Saturday, October 13, 2012

We're up and running

Well its been awhile so I thought I should try to catch you up on what's happening here.

Ginni has returned in good health and we have hi hopes the gall bladder surgery will correct all the health issues she had been having.

In SEP we had our monthly trip to Nassau and the Archbishop has arranged a wonderful presentation on the Year of Faith that Pope Benedict will initiate in OCT.  It turns out that the video they presented to us as an example of something that could be shown to parishioners is one I already have and am in the process of evaluating.  The Military Archdiocese had sent it to the AUTEC Navy Base - so I am a bit ahead of everyone else here.  If you have seen the Fr. Barron series on CATHOLICISM shown on EWTN - that is it.

The other item of note is the Archbishop gave us the final go-ahead for construction projects we wanted to do and an imaginative way of funding them I had suggested.  The big one is the construction of a new church in N.Andros.  This is a $30K job and I have begged and pleaded to reach $15K.  I can borrow the balance from a parish account the Archdiocese manages.  I also need to replace the church windows the the sea air has now made inoperable (that's another 5K), and I want to restore another abandoned building to have a class room in the southern end of the island.  This is another $5-7K but what is exciting is that this is part of what used to be St. Mary's parish.  This is the first Catholic church in the outer family islands.  The Rectory is a total loss, the church is termite infested and the roof is unstable, but a side building (the Bakery), is something we can restore and use for CCD classes and parish meetings.  So, with the Archbishops approval we will begin.

Just before the trip to Nassau I began to have a toothache.  I had visited a dentist in Nassau about it and she said that since it already had a cap I would be better served to see and Endodontist (but there are none in the Bahamas).  I'm traveling to the US for my son Mike's wedding OCT 20 so the question was, could I hold out until then.  As the pain grew, a priest from RI serving down here recommended another dentist.

Coincidentally, the Benedictine Sisters were celebrating 75 years of serving here and there was a special liturgy planned that I was going to attend.  So - prior to the service we visited the new dentist.  He thought he could do the root canal so he shot me up with the pain killers, ripped off the cap, and drilled away.  After drilling out both roots he said he didn't like how it looked and took 3 more xrays until he found a crack in the tooth.  Even with the root canal the crack with be a source of pain and the tooth had to go - so, more shots, and out come the pliers.  Suffice it to say I was in no shape to attend the sister's celebration.  Bahamian dentistry is a bit behind US dentistry but the pain is gone.

With Ginni back with me, the first two weeks of OCT saw us kick off CCD once again.  It is the one task that takes the most of our time and this year will be no different.  It was complicated by a school bus accident the first week of school.   The school bus to Cargill Creek had a blowout and drive lost control, with the bus going off the road and into the bush.  It was a total loss, some kids were hurt and had to be flown to Nassau for hospital treatment, but in the end all injuries were minor.  So the High School is down one bus, complicating everyone's life.  To help, rather than waiting for the bus to drop our kids off for CCD, we have started going to the school to pick them up.  The caos when the school bell rings is unreal.  I end up standing by the main gate, directing our kids to the van, while Ginni stays at the van, separating our kids from all the others - a bit of crazy time but it works.

The most recent activity of ours is the parish picnic.  Both Fresh Creek and Cargill Creek parishes came together at the Mt. Pleasant fishing lodge for a BBQ and fun day.  One of our members works at the Dept of Tourism and was a god-send coordinating who would bring what.  It was an all afternoon event with food galore and good people.  I should share about the BBQ and the Creek.
Gas grills never die - they retire to the Bahamas.  Picture a gas grill with no propane, no interior gas works, nothing but the pedestal, grill, and cover.  That is a Bahamian grill - open the cover, fill the interior with drift wood, sticks, whatever else you can gather, light it up and you're ready to cook.  The kids were great at gathering firewood, and once we got it cranked up we actually had to drop some ice onto the coals to cool it down so we could cook - and cook we did.  Ribs, Chicken, Burgers, Dogs - nonstop all afternoon.
The Creek is another story - this resort has a wonderful waterfront but its too rocky and shallow to swim, but our teens found a small sandy beach at the mouth of a creek that feeds the mangrove swamp behind the resort.  Well, the sand was great, but the tide was coming in and, with tropical storm Patty just 200 miles away the current and wind were fierce.  At first it was a great time - you could float and the current would take you on a wonderful ride inland.  Eventually, however, came the realization that the mangrove were so thick you couldn't get out of the creek and had to swim or wade all the way back.  The problem was the creek was to deep to wade and to rapid to swim.  So all our teens - and Ginni and I, basically had to pull ourselves back by going from branch to branch of the mangrove roots and branches.  It took us over a half out to get back - after only a 2-3 minute ride on the tide to get where we were.  This was a bit scary with so many kids in the same boat but eventually we made it.

Today my job is to prepare for the weekend liturgy, then to fly out on Monday to attend my son's wedding on Saturday.  We are looking forward to this big time!

Till next time