For Christmas since we can't be really receiving gifts I am creating my own Christmas Project. I am asking for Christmas Cards! On the back you can write "for christmas" and I will open them all on Christmas Day!!! :)
50 Pere St, Kitty
Georgetown, Guyana
South America
And we had a Mercy Newsletter go out to the Mercy Community in November and I thought I would share it with you because it is a good overview of my time here and includes the perspectives of Audrey and Sarah. (My loving roomates)
Sending prayers and love!
Ashley Ann
Dear Mercy Community,
We arrived in Guyana on September 1st after a long day of saying goodbye to our friends, family, and homes! After a hectic and hot first week we settled into our apartment which now after getting settled in feels like a wonderful home. We began work very quickly which was good to keep us all busy as we adjusted to our new climate and country!
Audrey is helping out at the school attached to St. John Bosco's orphanage. She helps out boys one on one and also will teach if a teacher happens to be absent for a day. Audrey has had a great time getting to know each of the boys on an individual level. She finds that they are typical rowdy boys who love to have fun and sometimes cause trouble. One of the things she has realized through this experience is she has to look at the background from which the children come from. Many of them come from very difficult situations which affects both their behavior and ability to learn. Some of them come from places where they felt unwanted and unloved and may have attachment issues that stem from that. She realizes that in order to combat this issue she must show them unconditional love and mercy each day.
Ashley has been teaching Care for the Elderly at Mercy Wings Vocational School. Teaching at Mercy Wings has been a great struggle and a great blessing for Ashley. Many of her girls come from very difficult homes and some have frequent outbursts of anger. Although there are struggles Ashley loves to get up in the morning knowing that she can once again work with the girl no matter how difficult it may be. Each day to her is a new opportunity to show mercy to young adolescents who may not find mercy outside of school. Each day is an opportunity to lay down one's pride and attempt to love rather than resort to anger.
Sarah is working at St. John's Mercy Hospital as an RN in the High Dependency Unit. Working as an RN in a developing nation has been a personal struggle for Sarah as she faces injustice and inequality each day. Although many struggles may make one feel like giving up Sarah has shown great dedication to her work sight by her continued optimism. In the face of the obstacles she faces every day she has seen great mercy and creativity in watching the other doctors and nurses work with the little resources they have to provide care for each patient.
Audrey's personal highlight from Guyana so far is the resourcefulness she has found in the Guyanese people. They think of many creative ways to deal with the fact that they have a lack of material goods. (This is also Audrey's gift within the community - you can't throw anything away without first making sure Audrey doesn't have a use for it)
Ashley's personal highlight has come from the fact that no one has asked her "So.... what are you going to do with your life?". The people care about who you are rather than what you are doing. It is a breath of fresh air to not be surrounded by the pressures of a high achieving society.
Sarah's personal highlight has come from the respect she has found from her co-workers at the hospital. Many nurses leave Guyana to go to the U.S. for a better job as a nurse there and yet here Sarah is doing the exact opposite. She feels great appreciation for the work she is doing.
As a community we have decided that we are pretty psyched about how well things have been going. We've decided Three's not a crowd, Three's Community. Our community has been together for two months in country, sweet, and although this may be a short time we feel as if because of circumstance we have created an intimate and intense bond. When we are with each other it is there where we find other people who are most like ourselves and understand the culture we came from. Our daily struggles must be faced together and this has lead to an intense bond that over comes even the small tribulations that we have with each other. Sarah may have an over zealous way of making sure we cross the street well, Ashley may have constant outlandish over exaggerated comments, and Audrey may always be late, but these problems are nothing compared to the inequality and injustice that we face every day. We have had to learn to lean on each other and overlook the small things. Our community has been one of our greatest blessings and we all look forward to our family dinners each night in which we discuss the day, laugh, and come up with new theme songs about Guyana.
We have found that spiritually we have all been transitioning from being like St. Terese of Liseux (prayer) to St. Francis Xavier (action). Our prayer life and spirituality has become our every day actions because our lives have less time and less structured activities centered around prayer than we had in the states. We still realize the importance of prayer but have also had to learn to make our actions a prayer which is pleasing to God. Remember breath in prayer, breath out service. We have been spending the past two months trying to figure out how to breath properly in a completely new environment.
We have a few favorite moments of simple living for you: No water in the morning for a shower means you go to work with no shower, cooking in the dark is something Sarah has perfected, Mosquito nets are our new best friend, Reheating everything on the stove because we have no microwave, learning the value of safe drinking water, learning the excess of Internet, being lost in time and space by the sisters and everyone who wanted to get a hold of us because we had no phone for over a week, playing scrabble with the sisters across the street for Saturday night fun, five dollar rum, DVD's for five dollars, deciding whether or not to splurge for .50 plantain chips, cooking all meals at home because it is cheaper (unless you go to a church fair :) ), being more excited about free food than we were in college.
You know you are in Guyana when:
- You have thirty mosquito bites at once
- The man selling pine asks you to marry him and tells you that you don't have to work another day in your life (Sarah)
- You can spend thousands of dollars in one day and not feel guilty
- You have a display cabinet in your living room with a trophy that says "Worlds Greatest Dad"
- Your ride to work in the morning feels like NASCAR
- The mini bus conductors know your stops and if he asks you or tries to put you off at the wrong stop another random passenger who you have never met corrects him. (Ashley)
- People tell you not to fatigue yourself
- You do laundry by hand and according to the weather
- Body's of water are brown and full of trash
- Whenever something crazy happens you look at your roommates and say "It's Guyana" (Sarah)
- Other white people ask you what you are doing here
- Produce is fresh, cheap and delicious
- Shaving your legs is optional, deodorant is not
- People ask you if they have Kentucky Fried Chicken in the States
The Three Amigo's
No comments:
Post a Comment