A New Face of Guyana

There are very few things that will convince me to make the drive from college back home- my incredible boyfriend is one, and the other one is Guyana, anything and everything Guyana.

We had the incredible pleasure of meeting a missionary who grew up on a farm in North Carolina and who now serves in Plastic City, Guyana. She is an inspiration to me, and we will be working with her in Guyana in July so she took the time to share with us what we will be doing there.

From the small glimpse of Plastic City I got tonight in a little seafood restaurant at the beach, my heart already began to break. She slowly told of the poverty that exists in Plastic City:

-It is called Plastic City because traditionally that is what their homes were made of; Angie says now they are more like drift wood and cardboard (anything that floats down the Demerara River which is 50 feet from their homes)
-The government is not in support of the community (the people are squatters) so we are not allowed to help "improve" the community because the government wants them on their own land.
-There is no electricity in most of Plastic City (only 3 houses out of 120 have an "in" with the electric company and have rigged their own)
-There is no running water so obviously no indoor plumbing or any other modern conveniences
-In order to get water, they must walk a quarter of a mile to a "pipe" and carry it back for their families.
-120 houses, 200 children within only 90 of those houses, and extreme poverty

What does this mean to me? All I can see is hope rising. Hope is rising for these people, and I firmly believe that with people like Angie in place, they will slowly be able to get on their feet and start a "government- supported" life.

In Plastic City, we will be spending most of our time with the children and some time helping to hopefully obtain a resource center for Angie's ministry. Currently, school lessons are just taught out of a house, and they would love a center to call their own! Angie says that the children would seriously sit for hours just to listen to someone read to them. God has a plan, and I have no doubt they are in Plastic City for a reason, and so is Angie.

I absolutely cannot wait for July. I am so ready for God to break my heart for the things that break His. That's scary sometimes but so very worth it.
I can't wait to see the old children and make new friends.
To spend hours reading to the little ones if that's what they want.
To dance and sing.
To be silly at times and serious at other times.
To learn what it means to not be allowed to openly talk about God in Plastic City. In the other areas of Guyana that I have been to, it has been allowed, but this community does not openly embrace Christianity. While this makes me so thankful to be able to do that on a daily basis in the U.S., I am ready to learn how to show Christ differently and subtly.

But most of all, I'm ready just to simply try and love them like God loves me, and to love like crazy.