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| The Carti Tupile Zone Conference ... October 2019 |
Thank you for the package! The food is getting kind of old, so it was so good to open up a bag of beef jerky!! Elder Navas and I literally ate a whole bag, all at once.
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| Irgandi Branch Building ... Sort of a Heaven on Earth |
Thursday we had plans and everything to start our journey to Carti Tupile for Zone Conference. We were going to stay the night on another island called Playon Chico (about a 30-45 minute boat ride) away, and work with the Elders there for awhile. But, it turns out that the Sila chiefs here in Irgandi would not let anyone (including us) leave the island for 4 days because of a huge work project that all were expected to help with--harvesting and preparing sugar cane to sell. So, that changed our plans.
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| The Fellas |
The Sila chiefs enforce a lot of rules here in the islands. We have to be respectful or ciao!! They talk about these rules every night in their "consejo"...which is mostly men and the Silas. We're not invited.
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| Can't go wrong in collecting rain water |
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| Waiting for our boat on Playon Chico |
As far as I can tell, they are in there praying, smoking, drinking chicha fuerte. Almost all the men in the village HAVE TO GO to consejo. It's almost the only time all the Silas are there at the same time.
In the end, we got permission from the Sila to leave after two days, but someone from another island had to come pick us up. He was not about to allow any boatman to leave the sugar cane work.
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| A masterpiece for dinner in our hut |
So, we finally made it to Playon Chico, and stayed the night there in hammocks, in the same hut that my cousin Ben Call built. It's pretty run down Ben! Ha ha! I watched cats, rats, dogs, ants and crabs all get in with no problem, but its all great.
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| Very well built! |
They literally have everything in Playon Chico. You can buy smartphones, mirrors. machetes, plates, forks, memory, literally everything. Here in Irgandi you can only buy soda, chips, cookies, cheese and soap but its all good. I literally love it here. I could spend two more changes here.
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| Ample room! |
The next morning we set off in a boat for Carti Tupile, a 2 hour voyage. I later learned that President and Sister Garrett were doing the same thing about that time.
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| Pres. & Sister Garrett gathering up the Sisters and Elders from other islands for Zone Conf. |
They went and gathered up the sisters from Nargana Island and Elders from Ticantiqui Island, and brought them to Carti Tupile for the conference.
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| A swamp monster could come out at any time...for sure. |
The Zone Conference was great! We played games to get to know the Zone. There was candy and everything. It was pretty different but the Spirit was strong there. We learned more about rules for serving in the San Blas islands. I had a great interview with President Garrett, right on the shore. They brought us cold pizza and soda! It was literally sooo good.
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| Pres. Garrett noticed we had a Zone Conference visitor in the water |
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| This sea turtle came to Zone Conference in Carti Tupile |
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| Hermana Garrett getting us started at the Carti Tupile branch building |
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| Presidente and Hermana Garrett brought pizza and soda for all of us! It was amazing!! |
At the end of the conference, they handed out physical mail and packages. I got two packages from home, thanks to the fam! In these packages was a SWEET Timbuck2 bag, which is the perfect size, color and everything! Ha ha! There was also 4 BAGS OF BEEF JERKY and a SWEET 3 liter water filter, which I am going to need when I go to different islands.
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| This is pretty typical for walking conditions on the islands |
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| This is what my feet look like ... off and on |
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| Not sure what this is, but a sign inside says "We are Mormons" in English |
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| Maybe a Mormon dog shelter? I guess they need shade too. |
The next morning I woke up at 4 am having to go to the bathroom SO bad, but wanted to sleep so I went back to sleep and woke back up at 5:30 am, ready to explode!! I tried to put on my chanclas but didn't have time!
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| Practicing teaching |
I started to try and open the door and run to the beach, but time ran out ... minor explosion between the legs. Eventually, I made it to the beach. Unfortunately I only had one pair of garments but we did have some water and good shampoo. I was wet down low for the whole conference. Ha ha. If i could explain it in one word it would be GRAVY. Ha ha!
When it was finally time to leave, six Elders got in the boat, ready to go back to Playon Chico Island and Irgandi. On the way, one of the motors on the boat stopped working. Luckily the sea was pretty calm and we had that second motor. With only one motor, it took 4 hours to get back. It was a pretty long ride!
I don't usually get sea sick, but wow I did in that small boat, for that long, with lots of people. That night, we slept 6 Elders in the Playon Chico hut, hammocks and all. General conference was great! I took great notes. We watched it in Spanish, in our Irgandi Branch. All my notes are in Spanish. I was so excited for conference. I loved Elder Soares' talk.
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| A great place to watch conference! |
For the Saturday morning session, we had about 20 people there watching it with us (mostly noisy kids). The little kids were driving me CRAZY could not focus but oh well. For the Saturday afternoon session we had about 3 kids there with us watching. We would have had a lot more there for all the Sunday sessions but we could not ring out branch bell. (Another rule you see...there was someone sick in Irgandi. If someone in Irgandi is sick, the Silas do not allow us to ring the Church bell).
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| The local church member boys have a lot of energy, and love the branch |
After the Sunday morning session we had corn flakes--an island favorite! To prepare it, they get this huge pot of water, throw in 7 cans of milk, 7 pounds of sugar and 4 boxes of corn flakes. Not bad! Right in the middle of that, guess who had to go run to the beach again! Me. I did not have to go as bad as the other time at Zone Conference, but it was bad nonetheless. I didn't have enough time to walk to the designated area of the beach to do my business, so I just went to the closest beach. People got kinda mad at me over it, but its all good. My comp said, "When Elder Doxey needs to go, he really needs to go!"
We've been doing lots of service to help the dads come to church. The idea is that if we go help them in their coconut harvesting, they will have time to come to Church. So we've been working with a guy named Vicente, whose wife has been through the temple. We worked really hard with him to free up some time, yet he still did not come to Church!
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| Our welcome committee once we returned |
Apparently his daughter died from a sickness about two months back, and in the Kuna culture it means they can't leave their house for 6 weeks. We knew this beforehand, and we knew he would reach the 6 weeks mark during conference, but he STILL didn't come! So, now the plan is to go work in the mountains with him or something. Keep serving.
Elder Navas by the way, is a great comp. He is hard working and very smart. He knows how to play soccer very well. We are both still working on being able to speak the Dule Gaya language but poco y poco you know. Overall, it is great work that we are doing. It is literally such a miracle that I'm here in the San Blas islands.
Maya (that is Dule Gaya for "cool").
Much love, Elder Doxey
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