SUBJECT: Family news and health, patients, misc.

AUTHOR: Betsy Burgdorf, her husband Ted, and three girls - Heidi, Kristen, and Kara, work with her sister Becky Gates and family in Guyana.

DATE: December 18, 1996

Dear Family,

Last Wednesday our remaining 2 dufflebags arrived on the plane, which made us very happy, although it cost over $100 to send them! Also a barrel of Becky's which had some Christmas presents in it. I still have 2 boxes of books in Georgetown, which includes the rest of the school books. We brought a few with us, but couldn't bring them all because of weight limitations. I feel like we are getting hopelessly behind in school! Becky still has quite a bit of stuff in Georgetown. But the best thing that arrived on the plane was our mail. Sounds like Daddy has really been busy working on our house. Wow! I'm glad you are all enjoying the heater (wood stove). When we're pouring sweat, I think of you all snuggling up by the fire. Actually, it got kind of cold last evening. After my bath I put on socks and shoes and a long-sleeved shirt!

We praise the Lord for the money that has come in. God has blessed us so much and taken such good care of us. The people here have been so generous, and continue to bring us food. Some of the people have started bringing things to sell also, which is fine, because they sell things that aren't available in the stores. The 2 stores occasionally have tomatoes, eggplant or cabbage, but other than that, no other vegetables, and never any fruit! So we really appreciate any fruits or vegetables people bring us. There are some big green leaves, kind of like elephant ears, that are edible and very good. People have brought those a few times. We've put out the word that we love greens. The people here don't eat them much except to add a little to soup. Never just a big plate full of greens like we eat. There are sweet potatoes growing in our back yard, and we can eat those greens as well. We tried yuca (casava) leaves once, but they were very tough and bitter.

Speaking of food, a favorite pastime of the girls is to talk about food. "I wish I had a big bowl of ice cream ..." or pizza, or burritos, or anything else they are craving at the moment. So when we read about your Thanksgiving meal, and all the food you were sick of, you should have heard all the groans! I told the girls, "Just think, when we get back to the States, you're going to be eating a meal and say, "Boy, I wish I had a big bowl of casava bread with milk and papaya!" We've actually been eating very well though.

Becky has been having some problems with her joints, especially when it rains. Lina has a little as well. Becky and I both have ringworm. Carlos has some kind of fungus on his head that we can't seem to get rid of. And we've lost count of the jiggers we've dug out of feet, toes and fingers. We've even dug a bunch out of the dogs' and cats' feet. Everyone told us that the jiggers come in on the dogs, and that we needed to get rid of Smiley. We had managed to fatten him up a little, but he was still pretty miserable looking, mangy and full of sores. We all agreed it would be best to get rid of him, but we wanted him put to sleep, not abandoned somewhere to slowly starve to death. However, no one seemed to want to spare a bullet to shoot a dog. So Ted finally did the job, bless his heart. He said it was quick and painless, not even one yelp. I said that was all I wanted to know, no details of how it was done. Becky and I were both relieved. Poor little ugly Smiley! So we've got our animal tragedies here as well. And here's another one: Last week some ladies brought us 2 baby blue-gray tanagers as a Christmas present. They were so cute! The next morning we were feeding them, and we left them on the counter sitting on a basket. Suddenly Celeste (the cat) leaped up and had one in her mouth. By the time Ted could pry her mouth open and get the bird out, it was too late. A few days later, on Sabbath, we forgot to wrap up the basket when we went to AY meeting. When we got back, no birdie anywhere! I suspect Celeste had a feast!

Kristen has been collecting insects. She has gotten some very interesting ones, but between the cats and the ants, the insects are disappearing almost

Kristen and a Bug

as fast as she can mount them! Reminds me of our monkey Jo Jo eating our butterfly collection in Puerto Adventista in Bolivia.

Except for Becky and me, everyone has been sleeping on the floor for a month now. We asked for price checks from both Venezuela and Georgetown to see which is cheaper, but haven't heard from either yet. Hopefully we can get mattresses soon. I bought some plastic bowls in Georgetown before I left. They can be used as either bowls or plates. The colors are beautiful! There is a mixture of red, white, beige and peach bowls. Everyone has their own with their name written on the bottom. Each person washes their own bowl and spoon. We have 2 extras, so come and visit us!

Ted is working on our oven today. We are using a barrel, and packing mud or clay around it. I hope it works more efficiently this way. Maybe by this afternoon we can bake bread. They built us a very nice outdoor kitchen, and we are building the oven out there. The big house is still not finished, with no walls upstairs. But we've all been sleeping up there anyway, like a big dormitory. All our clothes are in the small house. That's our dressing rooms. Ted and I sometimes sleep at the small house, when we want privacy! Becky is thinking maybe of sleeping there, since there are less stairs to climb. Her knee hurts so much at times. For now, we are both pretty much sharing both houses.

Last week the church had their nominating committee. After being twice on the nominating committee at Chowchilla, I thought their committee was great (from the committee's perspective anyway!). They meet just once and elect all the church officers. No one is asked, only assigned, so there is no dealing with everyone who says No. The person might say, "I decline," but that is only accepted if it is a very good reason. Not feeling qualified or just not wanting the job is not a good enough reason. Wow! The drawback to that is what happened to the Pathfinder Club. Every year a director is elected, but there hasn't been a club here for years. Unless you elect someone who is motivated and interested in the job, nothing happens. I'm hoping to work with the person who was elected as director and help them get a club going. We'll see!

Starting in January, we're hoping to start some health education classes for the church and community. We'd also like to do a seminar on prayer. So far we've mainly been just surviving.

The lady who was bit by a snake, our first patient, came back last week. Her baby had malaria. She's doing fine, with only a small scar on her foot. We were very happy about that, as we had often wondered what had become of her. She lives somewhere down river. She came down with malaria a few days after the baby and was very ill. We've been very perplexed about the malaria, since we hardly ever see mosquitoes in Kaikan. After analyzing the situation, and discovering that the incubation time is 1-2 weeks, we realized that every malaria case we've treated (14 so far) had been out of Kaikan a week or 2 before they got the malaria, or they came to us from somewhere else. So that makes us feel a little better.

Many planes have come all week. I guess everyone wants to go to Georgetown

Lady weaving basket

for the holidays. We heard that Benson (the boy with the head injury/paralyzed hand) is doing OK, and we're very happy about that.

We had one of the ladies here make some little baskets for the kids for Christmas presents. They are so cute! We wanted it to be a surprise, but that was blown when she sent her children to deliver the baskets to us. Of course, all the kids were there when they brought the baskets and said, "How cute!" So much for a Christmas surprise!

We've had special music in church every Sabbath since we've been here. We're going to run out of songs soon. It has been very nice having the keyboard. Sometimes we get asked ahead of time, and sometimes they ask us on the spot. We have decided we just need to have something ready every week just in case.

I've learned most of the names of the kids now. I've been writing down names and

Kids in Kaikan

families, trying to keep everyone straight. I think everyone in Kaikan is related! Little kids here are fascinated with the hair on Ted's arms. When they sit behind him in church they play with the hair on his arms! They've never seen hair like that on a person's arms before.

Ted is getting discouraged with the garden. Something is eating the melons and squashes, and the homemade pesticide doesn't seem to be working. Also a bunch of leaves are turning yellow. With no resources he can't look up the problem and see what to do about it. I've been working on trails. We got one between the 2 houses, and I just finished one to the outhouse. I've also cleared a lot of grass away from the house. We're tired of chiggers!

We love and miss you all very much.

Love,

Betsy

PS: I hope there's more mail for us on the plane today! That would be great!

You may write to Betsy at: gates@andrews.edu

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Last Updated: March 10, 1997