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Mabaruma

by Jud Wickwire

   In Georgetown, Bill LaBore and I boarded a well-used Trans Guyana Airways Twin Islander, the only scheduled air service into Mabaruma. At the time, we were still waiting for final approval from Civil Aviation in Guyana to fly the project airplane into the region (that permission has now been granted, and Laura is operational).

   Mabaruma, although it serves as the region’s administrative headquarters, is still relatively isolated. Scheduled air service is only about five days a week and quite expensive. The passenger and freight carrying “steamer” makes the 20-plus-hour trip every seven to ten days, making it prohibitive if you are on a schedule of any kind. Travel within the region is limited to small open speedboats that run on an on-call basis, or as soon as there are enough people to fill the seats. The boats are fast but costly, and their routes are far from a straight line. To illustrate the cost-effectiveness of the airplane, the six-passenger boat in which we travelled from Mabaruma to Port Kaituma took over three hours and burned nearly 35 gallons of gas. The same trip in the project’s Cessna 182 takes only 30 minutes and burns approximately eight gallons of gas. Port Kaituma is one of the closer villages to Mabaruma, so, with villages farther afield, the advantages of the airplane become even more dramatic.

   It became readily apparent that the need for a mission aviation service is much more desperate than I had even imagined. No other airplanes are based in the region; consequently, there is no inter-village service by air at all. This effectively limits the ability of regional health officials to reach beyond the core populated areas. It also places the same restrictions on gospel outreach ministry. The local pastor is responsible for eight churches and the areas beyond those; even if they have been reached, there is no sustained support.

	Mabaruma Hospital under construction.

   As we met with various officials, health professionals, and the local pastor, we discovered that there were many capable people eager to do what they can to serve the local population, but they are all severely restricted by a consistent lack of resources. Here is a summary of those we met:

Regional Health Office: In our discussions, the Regional Health Officer revealed that even though there is a new hospital facility being built, she has no evidence that there is any plan to furnish it.  We were also told that they were virtually out of all pain medications.

Dental Clinic: The “Dentec” (Dental Technician), who works alone, showed us his fairly new portable x-ray unit and then told us that he has no x-ray films. He has been requesting films for months with no result. Also, due to time constraints, he has been unable to continue dental education in the local schools.

Region 1 Malaria Control staff.

Malaria Control Office: Here we learned that they recently distributed mosquito nets to an area experiencing an outbreak. The action resulted in a 60 percent reduction in cases. However, they only get enough nets to deal with the outbreak areas; consequently, there are still thousands of people without nets, and thus the cases continue.

Regional Chairman’s Office: An Amerindian and former village captain himself, the Chairman oversees the administration of the entire region; he welcomed us to the area and described our work with them as a partnership. In his office, we asked for a copy of the list of village captains, but he couldn’t give us one because the drum on the copier had worn out a few months before, the fax machine had no paper, and their only printer was reduced to blue ink.

   This demonstrates just how limited local resources are and is symptomatic of even more acute lack of basic medical and dental care in the remote villages. We can’t help with everything, but there is so much we can do with the airplane and our own boat on the rivers to improve the basic health of the people, as well as reach out to spiritual needs of the people of the region.

   While we were in Mabaruma, we stayed in the LaBores’ rented house. It’s small but up on stilts with good ventilation. Bill and I were pretty comfortable until the rats discovered that we had food! They found their way into everything—chewing, knocking things over, running up and down the walls, banging around inside the oven, and sampling each and every food item. What followed were several nights of honing my rat trapping skills. Overall, the rats won, but I had a couple of small victories, and I plan on returning prepared to aggressively defend ourselves from those despicable things!

	Mabaruma Market

   Where we are going to live will be more difficult. We had thought that we could find satisfactory temporary housing that would suit our needs, but there is very little available.  Because we are working as a team, we will be sharing a lot of our resources, such as communications, a generator, and child-care, so we will essentially need to be neighbors to function efficiently. On a previous visit, Bill and Laura discovered a property that appeared to be an ideal permanent base. Further investigation proved this to be so. It is a five acre parcel, and about two acres have a very gentle slope, which will give us plenty of room for housing, volunteer accommodations, and an outreach facility for community work. We will also have room to develop a large garden area. Produce is surprisingly limited here, and some of what is available is quite costly. For example, a pineapple costs nearly $3.00 (2 ½ times more than in Georgetown); however, bananas are cheap.

   The property has been offered to us for US$14,000 (down from $20,000 initially). The acquisition and development costs will be shared between the Wickwires and the LaBores. Our volunteer architect, Jesse Hibler, from Berrien Springs, Michigan, flew in while we were there. He has been working on drawings for our housing, as well as the hangar for the Mabaruma airstrip. He was able to spend some time on the property and will be able to provide us with an overall plan for the development of the land. Jesse has also prepared full drawings for the 11,000 square foot Volunteer Centre to be built in Georgetown, and while he was there, we submitted the plans to the Engineering Department for a building permit. We look forward to getting started on that facility as funds become available.

Two children peek around the corner of a hut.

   In the end, we discovered that there are so many ways we can help that any thoughts or concerns about not having enough to do have been quite thoroughly put to rest.  Expect future writings to include calls for help in a variety of capacities as the ministry grows in Region 1. After our visit to the area, we can say with confidence that the overall goals for the project are sound, and our two families’ skills, along with the airplane, are a perfect fit for the needs in Mabaruma and the region.

   There is no doubt that God has prepared the way and the timing for this work to be done. We will take it one step at a time, and we know that God will provide for our needs. As we are writing this, we are in Berrien Springs, Michigan, attending Summer Institute of Frontier Missions with Adventist Frontier Missions. So far, the training has been excellent, as has been the fellowship with both experienced missionaries and the other missionaries in training. We plan to join the Labores early this fall in Mabaruma.