After nine months of missionary work in the North West Region of Guyana among the Amerindian people, Therrol Joseph, now 20, returned home with his two companions Bridget Edmund and Joseph Wells, on June 16. They had been sent to Guyana as part of an Antilles Episcopal Commission (AEC) youth missionary initiative. This is the second part of an interview with Catholic News. Read the first part

CN: Were the Amerindian people generally receptive?
Therrol: It took a while to get accustomed to them. In the first few months we thought our programme was not really running; there was a lot of inactivity. Looking back, we realised that the people were getting used to us. They are very hospitable but to open up and to get relaxed and comfortable in your presence, they have to know you for a little while. They are also a little territorial. If one person comes into our presence and becomes comfortable with us others seemed to feel that that person was encroaching on their space.

CN: What about your first impressions of Georgetown and then of Hosororo; could you say a little bit about the process of settling down in this totally new situation?
Therrol: We spent about five days in Georgetown and we had a nice tour of the city. We stayed at the Cathedral and it was more or less what we were accustomed to, although we were a little surprised at the big canals going through the city.

We thought the interior might be a little less developed but probably on the same level. … I think it was when we landed in Hosororo we recognised the seriousness, or difference of our situations.

In the interior, communities varied quite a bit. There was one business community and in that area there were better houses, some of concrete. Where we lived too in Hosororo, the houses were big and out of wood. The real shock was when we were carried into the less developed communities along the river.

In Hosororo there was electricity four hours a day, in the evening, from 6.00 to 11.00 (with an extra hour thrown in) but the smaller communities had no electricity.

In my community where I stayed houses were made of bamboo and wood with coconut branches for the roof. There you get a real sense of how the interior really is.

Most of the interior is made up of these smaller, less developed communities. At first, seeing the people living in these traditional ways, I felt a bit of pity but when you really submerged your life in the lives of the Amerindians, you realised these were extremely happy people.

The thing about it is that they do not go around with smiles on their faces all the time, in fact they have a rather blank expression but when you get to know them they are extremely happy people.

That did a lot for me because I look forward to a bit of TV, sitting in front of the computer or going to Movie Towne, or something like that to bring a little enjoyment into my life. These people had none of these luxuries.

A simple thing like a fridge or a glass of cold water, they do not have, yet they were happy. This was not my first impression but over a period of time, you felt their joy, especially my community.

I felt myself drawn to them, wanting to spend most of my time in their presence, going around meeting the people helping them out on the farms, helping them out with sports. They love sports. They love hunting. They were not burdened by cares.

One of the things that did for me was to help me to learn how to depend on God because that’s how they lived from day to day. They depend on God to send rain to water the crops so they could get an income. Every day they depend on him.

CN: So were the priests in charge of the programme?
Therrol: Yes, the priests told us what they wanted us to do; in what areas they needed our help … The AEC did not give us a mandate or programme before we went on mission. It was the parish priests who set up the programme.

CN: So there is no programme worked out before?
Therrol: No.

CN: Was this a drawback, not having a planned programme, or was this just not practical?
Therrol: I don’t think it was a drawback. It was important for us to get accustomed to the situation but, not only that, it was important to leave ourselves open. Yes plan, yes have a vision. But I remember us having all these big ideas: we were going to run with the youths, spike up things and so on.

When that did not happen it had a negative effect. So I felt God was saying to us: “Depend on me. Leave yourselves open.” And even though the first few months were very rough, they were needed. At first we might have felt it wasn’t right but looking back now we recognise it was an important period for God to work with us.

CN: Were Guyanese youth involved at all. Did youth from Georgetown come around to see what you were doing?
Therrol: Yes. After four months we went down to Georgetown and the secretary at the youth secretariat was very helpful, giving us books, information. The week before we left they came up. They introduced the Abstinence Programme.

They gave us all the support. Bishop Francis Alleyne also came up and stayed with us for a week to see how everything was going. He went with us into our different communities. So we had support at that level as well.

CN: What was your diet like?
Therrol: Because it was mostly jungle, there were a lot of wild animals. Deer, monkeys, iguanas, bush cow—an array of wild meat. They did not eat manicou but we prepared some. Their main food is rice. They ate rice every day—morning, lunch and evening.

We ate a lot of provisions, dumplings. Everybody has a garden where they plant cassava and they make a lot of different things with the cassava—cassava bread, drinks non-alcoholic and alcoholic.

Therrol Joseph

Fr Christian Chambers and Therrol with an Amerindian community in Guyana

CN: What about fish, though? You did not mention fish?
Therrol: Yes, they ate a lot of fish as well and each family reared a few chickens.

CN: Was it that most people were Catholics or baptised Catholics?
Therrol: Yes. The largest group was Catholic.

CN: Were there other denominations?
Therrol: Yes, there were Church of Christ and Jehovah Witnesses. They also had their missionaries.

CN: Your mother went across at one point to visit. That wasn’t planned was it?
Therrol: No, it wasn’t. Mommy picked herself up and thought she wanted to see where I was and how life was. She had been the house-mother for the Institute so the other two missionaries were quite attached to her.

She felt she wanted to come out to support us in any way. It was a surprise. When she reached Georgetown she called me wanting to know how to get up to the Northwest. That was really a nice time because she came just after New Year’s. It was my first Christmas away from home and I was missing home. She came up and supported all of us. She helped us through some of the things we found difficult.

CN: Looking back on your training programme, do you think that your six weeks prepared you for the nine months in Guyana?
Therrol: Well, in some ways. But it did not totally prepare us. Since we returned we have given our input about what we think should be changed and I think they really accepted it.

For the six weeks the Institute taught us a lot about missiology (the study of missions, their methods and purposes) and Church history and stuff like that.

They taught us about sexuality and how to deal with yourself. We had some really good presenters. But I think we needed a little more on-the-ground training, how to live in this situation. They didn’t really prepare us for that. We had some briefing but they need to show more how to survive in the culture.

CN: Your immediate goal is to obtain a degree in physical education, but would you do something like this again?
Therrol: Yes, I want to leave myself open to missionary life however, whenever.

CN: How do you see what you experienced in Guyana benefiting your future work and life? How do you see it benefiting youth in Trinidad and Tobago but perhaps even outside of Trinidad and Tobago, in the other islands of the Caribbean?
Therrol: I think my eyes have been opened. I have a different perspective. I have been able to see a different culture, a different lifestyle and how other people live. Before I left I was saying I was going out there to help; going out there to do much more for these people, to help them but they did so much for me.

Sometimes, I believe I didn’t even match up because they opened up their lives to me, and every life, every community we came into contact with, left something with me.

I think that now that I am back home I want to share this experience with other young people that they too may be aware of a different lifestyle, be aware of a different culture—to be able to pull different experiences from it.

I think too this whole experience is only now beginning to unravel inside so there are a lot of gifts I haven’t really opened yet. But I want to share this experience, in particular with young men. I had a lot of time for meditation, a lot of time for one on one with God. … My attitude and how I see things have changed.

I do not want to hold the experience for myself. I would recommend the programme to any young person who would like to give their give their life to God or give service, to go on mission, whether it is for three months or nine months. I believe when you give yourself to that kind of service, God does something to you that you really do not expect. It is way past what you imagine.

CN: When we started talking you said you sensed God was saying you had to be available to him. Now that you look back on the experience and the things that prompted you—and your trusting in this word that you heard—what lesson do you think you learnt from just obeying that word?
Therrol: I always felt you had to have the ability, you had to have the talent, or a specific training in an area. Yes, we did the Missionary Institute. But now I know that all God really wants from us is to make ourselves available.

One of the reasons I felt I did not have the ability was because of my own brokenness, the feeling that I messed up this, and messed up that.

As young people we sometimes feel that our brokenness would be a hindrance to God using us, but I think that God calls those who are broken, who feel in themselves they have no use, they have no talent, no ability.

And God calls and when we answer that call, God transforms us, transforms our ability and our perception.