We enjoyed our weeks in Lawa. It was very nice to meet the people again and hear their stories.

In the past 12 1/2 years that we have been living here, we have never seen the river this low due to the extremely dry ‘dry season’.  This has many negative consequences for the people: the cassava on their farm land has hardly grown, all food and fuel for the outboard motors must be delivered by air. As a result, prices have skyrocketed. For example, 20 liters of petrol for the outboard motor costs 120 euros in a village 3 hours downstream. The store near Lawa has run out of gasoline. A trip downstream now costs at least 240 euros. Fortunately, various organizations and private individuals support the Wayana communities by sending in rice by air.

It recently started to rain every day again and we see the water level slowly rising. We hope that prices will then drop back to the previous rates.

Cross-cultural working requires a lot of flexibility. We had discussed in advance with one of the church leaders whether our arrival was suitable because we wanted to talk about the plans for future ministry in Canada. We want to know the vision of the Wayana churchleaders in this matter. It is finally Friday afternoon, December 13th. when we managed to speak to the church board.

Saturday morning, December 14th. we had a church-wide leadership meeting about the planning and the budget for 2025. We enjoy seeing the younger leaders take the lead.

It was very nice to spend a few days with Anneke in Lawa, share things together and look ahead.

On Monday, December 16, we boarded the plane back to Paramaribo.

We have now been in our house in Republiek for a week. Tomorrow we celebrate Christmas with Elsbeth and her family. Very special that her grandfather can be with us this year.

We are also planning for 2025. We look forward to what the new year will bring.