Gira

What's a gira (pronounced hee-rah)?  It's a preaching trip that typically lasts anywhere from 1-7 days where you venture deep into the territory carrying all of your literature and supplies.  Usually, these are areas that are so far out that by the end of the day, we've barely made a dent.  Solution?  Sleep there and keep going in the morning!  Our territory is mountainous so imagine climbing mountains and crossing rivers in sweltering heat while carrying all of your literature, food and water for days on end, clothes, sleeping bag etc.  Sounds awful right?  It was great!  We did several giras some as far as 40 miles in one day in one direction.  Normally, the congregation does these far and in between but because rainy season was fast approaching, we were doing 1 or 2 per week to get to people before the rivers filled.  After that happens, we have to wait till summer to get back to them.  Here are some pictures from the giras.  Enjoy!

The sisters had to teach me how to shimmy through barbed wire fences like a lady.  Not easy with those long skirts!

Lunch break

Refilling our water at a watering hole.

Stove for making tortllas

Meal for the tortillas

On one particular gira we started out about 5:30 am and went until just before sun down.  It was imperative to get to the stopping point while there was still light because the family who let us stay at their house did not have electricity.  We had to drop our stuff and immediately use the outhouse and get the hammocks up while there was light.  The family was nice enough to make us tortillas for dinner.  We were still wide awake at 6 though it was dark.  We stayed up flashing each other with flashlights until about 7 or 8 then all were fast asleep.

The brothers stayed up all night keeping watch over the group and didn't get to sleep until  3 or 4AM when we sisters got up.  Why three am?  Because there is also no running water at the house.  So, we get up while it's still dark and no one can see us and go jump in the river behind the house to bathe.  Everyone is fully clothed and thank goodness the water is warm.  It was pitch black dark which is good because I didn't want to see the crabs, fish and who knows what else while we bathed.  The sun started coming up early and once the cows spotted us, they decided to alert the world that we were in their river, lol.

We are dressed like it's freezing outside but it's actually blazing hot.  Everyone is covered to try to escape the searing heat.

Random shoe pic.  After day one one sister's shoe broke completely open.  We found a red ribbon (look closely) and tied it back up!  About 15 minutes in, my back pack fell apart and the friends also helped me with safety pins until it was strong enough.  Where there's a will, there's a way!

I'm really glad this one was behind a fence.  Usually they, are not.

Score!  Sister was given a tortilla as thanks for the Bible message she shared.

School kids listening in to the Bible discussion.

At this point we were over an hour away from the next house.  Often there are not many houses in these areas but the friends still anxiously go to share Bible truth.

Blessing from Jehovah- A dump truck came by and agreed to give us a ride at least half way to the next house as long as we moved fast.  Of course there is no easy way to get into a dump truck since it's not meant  for passengers.  We just had to hoist each other up at record speed!

Huddled together holding on in the truck!

We made it!

We preached to a few of the workers and then carried on!