August 5, 2013

Elder Santos was busy answering personal emails this week so there was no general email. But here are some tidbits about his new area that he sent us:

There are only four elders in French Guianna. Different apts. And, here's a fun fact. Of those four, two of them are definitely leaving at the end of this transfer, and the other two are Elder Maoni and myself. Elder Maoni has only been here for about a month, and me for less. Which means that we're not going to have really any missionaries with a whole lot of experience/knowledge of the area.

The country is really not too terribly different from the islands, although it's true that it's hotter here. The accent isn't really a problem here-at least, I still haven't been able to pick up if they speek differently than in my previous areas. The biggest difference, for the country and for the accent, revolves around the fact that no one is really from here. Compared with the islands, I see tons of Asians (fun fact-one common term used around here is "le chinois". It literally means "the chinese person", but it is used to refer to the little gas-station-but-without-the-gas stores that are all over the place here), lots of white metropolitans, a huge number of Brazilians, and a good number of spanish speakers from other nearby countries as well. So, yeah, there is an accent here, but I don't know if you could technically call it a Guiannais accent.

We've got one branch here that isn't actually attached to any district-we're just a part of the West Indies Mission. Interestingly enough, a few years back Guianne had three branches and its own district. Unfortunately things have not been moving in the right direction.

Being a Zone Leader is...well, I'm kind of a special case. I mean, I can't imagine that there is a zone in the world that is smaller than the one that I am in now. And I know that, at least in the mission, I'm the only Zone Leader who isn't companions with another Zone Leader. But yeah, for the moment I get to be the bad guy that has to ruin everyone's party. I guess that's what I'm told being a parent is like. Man, I am so sorry.

I had already served with Elder Johnston in Martinique (not as companions), I had only met Elder Maoni at two zone conferences, and I had met Joseph Jomie when I was in his branch in Guadeloupe. Both the companionships have cars actually, but we aren't supposed to drive them too much.

Food is pretty much the same here-well, I've been the master chef at our appartment so far, and I have been making the same things, so...not sure what are the good local dishes, but I'm sure I'll get to taste them eventually.