Guyana, it's jungles stretch out as far as you can see in every direction. The land of many waters is true to its name, from the rivers and creeks flowing in every direction, to the lakes hidden deep in the Amazon Jungle. It really is a beautiful country. The church where we were located is a part of "Full Gospel Fellowship" which has a collection of over 150 churches across Guyana. We were privileged to have the never ending jungle stretch out behind our house, and a smooth, very skate-able roads to the front. The community where we stayed was a probably one of my favourite parts of the country, the people were so generous, loving, open, inviting, and always willing to go out of there way to cook you a meal. We were blessed with so much food everyday, people cooking us meals left right and centre, and much much more then we could ever eat! The amount of times we had plates and plates of extra food was amazing, it's like the people making us the food some how heard we were 40 people and make food according to that! Our host, Pastor Deo, is the pastor of the church where we were spending most of our time. Although he lived many km off the beaten path he always was willing to make his was to the church and spend quality time with our team building relationships, and making memories. He opened many doors for ministry in the time there, from heading into Georgetown, or to rural communities scattered across the jungle. Besides the fellowship we had with the locals around us and the Pastor, we had a lot of down time... In this time I would put on my shoes, grab my skateboard, and hit the open road. Like I said before the road that ran past our front door was more than I could have wished for, from a combination of super smooth, to having just the right decline on the hills, it was perfect. Because of this Nicolas, Kotie-Alet, and I, spent a lot of our free time building our confidence and skill one day at a time. Unfortunately one of the days Nicholas hit some un expected rocks on the road, riding behind him I saw everything, his feet leaving the board, and very quickly going head over heels towards the ground. Surprisingly he popped back up with a couple small scratches, with one nasty bump to his head. As he confidently hopped back on his board and continued on, he soon noticed his eyes weren't focusing right... Hearing this we made our way back to the church and got him lying down, as Coleen attended to the scrape on his head he started feeling quite bad and realized it could be worse than we thought. After praying for him we could feel God say he will be ok and just needs to rest it out, so we let him rest in a quiet place and, surprisingly he had a very quick recovery and before we left Guyana again he was able to get back on his skateboard again.
Another thing we were able to spend some time doing, was swimming in the coke-cola creeks that twist and turn through the dense jungle. Following some locals from the church into the jungle, we came across a swimming hole just big enough to have a really enjoyable time in. A nearby tree stretching over the pool made for a perfect spot to jump from. The water in the creeks and pools is a black (coke-cola) colour, this happens because the roots and wood the the water runs over dyes the water the dark colour. If interested you can check out some pictures of it on my Instagram page.
Because of the endless waters of Guyana and the Amazon Jungle, the mosquitos here are lethal. From morning to night, rain or shine, they are a constant pest, form having to sleep with mosquito nets to, always applying unhealthy amounts of repellent, it's one of the only things making me hesitant of going back and spending more time with the friends I left behind. Overall Guyana was a wonderful country one of my favourite so far and I think I say that about all of them but it's a new favourite for sure!
Until next time.
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