As we cruise the river at a leisurely pace, I see our Wayana and Trio scanning the trees. Would there be a fat iguana? It is a mystery to us how they discover such a green animal in the midst of all shades of green, but with their trained eyes they see much more than we do. We enjoy the different trees and flowers while we talk about the past week.

We enjoyed our stay in Palumeu! It was so nice to visit again after 20 years. Our days started early. At 04.45 am the alarm went off every day so that we could be in church at 5 am to pray with the sick. Then we quickly ate a sandwich to start work on the test garden or compost heap between 7 and 8 o’clock. It is very encouraging to see how people want to try the new planting method in their own garden, after having participated in the pilot project. About 45 people attended. A nice group when you consider that the entire village has 360 inhabitants. They prepared delicious food for us and the dishes were also done. Such a luxury!

After lunch we could rest in the hammock. Then we had time to answer emails and do other administrative work, if we didn’t get a visit from one of the leaders. From 4 pm on our team would teach for an hour or two so that theory and practice were well understood. We were able to show a movie almost every evening. People could watch the lives of Abraham and Sarah, Jacob and Leah and Rebekah, Moses and the Exodus from Egypt. This way they could see how a journey through the desert went. They marveled at windstorms and the lack of trees and water.

We had beautiful cloudy weather all week. While we were in church early Friday morning, we got a heavy shower of one hour and a half. It cleared up around 9 am. Would we be able to fly to Tepu? Landing in Palumeu is no problem, but will Tepu’s airstrip also be open? The pilot of MAF had to come any way since our food supply was almost finished. After the plane had landed we hear that there is no flying to Tepu. We decided to try again on Monday. This means that our time in Tepu will be much less, almost half of what we would need.Then Marco proposed to leave for Tepu by canoe on Saturday. This worked out fine. The people of Palumeu arranged it very well and so we went on our way to Tepu and can start the training there tonight.

We would like to ask your attention to the

Wayana Canada Mission Project

at the top of our homepage.