New Years Guyana

The Jungle picture is what it looks like here all the time ( no snow). Early Revellers for New Years... kids dancing in the street, they ask for money to party. Typical Market Place shopping,,,all day and every day..

We hope all Blogg viewers have a great 2008!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy New Year to all... Here in Guyana it is celebrated for sure, very wild,, but called Happy Old Year..
For you who recognize this tradition::: Can you believe The New Years Kettle came all the way from Green River to Guyana!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We hope everyone has a nice New Year, and a happy and healthy 2008.

Christmas in Guyana

Enclosed on the Blogg are pictures of three activities we were involved with for Christmas.
Some involved the Elders here in our area. We fed them them, watched them play football(soccer) went caroling with them on a horse cart ( one of the major, very popular means of hauling everything here) and on Christmas Morning we went to two orphanages and sang Christmas Carols with them and gave all of the children a gift.. The Santa you see is an Elder from Kearns.. and he was so good. One of the orphanages is for handicapped children, and this was such a great way to spend Christmas Morning, (one we will Never Forget)!!!! The other Pictures are from a Christmas Party on Saturday before... at a school we are working with to give them some help. These students had been out of school for two weeks, but came back on a Saturday, all dressed up, to have their party... you can see how sparten the school is... they played ONE game Pin-the-tail-on-the -donkey, ( and there are donkeys, pigs, horses, cows, sheep, goats and dogs ALL over the place,,, mostly in the road,,,no fences) they only had one teenager be in charge and he had to use a little cloth for the blindfold, it would not even go around the childs head without being held.. and the donkey was just drawn on the only blackboard with chalk.. it was so neat to see the childrens faces when they got their drink and snack and a little gift, that we helped with.. They were so excited to be there and they had to sit and hour waiting for this all to happen..Happy kids..The children are so happy and have so little.

We are so fortunate to be here and to have had these kinds of experiences. We cry one minute and laugh another and are frustrated another... Things change as fast as the rain storms we experience here one minute to the next, coming off of the Atlantic everyday.

Christmas in Guyana

We are finishing up Christmas in Guyana and will follow with some text and Pictures.

Merry Christmas

We just want to wish All of You a very Merry Christmas!!!
These past few weeks have been very busy for us. A container of goods came in from Salt Lake and we got to be there for the Handing Over Ceremony where all the items were handed over to the people back in a very poor area. The leaders, teachers and those who deal with the very poor, were all there to help distribute the goods. It was a big deal! Dad had to speak and he told them how the Humanitarian program works within the Church. He did a very good job and it was a great experience for us!! This was on local T.V. and the newspaper. We also had the experience of taking a wheelchair to a man who was in great need of a chair. We have included our experience with him in the previous blog.
When we have these experiences, we are so happy and excited to find more projects and people to help…and just as I was feeling so great..our power went out and was out for over two days. I started to grumble about it and while this was going on, we needed to meet with some ladies and take them shopping for a project we were working with them on. As we spent hours with them, we visited and talked about our families and they told us that they had never lived in a house with power or running water and they are mothers with families!!! We were in our air conditioned car that they were enjoying and I was reminded that they have no vehicles!! I realized once again that I had no reason to be complaining at all!!! Let me tell you…at home we are really used to the good life and we take it so much for granted!! I hope I never do again!! Now a few days later, we haven’t had water for 2 days and already, I’m back to wanting to grumble a bit, and I keep thinking of all the many people who have never experienced power and water in their homes!! Dad keeps saying to me “Hey, we are having fun,,it’s just like camping! It’s just more hot and humid than the Uintahs!! For some reason his talking like this isn’t making it any easier for me!!!
Also, with Christmas time here in Guyana, the people will do anything to get extra money and the crime escalates. It’s been very bad the past few weeks. The daily newspaper today was telling about the crime and these are the words they use…they talk about the bandits and the robbers and the pirates are hijacking ships and boats in this area!! It’s unbelievable the things that take place here!! Sometimes we feel like we are reading a book rather than actually living in all this!! The people here at Christmas time also clean their houses inside and out and clean their yards. This is a tradition here.
Living here in Guyana is teaching me so much!! Everyday, we learn something new and experience something we never thought we would experience.
One more thing…we had a Branch talent show last Saturday afternoon. It consisted of children through adults. Same church but different culture..anything goes!! The teen-agers were the most interesting. It was unbelievable!! Guyana consists of six nationalities and our Branch is made up mostly of the two most populace…Afro-East Indian. The talent show was three hours long. After 2 hours, we had intermission where they served hot dogs and then continued on for another hour with anything that anybody wanted to do!!
Hope all of you enjoy the holiday season and remember the real meaning of Christmas,It’s always better to give that to receive!!
From up on the mountain in Grenada, looking down on two cruise ships and the people getting off to shop at the mall, andmarkets there..

Chris Jardine

Chris Jardine, a native of Guyana got leprosy as a very young man which caused many deformities of his body. Both hands are just stubs. Over the years, his leg got very bad and in1984 he had the opportunity to go to the States in Louisiana where a surgeon amputated one of his legs. He needed to stay there for awhile so he could get used to his prosthesis and learn how to use it. He stayed in Louisiana for three years where he did odd jobs around the hospital. While he was there, he met the missionaries. He was converted and baptized. He joined the Church in 1985 and he is reputed to be the first native Guyanese to be baptized in the Church. We were told by another source that he kept telling the missionaries that baptized him to see that other missionaries be sent to Guyana and he pushed it until it happened. He came back to Guyana, his native land and a few years later because of diabetes, he had to have his other leg amputated. The surgery was done in Georgetown and the doctor amputated his leg above the knee so there was no chance for a prosthesis. He is now 70 years old and he continues to live in a very, very old hospital where he has lived for years in a very small 10x 10 room in Mahaica. He was in very bad need of a wheelchair! When we found out about his condition, we just mentioned it to the First Lady. There were no wheelchairs allocated for church members in this container that she had just received, but she was very excited to see him get one of these wheelchairs and she made arrangements immediately for us to get one for him. We took it to the hospital where he lives and it was a wonderful Christmas gift to us as we were able to spend an hour with him! As soon as he saw the chair, he maneuvered himself into it and had a big smile on his face but then he quickly put himself back in his old chair. He said “I want to wait and get up Christmas morning and have this be my Christmas gift”..he then said “do you have time to read some scriptures with me before you have to leave? Of course, we wanted to! He wanted to read from Alma 32:1-23. When we finished, he wanted us to sing him a Christmas hymn…Away in a Manger. This was so humbling and touching for us. There was such a wonderful feeling in his tiny little room that had no furniture, only a stool and some boxes. As we left, he watched us and waved until he couldn’t see us anymore. We can’t wait to go back to see him again. We have made a wonderful friend!
What one wheelchair can do!