The Blue Holes of Andros

I was looking over past posts and realized I had not really ever posted something about the Blue Holes here on Andros.  Blue holes are a natural geological phenomenon where a perfect circle of rock is filled with water.  Some of these are in the ocean, some on land. Some have caves off the walls that go for miles and National Geographic actually did a whole issue on Blue Holes of the Bahamas and found wall caves that, in some case connect to the sea, that go for miles.

Well we have one about 10-20 minutes drive from here that we go to from time to time.  I like it because it is so remote and, usually, there is nobody there but me - a great prayer place.  To get to it you must get off the beaten path.  After leaving the main road there are two miles of roads like this one

Then after driving as far as you can, you are met by a boardwalk the Bahama National Trust maintains.  This is a conservation group that does great work here.

At the end of the boardwalk is a gazeebo that is perched on top of a 20' cliff. 

You can then take the stairs down to the water where there is a little dock to jump off of,

or jump off the 20' drop - right through the gate from inside the gazeboo.

But it is the Blue Hole itself I come to see.

One of the most serine spots on Andros, if you ask me.
Till next time
F.

Thunder, Lightning - and JANE

Well my friends - things have been jumping!
Last weekend started with an incredible period of thunder and lightning and monsoon rain.  We have seen the power of hurricanes - and they are fierce - but a quick gale or the arrival of a strong weather front can let you know the power of Mother Nature just as well.

From Friday night to Sunday morning we must have lost power 5 or 6 times with lightning strikes that actually made the window panes shudder.  Saturday morning at 6AM there was a crack of lightning that must have been directly over the church!

Our problem when we lose power is that we also lose water.  The water system in our township uses electric pumps to pump the water throughout the town and (in our case) uphill.  The end result is that every now and then our shower is more like a birdbath in the sink.  We have about 8 gallons of water in gallon bottles under the bathroom sink for this purpose (and to flush the toilet). 

During the day on Saturday it was a typical Bahamian summer day - hot and humid!  Ginni really feels the heat and planted herself in front of our bedroom air conditioner (the only air conditioner).  We finally headed out to the US NAVY AUTEC Navy Base for Saturday evening service, the first of the weekend.

When we got home, after having spent so many hours in the air conditioned Navy Chapel, the house felt particularly hot.  Ginni washed up as best she could with no water, and as I peeled off my sweat-dampened clothes, the phone rang.  It was the family of one of our home-bound parishioners.  Jane has been going downhill for months and they felt this was the end.  She had been carried to the clinic and they asked if we could meet them there.  Gin and I ot dressed again and by 8:30 we were with her at the clinic.

Jane is really the matriarch of our parish in Fresh Creek.  In her early 90s she is the oldest person in the parish and, over the last year, has suffered a series of small strokes.  The last month has been particularly difficult, her family is financially challenged and her living conditions were very hard, especially with the power outages.  We were able to bring a battery-operated fan to give her some relief and, with Ginni's nursing experience, she was able to give advice to help them care for her.  On this night, however, it was clear that the end was near.

When we arrived at the clinic the waiting room was packed with Jane's adult grandchildren, as well as the great and great-great grandchildren.  Ginni and I were able to get by her side and I knelt next to the bed, caressed her head, and prayed with her, and the immediate family that was in the room.  There were many tears and, from the waiting room, we could hear the wailing of otheres grieving for Momma.

The Doc asked if we could clear the room so he could attach leads to monitor her condition and, when we did, it gave us a chance to explain to the family her condition and what the Doc was doing.  A bit later we were invited back in and we set up a system where 3-4 at a time, the entire crowd could come in and pray with Momma and see her.

After a few hours everyone seemed calmer, Jane was clearly fading, but there was not much more we could do so we said our goodbyes and left to try to get some sleep before we started our Sunday services.

Sunday morning at 7, the phone rang to tell us Jane had passed at 6.  Our first liturgy is at 830 so I had time to run over and pray with the family, comfort them, and let them know that the Church would do whatever we could to help them.  Then I jumped back into the van and got back just in time for the 830.  Then it was off to Cargill Creek for the 1130, then back to Fresh Creek, doing a few communion calls of other sick parishioners on the way.  On the porch of one of those sick parishioners a car pulled up - it was Jane's grandson who would be making arrangements.  We talked a bit and he headed off to meet with the family.

Planning a funeral here has its challenges - first, we have no mortician on the island so all the bodies are shipped to Nassau.  Then, depending upon the finances of the family, the body is either buried in Nassau or shipped back to Andros on the ferry for the funeral here.  Shipping the body back is not cheap.  You have to pay for the hearse, the funeral director's staff, et. al. AND for their trip back to Nassau.  Many families simply bury the body in Nassau and I am more than happy to take the short flight to Nassau to participate in the funeral liturgy and internment.  We should hear shortly what the family decides to do in Jane's case.

Today is Monday, a holiday in the Bahamas - Emancipation Day - the day the British Empire outlawed slavery - a big deal if you know the history of the Bahamas.

Tomorrow the Royal Bahamas Police Force will be starting a week-long day camp for Bahamian children on Andros.  I have been asked to do the opening 'Devotional' - about a 30 minute time slot with song, bible readings and a refletion (for 6-16 year olds).  I've been thinking about what I'll do and I'm planning on starting with a little Simon Says - then making the connection that you have to do was Simon says to win, but in life we have to do was God says.  We'll see, I still have tonight to put the finishing touches on whatever I'll do.  No clue on how many kids will be there, which makes planning what to do difficult.  Simon says for 50 kids I can handle - for 150 kids is a different story.

Till next time.
F.

We're Back

Well my friends its been awhile -
As you saw in my last post, blogspot has been upgraded and as a result, my computer had issues posting pics, et.al.

Well in June I went back to the US and - God provides.  A friend of mine there said that my computer was so old it would make a good boat anchor so - here's a new one.

The generosity of people wanting to help us was astounding.  During my trip to the US I was blessed to be able to preach at all the weekend masses at St. Anthony in Cohasset, then at the prayer meeting at Holy Trinity in Harwich, then the prayer meeting at St. Timothy in Norwood, and finally, at all the weekend masses at St. Timothy.  Suffice it to say it was a working vacation.

We came home with a new computer and a little over $8000 in donations to help build a new church in North Andros, where there hasn't been a Catholic Church in over 40 years.  Additionally, many people promised that additional checks would be sent to us here - so it was a great trip.

Coincidentally, when I got back a letter was waiting for me asking me to submit the budget for the next year.  So in addition to our regualar operational expenses and plate offering income, I added all the finances for building the new chapel, as well as some other building-related expenses in Fresh Creek and Cargill Creek.  I then took a few days to put together a formal financial proposal for all those new capital expenses as budgetary backup and sent them off to the Archbishop.  I expect to hear something in a few weeks.

Clearly the support from the US and my local Bahamian parishioners does show we have a need and there is support for it, but right now we only have about half of the projected $30,000 needed for the new church so we will need help from the Archdiocese to get us to the finish line.  Keep this one in your prayers.

Summer here fluctuates from being incredibly hot, to monsoon season.  Fortunately for us, most of the rain fell while we were in the US, however we have had 2-3 day stretches of just incredibly lightning and monsoon-like rain.  The roads here now are horrible.  Potholes have emerged that can really damage your car and I have had to become quite good and swerving around them, making Ginni's ride more like a roller coaster ride than it has ever been.

One issue with our van is we seem to have lost a gasket between the exhaust pipe between the engine and the muffler.  Fixing this means putting the van on the ferry to Nassau, which is an expense I am trying to avoid.  The problem is that this is what kept that pipe level and, without it there is an incredible rattle.  So, living the island life, I have jury-rigged a fix by taking a metal coat hanger and tying up the pipe to part of the chasis.  Just pulling it up 1/4" makes all the difference.  The problem is, over time, the coathangers break.  So once a month or so I crawl under the van and redo my little fix.  It works fine, but it is a pain.  The current state of the roads, however, is shortening the life span of my coathangers.  I am afraid that unless I find another solution one day soon I will have to ship the van to Nassau and simply take the financial hit on the chin.  For now, after I finish this, I'll crawl back under the van to fix it once again.

Speaking of fixing things - it should be noted that missionaries are not restricted to preaching and teaching and evangelizing.  This past week I stripped the peeling paint off the huge church bell and repainted it (something Ginni was worried about since it was over 100 that day).  It took about 2 days to strip the old peeling paint, then another to do the painting.  Looks much better to me.

On that same front - the church in Cargill Creek has needed work on the foyer of the church and we were finally able to finish the job.  The foyer of this church was so bad a lady in the church took it upon herself to hold a fish fry, then gave me the $1,000 she earned.  This was for new floor tile, paint and stain - but wouldn't be enough for the masonary work to reframe the door and lay the tile.  She told me her husband would do it for free - 'Don't worry Deac, he lives with me, it will get done'.  Enough said.

This week we have local parishioners who offer their own summer camp for about 10-15 kids and I am their bus driver to get them from one place to another.  As conservationalists, they teach the kids about the local environment and really do a great job.  This year they had a friend from FL who works for the 'Turtle Conservancy' take a trip to Andros and teach the kids about sea turtles.  Then they had a local fisherman who works as a tour guide ferry the kids out to where he knew wild turtles live.  The kids were actually able to jump out of the boat and snorkle with the wild turtles.

This is about half the kids that I could corral to pose before we headed out.  For most Bahamian kids on Andros summer is a time to get off the island and go to either Nassau or family in the US.  There is just nothing to do here during the summer and the kids left here are those who don't have the money to make a trip off Andros.  Peter and Gabrielle's summer camp is a God-send for these kids and making our bus available to get them from one place to another is the least we can do to help out.

(Actually, posting that pic was also my test of the new blogspot and my new computer's ability to work together - so I'll try posting more in the future).

Summer is also our time to prepare for the next year of CCD.  Ginni has already been pulling together ideas and we'll have to adjust what we did last year since most of our little cherubs have moved on to the HighSchool (grade 7-12), leaving just a few in Primary School.  In the past we had this huge group of Primary School kids with only a few High Schoolers - over the last 4 years it has shifted so we will have to adapt how we do what we do.  It will be interesting.

One last item I should share is that one of our elderly parishioners, who we bring communion to, seems to be getting more and more neglected by her family.  If it persists we will have to work with social services to have them intervene and see what we can do to help.  Please pray for us on this one, it will be a stressful situation for the family.  It may also be another situation where poverty has made a bad situation worse.  If they have no food, we can help, but we need to find out if they have propane or electricity to cook it too.  A few years ago we brought someone pasta, chicken and rice - only to find out they didn't have water and no way to cook it.  Pasta and rice without water isn't much of a help.  The 70 year old grandmother went into the bush, gathered sticks, and made a fire in the backyard to cook the chicken, but we found out later that the rice and pasta had to wait until someone lugged a few gallons of water to her.  We're learning.

Coming from this, to make a mission appeal back in the US was a bit of a culture shock.  I can remember the first night home I was brushing me teeth and I went to get a bottle of water to use - only to realize that using the water from the tap was safe in Massachusetts - that is not our daily reality here.

Well enough for now - keep us in your prayers
- Deacon Frank

Promised Pics

Well I promised pics and now after spending a half hour uploading and commenting on each pic blogspot will not let me do this on my old laptop - so I just may move on to facebook.  Sorry folks

Well hello again
It has been non stop since my last post but things should slow down a bit now.
Since our last post the big event was confirmation.

Archbishop Pinder flew in on Saturday and we did our regularly scheduled Saturday evening service at the AUTEC Navy base.  Sunday, we had planned for all of our parishes to come together for one combined service - and we pulled it off.

People came from the northern end of the island (where we are trying to build a new church), they came from the southern end of the island, they came from AUTEC, it was wonderful. The church was packed,  the Archbishop was great, and the reception afterwards was fantastic as, people brought tons of food and everyone celebrated together.  It was a wonderful sense of community.  Now if I can get the pics and movies out of Ginni's camera into this 'upgraded' blogspot we will be in business.

Ever since Confirmation, it has pretty much rained at some point every day.  To say that May and June are the rainy season was hard to believe last year, but this year it is totally living up to its name.  When it rains here an interesting consequence is crabs.  Yes crabs.  Andros is the home to a species of land crabs that pretty much live underground most of the time, but in the rainy season of early summer the crabs 'walk' and catching crab is a major  source of financial income for local Bahamians.

Driving from one end of the island to the other as we do, we see crabs trying to cross the road all the time, as well as car upon car pulled over as people fill burlap bags with these tasty delights.  In fact, next week our fair village hosts CRABFEST - a huge festival that will see people from the US and just about every Bahamian island on a pilgrimage to Andros for the event.  If you have followed this blog for awhile you will know that this is the only time we have traffic - yes, actual traffic with police from Nassau imported to direct it.  It is incredible and, while we usually try to drop in at least once, the crowds are a real turn off.

One of the consequences of the crab migration is that attendance at church drops off because everyone is up all night beating the bush with their burlap bags and flashlights looking for crab.  I do wish their priorities were a bit difference, but the money people can get selling crab is a very real way to augment their income.  Unemployment here is huge, gas is well over $6/gallon and costs for just about everything is way above US prices. (Ice cream, for example is $10 for a half gallon).

Another event that we just lived through for the first tiime was a national election.  The Bahamas has a Parliamentary form of governmnet and every 5 years they have an election.  The ruling party was voted out of office this year and we saw the transition from one government to another.  FYI whichever party wins the most seats in Parliament becomes the ruling party and the Prime Minister comes from that party.  The election was monitored by several Caribbean election monitoring groups - all went smoothly and the transition was a grand event with all the pomp you can imagine.

Getting back to ministry.  With the celebration of Confirmation over, and the start of June, we concluded our CCD and RCIA classes.  This gives us time - or so we thought.  We plan on returning to the US for 2 weeks in June.  Our son Mike is getting married in Oct and Ginni has planned a shower for his bride and I need to meet with them to prepare for the wedding (Yes I have  been asked to witness their wedding, Praise God).  So I will finally be able tosit down with them to plan the wedding.  Also - I hope to speak at a few MA parishes doing a mission appeal to generate funds so we can build that new chapel in North Andros - keep that in your prayers.  It looks like one parish will have me speak at 5 Masses!

Well I  gotta run - till next time

Mea Culpa

Mea Culpa (Through my fault) my blog is not getting the attention it deserves BY ME.
My last entry was Palm Sunday and here we are at the 6th Sunday of Easter

Suffice it to say that with Ginni leaving for a month after Easter, my time is limited and the blog has suffered, sorry about that.  On top of that Blogger tells me my browser is no longer supported so we will  see if this gets published.

Easter was great - we accepted 4 people into the Church on the Vigil and I sang the new updated Exultet that the new edition of the Roman Missal provides - I will get no awards for my singing but I was pleased with it.

Since Easter my energies have been focused on CCD, and getting ready for Confirmation (THIS Sunday).  I actually just picked up the Archbishop and it looks like we are in good shape.  Sunday we will host our first combined service, where all four churches will come together for Confirmation (each church has a candidate for Confirmation).  We will still do Saturday evening at the Navy Base for those military personnel that can not come off the base, but then SUN we will only have the 1 service here in Fresh Creek.  We have never  tried this before so it will be interesting to see who makes the trek here.

Hopefully we will have pictures to post in my next entry (if I can do that with an unsupported Browser).

As I reflect on what has been happening here, I guess the most exciting thing I could share was the knife fight.  Picture this, I am doing communion calls to the sick of the parish and, after I walk in, two brothers, grandchildren of the sick woman, get into a fight.  An older grand daughter tries to break it up, the sick woman is yelling, 'Out, out of my house, Deac's here to pray', smash, crash, yelling - all from the kitchen where I go to try to break it up, only to find its spilled out of the kitchen into the back yard.  When I get there one of them, upon leaving the kitchen, has grabbed a knife, the other has picked up a 2x4 that was on the ground.  The grand daughter is screaming, the grand mother is calling the boys father, yelling into' the phone, "out, I want dem out a my house', then to me 'Deac, come, leave dem, let's pray'.  Meanwhile one is swinging the 2x4, cracking the other on the arm, while the other is swinging the knife, trying to strike a more leathal blow.

Well they finally separate, I get the knife and pull that kid into the house while the other, still clutching the 2x4 backs away and hides in the bush across the street.  I help clean the dirt and blood off of the one I had, calm him down, and we have a chat about the repercusions of him actually murdering his brother.  Lots of sobbing, crying, and eventually the situation calmed down and he and I could take a deep breath and say a prayer together.  Then the grand daughter takes him into the bathroom to clean him up and I return to grandma.  So we too pray for peace, then have our communion service.  With relative calm restored I eventually leave.  All week I worry about what would happen when the other brother returned. 

I called during the week to have grandma say it was all OK.  The father came to pick them up and beat dem with a hose.  WHAT?  Oh yes Deac, they learned to behave, everything is OK now.

Till next time.

Heading into Palm Sunday

Hello my friends - well it looks like this blog is becoming a monthly blog - but blog I will.

In my last entry I mentioned we have a visiting priest who had been creating issue after issue.  Well, over the last five weeks he has stopped using the laptop computer on the altar and has transcribed what he had on the computer into a notebook.  This eliminates the computer blocking everyone's view of the altar, defusing what was a major crisis for awhile.  So he still has the Sacramentary, and now his private notebook, but we're muddling through.  I do find it amazing that a priest finds the new Roman Missal 'too difficult to navigate'.  I thought using the Sacramentary was part of Liturgy 101 - but enough said.

Our Lent here is a busy one.  In addition to the CCD and RCIA classes that fill up our week, having a priest lets us do penance services - so we are doing THREE, one for each parish.  We have also added Teen Movie Nights on Friday's.  This priest worked in campus ministry and brought audio visual equipment to show movies for the teens.  To pull  this off we go to our Parish Center Friday afternoon and re-arrange the furniture, cover up the windows with blankets and set up his equipment.  When the kids get off the bus from the high school we are ready for them and start the movie around 4.  Around 6 we slip out and go over to the Navy Base and pick up 3 or 4 pizzas and get back just as the movie ends for a short discussion.  It is a challenge to add these extra activities to our already rather full schedule but we've been able to get it done.

Meanwhile - our work to grow the Church in North Andros continues.  The Archbishop has given permission to build and the locals have given about $7000 so far towards a total of $30,000 for a 30x30 building.  We already own land there and, with the Archbishops approval, we've cleared the land to get ready for putting in the foundation.  The rest will have to wait until we get more funds.

This is a pic of the site after the dozer has done its work, the old building in the background is what is left of the original church building.  On the other side of the road the land slopes down toward the sea.  With the site cleared we're only a few thousand dollars away from being able to begin work on the foundation and septic.

One interesting development with this community is that there is a large Haitian community here but the numbers of our little faith community fluctuates in direct proportion to the raids on the Haitian shanty-town by Bahamian immigration.  Right now they have been raided twice in the same week and we haven't seen anyone dare to come out of the bush to go to church.  It really is scary, one week we'll have a half dozen Haitian men, the next week they're gone - poof!

The past few weeks have been stressful on a few other fronts as well - two flat tires in two weeks, for example; followed by a bathroom sink that decided this would be the time to have the drain pipe rust out.  We lived for a few days with a bucket under the sink that, after using the sink, we would pour into the toilet.  I was able to get parts and replace the plumbing with only one small drip remaining.  I know how to fix that but it requires a part not on this island so it'll wait a week.

Next week, by the way, we go to Nassau for the Chrism Mass to recieve the holy oils for the next year (and parts for the bathroom sink).  This is always a special liturgy for me because, unlike Boston, Deacons are invited to join the priests for the renewal of their vows.  After the priest and deacon clergy, the women religious are also invited to do the same.  How inclusive is that!  It really is a powerful moment.

Well, between CCD, RCIA, Penance Services and Teen Movie Night I am a bit bushed so I am going to sign off.  This Lent is certainly living up to what Lent should be.  I just can't wait for Easter!
Till next time