Okay, I had slept for 2 hours and was pumped and ready to go. Natasha, my sister, still hadn't come home with the flashlight and I was sure that I had forgotten something from my bag. I was excited and I was scared, a wonderful feeling that sends thrills up your spine especially when you know you're doing the will of God.
Shawn pulled up at around 1:30am, and I loaded my bags into his trunk and we were off. We pulled up to the airport at 1:58am, two minutes before check-in time. There many of our fellow team members already present - most looked like they had never gotten to sleep. Like clockwork, we began checking in our bags and declaring the equipment. Time seemed to just slip away and before I knew it we were on board the 737 destined for Timehri International Airport in Guyana. The flight lasted 50 minutes and was an opportunity for some team members to catch up on sleep, read their bibles and interact with one another. I sat down next to Kathryn during this leg of journey. I like excited people and she did make the flight enjoyable - although my initial plan was to sleep, I didn't mind getting foregoing that to fellowship with her.
It
was now 4:50am, we had arrived at Timehri, and we literally hit the ground
running. Sunil had gone before in true John "The Baptist" style
to prepare the way for us, so we had transportation outside the airport
already waiting to take us to our next destination. I didn't realize until
too late that you're not supposed to take photographs inside airports, "Ce'st
la vive!" We were here in Guyana. However, our journey was just now
starting. The teams were going to two remote villages Hotoquai and Waini-Yarakita,
which was two days journey from Timehri, and actually closer to Trinidad
and Venezuela than to the major towns in Guyana.
We
jumped in the buses which were waiting for us, which we were owned and driven
by church members of the De Hoop New Testament Church who we were partnering
with to go into the Interior. The sun was now starting to rise and we had
a long journey ahead of us. I got to sit with Steven on this leg of the
journey and we chatted about the ministry for the young men that we had
decided upon. I thought he understood me at the time.
We
crossed the Demerara river on a floating pontoon bridge; that was impressive.
I was more concerned though with the price of toll for crossing the bridge
which was in the order of $250 per car. I wondered if people could afford
to cross that bridge to come to work. We arrived at Parika shortly thereafter,
where we purchased some water, which clued me in on the exchange rate -
I paid $200 for a bottle of water. From Parika we had to cross the Essequibo
river, which is 27 miles in width, and actually has islands inside it. We
took 2 boats to cross this river, and it was actually kind of fun - although,
from the look on Raj's face in the picture you probably couldn't tell. I
don't think I was quite prepared for what lay in store for us at the other
end of this river.
There
were more buses waiting for us when we landed at Supenaam. This process
of packing and unpacking our bags was getting a bit tedious, but it was
still early in the day and nothing was going to sap my joy. I could see
the other team members slowing at this point although excited from that
boat ride, signs of not sleeping had begun showing on almost all of us.
These buses were taking us to Charity, where we'd meet up with the Pastor
and a few members of the Wesleyan Church who would be accompanying us into
the Interior.
Eventually,
we arrived at Charity and had some time to interact and bond with other
members of the team. After we removed all our bags from the buses, we packed
all our bags into garbage bags to prevent them from getting wet. We then
labelled these bags according to teams so they could go ahead of us, on
a luggage boat, toward the villages.
There
was actually quite an interesting story about this pier where we picked
up these boats. About 5 years ago, the Guyanese Government had built a state-of-the
art dock at Charity which sat on the banks of the Pomeroon river. The Pomeroon
is the deepest river in Guyana, and shortly after the opening of the docks,
a mudslide came and washed the entire thing under the river, which is still
there up to today. We were content that at least there was something that
we could still walk on to get to the boats.
After lunching with the Guyanese folk at the Wesleyan church, and Pastor Orpah we jumped on our boats and headed down the Pomeroon toward our overnight destination of the Amerindian village of Cloudland. The ride up the Pomeroon was scenic. We had split into two groups, each on two different boats and the luggage boat. The luggage boat went ahead first, followed by the boat that I was in. The boat behind us didn't seem to be in sight for hours along the Pomeroon. It soon became abundantly clear that we weren't heading inland, but rather out into open sea. I was more than excited, and didn't chance a nap during this leg of the journey. The further I got from what I considered civilization, computers and the Internet, the closer I felt to God. I was soon humming along to Carmen's song, "There is a God" in my head.
We took a shortcut through the Atlantic ocean to cut into another river which ran parallel to the Pomeroon. Out on the Atlantic, the last boat passed us. They had been missing for some time. We later learned they had to change their engine and divide the passengers from that one boat among two boats. Their new engine seemed to be doing the job, as they passed us in no time, and ducked into the river ahead which had a totally different feel to the wide Pomeroon. The overhanging trees creating a sort of hallway effect was very inviting and eerie at the same time.
As evening to this first day approached we closed in on a tiny village, which itself was an island, nestled within the watery plains of the river. This was Cloudland. I had heard much about this village, and was delighted to meet the Pastor and others from the village when we disembarked for the night. Unfortunately my photo journal for the day stops there, as I had gotten very ill at Cloudland, from possibly drinking the water in the bathing area which caused an allergic reaction with my face and throat. This was a subtle reminder to me to keep me humble, that no matter what may happen, God is in control. No matter what technological advances I could make, none could help me at this point. I felt the love of the team towards me that night. A bunch of strangers, brothers and sisters who I could actually feel love emanating from. This wasn't the usual Campus Crusade group that I knew and trusted with my life. This was another bunch of believers who had that genuine love for God and for man. I don't remember much about that night, other than having devotion, and us getting to bed in our sleeping bags. I knew I was with an amazing group of people that night.
Next Day: [Day 2: On de 'road' again...]