Hogmeat

Well I have mentioned Herbie from time to time on this little blog and this week he has reappeared with a new request. First, here is a pic of me with Herbie from last November and a few others of Herbie showing our son Mike how to crack open a coconut when Mike was here in December.

Herbie is known throughout the town as being a big 'shady' and I've already shared about his visiting us, begging for food because he has no money, then showing up with 2 cases of Guiness asking Ginni to help him get it to the van he lives in with our Church van. Anyway this past week we had several days of rain. Herbie cooks outside and the rain made it impossible to cook. Consequently he showed up at our door asking if Ginni could cook his hogmeat.

Now let me explain. One of the animals that still runs wild in the swamps here are wild boar. Ginni and I actually saw three of them crossing the road one night about a month ago. Occasionally the locals will hunt one down, or hit it with their car, and a whole wild pig generates alot of meat. Clearly, somehow, Herbie had been given several chunks of 'hogmeat'. I say chunks because these were not pork chops but basically two large chunks of meat that had been hacked off the animal, probably with a machete.

When Herbie asked Ginni if she'd cook it for him she said "Sure", it was then Herbie said, "Thank you, and don't worry about the hair I'll cut that off later." Hair? Yup, these chunks of meat were from a black boar, and included bone, meat, skin and hair - all intact as it had been chopped of the dead animal. While not exactly what Ginni thought she was signing up for, she put the meat in a pot, added some potatoes, celery, carrots and spices and boiled it all up for him. He was a happy camper when he left and not only had his hogmeat cooked, but had potatoes, veggies, and a mayonaisse jar full of the broth as well!

What a weekend!

Well I gotta tell ya - weekends are nutz.
On Thursday we got a call that we would be having a priest with us this weekend. So I take the homily and put it in a drawer. This gave me more time to focus on CCD classes I'd be doing the following week. Saturday at 4, the priest is to catch a flight to Andros and we'd meet him then be off for dinner at the Navy base, followed by the 6PM evening liturgy. Well at 3:45 I get a call from the Vicar on Nassau telling me that the flight is cancelled (remember those earlier blogs about it being windy - it was so windy they closed the airport on our end of the island). Our priest will be on a flight to North Andros and will then take a cab to us in Fresh Creek. This has got to be almost a 2 hour ride so I'm thinking I'll be paying an $80 cab fare, if not more, and there is no assurance he'll be here for the 6PM service. So we wait, and I pull the homily out of the drawer and start pulling it together, just in case. At 5:40 I head off to the Navy Base alone and lead a Eucharistic Service. After the service I stop at the base and fill our 6 one-gallon water jugs with Navy water. (Our tap water is not drinkable so we get water at the base)

When I get home the priest is here, a wonderful Bahamian priest that was a great homilist. He had been to our parish 2 years ago but not recently. Ginni had stayed behind to play hostess and they were ready to go out to dinner. Hank's Place is the local restaurant and we had a nice meal, although the wind made it rather chilly since Hank's has no windows, only screens (Actually it was in the 60's so not that comfy).

The next day it was 8:30 at our home parish of St. John's and 11:15 at Christ the King in Cargill Creek. I had been planning on doing the throat blessing for Feast of St. Blaise as another means of bringing a Catholic tradition to a community of people that has been dominanted by the Protestant influences on the island, and Fr. Forbes went with the flow and didn't miss a beat.

After Mass at St. John's one couple asked if we could drop by this week and do a house blessing so we set up a Monday morning meeting. I'll come back to that.

After we got back from Cargill Creek we had lunch, Fr. Forbes packed, and we went off to the airport. While he waited for his plane I connected with Johnnie and he siphoned some diesel fuel for me to fill my tank for the next week's travels. I then bid Fr. Forbes farewell and went home to watch the Super Bowl.

Monday - today, we started preparing for CCD, then it was off for the house blessing. This was a very nice couple who were able to tell us a ton of history about our parish and the Church on Andros. When we began to start the prayer the husband says, "The reason we wanted to do the blessing after living here for 30 years is to try to get rid of the ghosts." I said, "excuse me?"

It seems he has been seeing ghosts and spirits and would like them to stop. So I explained the power we have with Jesus, that Jesus cast out demons and with the same authority Jesus had, we have power too. We did the house blessing and, using holy water we blessed each room of his house, all the doorways and windows, and prayed together. When we were finished they both seemed much more at peace.

After this little adventure we headed off to Cargill Creek to teach two CCD classes. So far this is the most frustrating part of ministry here. We have tons of experience working with adults, children are a whole other world. We don't have desks so we're doing this in the church pews with kids crawling under them to get their pencil, or leaning across two pews so one kid can whack another kid, or you look outside and you see one of them had gotten outside and is climbing the tree and making faces at the other kids. At one point I started to unbuckle my belt and Ginni gave me one of those looks - enough said. It does make it interesting to plan the next few week's plans as we plan Ginni's departure to help our son Mike with his broken leg.

Actually, I am writing this after just returning from that little CCD adventure so I am not in the best frame of mind. Tomorrow its CCD at the Navy base, then RCIA, then Wed CCD here; hopefully we'll be able to keep them in the church and out of the trees.
Keep us in your prayers.

My new screen saver

Its 80 degrees today, blue sky, puffy clouds and this is the one day of the week with no CCD or RCIA so we might do some errands and go to the beach! By the way, to stay cool I like ice cream. A half gallon of ice cream here is $10.

With that said I want everyone back home to know my new wallpaper for my desktop is a pic of St. Timothy's in Norwood. Don't ya just love it!

When we came to Andros I packed lots of things and left behind lots of things. Having taught RCIA for six years I bought copies of the Catechism and a book 'Believing in Jesus' that we use at St. Timothy's to teach people about Catholicism that are converting. Well I didn't bring enough. I looks like RCIA is off with a bang and it is so good to see people diligently taking notes and asking questions as we start the program this past week. So far 4 adults (1 needing to be baptized) and 2 teens that need baptism as well. As the class progresses other names of possible candidates continue to come out of the woodwork so we'll see where this goes.

Along that front, we met a Doctor from a community way up at the northern tip of the island who says there are Catholics there that would love to have me come lead services. They're Church closed down about 10 years ago when the Catholic community had gradually moved away and then the building was litterally eaten to the ground by termites. This Doctor is from Nigeria and he and his family, the janitor at his clinic and his family, and several of his patients and their families have all moved in and are Catholic. So we may be adding a new community to our family of Churches. I found a Baptismal Record book from his township and over 50 names of those baptized there so we shall see what happens.

Enough for now, the beach calls.

My haircut

Well after writing about my Obama haircut several people have been asking when I will post a pic so here you go - Enjoy.

Healthcare & My Obama Haircut

Well after my last blog entry you know we are running full tilt with CCD, RCIA, Bible Studies and Adoration. Just to make life interesting, this was the 3rd week of the month and our monthly trip to Nassau to meet with clergy for support, prayer and teaching.

I was glad we were going because about a month ago one of my dental caps fell out. I have been sticking it back on whenever it comes loose, but lately that has been pretty often. We have no Dentist on Andros so this was going to be a good thing.

So we get to Nassau, I go to the meeting, Ginni goes to St. Joseph's parish (our home on Nassau thanks to Fr. Martin Gomes, sscc). After the meeting we go get Ginni and I spend the afternoon with her in the Finance Office of the Chancery dealing with all the bills and admin details I am still learning. This woman also arranged my dentist appointment. It was then the tummy began to churn and I got pale. It seems lunch at the Conference Center was not a chicken gumbo and rice but actually conche gumbo and rice. Lately when I eat conche I see it again in about 3 hours. This was to be no exception. What made it interesting however was we had finished with the Finance Office and stopped by to see the Archbishop before we left. Yup - it was in the Archbishop's Office that the conche decided it was time to reappear. I literally apologized, got up and ran - with Ginni sitting there saying 'He hasn't felt too well since lunch'. I made it to a restroom - barely. You know those cartoons where the cartoon character's cheeks are puffed out and he has his hand over his mouth to suppress hurling - that was me! Thank God the restroom was empty.

So we leave the Chancery, go back to St. Joe's where the cook has prepared a wonderful lamb dinner (Ginni said it was delicious).

The next day I am fine and its off to the Dentist which was actually quite good. I didn't know what to expect from Dentists here but while his office was small, it was clean, had all the state of the art equipment, wonderful hygenists and in 20 minutes and $50 later I was all set. What was very providential about this is that when Ginni visited Norwood last month Fr. Culloty gave her a $50 dollar donation a parishioner had asked him to pass on to us. As you can see it really came in handy.

Since we returned from Nassau, Ginni has developed a case of 'pink eye' or conjunctivitis. One eye is brite red, itchy and leaking gross gooey stuff. (Don't ya love it)
So this was our first experience with the local clinic. The Doctor is off island so the nurse saw her and gave her some ointment. Once again the service was wonderful, the clinic was clean, well managed and Ginni thought the care was great. We shall see how well she responds.

This morning I went for my 2nd Bahamian haircut - last time I said the barber here has zero experience cutting a white man's hair and that I looked like a little dutch boy - this time its more the Obama look. Ginni was actually shocked when I walked in the door. All I can say is picture me with a wiffle and a white beard. If we can get Ginni's camera to download a pic we will. Its a haircut to be remembered (or forgotten depending on your perspective).

Enough for now. Please keep us in your prayers.










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How fast can you run?

In my last blog entry I said we have about 30 children in CCD. Well, since we started classes this week we have almost hit 50! School starts here at age 5 and so does CCD. We have 3 churches with children from 5 to 18 and Ginni and I are sticking to putting them into four categories. Pre-1st Communion, First Communion, Confirmation, and those in between First Communion and Confirmation. It should be interesting.

My RCIA background is also going to be put to work. Currently four people have come forward asking about RCIA, one of whom has not been baptized. So once again Tuesday night will once more be my RCIA night.

So, now that we are settled in and have had a few months to get organized our schedule shapes up like this:

Monday afternoon - 330-430 CCD at Christ the King (grades 1-6)
Monday afternoon - 500-600 CCD at Christ the King (grades 7-12)
Teusday afternoon - 330-430 CCD at the AUTEC Navy base
Teusday evening - RCIA
Wednesday afternoon - 330-430 CCD at St. John's (grades 1-6)
Wednesday afternoon - 500-600 CCD at St. John's (grades 7-12)
Thurs evening - Mid-week Bible Study
First Friday's - Holy Hour/Adoration
Then its the weekend - time for our 3 weekend liturgies

Sometime mid-week I hope to write homilies and pay bills (yup, the role of pastor has hit me full force and I have a greater appreciation for all the administrative stuff that Fr. Culloty does behind the scenes at St. Tim's back in Norwood).

As I said in my last post, without any religous ed for 4 years the size of the first communion class is huge. We have 20 of the 50 kids who will recieve First Communion from ages 7-14. Our goal is to try to make this a reality by the feast of the Ascension in May.

One really nice benefit of doing this is that Ginni wanted to use music with the kids and one of the men on the Navy base sold us one of his guitars. Ginni couldn't bring hers due to limitations on luggage but this has proven to be a great asset. One of the women who makes straw baskets weaved a guitar strap for her from the same palms she uses to make baskets. The guitar really is an asset in the CCD classes, especially with the little kids.

Well, time to get back to work. Keep us in your prayers.

Stress in Paradise

A friend of mine emailed me and asked me how life was in paradise - well, let me tell you, there is stress even here. Two things have consumed our life over the past week. First, is CCD. They have had no religious training here for four years. Soooo there is a backlog of kids for first communion, all the way up to age 14 - try to invent a first eucharist curriculum that spans ages 7-14.

After several weeks of registration we have over 30 kids, in 3 churches. We have decided they fall into 4 groups, Pre-1st communion, 1st communion, confirmation, and the kids between first communion and confirmation. Over the 3 churches there is a different combination of ages but we think we can do one parish all afternoon on Mon, the Navy base will be Tues afternoon, and our home parish will be Wednesday. We also have 2 adults that want to join the Church so Tues night will be RCIA.

Ginni and I have been wrestling with what to teach, what books to use, how to stucture the classes, etc. - so this is the 1st thing causing stress.

The second has to do with a bulldozer - yep, a bulldozer.
Yesterday, the man who owns the land next door began to clear more of his land. We first heard about this when a bulldozer started ripping away the rock bluff between our church and his lot. It created quite a stir when we began discussing where he thought the border was and where I thought it was. Lets just say the conversation was 'difficult'. Surrounded by 6 large Bahamian construction workers this dialogue was something less than constructive. I ended up on the phone with the Archbishop's office. (All parish land records are in Nassau, but nobody can find them right now). Meanwhile, the neighbor is bulldozing away, and nobody is quite clear as to who is right about where the borders are.

Suffice it to say after several hi stress discussions with the neighbor, phone calls to the Town Administrator (O no Deacon, all those plans are in Nassau), and a growing crowd of residents watching the drama play out, the bulldozer just kept on running - within 9' of our Church at one point. The jury is still out on this one, but my relationship with my nieghbor is not the best right now.

Well, I gotta get back to CCD (Oh I forgot to tell you about the young couple that wants to get married next month - despite the 4 month lead time required for Pre-Cana and the preliminary interviews I should conduct )

See you in Church