Wednesday, August 5, 2009

We Are Back!

Well after two weeks in the US we are back on ANDROS!
Suffice it to say our time at home was rushed. There were so many old friends and family to see and so much to do! From meeting with my bible study buds 7AM on Saturday, to baptizing new twin boys in Leominster, to preaching once again at the 9:30 at St. Timothy's it seemed every minute was a time to have dinner with friends, or breakfast, or lunch - or deal with the rental properties in MA and NH. We had a wonderful gathering with friends and it was great to enjoy each other's company once again.

On top of seeing everyone in MA again, we took a week and went to Long Island and for the first time in over a year all of our sons were together once more. Our oldest, who now lives in Singapore, joined us in Sag Harbor with his wife and Jack, our only grand-son. Our youngest son Joe and his wife Liza have opened 'Bay Burger', his restaraunt in the Hamptons - and our son Mike has joined him this past year - both are working very hard.

During this visit I helped Jack work on his cub scout fishing merit badge - teaching him how to use a spinning reel. We caught a blue fish together and then took on the challenge of actually cleaning it - not Jack's favorite part. My favorite part was frying up the filets and enjoying a great super - thank's Jack!

While on Long Island we took a trip into Manhatten and saw BLUE MAN GROUP and the off-broadway production of Mary Poppins. When we got back to MA we also took in a Red Sox game! Great family time but talk about squeezing every possible minute out of two weeks.

When we got back to Nassau our flight to Andros was a bit interesting. Since we arrived in Nassau after 4 there were no regularly scheduled flights to Andros so we went to the small Charter Flight airport where we thought we had reservations. While we had been told the predictable 'no problem faddah' when we set it up - there was no plane.

So we wait. I found a pilot who said he'd be going to Andros and just to sit and wait and he'd call us. Two hours later I find him again and 'no problem faddah - I'll call you shortly'. Talking to an Anglican priest we know who was waiting, we found he'd been waiting 3 hours. When I saw our luggage disappear I followed them and found the pilot stuffing them into a 7 seater plane and I knew departure was close. Six of us fit into the 7 seater plane (he needed to wait until he had at least 6 to make it worth the flight), and off we went. 15 minutes later we are on Andros.

The big news here is that Western Airlines, the main carrier that goes from Nassau to Andros, has stopped serving our Andros Town airport. This happened during our two week absence and was a major surprise to everyone. Competition from the charters was making it harder and harder to fill their planes so they stopped them. On the one hand, Western was never on time so that is why people use the charters - but the impact is major. Tourists now have no way to get here from Nassau unless they know about the charter flights - or they take the ferry - or they go to North Andros and incur an $80 cab fare to get here. Clearly this will be a major financial hit for our part of the island.

The other major impact this creates is that the Bahamian Post Office used Western Air to get mail from Nassau to Andros Town and all of Central Andros. Bottom line - our Post Office hasn't had mail for two weeks, and won't have mail until the Bahamian government gives one of the charter companies a contract to carry mail. So if you mail us anything - don't expect a response any time soon.

Finally, if you remember, we have been working on getting a wheelchair for a parishioner with a 10 year old boy with Cerebal Palsey via Alhambra, a fraternal order of Catholic men who adopted disabled children as their charity. It arrived while we were away! This is truely an act of the Holy Spirit and as soon as I can get some pics I will post them here.

Enough for now - its 94 degrees with 88% humidity and Ginni says I am not going to spend the whole day on the computer - we're going to the beach! I always do what Ginni says.

Till next time.

2 comments:

Alannah said...

Glad you had a good trip. So sorry you didn't get a chance to meet Torin. Tell Ginni to call next time she's up here for work!

scubaheart said...

Found your blog last night- thank you for sharing your experiences with us. I have been to Andros many times and Fresh Creek has my heart. If you would like to correspond my email is scubaheart@att.net. Our website is hrtmndrs.org if you'd like to take a look.
P.S. I had mailed a letter c/o Fresh Creek Post Office on Wed August 5 so thanks for the news about the mail delay!