5am Friday morning I woke up under a mosquito net after a couple of impatient roosters rudely interrupted my sleep. Rushing to grab a flash light, I checked my surroundings for frightening creatures. Last night we had frogs on our door step, lizards on our walls near our beds, and cockroaches, beetles, etc around the floors. Luckily, everything was clear; but I was drenched in sweat nonetheless. Making my way outside, the cool morning breeze felt like a slice of heaven as the trees were silhouetted by the dimly lit sky. While sitting in a rocking chair on the front porch, I thought to myself: "This
really is Guyana". We had breakfast at 6 and devotions half past. When the team leader started to divvy up jobs to the sleepy 12, I opted to help build a foundation for a water tank in the next door neighbor's back yard with two other guys. The 9 other ship people who came with us were planning on finishing a large water tank, gardening, and doing other misc. tasks. So me, Jaimee, Elyse, (I called him Mad dog cause he's from Mad-dog-gascar, and that was better than saying his real name which sounds
dangerously close to "Alice") and the local professional builder named Roger. We made our way through the hole in fence, across a trench via wooden board, past the chickens, ducks, and half-naked children to the neighbor's back yard. There we cleared the existing rubbish and plotted out our rectangle to dig a trench. After the surprisingly tough, sticky soil was dug out, it was time to make cement. We had a concrete bed at the Ywam camp and used it to mix the sand, gravel, and cement. After shoveling into the wheelbarrow, every trip involved pushing the heavy solution across a board, through the fence, onto another narrow board with a 3 foot drop into mud underneath, through the group of animals, past the curious children, ending at the trench. Each passing was an adventure to say the least. After filling the trench, we accurately placed our blocks on top and filled with some more cement. Closing into 3pm and immensely exhausted, we were finished for the day. The family who lived where I was working were all very nice. The little children were a lot of fun and enjoyed running around chasing us with dead creatures they had found, trying to put them in our pockets. Someone must have let the secret out that Westernized people are afraid of dead bugs and the rascals were taking full advantage.
After dinner, I went for another walk around the community. The average wooden homes were staunchly contrasted by the bright pink, green, and orange (usually wealthy Muslim) homes beside them. The sun was starting to set and evening plans were still open to whatever would happen next. Roger, the high-booted fella in the green shirt and blue shorts pictured above who patiently taught us to mix cement and lay blocks, informed me about a pool table inside a small general store/snack shop next door where he plays regularly. That night I decided to go over and make new friends. Since I had no money, my plan was primarily spectating. Walking through the door (okay, the hole in the front) I immediately recognized Roger and some locals from earlier in the day. A man with gold teeth who turns out is the owner told me I was on his team and after explaining I had no money, they all emphatically stated I was playing anyways. So all Friday night...and Saturday night too, my time was spent hanging with the local guys, playing pool, watching cricket on the t.v., and sharing many laughs. Hey, I even won a few games, proving that missionaries without money, gold teeth, or a fancy Caribbean accent have mad skills too.
Saturday morning started out like yesterday, except I gave up on the mosquito net at night in lieu of an ample breeze around my body via fan. After devotions, Roger grabbed me to start laying sand and water inside our foundation. Jaimee was busy with some other work, so we snagged Fabian to help us. Our plan was to lay more concrete once the the sand was fully packed tight. We were interrupted halfway through the project by a vigorous rain storm which lasted for about 20 minuets. The locals depend on the rain for showering, cooking, drinking, etc. After it collects in the gutters and into a holding tank, it is then pumped into a higher tank which is gravity fed for pressure. After the rain, I took a little break to watch some neighbor boys play cricket. I'm not schooled on the official rules of the game, but I'd assume the catcher is suppose to wear something over his underwear....maybe Parika rules are more lenient. Work then continued and we were able to finished smoothing out the concrete and Simone tagged a nice picture of the ship into the foundation. The others painted inside the new YWAM office, repaired a chicken coop, and more gardening on camp property. That night after dinner, Jaimee and I spent the evening playing more pool for free; this time on the same team.
