Travelling from Santa Elena to Georgetown was one of the worst travels of this journey. We left Santa Elena at 7am on Tuesday to take a taxi to the border of Brazil. Over the border and into another taxi for the 3 hour drive to Bon Fin via Boa Vista before heading to Lethem to cross the border into Guyana. That was the easy part. From Lethem is where the challenges began. Basically we were deceived right from our first steps into Guyana, from the money changes, to the bus ride, to when we'd get to Georgetown... Our time in Guyana showed us that two of the biggest strongholds in this nation are deception and money.
We arrived at the border at 1pm, it was closed for lunch until 2pm which is when we would cross, get on the minibus and go straight to Georgetown, expecting to get there by about 11pm. It was pretty crowded with our group of 8 plus a friend we made along the way plus our luggage... At least that's what we thought until we crossed the border and another 3 men joined us. And so began 2 days of travel, me in the front with Ben the first day and Moose the second and 3 bags - so squashed I couldn't put my feet down but rather had them on the dashboard the whole two days.
We didn't make the ferry crossing at 6pm so we pulled over and slept in hammocks/in the floor in someone's house/restaurant. I was already feeling pretty carsick by this time so the next day of driving didn't help. Up at 3:30am and off we went to get to the ferry crossing by 6am. Before this time we had already passed through two passport checkpoints plus I was already throwing up from carsick. Eventually I had the routine of tapping the driver on the shoulder so he'd pull over, tapping Moose on the shoulder (I was sitting between the two of them) so he'd get out the car, and then I'd get out and throw up, get back in only to resume the routine in about half an hour. The journey was truly awful, terrible roads, incredible amounts of dust, we were filthy (covered in red dirt) by the time we arrived in Georgetown at 12:30pm and our bags were wet from when it rained.
Straight to hotel for a MUCH needed shower (actually we needed a couple before we were finally clean enough) and some rest. Thursday we moved to a hostel which is actually for missionaries. Here we had enough space for all of us - the rest of our team would be arriving in the next couple of days.
Georgetown was really a family and farewell time as most of our team flew home around the 5th of November, if they hadn't already left the team. A time of loving each other, reflecting on the past 14 months of living together, learning to love each, through the good and the bad times, the easy and the difficult. It was a very emotional time for us all, savouring the last moments together, involving many tears of course!! Before we said goodbye we blessed each other as about half of the remaining headed home and the last 11 of us would head to Suriname on the 6th.
Sunday we had a family day affectionately named "Fam Fest 2012" (Fam is short for family) where we shared stories of our journey, encouraged each with how we'd seen each person grow during their time on the team, and generally just hung out and enjoyed each other before heading out for one last family dinner. We stayed up all night to get taxis at 3am as the first people to fly out left at 6am. Tiredness, sadness, tears, heavy hearts, these are just a few of the things Monday the 5th of November involved.
I can't quite explain the amount of pain we each have been feeling in our hearts as we've said goodbye to what has been our family for the last 14 months. I don't think any of us expected it to be what it was, it far exceeded anything I ever could have thought of. These mighty men and women of God will forever have such a deep place in my heart. I can truly say I love each and every one of them so much it hurts.
No comments:
Post a Comment