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2007 Fall Update!
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New House, New School,
and Broccoli?
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by Jud Wickwire
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The Wickwires' new home. |
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Sunday, September 23, 2007. It is a wonderfully cool morning here in Georgetown; I am sitting on the patio enjoying the gentle breeze while a light misty rain falls on my feet. It’s cloudy and cool for now, but the minute the sun breaks through the clouds the heat will intensify as the humidity skyrockets. We have some maintenance items to take care of around the house; hopefully the clouds will last for a while this morning.
Guyana has many unusual sights and sounds. For example, Guyanese take their pet birds for walks everyday. It’s common to see a man walking or riding a bike with a small bird cage suspended from one hand. It seems that this stimulates the birds, which are then happier and more likely to talk. Frankly, it is probably more pleasant than walking our dog; most of the time was spent trying to keep him from pulling my arm out of its socket. Lack of refrigeration creates other unique circumstances. The other day Jacob went to the store with his friend Jamar to buy a chicken for his family. The chicken, necessarily, was still alive. Jacob wasn’t overly impressed.
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Laura LaBore, Karen and Jud Wickwire |
Karen and the boys are in Mabaruma with Laura. While there, Karen has been trying to figure out what we are going to need from Georgetown to make the house liveable for now. We want to keep things to a minimum because we will have most of what we need coming in the container, which is scheduled to arrive on October 28. We hope it won’t get tied up in customs for too long. Since the last tenants had left with the keys, Karen had to ask Brother Bourne, one of the local church members, to help her break into the house. The prior residents also left behind a bunch of trash that will have to be cleaned out. They also pulled most of the wiring off the walls, so that will have to be redone, along with some work to the water system and rodent proofing.
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| Jacob and Zachary get aquainted with the local residents. |
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The good news is that there are a number of trees in the backyard, including avocado, orange, grapefruit, tangerine, banana, soursop, coconut, golden apple, mango, and a hot pepper bush. We will certainly be taking advantage of those while we are there. Karen said that she found a dead spider in the house that was almost as big as her hand—she wasn’t too impressed. I am gathering up the stuff that Karen says we will need and shipping it up on the next boat. Unfortunately, they won’t know when the boat is going until next week because there was a breakdown when it was in Mabaruma.
The boys started in the Mabaruma village school last week. I think they were a little apprehensive at first, but they seem to be doing well. I asked Jacob today if he had any new friends and he said, “Yeah, a bunch.” Zachary is just his happy-go-lucky self. They seem to be taking everything in stride, not letting their surroundings impact them that much. Where they are is where they are.
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Mist over the river basin. |
My first flight over the jungle was three days after we arrived. It was early and there was a thin layer of translucent mist just above the forest canopy (Laura calls it broccoli). The morning sun cast long shadows behind the taller trees and across the rivers. The airstrip at Mabaruma is perched on top of a small ridge, just above the mist, making for a dramatic approach into the airstrip. That morning we went to Matthews Ridge to pick up Pastor Williams and drop him off in Port Kaituma.
The flying here has been interesting. Most of the airstrips are comfortably long enough for most operations. We went into one called Kwebanna with a local pilot. It is definitely shorter than the others, with an intimidating approach—mostly due to trees that have grown up along the sides.
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| Approach to Kwebanna airstrip. |
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| Close-up of the very wet, slippery Kwebanna runway. |
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The threshold drops off abruptly into a gully. Because the surface is clay, it gets really slick when it rains, causing a number of planes to slide down the road at the end into the bush. Laura and I each did a couple of take-offs and landings there just to get comfortable.
Our last few days in Kelowna were pretty crazy. The 40-foot shipping container was picked up two days before we left, and we had innumerable last-minute things to take care of, including the pleasure of visiting with family and friends. Here in Guyana things have happened pretty quickly so far. We are looking forward to what God has in store for us next.
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