Pioneer School

Well, once again, we have been busy, busy, busy. Two weeks after the District Convention in our last post, myself (Crystal) and six other pioneers from Guyana boarded a plane and flew off to Trinidad for two weeks of pioneer school in sign language. For those of you that have never been, pioneer school is two weeks of intensive study and training. Class is from 9am to 4pm, and the rest of the evening is spent studying for the next day of class. Not really what I would call a vacation, but it was a ton of fun getting to know the other pioneers from Trinidad that made up the rest of the class. Here are some pics:

Our host, Tallia, sacrificed her air conditioned bedroom for us and slept on an air mattress with a fan.

 

My "roomie" Raedona, also from Guyana

 

The class was set up in semi-circle so we could all see each other's comments.



 

A large whiteboard and projector were key tools for teaching.

 

 

Our class included two married couples...

 

A set of twins...

 

and seven people from Guyana...

 

We all studied hard and everyone participated each day. We had one deaf and one hard of hearing sister there, but my picture of them did not turn out very well, sorry.

 

I would be remiss if I did not mention the FOOD! I think we all gained a few pounds, as the Trinidadian brothers and sisters are so overwhelmingly hospitable.

 

 

As you can see, this congregation even dressed up in matching outfits to serve us.

 

 

Yes, this was our last day of pioneer school. We were all a little broken hearted that it was ending. We gave gifts to our instructors...

 

 

Our host congregation gave each of us gifts...

(By the way, the other girl in this picture is also named Crystal, so our gift boxes were marked Crystal White and Crystal Brown to differentiate--we thought this was hilarious.)

 

And we were quite shocked to find out our fellow students from Trinidad also bought all of us visiting from Guyana each a gift!

 

Although we were sad, we hid it well. We convinced everyone we were ready to cut loose...

 

We celebrated with homemade coconut ice cream, cake, and some seriously deep conversation.

 

One brother even showed up with a cooler full of soda, beer and wine coolers. Brother Ward, one of our instructors, almost seemed a little too happy about this...

 

 

We did some other fun stuff while there, but I wanted to make this blog just about pioneer school, so I could let everyone know how awesome it is!

 

Two weeks after I arrived back home we jumped right into the Circuit Assembly "Safeguard Your Mind" I think we are among the first to have this information, since it just started with the new service year in September. We we so proud that once again, two deaf from our group were baptized, Stephen and Tineshea.

 

Stephen is 14 years old, and Tineshea is 16. It is so beautiful to see these young ones take a stand for Jehovah.

 

Thanks for keeping up with the blog. I think I'll let Scott write the next one!