Elephantitis

Hello again - well the latest news from here has to be the weather - it is HOT.
No breeze, no relief, just oppressive heat with high humidity. Every morning is the same, I leave the air conditioned bedroom and the trees are still, the house is already hot, I turn on the fans, start a pot of coffee, light my candle for morning prayer, then sit in front of the fan as I pray Morning Prayer. Every day is in the mid to high 90's with over 80% humidity - weather stations say the heat index (the 'feels like' temp) is always over 100.

While this is life on Andros - live goes on. If you remember, prior to our trip to the States we had a boy drown here. After we returned we stopped by to see the family and met the Grandfather. Everyone else in the house had gone to the creek to fish for supper so Ginni and I sat with him and talked for over an hour. It was a great conversation with him telling us much of the history of the Catholic church in the southern end of our part of Andros.

What was striking about this man were his legs. His wore shorts, no shoes, and right leg was incredibly swollen. All I could think of was the disease Elephantitis that you read about in Africa. The leg and foot were triple their normal size and the skin was tough and caloused. Ginni later told me it is 'peripheral vascular disease'. Meaning his circulation is so poor that the fluid in his legs stays there and the leg swells. Somehow to say it is swollen just doesn't describe it sufficiently as I type the words.

Anyway, we talked about is grandson's drowning, and the funeral we missed. We had heard it was a full church and very emotional. He said he didn't go because of his foot. In fact, he stopped going to Church years ago because he couldn't wear shoes anymore, and hasn't worn shoes for over 5 years.

When I asked why we hadn't seen his family in church he explained that when the permanent resident Sisters left, and the church was served by priests/deacons that just came for weekend visits they felt abandoned. They still consider themselves Catholic, but none of the grandchildren are baptized, his children haven't been to church for years and, after several years away, they are pretty much 'un-churched'.

Our conversation covered a wide range of topics and he was very well spoken. He told stories of Fr. Gabriel Roerig OSB, a Benedictine who spent over 30 years evangelizing Andros. He built the first church here, he served up and down the Andros coast before their were roads, using a boat when he could, and walking when he couldn't. The more I hear of this priest the more I wonder why he isn't up for canonization.

After a great conversation, and an assurance he'd try to get the grandchildren back to church on Sunday, Ginni asked if any of the Doctors he had seen had tried to get him stockings or support hose that might give some relief. They had not. Ginni's visiting nurse experience kicked in and she promised to try to see what she might find on the web. They have wrap-around boots for this disease that can be very comfortable, provide relief, and double as shoes for many people.

So we said our good-byes, promised we would bring him communion on Sunday, and left. Later that day Ginni had a print out of two different types of wrap around shoes - one was more of a slipper, the other not only wrapped around the foot, but the ankle and calf too. With velco straps the width was adjustable and it looked perfect.

On Sunday there was an entire row of new children we'd never seen before - his grandchildren. There were no adults, we assume they either walked or got dropped off, but he was true to his promise and they all were there, dressed in pretty party dresses. I talked to them after church and told them we'd be coming by with communion and some information for their grandfather.

After our van made the rounds of dropping off locals with no cars to their homes, we left and made our first stop to see him again. All the kids met us in the driveway - now back in shorts and t-shirts and shoeless once again. They led us to the back yard and we sat on buckets turned upside down under the same mango tree I had met with them a few weeks ago to talk about the upcoming funeral of the boy who had drowned.

Ginni showed him the pictures and the descriptions of the wrap around boot and he said no Doctor had ever shown him anything like this. After we read some of the information to him (all the time surrounded by all the children looking to see what 'Faddah' had brought grampie) he thought that it might actually work and we promised to see how we could order it on the internet.

Then I began the prayers for the communion service - and he still remembered the prayers. "I confess to Almighty God, and to you my brothers and sisters that I have sinned ..." The children were wide-eyed as he and his wife together joined me and Ginni as we prayed through this little prayer service. I read the Ephesians reading from this Sunday liturgy and told him a recap of the homily. We prayed the Lord's Prayer and I gave him and his wife communion. Afterwards I explained to some of the children that, after they come to religion classes and they learn about the Eucharist, they can recieve their First Communion and recieve every Sunday. (At Church the young children recieve a blessing at communion, and they'd just had that experience at Church earlier).

We returned to the van (which, by the way, had people sitting and waiting for us for their ride home), and we were off. On the way home we dropped these folks off and then made another 3 communion calls. We have a 94 year-old blind woman who I've written about before, another 90+ year-old woman who has fallen and broken her arm, and a cancer patient who just returned from Nassau after chemo. A busy Sunday in 95 degree heat.

Several people back in the States have been very generous to us and it is that genosity that will be put to work now to buy this man's support-boot. If it works as well as we hope, he may actually be able to return to church with his grandchildren. Time will tell.

Enough for now, pray for us as we do for you.