Getting a Grip (in Guyana)

Truth be told, I was too tired last night from all the travel to get to Guyana from Pensacola that I couldn't even think about writing anything…

But tonight I sit here in the parsonage alone (my colleague was delayed 5 days due to weather and missed flights) and I have discovered three things today about Guyana…

1. It is hot.
Okay, so this isn’t a revelation… I have lived in the tropics before and I knew what I was getting into, but today I really remembered.  It’s not so bad with the fan and the breeze.  However, there were times when I had neither of those things and I decided I am very grateful for air conditioning in the US.

2. I really like the mosquito net over my bed.
This may not seem like a real plus to those of you who are reading this fully ensconced in your sealed homes with central heat and air.  But where I am here, the windows are open all the time and there are no screens.  I’ve been told this isn’t really “mosquito season” and that there are very few around… but still, the thought of laying out myself as a feast each night without this netting is not appealing.  But even more than just the protection from pests, this netting provides a little haven for me in the middle of my room.  I look out through the filmy fabric and feel a bit separated from the outside… like I am wrapped in my own little world, my books and my computer by my side and this gauzy little wall between me and reality. 

3. There is much here that is different, and yet also much the same.
Again, not a huge revelation maybe… but I thought about this as I am in a building with bars on every window and several layers of gates between the outside world and me listening to the sounds of the street below me (hearing about 5 gunshots which wasn’t exactly comforting) and knowing that this world is so very far from what I have known in my life.  Still though, tonight in the church office below the parsonage, I met briefly with the pastor before he began the church council meeting.  They talked about building funds, Sunday school curriculum and many other subjects that are so familiar and common to me from my work in the church.  So it is a dichotomy I am left with tonight… strange but familiar, dissimilar yet the same.

So tonight I sleep under my mosquito net with the fan on and my earplugs in… resting up for what is ahead of me.  So far I have only been here at the parsonage and look at all I’ve learned.  God only knows what will be coming up next!