Hamptons to a Hurricane

Hello again my friends
Well, if you follow this blog you know that we took a few weeks off to fly home and celebrate our son Mike's wedding to a wonderful woman (Catherine) in the Hamptons.  Suffice it to say it was a glorious event.  The wedding was at Holy Trinity parish in East Hampton and from the rehearsal, to the rehearsal dinner, the wedding itself and the reception everything was perfect. It was great to see all the extended family once again and to have time with old friends once more.

I was able to share a little about our experiences here in the homily, and when I shared privately with some folks that we are trying to rebuild a church in North Andros that has been closed for 50 years several folks offered to donate!  The cost for Our Lady of Hope will be a bit over $30,000 when all is done and in other trips home to the US I have already brought back a little over $15,000 so, once I return, we can actually break ground and start construction.  I will be meeting the Archbishop the 3rd week of November and I should confirm with him our ability to borrow the balance.  Anyone reading this that wants to donate can send checks payable to THE ARCHDIOCESE OF NASSAU FOUNDATION and mail them to:

Deacon Frank Tremblay
St John Chrysostom
Fresh Creek
Andros Bahamas

-or if you ADD A NOTE that its for our ministry on Andros you can mail checks directly to the Archdiocese of Nassau at-

Archdiocese of Nassau
PO Box N8187
Nassau
Bahamas

For tax purposes the Tax ID # is 11-379-8061 (what a great way to get that year-end deduction)

Anyway - back to the wedding.
After a wonderful celebration Ginni and I had settled in at our son Joe's home in Sag Harbor.  I was checking my Facebook account when I saw a friend (from Hawaii) commenting on a pending storm in the Bahamas.  Well I jump onto weather.com and there is hurricane Sandy with Andros right in the middle of its projected track.  I was scheduled to fly back on Friday and the storm was projected to hit on Friday.  Well, we are a hurricane shelter and I knew I needed to get back early.  We called Jet Blue and had a rather funny conversation with the reservation clerk as we changed my flight from Friday to Wednesday.  You see, all the Bahamian islands beyond Nassau are called the family islands.  During the conversation Ginni was having a friendly conversation with the reservation lady and talked about having to fly into Nassau early afternoon to catch the small plane that leaves at 4PM for Andros. She said, 'to get to the family islands you have to go through Nassau' and the Jet Blue lady says 'Gee, if you have your own family island in the Bahamas why are you flying Jet Blue'.  We got a chuckle out of that one.

Anyway - I did get back on Wednesday and the wind was blowing pretty bad but I had time to put the hurricane shutters up on the sea side of the church (our church building is on a 10' cliff right on the sea).  With that done I loaded up the van with our empty water bottles and headed off to AUTEC to get drinking water for the duration of the storm. (Our tap water is not drinkable so we go to the US NAVY AUTEC Base where there is a public faucet to get drinking water.  Just when I had filled the last of my bottles the sky opens up and the rain is blowing sideways.  I get into the van, totally drenched, and it wouldn't start.
All I could get was a buzz when I turned the key so I knew I had a problem with the starter but what a time to have it! 

I was able to get to the guard at the front gate of AUTEC who let me use a phone to call for a ride.  One of my parishioners came and I grabbed one 5 gallon bottle of water and he took me back to the church.  Now the van is pretty much going to have to stay at AUTEC throughout the storm while I honker down at the church.  Social Services came by with hurricane supplies for us, as a shelter, and the Clinic sent over medical supplies, so I was set for the night.

Well it blew and blew and the rain was fierce, but being located on the cliff we get a much more severe beating than the people in town.  Ultimately the storm track was East of us.  While we took a hit nobody had to come to the shelter and Andros was spared.  Cat Island and Long Island took it on the chin.

Once it passed I called a parishioner who is a mechanic who worked on the van for 2 days and figured out that the starter was OK but the battery was bad and wouldn't even hold a charge.  Now I need a battery.  Can you believe I could not find a battery anywhere on the island?  A saying on the island is, if you don't have it and you can't find it, you don't need it.  That sums up island life pretty well.

Well with that said,  I did need it - with the passing of the storm came the weekend and there are a number of people who count on the van to get to church.  The solution came from an unlikely source.  The owner of the grocery store told me she just bought a new battery for her truck, but her truck needs brakes, so if I wanted, I could use that battery for a week.  So I plug her battery into the van - the garage orders a battery from Nassau - and a week later I put that new battery into the van and return the one I borrowed (whew).

Meanwhile -
In addition to the new church in North Andros, another project here is to restore an abandoned church in Behring Point.  This is the southern most part of the island and, coincidentally, it is the very first Catholic Church built in the family islands.  While I cannot afford to restore the church building I can afford to restore a small building that had been a bakery.  Before I left I had hired someone to clear the lot that had been reclaimed by the bush and they did a great job.  This small building will work out just fine as a school house to teach the children religious ed classes.  Right now, at this end of the island the kids hear the lesson then, kneel on the floor and use the benches as desks to do their papers.  Restoring this building will give them a place with tables and chairs and a much better learning environment.

While the landscaping went well, the construction was impacted by the storm, and now the builder is pointing out a few things I didn't include in his work order. (Since we only meet an hour a day I had not include a toilet and, since we meet during the day, I had not included lights)  Well, putting 10 kids anywhere  and you will eventually need a toilet so we are haggling around how to deal with this.  I should point out that this site has no running water or electricity.  Originally, they used a latrine, or a pit, as a  toilet.  It is still there but not the best (or legal) solution by today's standards.  A toilet, a septic system, etc. adds $2,000 I don't have so I am looking at alternatives (possibly a waterless composting toilet like you would see in an RV or on a boat).  The jury is still out on this one.

So 3 weeks  after I return, I am joined by my lovely wife who dealt with Sandy while in Massachusetts.  Gin put in some time as a nurse to earn a few bucks to keep our head above water.  I am hoping that with her return (and the return of our camera)  I will be able get some pics for you of the wedding and the renovations in Behring Point.

I should mention that, while at the wedding I did receive $2500 from friends at the wedding.  With that I can now start the new church in North Andros.  Hopefully we will break ground in a week or so and I will share those pics too.

Well enough for now, much to do to get ready for weekend services and an all morning session on Saturday with our Primary School kids.  Keep us in your prayers.