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Good Friday, Everyone!

Ok, so we’ve gotten the impression that some of you are interested in what daily life is like for us here in Guyana.  Probably many of the same questions that we had before we came.  So, in no particular order, here’s a list of things we’ve “gotten used to” since we’ve arrived.

TYPES OF WATER

• Pipe water:  where does it even come from?  We still aren’t quite sure, but it is randomly “on” and we use it for showering and the toilet.
• Rain water:  run off from the rain collected from the roof in huge tanks, and we use it for rinsing some things and washing anything that we want to actually stay white
• Drinking water:   filtered water that we drink that we buy in town
• Trench water:  who knows, but there are trenches everywhere along and surrounding our house
• Black water:  where the pirahna live
• Ocean water:  the Atlantic

Now, we know why they call it the Land of Many Waters!

WEATHER

What can we say, we love it!  Compared to the cold dreary weather of what we came from, and the fiery inferno we had expected.  Day and night there is always a breeze and the weather’s pretty awesome.  It does get hot in the middle of the day especially when you are running around like a crazy person with the kids, and we do drink about 2 gallons of water every day.  We also always carry an umbrella and poncho for the random downpours that usually last about five minutes!  Evenings here have been very comfortable outside, and we keep the windows and doors open to let in the breeze.  Oh and yes Our Lord has blest us with one electrical socket outside of our room, we have a fan we are able to plug in as long as the good Lord allows the electricity, all and all sleep is better than we would have ever expected.  There are four seasons throughout the year, two dry and two rainy.  Right now, we are experiencing the dry, and apparently durning the rainy it rains none stop and they say during the other dry season the sun tends to be even more strong. 

VOCAB

Creolese English is not as easy as we thought it would be to understand.  But, they can understand us! 

Common phrase = translation

• just now = later
• me no know = I don’t know, or it can mean, I do know, but I’m not going to tell you because I don’t feel like talking
• lemon = lime
• how you be? = how are you?
• cutlas = machete like knife used for everything from cutting coconuts to “mowing” the lawn
• balangi = cooked eggplant
• draft = checkers
• current = electricity
• piri = pirahna (We saw one for the first time on Wednesday!)

MONEY

$200 Guyanese = $1 US

A good monthy salary here is $20,000 -30,000 which is about  $100-150 in the US.  BUT, things cost about the same here as they do in the US. 

DRIVING

Everybody drives on the left side of the road, and really fast.  There are always random dogs, cows, goats, sheep, chickens and even horses, pigs and iguana wandering around and down the road!  There’s a system of honking which we’re still learning.  Honk: when you are passing a car, person or animal.  Honk:  to get an animal out of the middle of the road.  Honk:  if you see someone you know.  Honk:  if you feel like it!

CRITTER KINGDOM

We use bug spray three times a day (morning, evening, and bedtime) and a misquito net when sleeping and still manage to get bitten… a lot!  After three weeks, getting bit just becomes part of life, and you don’t really notice it any more.

Everything is a matter of perspective: 

• The flies don’t seem so bad compared with the giant spiders and cockroaches. 
• The giant spiders and cockroaches don’t seem so bad compared to the frogs.
• The frogs don’t seem so bad compared to the rat.
• The rat doesn’t seem so bad compared to the itchy butterfly (now in season and causes the worst itchy/burning feeling ever!  Mother Immaculate says it is 100x worse than poison ivy.  Guess we’ll find out!).

There are pirahna, and they bite.  Many of the kids have the scars to prove it!

PRAYER

We pray with the sisters.  So, each day we have Mass, and we pray: morning, evening and night prayer from the Liturgy of the Hours, a Eucharistic Holy Hour, Rosary, and any other prayers in between!  Our new favorite is the 9 Hail Mary Novena.  It never fails!  Gotta love it!

FOOD

Sorry, Todd!  No, crabcakes or lobster,  but the sisters (especially postulant Belinda) have been cooking up some tasty food.  We most often eat rice, vegetable chow mein, chicken, fish and whatever vegetables and fruits we have.

Sandy has tried many new fruits since we’ve been here.  Who’s ever heard of a momme fruit! 

And, we’ve come to learn:  Always make a lot of rice because you never know who will be stopping by.  One of the hardest things is seeing the kids that don’t have food at home and their only meal comes from the feeding program here at the Church. 

Thank you once again for all of your prayers!  We are praying hard for you and all of your intentions!

Love to All!

Allie and Sandy

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