If you follow me on facebook you know we have had a month of rain that should be in the record books.
We have a cystern to hold rain water and at the beginning of May I washed it out to get ready for the rainy season. It is circular and is four feet wide and four feet deep. Today, June 3, its FULL! Hope that gives you some idea of the rain we have had.
The rain does a number on our roads here, pot holes that live up to their name, literally as deep and wide as your biggest pot. In the rain they fill up when the roads flood and can really destroy your car. Our 45 minute drive to North Andros is now an hour and 20 minutes. One of our parishioners who owns a hardware store went North to get some frieght and lost his oil pan and gas tank in one of those holes and had to be towed home. Lucky for him he was still on a part of the road with cell phone coverage. There are miles of that road without any way to call for help.
Anyway, let me catch you up on some news - first, the North Andros construction is well under way. The foundation and septic are in and we are now into phase 2, walls and a roof - well, walls anyway. We need more fundraising to get a roof. Anyway - here is a pic of the sign, (notice the currently meeting sign at the bottom - it says, Currently Meeting Mastic Point Primary. Still meeting in the Primary School and I am so anxious to take that down and have our own church
Here is a pic of the recently poured foundation
It will be finished by the end of the summer we hope.
On another note - CCD is finished for the year PRAISE GOD! But I thought I would show you a few pics of that. A few years ago we restored an abandoned church and turned it into a Parish Hall/School . It has been fantastic. At the southern end of our island (Behring Point) we are trying to do the same thing. St. Mary's has been abandoned for years and it is the oldest Catholic Church on the family islands (Bahamian islands other than Nassau). This property has a church, rectory, and a building called the Bakery where Fr. Gabriel Roerig OSB (the first Catholic priest on a family island), would bake bread for the locals.
"OH Faddah - dat Faddah Gabrel could make bread - nobody could slice bread thinner than Faddah - you could hold it up and see the sun tru it - but we all got a piece"
Anyway - we can't afford to restore the church or rectory but this bakery has promise. Its taken much longer than we planned but we hope to be able to move in within the next few weeks. Unfortunately, not in time for this school year - so the kids down south still had lessons in the church. I use a TV table for a desk and the kids used the pews as desks. Here are a few pics of that in progress. First, here I am using my 'white board' to explain something to the kids
and here they are all working away on their papers - the teen you see in this pic is Emily. She became a Catholic this year and as part of her Social Svc component she helped us with the CCD lessons.
and another angle - not the most comfy position for CCD, but they never complained, not once
and then there is snack time, usually cookies and lemonade - Deacon has to keep his strength up
The other highlight of the last month or so was Mother's Day. We ordered carnations and Ginni baked, and baked, and baked - 5 cakes, dozens of cookies and cup cakes - dozens. Here she is at Cargill Creek trying to make sure the mothers get some before the kiddie descend in droves
It really was a great day - wonderful community time for everyone to chat after services were over. This isn't the best of pics but you get to see what the view is like from the front door of Christ the King.
Here are two Grans - great ladies showing off their carnations
Our Mother's Day up north was a little different. Having church in a 4th grade classroom didn't cramp our style one bit. Sorry I didn't get a pic of the teacher's desk converted into an altar but here you can get the idea of our Haitian friends gathering up the sheets we put together that has English on one side and Creole on the other.
Having church at 4:30 on Sunday can be a long day for some of our members up north.
Finally, I have mentioned before that Andros is only populated on the East side of the island - the rest is swamp. That means that the West side is still pristine, undeveloped land. The Bahamas National Trust has been formed to protect the environmental beauty of the Bahamas and last week they offered to take the clergy of Andros to the West Side to show us its beauty and get our support to push added environmental protections. Well its everything they said. Going thru this bight to get to the West side we saw a half dozen turtles, herons, and fish in clear blue water.
Well, enough for now - till next time
