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December 25, 2007
12:34:09 PM

Merry Christmas to you all from Mabaruma! We just finished a Christmas lunch of mashed potatoes, Karen's Special K roast (somewhat modified), cucumber and tomato salad and an assortment of chocolate and candy that has come in care packages. The boys opened a few gifts this morning early and it has just been a peaceful day around the house, later this evening another missionary family that lives around the corner is going to come by and visit, they have three children, all a bit older than Jacob and Zachary.

The last few days have been a bit of a roller coaster ride, some challenges and some very positive events too. I left Mabaruma on Thursday morning with Dr. Persaud, the Chief Medical Officer for Guyana, Mr. Jeffries, the Chief Medic for Guyana and a Paediatrician with the Pan American Health Organization. We had a load of vaccines and treatment for Pertussis (whooping cough) to take to Baramita, they are having an outbreak there, I had taken two medics and a load of medicines there a couple of days before as well. The plan was to go to Baramita where they would have a clinic then drop more medicines at Bemichi then on to Georgetown where I would stay over and take care of business and supplies so that I could be back on Friday afternoon. That didn't work out so good, I had already not been feeling well the day before and had had a mild fever during the night but I was feeling reasonably ok on Friday and as the day passed in Baramita I felt worse and worse. The Dr. and the medic each saw over 80 patients in the four hours or so we were there and another medic that I had taken before has been seeing people steady for a couple of days already. So many children, most families have eight or nine kids, when you stand out on the airstrip you see people streaming in from all directions, a lot of them asked me if I had brought a dentist with me. Anyway we left there at 3:30 for what was to be a short stop at Bemichi, on arrival I told them that they had 20 minutes to get back to the plane in order to get to Georgetown by dark, they didn't get back for 50 minutes and by then I had to tell them that we weren't going anywhere that day. So we loaded up in the back of the pickup for the ride into town. They put us up in an apartment behind the hospital, which was fine except for the fact that the bathroom had no water, a fact that I discovered at midnight without a flashlight, unfortunately a flushing ceramic fixture or other such facility was required for my affliction. I did slip into the Doctor's quarters when he got called to change an IV and later I roamed around the hospital with my Timex Indiglo until I found a toilet. We were ready to fly out at 6am the next morning but the rains came in and it just rained harder and harder. While we were waiting I had a Malaria smear taken, during the night I had had cold sweats as well and that is a classic symptom of malaria, fortunately it came back negative. The rain eased up and the clouds lifted finally around 11am and we were able to make the flight into Georgetown, I had hoped to gather up a few supplies and some passengers to head back to Mabaruma but I was feeling so terrible that I ended up back at the house in bed Friday afternoon and all day on Saturday. Sunday I was still feeling poor but I managed to pick up what we needed in spite of the packed stores and get off to the airport. Unfortunately I had a large magneto drop on the plane and found myself trying to figure out what the problem was, spark plug, lead, magneto or other problem. There wasn't anyone available at the shop to trouble shoot if for me so I had to stay over again and go back on Monday morning (Christmas Eve), I was just hoping and praying (as were many others), that they would be able to figure it out and repair it in time for me to fly back to Mabaruma that day. Fortunately they did, one of the ignition leads had a break and they were able to replace it and I was on my way by before 2pm. On the return trip I brought a man that I had taken in almost two months ago with stomach/intestinal problems, he had a tumour removed from his abdomen that was the size of a large grapefruit, he is still waiting for the results of the biopsy to determine if it is cancerous. In any case he was very thankful to be home for Christmas, as was I.

Blessings from our family to you and yours!

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December 16, 2007
04:21:13 PM

This blog entry represents a major step forward in our communications; this posting is completed via our satellite internet connection that is finally operational. I would like to make special thanks to the management and guests of Silver Hilton Steelhead Lodge who made a special effort to see this system set up for us here.

The rainy season is here, it has rained a lot, on Friday morning I was at the airport in Georgetown waiting for the weather to pick up and I noticed the weather observer headed over to the rain gauge. I went over and held her umbrella while she checked it, inside the container they have a glass bottle to collect the water and it was overflowing, she filled a small measuring beaker several times and then several more times with the water that had overflowed into the bigger container. The total was 96 mm, roughly four inches and that is just from the last 12 hours, it had been raining almost constantly for the last couple of days! It’s no wonder the drainage ditches/canals were full in Georgetown. Mabaruma has had slightly less total but still a lot and there has been virtually no sign of the sun. The weather for flying has been very poor, lots of the commercial flights have been cancelled and I have spent a lot of time waiting on the weather to improve. The dirt strips have turned to mud, I have been impressed with these big tires on the plane, they seem to suck out of that muck pretty easily, there have been a couple of landings that I must have looked like I was totally landing on water.

I just got word last night that the two year old boy with pneumonia that I flew out last Sunday died on Saturday, they have asked if I can bring the boy’s body and his mother back to Mabaruma on Monday for burial. That is an unpleasant but important task that is part of our work here in the area. Today I took two mothers and babies into Georgetown, one baby has asthma or some type of respiratory problems, as he struggled to breathe you could see his ribs sharply outlined against his chest. The other baby was two weeks old and doing fine but his mother had lost a lot of blood during the delivery and was severely anaemic. On the return flight I took a mother and a newborn home to Port Kaituma, I have held a lot of tiny babies since I have been here! We have started to give small teddy bears to the babies and small children that we transport as a reminder of their flight. Yesterday I took the local pastor and his family out to Georgetown for Workers meetings and then delivered vaccines into a place called Chinese Landing. On Wednesday I will be going to several areas with the region’s Chief Medic to do follow up on the ongoing vaccinations as well, and taking an additional medic into Baramita where they have been having an outbreak of some kind of fever in small children. We have been overwhelmed with requests for transportation now, even just with medical conditions, usually the hospital will send less than critical patients on the scheduled flights that come in a few times a week. With the holiday season those flights are now booked through to January and the last steamer leaves on Thursday so we are about the only other option for many of them.

An update on the 13 year old boy with the head injury. He did get a CT Scan which revealed a clot on his brain, as far as I know there has been no surgical intervention but as of yesterday he had been improving. Unfortunately he has developed sepsis along with diarrhea so that will complicate his condition, I will post any additional news that develops, I did get word that some family members had taken the boat out to be with him.

As I write this we are waiting for the Steamer (freighter), to arrive with the first batch of things from the container; the Utility Vehicle, the boys bikes, our 12 volt refrigerator and a crate full of supplies like books, clothes, ham radio, tools etc.. It is all stuff we have seen before but it will still be like Christmas to be getting it. On that note I can’t say that if feels like Christmas but we did put up a little pre-decorated tree that has some lights, it does lend something to the feel around the house. We thought about making popcorn strings and then realized that would probably just invite some unwanted guests back into the house. We seem to be establishing ourselves in the house as the dominant species, the ants that were here in droves have pretty much disappeared along with most of the spiders and cockroaches, even the rats seem to be running scared of the little kitten that we have adopted. With the rainy season our next challenge seems to be dealing with the severe humidity, clothes take forever to dry (sometimes days undercover), and if they are folded for more than a few days they start to smell like mildew, we were thinking of Febreeze to freshen them up.

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December 10, 2007
02:51:15 PM

Today started out with heavy rain, I headed to the airport as the rain eased to showers to pick up the Broadband satellite installers that are going to set up our long awaited internet system in Mabaruma. We flew through some rain and low cloud for a few miles and then broke out into scattered clouds and sunshine for the rest of the trip. As the crew got started setting up the system the medic called from the hospital with an urgent patient. A thirteen year old boy that had fallen off of some kind of bridge, initially his chief complaint was his back but after a day in the hospital he began to exhibit signs of brain injury, slow speech, unable to walk, vomiting and severe swelling behind his eye. When they called today it had been almost two days since his injury and once I discovered the severity of his injuries I said I would take him right away, they also sent a patient that had previously been diagnosed with typhoid, he was in a bad way too, when I helped him I could feel his ribs through his shirt as if there was no flesh at all. I kept our altitude at 2,000 feet to reduce any the possibility of additional swelling from going higher and called Georgetown Control for an ambulance once we were in the air. They called back after a few minutes to let me know that there was only one ambulance available in Georgetown and that they would “try”. Of course there wasn’t one there when we arrived and further investigation revealed that it would be an hour or two before once would come. I then tried Davis Memorial Hospital but both of their ambulances were broken down so we ended up putting them in a taxi for a very uncomfortable ride to the hospital. I am very concerned for the boy, unfortunately Guyana is not a good place to get treatment for a brain injury, the right resources are just very limited here, although he should be able to get a CT scan. He is now in Georgetown with absolutely no family, there wasn't even anyone with him in Mabaruma, I would like to request that you pray for him.

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November 30, 2007
02:10:44 AM

Perspective: In Mabaruma we live in relative comfort, a fairly normal house with at least most of the things you would want in the house but what is amazing is just how limited the reach of civilization really is. If we walk just 15 minutes from our house there is a village, where for example there is a family with eight or nine children living in a hut that is no larger than eight by twelve feet. Now I am not talking about shanty type living, this is just how they live in the jungle, not running water or power, palm roofs, walls that are only three feet high. No children under five or six wear a stitch of clothes, the huts are surrounded by tall cassava plants, their principle food source. We routinely transport people from out in the rivers that have no idea how to buckle a seat belt, open a car door or talk on a telephone, it’s no wonder that when they get to Georgetown they often fall through the cracks or get lost in the shuffle. I usually will give people my phone number so they can call me when they are ready to go back to the interior but what I have discovered is that many of them simply don’t know how to make a phone call or at least are afraid to. We are looking for a volunteer in Georgetown to monitor the progress of the Amerindian people we bring in to ensure that get and understand their medical treatments and follow up, where to get and how to take medications and to ensure that they find transportation once they are able to go home.

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November 29, 2007
12:56:51 PM

As someone said the other day to us, “never a dull moment”, so true, I have also been warned that if we tell too many of our exciting experiences that involve bugs and wildlife we might scare everyone away. All I can say is that we seem to be having more “excitement” than the average resident of Mabaruma, so for those of you who are squeamish…sorry.

Yesterday morning Jacob stepped on a piece of “rope” at the bottom of the stairs but the rope quickly wiggled away and disappeared, they found it later in a shrub just outside of the door. It was a long, slender, green whip snake, apparently harmless and quite common, this morning it was gone. This afternoon Karen spotted it in the steps again and Godfrey, our landlord, sprayed it with something, unfortunately he seems to have scared it upstairs because a short while later Karen found it again but now it was inside the house behind a bin. Zack and I pinned it with the broom head (these brooms are pretty handy!) and then contemplated methods of capturing it but after thoroughly chickening out I swept it out the door, down the stairs and across the lawn until it climbed a tree. It’s about three feet long and when it went down the stairs it just stretched out straight and slid all the way to the bottom as fast as I could run after it.

And if that isn’t enough excitement for one day, after I got back to Gtn this afternoon I was in a car and it started to wobble, lots of cars here wobble so I didn’t think too much of it but it turns out that we had an earthquake, somewhere around 3.0. Karen said it shook for close to a minute in Mabaruma, some bottles fell of the shelves in the store but that was about it.

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November 28, 2007
07:23:52 AM

Update for November 28. Time flies here, no pun intended. Our container has been at the wharf here for over three weeks and there seems to be nothing I can do to hasten the process. As far as we are aware there is no real problem, just some little thing everyday that holds it up, someone is out of the country that needs to sign a document, the power is out so they can’t print something, there is a holiday, and this seems to be a revolving process, so we hold out hope day to day. ( I just got a call that all of the paperwork has been submitted) In the meantime we have some guys placing some concrete piers out behind the hospital so that the container can sit up nicely off of the ground and stay above the typical flood level that comes with heavy rains. Yesterday the Labore’s left for the States for their furlough leaving us to hold down the fort so to speak, they will be back in early March. Karen is busy keeping the house in order, she will be starting the boys on a home schooling program the first of the year. She is also working with the Dentec planning a medical/dental trip out to Baramita before the end of the year. These trips will get easier once we get the logistics figured out, for now though organizing the people, supplies and equipment is fairly complicated. I have a meeting on Friday at the Ministry of Health with the Dr. that coordinates the vaccination programs throughout the country that should help launch that part of the program.

I am spending a lot of time trying to figure out our fuel logistics, at the international airport where we rarely ever go, the avgas is over $1.50 less per US gallon than it is at Ogle field where we normally fly out of. The location at Timeri that is cheaper will only pump fuel into an aircraft so if we want containers of any kind we would have to siphon the fuel off of the wing tanks and then go fill them again. We are looking into any other options that may be available to us.

We received many encouraging words after the story of the boy that died from the scorpion bite, thank you all, we also received some funding towards the fuel budget which will be very helpful.

Our email is still sporadic but we are getting closer to having our own system set up, we have installers scheduled for the 10th of December.

Blessings to all!

The Wickwire’s

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November 20, 2007
10:11:24 AM

Today was one of those days that I knew would occur and yet found myself entirely unprepared for it…it started yesterday. I had a flight scheduled to Port Kaituma at 1pm, a couple of hours before that I received a call from Dr. Boris in Mabaruma that he had two patients that were urgent, one of them was a four year old boy that had been stung by a scorpion, I told him I should be there around 3pm. We were late departing and the flight to Port Kaituma was in marginal weather with fairly heavy rain and poor visibility but I made it in and hydroplaned down the runway to a stop, I quickly discharged my passengers and took off for Mabaruma, nearly there the weather improved somewhat but only a couple of miles from the airstrip I encountered torrential rain and a cloud bank. I circled around for close to twenty minutes waiting for the rain to move away and it finally did, partially, one end of the strip was still enshrouded in the rain and the strip was nearly a lake, by now it was 3:30 and one patient was 45 minutes away stuck in the mud with her bus and I had eaten into my fuel reserve while circling. Knowing that it would take me all of 30 minutes to go to the house, pump a couple of jerry cans of gas and get back to the plane and get on our way I then could have just enough time to get to Georgetown by sunset, as long as I didn't have to dodge too much weather. Considering that the weather had not been good all afternoon I felt that there was just not enough safety margin to make the flight so I called the clinic and told them that we would go early in the morning.

The rain finally let up around six so I went down to the hospital to check on the boy and make the arrangements for the morning flight. He was semi conscious but seemed to be doing ok, his father told me how that morning he had just been putting on his shoes and the scorpion had bitten him on his big toe, he had immediately begun to vomit repeatedly, he also told me of another boy they knew that had died from a scorpion bite. It took them several hours to get from where they live up the river to the clinic but here they just don't have enough resources for treatment, I left after assuring his parents that I would be back first thing in the morning to take him to Georgetown. At six the next morning I was back at the clinic only to find the doctor standing out in front, he informed me that the boy had died during the night, inside I could hear the wails from the family as they first learned of his death. Honestly I was devastated, Karen called me shortly after and I couldn't even talk to her, I know we can't save everyone and I am sure that most people in the medical field face this kind of situation many times in their careers, my mind raced all day with "what-if's", timing, fuel, weather and a better understanding of the seriousness of this situation.

My decision not to fly was sound but there were many factors involved with making that decision, one of them was fuel, on Friday I didn't have enough money to buy a full tank of gas, I had enough for the planned flight with a comfortable reserve plus the knowledge that there was around 40 gallons in a drum in Mabaruma as a back-up plan Unfortunately my circling around Mabaruma had eaten into both my time and that comfortable reserve thereby reducing my options, also for all of the flights for the day I had made my best effort to ensure that the seats were always full and hadn't really considered making a special medivac just for the boy. As I write this the event is still raw in my heart, my prayers have been going out to the parents and family of that little boy in their time of tragedy and loss. I know this may be an attempt to tug at your heartstrings but it comes straight from my heart, perhaps nothing could have changed the outcome of the day but I can say for certain that knowing that there is money for gas can take that factor out of the decision making, and that can change outcomes.

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November 02, 2007
09:15:05 AM

FYI, for those that have been asking we think the snake pictured below is a Rusty Whip Snake, however that is a laymans opinion and we welcome qualified corrections. We don't know if it is venomous.

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November 01, 2007
04:10:34 PM

October 30, 2007 They keep saying that we are at the beginning of the dry season however it has been anything but, yesterday and today it rained off and on all day and prior to that it would rain nearly every afternoon. Yesterday when I woke up it was completely still, then I could hear this dull roar in the distance, gradually getting louder and louder until it sounded like a cascade of water. Karen and I got up to watch and we could see this grey line overtake the trees on the other side of the field, a sharp wind came up that rattled the metal roofing, then the rains hit in a torrent…so much for the laundry on the line. Bill and Laura are conducting a health seminar at the church starting next week, Karen will be doing one of the evenings on dental care. They will also be checking blood sugar levels and blood pressure upon request. We are hoping for a good turnout, it should be well received in the community, it is certainly needed, diabetes is very common here. Several flights this week, yesterday Laura did a medivac with two patients, the main one was a mother with twins in labour, apparently a breach, we had a call this morning that both babies had been delivered and were doing well. On the way back she brought two mothers and babies that had gone out for treatment and needed to get home. I am back in Georgetown for a day to get the paperwork in order for the container arrival which is supposed to be tomorrow, the broker will submit the paperwork on Monday and hopefully it will be processed rapidly. More has it happens!

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November 01, 2007
04:07:24 PM

Oct. 30, 2007 Mabaruma, Region 1 Guyana, South America Things are going good so far this week. Except for the unavoidable, eventual seeing of my first snake. One of the boys classmates was over, and they were playing out in the pasture, when the boys came running over yelling that there was a fire snake, over eight feet long, in a burn pile, and it needed to be killed. Jud went out armed with his camera. Daffrel (the classmate ) insisted that it needed to die, but neither Jud not I were brave enough or knowledgeable to do it ourselves, so I went and called our landlord. Upon his arrival, he just looked at it, and went about feeding his pigs which were located near by. he didn’t really seem to care too much about it. Apparently not all snakes need to die, and he’s happy to have them around to eat the rats.

Sunday, Jud was sick most of the day. In the morning I made granola. Sadly, two days later most of the granola is gone. Apparently I missed the instructions about quadrupling the actual recipe. Next time. It’s been really rainy here. I was told today that the Christmas rains may have begun. I guess that means that it could rain any time of day. It had been raining just in the afternoon, but today we woke up to rain. No more putting out the laundry, and then going to town. Today they were playing Anne Murray in the store downstairs. You can’t beat hanging out doing laundry to a Canadian singer blaring from the store below!! We’ve been eating Pomelo’s like they’re going out of style! Grapefruit the size of your head. (In my case, bigger than my head.) The great thing about these are that they barely have more than two seeds in the entire fruit!

Today Jud and I went to Kumaka. It’s the day that the river people boat to town and sell all their fresh fruit and veggies. We got some cucumbers, which are short and fat, some pumpkin, which is orange and elongated, ( they call all squash pumpkin.) We also bought some shallots which are green onions, and a bag of mystery stuff that the sellers say is soy protein. We have no idea where they get it from, but it looked like a good filler. We also bought callaloo which is similar to spinach. When you cut it with a knife, it leaves slimy strings behind it. It was a pretty good day at the market. We were looking around for a birthday present for Zack, but we didn’t have any luck.

Tomorrow Jud is heading to G’town to take 3 patients from the hospital in. Two are a newborn and its mother. While Jud is in G’town, he will meet with someone who will help us get our container when it arrives, which is supposed to be Nov. 2! My how time flies!! The boys have been quite excited thinking that it won’t be long before they get to ride their bikes again. I’ve been thinking that it’s been nice that they’ve been relatively injury free so far, and I wonder if that’s all about to end!!!

We have made the discovery that they sell cheese in the store downstairs. We had some grilled cheese sandwiches, and some cheese on spaghetti, and then we kind of forgot about it. It’s comforting to know that it’s there, available if we need it!

My mornings lately have consisted of me getting up, looking at the end of my mosquito net, and getting annoyed. We have a bat who hangs from the ceiling above the end of our bed, and then goes to the bathroom, and it lands all down the end of our net, and on the floor at the end of the bed. Shoes are definitely important to have by the bed as soon as you get up! So, I get up, get the bucket of water with bleach, soak my net, wash my sheet with probably didn’t fare so well either, and wait until the next morning to do it all over again! We are plotting ways to stop this routine. We’ll let you know if we succeed in out battle with the bats. Monday night the power went off around 8:00. Jud and I were so tired that we just barely put the kids to bed and we went too. The boys tend to sleep with the lights on, until they all go off around 11:00 pm. Today is Wednesday, Oct 31, 2007. We are reminded that it’s Haloween by the calendar, and are thankful that it isn’t celebrated here!! Hallelujah, but the bat was AWOL last night, so my sheets and mosquito net get a break from their hydrotherapy treatments!!!!

Today, Jud was supposed to go to G’town, and take 3 patients with him. Apparently the baby was born on Sunday, and still blue Tuesday night, when the hospital decided that maybe today would be a good time to take the baby to the big hospital. They called us last night around 4:00 pm. It takes 1hour and 20 minutes to fly to G’town, and the sun sets around 5:30 pm. It was too late Tuesday to go. The baby died last night, so there was no longer an urgency to fly today. The other patient who was going along didn’t need treatment urgently, so he’ll have to wait for a later time, or take the boat when it comes next time. Sadly, we are asked so often for flights to G’town. Some are medically necessary, but not urgent. Unfortunately our funds for fuel for the airplane are not endless, so we have to be more careful than we’d like about who to fly. If people are willing to donate funds to directly pay for fuel, we do have a place on this site specifically for fuel donations. Today Jud went to the hospital to talk with the head nurse so that we can establish some kind of protocol for calling about patients. So far we are just being called to Mabaruma area, but we are still trying to get to the whole of region 1.

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October 25, 2007
07:32:24 PM

http://www.stabroeknews.com/index.pl/article_general_news?id=56531520 City rain 33% above normal over past six months Monday, October 22nd 2007 Figures for the last six months (April to September) show that rainfall in Georgetown was 33% above average but Mabaruma in the north west saw 68.5% less rain than normal though this normal figure is based on data from 1951 to 1980. The rainfall figures are provided on a daily basis by the hydrometeorological service of the Ministry of Agriculture. For the six-month period, Georgetown chalked up 69.19 inches of rain compared to the normal figure of 51.98. Mabaruma in Region One (Barima/Waini) registered 38.69 inches when the normal figure would be 65.23. Of the other two selected areas of study, Lethem in Region Nine (Upper Takutu/Upper Essequibo experienced a 30.8% hike in rain. The normal figure for this area would be 50.54 over six months while it actually received 66.12 inches. Skeldon in Region Six (East Berbice/Corentyne) showed the smallest deviation in rainfall. Its normal cumulative figure for six months is 44.64 inches and it actually received 47.48 inches, a rise of 6.36%. August was one of the very unusual months for Georgetown. Whereas normal rainfall was pegged at 7.92 inches it received almost double that - 15.07 inches. For Lethem, July showed a big deviation. Normal rainfall would be 12.86 inches but it received 18.73 inches. Mabaruma experienced several months of abnormally low rain. In April, normal rainfall would have been 5.52 inches but it only experienced 1.59 inches. In July normal rainfall would have been 13.21 inches. Actual rainfall was 7.74 inches. Region One had been severely afflicted with drought-like conditions during the El Nino event in the mid-90s.

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October 24, 2007
09:20:08 AM

October 24, 2007 Jud is off to Georgetown this morning. He is taking Pastor Williams and a woman with a baby, and Bill LaBore. He will be in G’town until Friday sometime, then he’ll bring out the health minister, and then he‘ll have to take him back to G‘town in the afternoon! Hopefully he’ll make it back Friday evening. Jud was planning to into G’town on Monday, but they realized that none of the passengers medically needed to go, so they rescheduled them for later. That’s the hard part having the plane. Everyone knows that they can get a free ride if it’s a medical emergency, but some just want the quick free trip to the big city. Even those with medical problems, we’d love to fly out, but since the funding for gas is the problem, we can’t just fly for fun. It’s hard, because I heard of a boy the other day with a mass on his spine, and he can’t take the boat because he’s in too much pain. There is a commercial flight that flies regularly, and sometimes the ministry will put sick patients on it, so I hope that he can get on one of those flights. We could only fly him sometime next month with our current schedule. The other day Laura flew a man out, and his appendix burst an hour after he arrived at the hospital in G’town. We’ve heard that he is doing a bit better. Thank God. Jud will have lots to do it G’town. He’ll be getting supplies, having meetings, and try to arrange for the satellite system so we can get on-line! We all can’t wait for that! We’ve been battling the bats at our new place. Don’t get the wrong idea, because we still love it here, but I’ve been telling people that the bats stay up high, and don’t really bother us. Well two nights ago, I was reading in bed, and this bat was flying around the room. All of a sudden it landed on top of the mosquito net 3 feet above my head! It was really tiny. Then it took off again, and slammed into the wall, and then promptly flew to it’s new favorite spot on the mosquito net above my head. I shouted for Jud to come save me. We figured that this was a challenged bat since his sonar was failing him so badly. Anyway with the help of a broom and a sandal he was soon given a free ride down the porcelain highway. I now have a new job in the morning which is cleaning up mystery animals dropping that they so kindly leave for us all through the night. It could be a lizard or the bats, I’m not sure!

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October 24, 2007
09:18:11 AM

Sunday, October 21, 12007 Mabaruma, Guyana Last Thursday, Laura LaBore, Daniella, Micah, Jake and Zack, and Bertha, and I were planning to go to Hosororo waterfalls. The men were breaking in the pastors new boat by going to Port Kaituma, and the boys had the day off school, so we were planning a fun day too. The boys really wanted to go with Jud in the boat, but last minute we realized that we didn’t have life jackets for them so they’ll have to wait for another day for their boat adventure! Last minute, Laura received a call to fly a patient into Georgetown, so Bertha and I all 4 kids decided to go on without Laura. Bertha had been there a few weeks ago, and so off we went along with Shumar who goes to school with the boys and is one of my Juniors at church. We hopped onto the bus, for the ride to Kumaka, and from there we hired another bus to take us to where the path to the falls begins. After the mile or so walk we came to a little jungle creek. A few years back they tried to dam it and get electricity off of it. I was told that the turbines were stolen, and that was the end of that! Anyway there was a little pool no more than waist deep that the boys and Daniella had fun playing in. Apparently the last time they had been there the water was quite a bit deeper. I had forgotten to bring a change of pants, so I just waded around enjoying the cool water! While we were there, Zack and I happened to glance up at the trees, and we saw monkeys going by in the treetops. There were also Morpho butterflies with their iridescent blue colors. We had a nice picnic lunch, and came home in the rain.

It’s been raining a lot here lately. How many times should one have to take the laundry off the line, put it back up when the rain stops, and then take it down again, and put it back up? I sure miss my machines. The blenders, the washers that dry (which means they wring out the water for you). The scrub board isn’t too bad, just really time consuming. I miss putting my laundry into the hole, coming back and putting it into another hole, coming back taking it out and folding it up!! It sounds too wonderful to be true! I just haven’t found the knack to wringing out the clothes, and I know that it’s taking way too long to dry!!! Cooking was a challenge for me at home, so you can be sure it isn’t any easier down here. Jud will be in Georgetown a few nights this week, and I’m sure Kraft dinner will feature on the menu possibly more than once. We do have a tiny bar fridge that comes with the house, but it’s so small that we quickly run out of room with leftovers. Maybe not this week!! I’m getting sick of the mosquito bites, so I’ve taken to wearing long pants and a sweater in the evening. I think that the weather is even cooler since we’ve been getting a fair bit of rain, so I don’t burn up when I dress up. At least it’s fairly safe under the mosquito net. Somehow it seems they find their way in there too. This past Sabbath was kids day. All around Guyana in the Adventist churches, the programs were done by kids. Our church was joined by a few surrounding churches, and was the most full that I’ve ever seen it. It was pretty close to standing room. The program was really good. Jake had prayer for the church service, and then for the Adventist Youth program in the afternoon, Jake and Zack said a poem. Mabaruma church brought Chow Mein to the potluck and the Waina church brought cook-up which is a rice dish. The day ended at 4:00 when the surrounding churches needed to leave so that they could get home maybe before dark. The lady I was sitting next to in church said that they lived 10 kms beyond Waina, and they had walked that before getting the tractor truck ride the rest of the way! How come we don’t have AY programs in Canada? Maybe in places where there is less going on, it’s easier to commit to a longer time at church associating with your church family? Well, the power has gone off a bit early tonight, so I should end this before I lose power in my computer. Have a nice day, and be nice to your washing machines!!!!

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October 24, 2007
09:15:41 AM

Insects… We have an abundance of insects, they are the most annoying in the kitchen. There are the little tiny red ants that seem to find their way into almost everything, they have a particular affinity for vegetable oil, you have to put the bottle of cooking oil in a dish of water otherwise it will be covered with a swarm of the little stinkers. I think we are going to put the table legs in little cans of water to create an ant free zone. There are bigger ants too although the food seems to be less of an attraction to them, cockroaches are common too, the other day I was stirring a pot and one dropped off of the ceiling, bounced off my hand and scurried off before I had a chance to whack it. The flies are thick here too, apparently this is a seasonal affliction, the flies love bread, leave out a slice and in moments it will be swarmed. On the bright side there are several gecko’s that hang out near the ceiling lights in the kitchen, we enjoy watching them snap up insects while we eat our supper. Mosquitoes are a constant annoyance as well, they are the little tiny ones that you hardly even see but leave a nasty itch behind after they bite, the bug repellent seems to have a short effective period, I think we need some 100% deet oil. You have to be really careful when you sleep that no part of you is up against the net or you will have a cluster of bites in the morning, Zachary has taken to sleeping fully clothed in long sleeves, pant and socks. The other day a boy at school gave Jacob what we think is a Rhinoceros Beetle, it’s just huge, probably close to three inches long. There are lots of innocuous bugs too, stick bugs, bright green grasshoppers, 5” long praying mantis’s, brightly coloured beetles, there are even lightning bugs that hover around the room at night like our own private stars.

Of course there are a variety of spiders and you never know when you are going to uncover one of them, the worst ones are the big brown ones that are five to six inches across, it seems like you have to whack them several times to do them in and their legs shoot off in all directions if you hit them too hard. Huge wasps are constantly building nests on the ceilings around the windows and under the eves, Jacob got stung on the cheek the other day down by the wharf but he was poking the nest with a stick. There are some smaller bees that have a couple of nests on the house, sometimes they come out in swarms but we haven’t been stung by one yet, they may be honey bees. We seem to be getting used to the bats flying around the room at night, knowing that they are eating bugs is somewhat comforting. However now there is some kind of small animal, we suspect one of those green and blue lizards, running around the house at night leaving stinky “gifts” everywhere, including at the foot of our bed. There is probably nothing we can do about him.

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October 24, 2007
09:14:43 AM

Thursday was a busy day for all of us, I drove the new boat to Port Kaituma with Bill, Pastor Williams and another church member, we weren’t sure how long it would take with this boat plus it is still being broken in so we are running it at less than full throttle. Anyway on the way there it took almost 2 ½ hours running on a basically slack tidal flow. We went in the morning and we would frequently pass tiny dugouts loaded with several children dressed in uniforms for school, there was only one visible school that I saw and the dugouts would be travelling in different directions. I did see one coming toward us and then disappear, as we got closer all I could see was a tiny trail of bubbles vanishing into a nearly invisible opening in the brush and tree roots. The map shows many small creeks flowing in but I only saw two and they were fairly large tributaries. The main route was fairly simple though; down the Aruka to the Barima then up the Barima to the Kaituma, when you get close to Port Kaituma there is a canal that you have to turn up for the last mile or so that takes you right to the port.

In Port Kaituma we caught a ride in the back of a pick-up to Jonestown, at least where it used to be, Bill wanted to do an interview on video of someone that remembered Jonestown. The man was a teenager in 1978 and his brother actually died in the massacre, he had some interesting things to say, for one thing they had “practice” sessions of drinking Kool-Aid about three months before the event. There is really nothing to see there physically, it is just jungle again, no buildings or anything, apparently there are a couple of foundations if you know exactly where to look. Next year will be the 40th anniversary of this tragic event, one that has painted a dark stain on the history of Guyana, even though it had nothing to do with Guyana or its people. The boat trip went well we saw some Blue Morph Butterflies and Toucans, we got away a bit late from Port Kaituma though, I was hoping that it would take under two hours coming back running at nearly full throttle. It actually took a full two hours, we were watching the sun get lower and lower and then a beautiful sunset…and then just enough light reflecting off of the clouds to see a tiny bit of reflection on the water and a silhouette of the trees and I would just aim for the lowest part of the silhouette hoping that was the direction of the river. I was quite relieved to see the lights of Kumaka finally, by then it was completely dark, I am not sure what we would have done if we were a few minutes later.

Also on Thursday Laura got a call from the hospital that they had a patient with acute appendicitis, Laura told them to meet her at the plane in ½ hour but they took a full hour to get there and she couldn’t understand why. It turns out that this patient had taken four days to get to Mabaruma and he had only the clothes on his back, the hospital doesn’t provide replacement clothes to patients so his family was trying to buy him enough basic necessities to get by in Georgetown. So they finally got him to the airstrip and Laura flew him and a nurse to Georgetown where his appendix burst a few minutes after his arrival at the hospital, had the plane not been available to him he may well have died here in Mabaruma. We just found out that our planned pick-up of the Minister of Health from Georgetown has been delayed from Monday until Friday of next week. We are hoping that he will be able to direct some funding our way for fuel for the plane.

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October 17, 2007
12:04:50 PM

October 13, 2007 and then some… It’s hard to believe that for most of you the weather is cooling and you are well into the Fall season, you don’t realize just how much of your internal clock is linked to the changing seasons. For us here it is like time is standing still and yet the days and weeks are flying by, we have precisely the same amount of daylight every day of the year and along with that little temperature change so it leaves you with no reference for the seasons. They say that this is supposed to be the dry season but it really isn’t so far, it has rained nearly every afternoon here in Mabaruma and the last couple of days we have basically seen no sun at all which makes if wonderfully cool. Well, on the housing front things have taken a change for the better. The new house is dramatically better, we now feel privileged to have something as nice as this, it is over 60 years old but its design reflects the colonial British days. Our landlord, Godfrey Chan-A-Sue, grew up in this house, his family came here around 1913 as shopkeepers. His grandfather originally settled a bit farther North but when the line was drawn between Venezuela and Guyana they found themselves on the wrong side and the British moved them to Mabaruma and they became one of the original settlers here. Godfrey and his wife Anne operate the shop downstairs as well as look after a fairly extensive selection of animals and quite a few acres of oranges. We are awakened every morning by his large ducks landing on the metal roof and banging around , yesterday morning the boys were invited out to watch them slaughter a couple of goats, they chose to watch from a good distance…the kitchen.

The Labore’s are leaving on furlough at the end of November and will be gone until February so the timing of our arrival was perfect, it gives us just enough time to get used to living here, get a handle on the flight operations and get to know the people that we are going to be working with. Locally Bill and Laura have really been involved with the Mabaruma Church, we have been asked it we would help with one of the small “river” churches, probably one called Blackwater, we met some of their members here last week. I am not exactly sure how far it is from here, I know that it takes over two hrs in a dugout with at motor, I am sure that with our boat or the church boat it will take much less time though. Yesterday we put the motor on the boat and test ran it on the river, it seems that I am the only one that has any idea how to operate it so for now I am the boat captain as well. I am fine with the operating but not so sure about the navigation, lots of rivers all surrounded by identical looking jungle and when you turn up one of the small ones often there is a nearly invisible opening in the trees with now other land marks. We are really looking forward to getting our container here, there are so many things that we need to be more effective here.

We are challenged with what to do about passengers here, it seems that just about everyone has a medical condition that THEY think required a trip to Georgetown for diagnosis and treatment. From our perspective we want to know that they have exhausted the local services before we take them out. Today I flew two patients and a nurse out to Georgetown, an ambulance was supposed to meet us at the airport but we ended up having to wait with one of the patients in the plane for most of an hour, he was having severe chest pains. The weather has been interesting, thunderstorms every afternoon, if we fly a few miles East of track we are on the coast and the clouds usually build up more over land. I know this blog is a bit dis-jointed, we have been adding to it sporadically and I am now going to post it from a café where I have about ½ hour to accomplish a weeks worth of emailing…Sorry. All the best from the Wickwire’s!

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October 09, 2007
03:24:18 AM

We will be headed back to Mabaruma later today so we will be out of touch again for a few days, there isn't a schedule for a trip back to Georgetown yet. We are still trying to nail down an install date for our satellite internet system, they have to ship the dish up on the boat, which leaves tomorrow and I don't think that they are going to be getting it on this one, which means another two weeks wait... Waiting is common here.  Here are some pictures from the last couple of weeks.

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October 08, 2007
07:36:37 PM

Today, (Monday), we flew in a patient that has been sick with vomiting and chronic fatigue for several weeks now, they have been unable to diagnose what it is in Mabaruma. Karen came in for her birthday and today her and the boys got to spend the afternoon at a pool in one of the hotels. We go back tomorrow and will move into a different house either tomorrow or on Wednesday while the boys are in school. The first house we tried was in terrible shape, full of holes, rotten walls and floors and infested with just about every creeping and flying thing you can imagine, we stuck with it for a week but when they opened a bar directly across the street with blaring music at all hours that was just too much. We found a much nicer, cleaner, quieter place just up the road with very nice owners, we can’t wait to get settled in there (we will have an article later in our newsletter with more details on that).

Maruma has been nice overall, we are getting to know people, everyone waves and greets you when you walk down the road. Yesterday I picked up the Guyana Seventh Day Adventist Conference President and the local Pastor in Port Kaituma (near Jonestown) and flew them back to Mabaruma. The President, Pastor Garnett, lived in Canada for 11 years and recently returned to Guyana to take up the position here, he waxed eloquently of life in Canada and how much we (Wickwire’s and Labore’s), have given up to come live in the third world environment of Guyana’s jungle.

Pastor Garnett came to dedicate a new boat for the local Pastor to use to get to the river churches in the region, the boys tagged along for a ride with Brother Bourne while he paddled around on the river, there is a motor coming for it next week. We have been welcomed warmly in the community and we are enjoying it, the constant heat does sometimes still get to us, fortunately it has been raining most every afternoon which cools things down some. The mosquitoes are annoying in the evening, we put on bug repellent because there are reports of Dengue Fever in the area. Jacob and Zachary have both been mildly sick, Zack had a fever of 104 a couple of days ago but they have both recovered quickly, oddly enough they are both disappointed to be leaving our critter infested house, it’s amazing what they can overlook.

The sunrises are beautiful, especially when there is a mist over the jungle, we have seen a few parrots and hummingbirds flying by but nothing up close yet, we forgot to bring hummingbird feeders. We had mail get to Mabaruma this week, it took 8 and 9 days from Kelowna First Class, we were quite amazed, we don’t expect that kind of timing to be normal but at least we know we can get it. We will have more to add to this later.

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October 08, 2007
05:39:26 PM

I went to try and find the two 20’ lengths of ¾” PVC pipe that were shipped with the rest of the stuff and didn’t turn up with the day before when we picked up everything else. There is a purser that takes care of getting everything into the correct hands…supposedly, the pipe, which hadn’t been unloaded yesterday was mysteriously missing. I went looking for the purser, he wasn’t at the desk on the wharf so after waiting for a while I went looking for him on the ship, someone said he was upstairs, so I went up there, I even found his stateroom but he wasn’t in it.

They were already loading the boat, people were spreading out mattresses on the floor and hanging hammocks, and there were even DVD’s playing on the two tv’s, by the way it is pouring rain this whole time. I went back down to the wharf and started looking around in the warehouse and I found some pvc pipe there so I tried to get at it to see if it might me ours, that seemed to get their attention and suddenly the purser showed up, a different one than was there yesterday . He informed me that someone had taken our pipe instead of a couple of pieces of 5/8” rebar somewhere by boat and that he would contact them and have them brought back the next day, of course by then the ship is gone and the only person that MIGHT be there is a Stevedore that may or may not know where to find them. I went back two days later and the warehouse was locked up so I don’t have much hope that they will turn up but I suppose it might be possible, things happen in their own way around the wharf, we had to pay the guy down in the hold an extra $300 ($1.50 CAN) just to hand up the water tank.

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September 26, 2007
05:08:38 PM

Well we are waiting today for bank transfers to come through so we can head up to Mabaruma, unfortunately Karen and the boys are up there by themselves tonight, we were supposed to go today. There is no bank in Mabaruma so it is all cash, actually Guyana is all cash anyway it’s just that there is no way of accessing more of it when we are up there. Their largest bill here is $1,000, which is equal to $5 CAN so you can imagine the volume of bills it takes to make up a few hundred dollars, most places that sell bigger ticket items have bill counters, even where we buy fuel for the plane.

Here are some pictures of the boys headed off to school in their new uniforms, they just about look like everybody else.

It was pretty crazy out at the airport today, there is a US Navy Hospital ship anchored about 10 miles off-shore and there are two Black Hawk helicopters constantly shuttling patients and crew back and forth. The ship is the USNS Comfort. http://www.comfort.navy.mil

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September 26, 2007
05:02:20 PM

This is part of Karen’s diary from her first week in Mabaruma where she has been without Jud.

Yesterday we were really going to clean our new house, but Jud had called and said that there was maybe another option for a house, and one not by the disco!! Laura and I went and checked it out, but the lady would be back at Christmas, and where would we go? We also needed a broom, because Jacob had thrown the old one off the porch and broke it! So we went to a local store rather than one in Kumaka which is a 15 minute bus ride. (Mini van filled up as full as it can be and driven like crazy!!!!) We found a broom, and bleach (we’ll need plenty!!) By the time we found them though, we didn’t have time to go clean before the boys would be home from school for lunch, so we kept on walking. Laura took me to the property that we all want to buy. At least there wouldn’t be any disco or barbecue there. In the afternoon Micah naps, so the cleaning must be tomorrow. Laura and I did our laundry, and she cooked a bunch of peanuts, because they are out of peanut butter. Maybe tomorrow she’ll make it on their mill that they have. She has a lot of ideas about cooking. She’s very casual about it, and lets the boys cook recipes if they want to even though they hardly have any food. We’ve had popcorn and Mac and Cheese. Zack is sitting up in bed trying to figure out what he wants. Jacob already got up not knowing where he was, so I took him to the bathroom!! They seem to be ok being the new white kids in school. I still need to really talk to their teachers and see what’s going on. Without them being registered though I don’t know how much they care. Jake keeps drawing pictures on his work, and no one says anything. I don’t know what they really think about it. Maybe I’ll stop by tomorrow to talk to their teachers.

Tomorrow we will talk to the owner of our new house about what’s going on, and try to reach some kind of agreement. I wish Jud would be here for that!! Brother Bourne will go with us women, and hopefully work out some stuff for us. The house needs a new lock on the front door, and a new lock on the deck, electrical wiring, a water tank, a gate installed, and nothing that an entire new wood frame would hurt!!! The ants are getting to the house, and I won’t be surprised if it falls down around us!! We met a Jehovah Witness today from Oregon. Her name is Lyndsey, and she was here last year too. I don’t know how long she’ll be here for,. Every once in a while I’ll look out the window and see some white folk walking by. Laura has hired brother Bourne to make a screen door for the front door. It should help in the battle of the flies!! I better go have my bucket shower we ran out of water in the top tank, so we can’t use the shower!! That was yesterday….. No, I didn’t get to clean my house again today. We never did meet with the actual owner of the house. The person that we had been talking to about it is the owners relative, so we thought a face to face meeting would be good, but it wasn’t’ meant to be.

Sister Veron (everyone is sister or brother here), stopped by today with her 3 year old, and Laura explained that when people stop by, it’s normally for a long time. Anyway, we made peanut butter on the table under the house, because it’s the only place with a table that the mill could be attached to. It’s like the grinder that we had at home to grind nuts on, only way bigger, and you have to crank and crank and crank. We filled 2 peanut containers (like the ones from Costco) and a Tupperware container too. She did a lot of nuts, added some oil and salt, and away we went with the 3 of us taking turns. The kids were playing in the hammocks under the house, and then sticking their hands in the bowls……. They did have fun making peanut butter!! Then for lunch, sister Veron and her 3 kids, and us and brother Bourne stayed to eat. Laura is very patient and kind. Pray for me to be that way too!!! It was a zoo getting the kids fed and back to school, and then us, and by the way we were basically out of water all day. We did get a bit of water this afternoon, but only ¾ of a tank,. Brother Bourne came and pumped some up to the upper tank, so we can have a shower tonight. Apparently we get water every 2nd day, and we are at the end of the line, so when the water does get here, there isn’t much time for it to get up into the tank! Thank God for brother Bourne and his ingenuity. We have a nice screen door at Laura’s house. From what I understand it’s the only one in Mabaruma. Considering I don’t think that he’s ever seen a screen door, it’s pretty nice.

So much for my shower tonight, because the power just went off 1 hour and 15 minutes earlier than expected. I have no idea where a flashlight is. That also means that I have to crawl into my bed without getting the bugs out first. I’ll probably wake up being bitten like crazy. At 2:30 I went to pick up the kids, and there were 2 white guys at the school. It turns out that they are with VSO( Volunteer ? Organization) The two guys were from Vancouver. They are leaving tomorrow, and I almost begged to go back with them. They have been here for 2 weeks training teachers, or videoing someone training teachers. They were with a Guyanese from Ontario, who is training teachers here. He briefly told me that I need to be teaching my kids at home too. He said that my kids stuck out like a sore thumb. ( He didn’t mean it in a bad way.) Anyway, his name is Peter, and he said that he would like to talk to me and my husband about the kids education.He has taught in Canada and here in Guyana. He will also be back in January.

I have yet to meet with Neil at the dental clinic. I may try to go tomorrow, or kick back in the hammock and watch Brother Bourne make another screen door. By the time I’m ready for mine he’ll be a pro at it. After school today we all went to Kumaka. We bought ice cream cones, and went to the dock. It was nice and breezy. Soon after we were there, 3 kids came and stripped down to their underwear and dove into the water. I was asking if there was any swimming there, and a guy said no, but these kids were having a great time. Frankly I wanted to join them. I told Jake that he could go in if he wanted to, but he declined. Maybe next time. We came home to a bit of water, so I’ll be ok while Laura and the kids go back to Georgetown. They should be back tomorrow, but maybe not!! Laura is flying the pastor out, then picking up Jud and dropping off the kids, and then she and Jud are going to get checked out on another strip, Bethany that GAMAS operates out of. Then they’ll fly back to Georgetown, and wait for money to magically appear before they come back out here. I really hope that I see them tomorrow!!

No crazy animals yet. Just lizards and cockroaches. That’s ok with me!! We miss all of you. Take care of yourselves. Love to you all, Karen, Jake and Zack in Mabaruma

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September 24, 2007
05:23:42 PM

I have been slowly accumulating supplies and stuff for the house in Mabaruma. When you send things up on the boat you first go down to the dock rent a “crate”, which is a welded steel mesh box that is about 5’ x 5’ x 5’, you pick one you want and pay the owner about $10 for the rental and put your own padlock on it. I didn’t want to start loading a crate too far in advance of the ships departure and we had been waiting until today when they would know the next sailing date. When I called this morning I was told that it was going this Wednesday and the cut-off for stuff at the dock was going to be Tuesday at 10 am, uh-oh. We didn’t expect it to go until next Wednesday and I had a pretty long list of things to get so I ran around all morning making purchases. Now making purchases is not as easy as it sounds, first you have to find a store that has what you want, they write it up and send you to a cashier, and then you go to another counter to collect the goods, then you collect your backpack from the bag check then they check your receipt at the door. That’s if it’s something you can carry with you, if it’s a bigger item like the water tank or the stove you leave it so that it can be collected by a truck later which you have to make the arrangements for. So once the taxi is completely full including two 20’ pieces of ¾” PVC of which both ends are inserted through the open rear windows of the car and wedged behind the seat to form a loop over the top of the car, we headed back to the house to organize everything. I called a truck for later to come and pick up the pile of stuff at the house and then I rode with him to the various places to make the pick-ups, like the front seat of a bus, those little cab-over trucks really put you close to the action. None of this “objects are closer than they appear” stuff, they are just really close. We then dropped off the load at the wharf in front of the crate and before you know it a couple of guys have it loaded up and are ready to be paid for it. So once we get all that done we find out that the boat is now leaving on Thursday instead, it seems it had to go to Berbice and tow another broken down ferry back to Georgetown. Oh well it’s all done now, I just hope that no one gets too curious about what is in the crate. We intend to fly out ourselves on Wednesday so we will be out of touch for a while, probably until the middle of October or later.

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September 21, 2007
01:39:50 PM

Yesterday Bill and I went out and caught a “bus” to go downtown, the bus’s here are just little Toyota mini buss’s that they cram full of people. We were told to sit in the front seat, which I thought sounded great until I realized that would just make us the first to arrive at the scene of the accident, which after the first ½ block seemed probable. The bus’s race each other in mad sprints to compete for the most fares, today’s driver had particular emphasis on “mad”, we missed other vehicles and pedestrians by inches and at every reluctant stop the brakes were smoking like a truck coming off the Great Divide. Thankfully we survived the journey; overall I would much prefer taking my chances with an airplane over the jungle than the streets of G’town in a bus.

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September 21, 2007
01:38:34 PM

A week in review. Well seven days in the country, and a busy seven days too. Karen and the boys are now in Mabaruma and staying with Laura, Karen has been trying to figure out what all we are going to need from Georgetown to make the house liveable. 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 here on October 28, hopefully it won’t get tied up in customs for too long. The boys started in school on Thursday, 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 friend and he said “yeah, a bunch”. They seem to be taking everything in stride, their surroundings don’t seem to affect them that much, where they are is where they are. The last tenants that were in the house left with the keys so Karen had to break in with the help of Brother Bourne, one of the local church members, they also left behind a bunch of junk that will have to be cleaned out. The wiring has been mostly pulled off of the walls so it will have to be redone. The good news is that there is an avocado tree and a bunch of fruit trees in the back yard so we will 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 Monday because there was a breakdown when it was in Mabaruma. We are adjusting to the heat a little bit every day.

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September 18, 2007 05:07:36 PM

More airstrips today! Laura and I were both checked out on four new airstrips today with a local pilot, most of them are not really too challenging however one of them, Kwebanna, is somewhat intimidating, the trees have grown up quite a lot on the approach and it is quite narrow as well, it’s also clay so if it’s wet it will be pretty slick, apparently a number of planes have slid off the end down the road and into the brush. In any case it was a lot of fun and I am now approved for all but one airstrip in Region 1 and that is one that Laura has been into. Kwabaana has an abandoned sawmill that appears to have been very well equipped, there is still a lot of stuff there that looks like it is still usable, the mill was apparently funded by CIDA a few years ago but the operation wasn’t successful. I am doing better with the communications now that I have an idea what to expect from them, we had to dodge a couple of rain showers but overall it was a great day for flying. Tomorrow Laura is taking her two kids along with Karen and the boys back to Mabaruma, hopefully the boys will be able to start school on Wednesday. Karen will check out the new house and see what it needs, I will stay here in Georgetown with Bill to pick-up what we need for the house etc. and get it all ready to send up on the boat in a couple of weeks. Karen will be out of touch until we can get our satellite system installed up there, which will probably take at least another 2 or 3 weeks. I will try and relay her and the boy’s experiences.

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September 18, 2007
04:33:27 PM

Yesterday we found ourselves at the Guyana Zoo. We first walked around the ponds, where there were about 8 manatee. These creatures are very cool. I’ve heard them called sea cows. When they heard the kids, they swam over and ate the grass that they fed them. They just lay at the edge of the pond all waiting to be pet on the head. Afterwards we meandered over to the zoo entrance, and paid our $1.00 for adults and 50 cents for the kids.(That’s Canadian money!) We then went to the gate, and handed our tickets to the man standing at the gate and walked in. They have lots of beautiful and crazy looking birds. They have 1 lion, a few monkeys, lots of cat varieties, otters, and even a white-tailed deer. They have some snakes, one which the kids were able to hold, and some that would have had a good hold on the kids if they ever got to them! There were quite a few animals, mostly ones that could be seen here in Guyana, and the kids had a great time! We have been taking taxis wherever we go, and I find myself reaching for a seatbelt, but they are pretty much just for the front seat passengers. Today Laura and I went shopping. Most of the stores here are like your local dollar store. Lots of things crammed into a tiny space, with an order that only the owners seem to know. I’m learning that things labelled $1000.00 only means about Canadian $5.00. We were shopping for our move to Mabaruma, and things that I’ll need to clean our house with. The other market we went to was like a flea market, with stalls everywhere. We went to Seeta’s stall, because Laura says she has everything, or she’ll get it for us if she doesn’t have it. Everyone was calling out to us as we walked to the back whenever we would stop or slow down to look in their stall. Anyway, I came away knowing that we’d need more than I bought, but I’d only remember everything long after I arrived in Mabaruma. Hopefully Jud will get some of it before he comes out next week!!

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September 16, 2007
04:44:53 PM

Sunday afternoon. It has been a long day already! We left the house at 5am and crammed all eight of us into Smoky's little station wagon, Smoky is our favourite cab driver, dropped off Danielle and Micah at a baby-sitter then off to the airport for a flight to Mabaruma. This was Jud's first flight into the interior, it was a beatiful morning with just a few clouds around and a thin layer of mist over the top of the "broccoli" jungle as Laura calls it. In Mabaruma the boys spent the morning roaming the street of Mabaruma with their new found friend Shamar Bourne and sharing their description of Canadian hockey as they know it. Meanwhile we went and picked up the local pastor from Matthews Ridge and took him to Port Kaituma, Jud needs to be officially checked out on each airstrip and Laura can be the check pilot for the strips that she has already been into, today Jud flew into Mabaruma, Matthews Ridge and Port Kaituma. Plans are to have another local pilot fly with both Jud and Laura on Tuesday into three more strips that neither of them have been into. One of the biggest challenges is figuring out communications with air traffic control, there is a lot of local lingo and procedures as well as the difficulty of providing the details of each and every flight to ATC in spite of the fact that reliable communications are almost non-existent in Region 1. The weather patterns are very different from what we are used to in Canada and that will just take some time to learn, fortunately icing and high terrain are non existant. Our visit to Mabaruma was short today, we did get to see the outside of our house, it is right next to a night-spot so building our own housing is still high on the agenda however it will certainly serve us well for now and we are anxious to get moved in so we can start to settle into a home. It's great to be able to get into the air so quickly, Bill and Laura have worked very hard to get things to where they are now. The boy's have been adapting well, Jacob had second's of breadfruit for lunch yesterday, Zack has been chasing big green and blue lizards and they just came in the house with a giant toad. It is hot though, we all are adapting slowly to that, we are drinking gallons of water it seems and it is never quite enough. Thank you for your prayers and support, the Wickwire's

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September 14, 2007
11:58:01 AM

After 25 hours of travel, here we are in Georgetown. During our five hour layover in Seattle Jud's aunt Janet collected us at the airport and took us home for a feast of blueberry pancakes and her now famous apple crisp, the flights were uneventful for the most part, the boy's slept almost the entire flight from New York to Georgetown, even our stop in Trinidad so they seem to be adequately rested. Suunday morning we fly to Mabaruma to meet with the Minister of Health for Guyana and visit a few of the airstrips in the region. Check back for more developments. Jud, Karen, Jacob and Zachary