The following are the main subheadings of this report:
- Journey from Lethem to Georgetown
- Our host
- Cummingsburg congregation
- Portuguese classes
- Helping with sound installation in Kingdom Hall construction
- Pioneer meeting
- Our trip to Suriname
- About Georgetown
We hope you enjoy this page.
Journey from Lethem to Georgetown
At the end of the November 2013 - Brazil page, you will have read that we came across the border from Brazil to Lethem, Guyana. Although our invitation from Trinidad was for an 'indefinite' length, we were only given a 1 month stamp on our passports at Lethem. Although concerned, as we should have received 3 months, we realized that Jehovah would provide an answer for this.With an area of 214,969 km² Guyana is somewhat smaller than the United Kingdom or slightly smaller than the US state of Idaho.
The population of Guyana are largely descendents from Asian laborers (Indo-Guyanese, 43%) and African slaves (Afro-Guyanese, 30%. Their ancestors were brought in to work on sugar plantations. There are 17% Guyanese of mixed heritage, and there is also left a small American Indian population (9%). The population is about 787,000 people, 90% of the residents live in the coastal regions. Spoken languages are English and Guyanese Creole (lingua franca), and Caribbean Hindustani.
We stayed overnight with a brother in Lethem and met briefly with one of the special pioneers from the congregation. During the day, we arranged transport to Georgetown. There are 2 options: fly in a small plane or go by 'bus'. Flying can be expensive especially as we had 4 suitcases which traveled with us everywhere. They basically contained everything we owned! So we chose to go by bus.
On the map of Guyana below you will see Lethem down south on the border of Brazil and Georgetown is up on the Atlantic coast.
The word 'bus' in our minds meant a coach or big bus that we were used to in England or that we had traveled on in Brazil. However, 'bus' in Guyana can mean many types and size of things and we quickly found this out the hard way!
We arrived at the 'bus' place and realized that we would actually be travelling in a minibus which was a Toyota 12 seat minibus!
All of our suitcases/bags went on the roof along with the luggage of the other passengers. It was carefully wrapped in plastic to protect it from the mud, rain and orange dust that would come from the 400 mile trail across the interior of Guyana.
To our dismay, instead of 12 on the bus there were 14! This would be ok for a short journey but the trip to Georgetown would normally take between 16 - 20 hours! With 4 to a bench instead of 3, we were squashed and at the end of the bench, the metal was sticking out into us. We had already been told it would be uncomfortable because of the road, or lack of road in the interior of Guyana. Now with an overcrowded minibus, this would become worse. We tried to get comfortable (NOT!) as much as possible. Sandra and I were the only English speaking people on the minibus. Everyone else was Brazilian. We listened with interest to their conversations as no doubt they did not know that we could understand what they were saying. After a while we conversed with them. Some sang religious songs loudly in the night, maybe to mask the pain in their backsides.
We left Lethem at around 19.00 and it was already dark. Lethem is very remote and we were quickly in the bush area, which we would be travelling through for many hours. There would only be a couple of towns for the first 320 miles of the journey. Everywhere else would just be bush and jungle. The driver told us that at some point after midnight we would reach a place where we could sleep for a couple of hours in hammocks. We would then travel onto a river crossing and cross there at 06.00.
It was exciting to travel at night and hear the jungle noises. We had our windows open slightly because it was still hot but we could not open them fully as we did not know what was outside! We could hear noises but not see them. Within 30 minutes of leaving Lethem, the road became just a dust track. It was full of large holes and the driver could only go 200 - 300m before slowing to a stop and navigating the large craters. We went across many wooden planks and tree trunks that allowed us to cross the many narrow rivers and creeks. This was quite scary in the dark as parts of the trail was wet and slippery and the wooden crossings were only just wide enough for the minibus.
We arrived at the 'hammock' place about 0230 the next morning. We tried to sleep in the hammocks but we were in pain from the first few hours on the bus, so we just tried to rest as much as possible. After a couple of hours we set off again towards the main river crossing.
To cross the river, we needed to wait for the pontoon. This would take the minibus and us across to the other side. In Guyana, most of the year it gets dark about 18.30 and light about 05.30. Although we were exhausted, we were astounded by the fresh beauty of the surroundings at early morning light. We were miles from habitation and the air was silent and clean.
We safely reached the other side and continued our journey. We saw very large bright blue butterflies fly past our minibus. The journey was very slow as the trail was full of the large holes mentioned earlier. As soon as we picked up speed we would need to slow down again to go round or over the craters. The driver was very experienced and we learnt how tough these minibuses are.
We had to go through 3 different check points. These were immigration, police and also security at a national reserve that we had to pass through. These check points are outposts in the interior and each one gave us opportunity to stretch our legs and get some feeling back into our body.
At one checkpoint, the police wanted the driver to take all of the bags off the roof to inspect them. At each bag the police asked who it belonged to and then checked it. Ours were last. When the police looked at us and our passport and realized we were from England, they said that they did not need to check our bags! We were surprised but happy.
They were looking for guns and other contraband that some bring across the border. Many bandits that flee from Brazil hide in the interior as it is virtually impossible to find them in the expanse of jungle.
The scenery reminded us of parts of Kenya that we had seen many years ago. After many more hours we eventually passed through logging outposts and came to a surfaced road that took us to Linden. Then a couple more hours and we reached Georgetown. Altogether the journey from Lethem to Georgetown had taken us 22 hours in the minibus! We were completely exhausted and numb. It would take many days to recuperate from the journey. However we were glad that we had taken this scenic route.
We contacted brother Hazel, a missionary who is also caring for the branch depot in Guyana. He arranged for Brother Shepherd and his wife to meet us. They are from Trinidad and are serving as special pioneers in Georgetown.
We had arranged to stay with sister Joyce Clarke but she had a problem with a water leak and so our first night we stayed with Brother and Sister Shepherd. We slept well that night and the following morning we had a good discussion with them and learnt a lot about the needs of the congregation and the Portuguese territory. Most of the Brazilians in Georgetown live in the Cummingsburg territory and it was great that we would be living right in the heart of the congregation territory.
Our Host
That night we had our first Thursday night meeting with the Cummingsburg congregation. Although exhausted we really enjoyed meeting the brothers and sisters. I was asked to do the public talk on the Sunday. It was unusual to now do a talk in English as I had been doing public talks for many years in Portuguese.
After the meeting we were taken to the house where we would be staying. Sister Clarke greeted us with a big smile and we loaded our suitcases and bags into a bedroom. As we unpacked, we realized just how much orange dust had managed to find its way through the layers of plastic sheeting on the bus roof. We were glad that we had also wrapped our laptop and cloths in bags inside our suitcases as well. Even so, some of our clothes were covered in the orange dust.
Over the next few days we got to know Sister Joyce Clarke. She is a retired nurse and midwife and helped us with some of the stomach issues we first had in Guyana. We met Stephan and Angelica Johnsen who have been serving as special pioneers in Moruca, Guyana. They were very encouraging to us when we were in Brazil and making the decision to accept the invitation to come to Guyana.
Cummingsburg Congregation
The congregation in Cummingsburg is a very friendly congregation with 6 elders. The body of elders are a unique strong body very focused on the preaching work: the coordinator and his wife are field missionaries, the service overseer and his wife are special pioneers, the secretary and his wife help part time at the branch depot just outside Georgetown, there is Sandra and I who are need greaters/pioneers and there are 2 other elders.
The territory covers the main city center including many houses, businesses, embassies, diplomat houses, the presidents house, government departments, shopping malls etc. Also there are many Brazilians living in the territory therefore providing foreign language (Portuguese) witnessing. The geographic area is quite small but has a wide mix of people and types of preaching. The congregation uses 2 carts that are used effectively on the streets.
The territory covers the main city center including many houses, businesses, embassies, diplomat houses, the presidents house, government departments, shopping malls etc. Also there are many Brazilians living in the territory therefore providing foreign language (Portuguese) witnessing. The geographic area is quite small but has a wide mix of people and types of preaching. The congregation uses 2 carts that are used effectively on the streets.
Portuguese Classes
The Trinidad branch had asked us to help with the Portuguese territory in Georgetown. Just 1 week after we arrived, the other elders asked if we could help teach some of the brothers and sisters in the congregation to learn Portuguese. A few had already started to learn some of the language at the Brazilian embassy in Georgetown or through other means. However, their skills were limited to some basic expressions, especially with the theocratic words.
It was decided that we should start a class to help them to learn the language. Pete planned some lessons based on the instructors notes that the branches use to teach Portuguese in various countries. It brought back memories of the first day we attended the Portuguese class in England all those years ago in 2005, except now we were the teachers!
Helping with Kingdom Hall sound installation
One of the privileges that I received in December was to help with the sound installation at the new Kingdom Hall construction at Bartica. Bartica is on the Essequibo river and to reach there we had to travel by road to Parika and then load all the equipment onto a speedboat. These are boats that carry about 24 people and travel very fast up the river.
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| The speedboat parking area. |
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| We went on the white speedboat on the right. |
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| On the way to Bartica on the Essequibo river with the sound equipment |
The speedboat journey was just over 1 hour. It was exciting to see part of Guyana's largest river and all the river activity. Guyana means 'land of many waters' and many people in the interior rely on river transport.
Meeting the construction group was nice. There are about 20 brothers and sisters that form the construction group that travel from one project to the next. Each Kingdom Hall project takes about 2 months to complete.
The sound team spent the whole day installing the equipment and I got to know some of the construction group. The sound is one of the last things that goes into the Kingdom Hall construction and so we saw the almost completed hall.
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| Outside of the nearly completed Kingdom Hall - Bartica |
After a tiring but enjoyable day, I traveled back up the river on the speedboat to Georgetown. It was a great privilege, having only been in Guyana for just over 2 weeks, to be used to help in this way.
Pioneer Meeting
Shortly after returning from Bartica, we had the annual congregation pioneer meeting at the end of December. This was very encouraging especially being with so many long serving pioneers, special pioneers and missionaries in Cummingsburg congregation.
We are really enjoying the preaching here in Georgetown, Guyana. The people generally are happy to listen and discuss Bible topics. There are many Muslim and Hindus here due to the amount from Indian descent. There are also many Amerindian people that speak Carib, although these are mostly living in the interior of Guyana. See our page 'About Guyana' for more information on the people of Guyana.
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| Our fellow pioneers in Cummingsburg |
Our Trip to Suriname
When we came into Guyana at the beginning of December 2013, we only received a 1 month stamp on our passport. Therefore we had to renew this at the end of the month. The easiest way to do this from Georgetown is to go across to Suriname and then come back to Guyana the next day. We would then receive a 3 month stamp. Many 'need greaters' here do this.
The journey would be in 3 parts: travel by bus from Georgetown to the Guyana/Suriname border, cross the river into Suriname, travel by bus in Suriname to our destination there. The return trip would be the same procedure.
We left Georgetown at 0400 in the morning on a bus. The journey to Moleson Creek, the river crossing area at the border, took 4 hours. We then had to queue for over an hour to buy return ferry tickets. After this we went through the customs and immigration section before boarding the ferry.
The ferry journey was only about 35 minutes and the Corentyne river that separates Guyana and Suriname was calm.
On reaching the Suriname side, we went through customs and immigration which took about an hour. We then got on a small bus that took us to where we were to stay overnight.
Suriname is a dutch speaking country but the custom officials spoke English and various other languages. We had arranged to stay with Brother and Sister Blaker from England who were serving in Suriname. We arrived safely at their house and enjoyed the evening with them. We did not realize until that evening that 2 other 'need greaters', Brother and Sister Underwood from England, had traveled from Guyana to Suriname that day. They were also renewing their passport stamp and we met them at the house we were staying in overnight.
At 0700 the next morning we left their house and returned to the river crossing and did the reverse procedure of the day before to get back to Georgetown. It was a great couple of days, sharing experiences as 3 couples all from England. We all felt reinvigorated to continue our assignments.
Suriname is a dutch speaking country but the custom officials spoke English and various other languages. We had arranged to stay with Brother and Sister Blaker from England who were serving in Suriname. We arrived safely at their house and enjoyed the evening with them. We did not realize until that evening that 2 other 'need greaters', Brother and Sister Underwood from England, had traveled from Guyana to Suriname that day. They were also renewing their passport stamp and we met them at the house we were staying in overnight.
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| Sandra, Brother and Sister Underwood, Brother and Sister Blaker |
About Georgetown
Georgetown is the capital of Guyana. Although Guyana is part of the Caribbean, it does not come to mind as a tourist place. The economy in Guyana is very poor and the living conditions of many people reflects that. Many people live on the streets, there is no regular garbage collection in the city, the water canals and drainage ditches are full of rubbish thus creating a horrible stench in many places.
We have found that many people beg for money, water and food. The people are very humble and generally seem to tolerate their systems of living. The way things are done here reminds us of how things were 30 or 40 years ago in England. Although most organisations have some computers, they still do things using the old paper system that takes an immense amount of time. One of the things we struggled with was adapting to not being able to get things or find information out quickly.
There is no rail system in Guyana and no large buses and so transport in the city is by car, taxi or minibus. Every day you see horse drawn carts that transport materials for construction and other things.
We have found that many people beg for money, water and food. The people are very humble and generally seem to tolerate their systems of living. The way things are done here reminds us of how things were 30 or 40 years ago in England. Although most organisations have some computers, they still do things using the old paper system that takes an immense amount of time. One of the things we struggled with was adapting to not being able to get things or find information out quickly.
There is no rail system in Guyana and no large buses and so transport in the city is by car, taxi or minibus. Every day you see horse drawn carts that transport materials for construction and other things.
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| Horse and cart that transports materials |
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| 2 horses 'waiting' to enter a Brazilian church! |
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| The end of Bourda market |
Georgetown has various markets. In our territory we have Bourda market which stretches over 2 roads. It is a maze of outside and covered market stools selling all kinds of produce including fish, meat, rice, coconuts and other fruit and food.
The other end of the territory has Stabroek market. This is the largest market in Guyana and has been there since 1842. The design is of Iron and is based on Victorian style.
Georgetown is a bustling city with loud music, busy roads with fast moving taxis and minibuses. Public transportation is very cheap, minibus is GY$ 60 which is about 20p and taxi is between GY$ 300 - 400 ( £ 1 - 1.30).
For more information on Guyana, please see our 'About Guyana' page.
Look out for our next blog page with more experiences!
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