in service with Issac...some bandages peaking through.

Another intersesting thing happend the other day on what should of been a routine trip to Georgetown. A brother bought a used car, and asked me to help him go and do some of the legal paperwork. It was a registered taxi, and needs to be changed to a private vehicle. So I drive us in his car to the city to go to the different offices.

Mistakenly, I turn north on a southbound one-way street and am met with one lane of trafic bearing down on me, causing a rather disrputive traffic jam. My only choice is to reverse back to the cross street and go around. Of course who is also backed up the the line of cars but a bus full of police. They came chasing after me, and I thought I was in for a very well deserved traffic ticket.

After yelling at me for a while, the do the typical check of liscence and registration and so on. But apparently, as I do not have a taxi licence, I can't even drive that vehicle (we were literally in front of the place to change it, the brother had already went inside).

Upon discovering this, they exclaimed "you are going to Brickdam Police Station!" and arrest me to take me into the station. I tried to explain that the owner of the vehicle is inside, so we could simply get him to clear it up. In fact, how would he know where I went. Naturally, everyword from me, the criminal, made them even angrier. So one of them yelled to all of the street "If anyone asks, the white man was arrested and taken to Brickdam! See, he'll figure out where you went."

So off I go to the station to wait for the brother to come and clear it up. He does finally arrive, but they arrest him too. They require that we pay bail to leave, and go to court later in the week. And as before, every word makes a very irritable senoir officer even more grumpy (even if that includes legal documents stating that the vehicle has been approved for transfer to private use, the hire car liscence has been canceled, ect) so, with the help of some friends that we called, we simply pay our bail and prepare for the consenquences later.

(It should be noted that we were technically, although unknowingly, at odds with this traffic law and the officers were simply doing there job as the law requires them to. Also, they weren't charging me for obviously going the wrong way on the street. There isn't much reason to think ill of them.)

Finally, the next day a brother who knows everyone working there went in and a managed to get all of the charges dropped! To get by around here, you have to 'know' people in high places!

A Guyana Police Station

On the other hand, what good things are there to report? Is it worth it? Certainly...

The reason for doing anything in Jehovah's service isn't excitement and advendture. It is about people, both in the congregation and in the field.

One study witnesses to his workmates and neighbors. He uses scriptures to refute the trinity and show that most good people live on earth. And he is a hindu! He wants to legalize his marriage and start attending meetings regularly. He says he has already made up his mind about serving Jehovah. Here he is at a meeting...