Bye Bye Bonnie

Well Tropical Storm Bonnie blew threw here in the middle of the night and it seems all is well. I was glad I put up the hurricane shutters in the priest's apartment. There no water leakage on the leaky windows I covered - naturally the windows that never leak, which I did not cover, had a lovely puddle waiting for me the next day.

The storm itself was a wind and rain event. The wind was pretty constant at about 30-40 mph all night long and when the rain started it was a monsoon! Around 2AM the lightning and thunder just rocked the place, literally, windows rattled and when I got out of bed I could feel the vibrations from the thunder in the soles of my feet on the tile floor.

What was most surprising the next day was that on the patio between our home and the church were about 100 small white paint chips all over the grey floor - the storm actually blew chips of paint off the walls! As I drove through town and saw a branch here or there I could not help but wonder about our Haitian friends up on the northern part of the island. In that community there is actually 1 house, the rest are the tin roof huts with makeshift walls consisting of whatever planks were around when they were built. Some have dirt floors, some are raised up on cinder blocks and have plywood floors. Needless to say they were not built to endure tropical storms, much less an actual hurricane.

We haven't been able to hold church services for them up north since the schools closed (we had been meeting in the school). I have called my Bahamian contact up there, but she is off the island for the month of June so, since they have no phones, I will have to take the hour drive up there to check up on them, and possibly have church outside next to the fields where they grow cabbages and onions.

We still haven't had a priest for some time. The last priest to join us on Andros was on Easter but I am hoping we will have one with us soon. The first communion class is still waiting to experience their first confession and then first communion, but for now we wait until either a visiting US priest on vacation offers to help, or a priest from Nassau can be sent. I was talking to the Sister who had been on Andros prior to our coming here. She is now on another family island and she's in the same boat, not having had a priest since Easter.

The Archbishop actually does a great job providing coverage throughout the Bahamas with the limited resources he has. In the US a priest may cover multiple churches by driving great distances. When the different churches are on different islands that are miles and miles apart it creates a whole different dynamic.

The Bahamians simply smile and say "Dis be island life faddah" - and smile, recognizing the reality of island life. When you run out of something you just have to wait for the boat, if its not on the boat you wait for the next one. When I had a flat tire once, it took 4 days before I could get another tire - all you can do is wait. In our case, we're waiting for a priest (a limited resource). Until then, everyone has to settle for the Deacon. :)

Till next time.