Well on Monday I will be flying home for Thanksgiving but its been run run run to get there.
One thing we discovered a few months ago was that the Maryknoll Fathers have created the Maryknoll classroom for CCD programs. After checking it out and talking with them we decided to give it a shot here in the Bahamas.
Maryknoll publishes a bi-monthly magazine telling stories of their missionary priests, sisters and lay missionaries all over the world. They will send you a copy of the magazine for every child in your program and age-appropriate teachers guides explaining how to use the articles in the magazine for your class.
The first box of materials arrived this week for the months of November and December so I rolled it out to all our classes this week. Oddly it was the younger Primary school children that took to it, while the older Confirmation class found it difficult to grasp.
In either case it exposes the children to the "Church Universal" and the realization that the church on Andros is the same church in Bolivia! It will be interesting to see how this plays out over the next few months.
Tomorrow will be an interesting day here as we try something else that's never been done. Every year the High School has a "Career Day" where they invite the major employers and the College of the Bahamas to come to the school and the students get a chance to see the opportunities (and challenges) that await them. It struck me that we should host a Vocation Table at this event and when I proposed it the High School jumped at it - and so did the Vocation Director for the Archdiocese AND the Nassau monastery of Benedictine Sisters.
So - tomorrow I will meet the morning plane from Nassau and we will be off to the High School for what should be an interesting day. Keep it in your prayers - this is our opportunity to plant a few seeds and see what happens.
I started this post by saying I was going home for Thanksgiving. Monday morning I will start that journey - which means I have taught my last CCD lesson and my last RCIA class for 2 weeks! With that said this weekend will be crazy busy. I already said it starts with an all day Friday Career Day - then its the 4 liturgy weekend, but this weekend is special for a few reasons
First, its the Feast of Christ the King so our parish in Cargill Creek will be celebrating their patron with cake and soft drinks.
Second, it is also the day we perform the Rite of Acceptance for our RCIA candidates, indicating their willingness to proceed, and our parishes willingness to accept them as candidates for full communion with the Catholic Church so two of the four liturgies will have this special twist. Third - since I won't be there for the next week I need to set up each church for the First Sunday of Advent, meaning prep for the visiting priest (even though it could be a Deacon), and set up the Advent Wreath (et. al.) in all the churches, etc. The local sacristans will change the altar cloths to Advent purple but I'll need to remind them for sure. Suffice it to say it will be a busy day.
Just to spice things up, I also have a contractor doing a major upgrade to the church windows while I am gone. The south side windows are so eaten away by the salt air they no longer open and some panes of glass have fallen out. We're replacing them with double hung windows with less moving parts, which will be an improvement. Funding for this effort is courtesy of our parishioners who were so generous in support of the annual Archdiocesan appeal. By exceeding our goal to the extent they did we had over a thousand dollars returned to us from the Archdiocese and that refund will pay for the new windows - Alleluia!
All in all we are incredibly busy and the Thanksgiving break will be a nice breather before the Christmas rush.
Please keep us in your prayers
Deacon Frank
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Its been almost a month
Hello again-
Sorry for the delay in blogging but life gets in the way. Actually, right now Ginni is back in the US getting in some nursing time. We are still without a tenant to rent our NH property and so, to continue getting what we need to pay mortgages, insurance, taxes, et al on the property we cannot sell in this economy, Gin needs to put in a month or so from time to time, and its time.
With that said, that leaves me to do CCD alone - not my favorite. Gin and I have done quite alot in the church but teaching children had never been one of them so we're learning what works and what doesn't on the fly.
One thing that we tried this year was to invite the Director of Youth Ministries from the Archdiocese to join us for a Day of Renewal with our Confirmation class. What made this a challenge is we involved all the kids from all 4 faith communities to come together so we had kids from Fresh Creek, Cargill Creek, the AUTEC Navy Base, and one from our newest community in Mastic Point from the northern part of the island. Let me tell you, some people just have the gift for dealing with kids and Jay has it. It was an all-day Saturday session and he brought his laptop and a projector and we had games and videos and talks and work projects - all in all it was a great day and we hope to do it again sometime after the holidays. Here is a pic of me helping some of the kids with a project. Jay is standing at the table behind me
working with another group of kids.
Since my last post we seem to have the diesel situation under control. The local station is still unreliable, and my friend who sells it out of his backyard has taken a step away from that so, when we can get it, I fill the van, another 5 gal gas can, and two other drums so I have a backup. Right now both my friend and the gas station are out so I have used the gas can and put one of the drums into the van this morning. The gas station hopes to get diesel on the WED boat. If he does, on THUR I will fill up my drums and the van and I should be in good shape. If he doesn't, then on FRI I'll drive north for an hour where there are multiple stations for me to re-stock. It is a pain, but its island life. If you can get it, great, if not do without. Unfortunately diesel is something I can't so without so when I can get it I hoard it a bit.
Something you may find interesting is my recent run in with more local residents of Andros that I didn't realize lived here. I think I told you earlier of my run in with a tarantula. Well that has to be superceded by the recent scorpion encounter. What made this interesting was that it took place in our living room, not in the great outdoors. This invader simply ran out from under the TV Table and headed right at me in a perfectly straight line. Gin had been reading a book on the sofa and if I hadn't seen it my guess is it would have taken up residence under that sofa - but I did see it. I yelled, 'scorpion'! and jumped up, grabbed a sandal, and smacked it. Gin looked up and said 'what?' and I said it again, then swatted it again. Incredibly - inside the house! Here is a pic next to a quarter so you get some perspective on size.
On the mission front, in addition to the 40+ kids in CCD I have 4 people in RCIA. Two have just started and 2 who started last year but, for a variety of reasons, had to take time off. If all goes well all 4 will recieve sacraments on Easter. We have been blessed to have been able to bring new people into the church as converts to Catholicism every year we have been here.
Lastly, our efforts to build a new church up north is progressing. The Architect thinks that the old church might be able to be restored so we hired a builder and he put a team of Haitians together with machetes to go clear the land around the old building. Once cleared he is less confident than the architect that the walls are stable enough. It turns out that 50 years ago they built with whatever they could get their hands on - conche shells, lime, sand, etc. While plentiful they were not that stable. So, they build walls 2' thick that could support the roof and be stable. Today, there are building codes and, after clearing the land, the 2' walls have deteriorated to the point we'd have to add something on the top and what remains at the bottom would crumble once we started. So while I would love to restore the old building, restoration in this case would cost more than new walls. I hope to have some costs soon so when I return home for Thanksgiving I might be able to solicit funds from friends and relatives. Keep this one in your prayers, we have had no Catholic Church there for over 40 years and the Catholics have been going to Anglican, Methodist and Pentacostal church since there is no Catholic church. We have a community of about a dozen who come to the Primary School for church on Sunday afternoons but I think once we put a sign up and start building that number could triple.
Pray for this effort, it has the potential of bearing much fruit.
Till next time.
Saturday, October 15, 2011
Diesel and Voodoo
Well hello again - I knew that once CCD started my time would be scarse, and I was right, so the blog has suffered a bit.
Our newest experience has to do with diesel - or the lack thereof. I have told you that I have been getting my diesel from a local man who syphons it out of old oil drums and fills my tank. Well the local gas station has started carrying diesel and, since they rent their space from my friend, he asked me to stop using him as a source and start using the gas station.
So I fill up, no problem and off we go running errands, driving kids from CCD, etc. When, while half-way to Cargill Creek for Sunday services the van starts bucking and coughing and stalling and, in the middle of nowhere, this is not good. This is also a sign of bad diesel fuel. I have actually helped out a member of our church who was stranded once because of water in the diesel (a common problem here). It turns out that underground gas tanks are metal and metal tanks filled with diesel can get water in the fuel by simple condensation that takes place as the tanks are emptied. It seems anyone with diesel (but me) has experienced this problem and the only solution is to drain the tank and put in new fuel. So anyway, I nurse it to the church in Cargill and start setting up for church when, without my knowing it, one of the members takes Ginni's keys and goes off to pick up people in Behring Point who have no cars. So we wait and wait and wait, and eventually he returns with a bus load of people. "Deac, you got a problem mahn, der be water in da tank or som'ting".
So we have church and the people from Behring Point all hitch rides from other people and I nurse the bus back to Fresh Creek. Once home we call the people up north telling them we can't come to Mastic Point, but I have no way to get any message to the Haitians so I know they were just standing there in their church clothes all afternoon - what a bummer.
Now that I am home, what to do? So I gather up empty gallon water jugs, get a long hose and prepare to suck the diesel out of the van using the hose as a syphon. Well after about 10 minutes its clear this isn't going to work because the piple leading to the gas tank curves and then leads into the tank and my hose won't make the turn. So I crawl under the bus and try to follow the gas line to see if there is any other way to get the bad fuel out when I notice a drain plug on the tank. So I jack up the bus and crawl underneath it. I find the drain plug and unscrew it and diesel starts flowing into my old water jug, then the next, then the next, then the next - until I fill all 5 jugs and screw the plug back in.
Now I pull out my reserve diesel fuel that I save in plastic drums for use when a hurricane knocks the gas station (or my friend) out of diesel. The backup has saved me before and once again it will do the trick. Once I am about half full I take it for a spin and all seems well.
So I curse the gas station and call my friend saying his tenant gas station is selling bad diesel and I would really like to start using him again. He apologizes but doesn't have any diesel himself right now. So I sigh and start ferreting around for other sources of diesel on the island.
Later that afternoon - cough, spit, cough, stall, and the problem is back. Someone asks how old my diesel was that I had pulled out of the garage and I, quite frankly, didn't know. Can diesel go bad? Maybe, especially if condensation or rain got into the drum I had used.
So, once again, crawl under the van, jack it up, drain the fuel (did I mention the stinging ants that live here - they don't appreciate Deacons laying in the grass under his van one little bit). So for a second time I take a spin after draining the tank, but this time there is no difference.
My only choice now is to ship the bus to Nassau and bring it to the dealer. This is something I have avoided using local mechanics to do oil changes, filter changes and regular maintenance. Then I have the bright idea of going to one of my members who drives the local school but. That is diesel and he maintains it. So I drop the bus off with him - but this is where it gets interesting.
When I drop off the bus he says, "Deac, come with me" and he leads me to the front of his house. I really have no idea why we're taking this little stroll until he says "Deac, do you see this hole?" and there is a small circle about 6" across where the earth was recently turned over. Then he says, "See that one?" and points to another spot about 8' away, and then another and another. He tells me that he came home from work that morning (he works nights at a 2nd job) and he noticed the first one right in front of his front steps and then discovered they completely encircled his home. During the night, someone had come and dug these holes, filled them with some kind of white powder and pennies, then covered them up. When he found the first one he dug it up to see what it was and that's what he found buried in each hole. The only explanation, Voodoo. It turns out this is a common hex, or curse, supposedly anyone who steps on the buried pennies will become penniless.
So - I take some time to belittle the curse, explaining that Jesus is stronger than any hex and he believes in Jesus, "Yes Faddah, I believe in Jesus, I know this is bad but Jesus keep me strong". It was a rather interesting 20 minute conversation to say the least. Then I had to go deal with his wife who had her own fears on this topic, but she too was convinced nothing would come with it - but could I come by tomorrow with holy water?
Anyway - after that bit of excitement I walk home and he starts work on the bus. The next day is Monday and we need the bus to transport kids home from CCD. Monday morning, no bus, I wait as long as I can, still no bus. I end up calling someone from Cargill who works in Fresh Creek and he offers to take the kids home if there's no bus - and there wasn't.
At eight that night I hear our bus pulling into the yard. "Deac, it wasn't the diesel, and it wasn't the fuel filter - there is a 3rd primer pump filter hidden on the other side of the bus that looks like it never was changed - it was totally plugged with goo". He had found the problem.
Alleluia - Alleluia - Alleluia -- with that I feel more comfortable with the diesel from the local station and we are back in business. Hopefully we have de-bunked the Voodoo business as well and nipped that one in the bud, but I'd love to discover who is digging holes and filling them with pennies.
One last new thing on our plate has to do with crime. Violent crime is out of hand here, we are a nation of 350,000 with a murder rate, after 9 months, of over 100. That is an incredibly hi number if you study murder statistics. The local government has a firearms amnesty program for the month of OCT and the Archbishop has asked that all Catholic Parishes be a drop off point for illegal firearms if their owners are fearful of dropping them off at the police station. So, while nobody has visited us yet, should anyone want to deliver illegal firearms to us, we will take them and get them off the street and then deliver them to the police station ourselves. Just one more interesting twist to ministry in the Bahamas.
Keep us in your prayers - we sure can use them.
Till next time.
Our newest experience has to do with diesel - or the lack thereof. I have told you that I have been getting my diesel from a local man who syphons it out of old oil drums and fills my tank. Well the local gas station has started carrying diesel and, since they rent their space from my friend, he asked me to stop using him as a source and start using the gas station.
So I fill up, no problem and off we go running errands, driving kids from CCD, etc. When, while half-way to Cargill Creek for Sunday services the van starts bucking and coughing and stalling and, in the middle of nowhere, this is not good. This is also a sign of bad diesel fuel. I have actually helped out a member of our church who was stranded once because of water in the diesel (a common problem here). It turns out that underground gas tanks are metal and metal tanks filled with diesel can get water in the fuel by simple condensation that takes place as the tanks are emptied. It seems anyone with diesel (but me) has experienced this problem and the only solution is to drain the tank and put in new fuel. So anyway, I nurse it to the church in Cargill and start setting up for church when, without my knowing it, one of the members takes Ginni's keys and goes off to pick up people in Behring Point who have no cars. So we wait and wait and wait, and eventually he returns with a bus load of people. "Deac, you got a problem mahn, der be water in da tank or som'ting".
So we have church and the people from Behring Point all hitch rides from other people and I nurse the bus back to Fresh Creek. Once home we call the people up north telling them we can't come to Mastic Point, but I have no way to get any message to the Haitians so I know they were just standing there in their church clothes all afternoon - what a bummer.
Now that I am home, what to do? So I gather up empty gallon water jugs, get a long hose and prepare to suck the diesel out of the van using the hose as a syphon. Well after about 10 minutes its clear this isn't going to work because the piple leading to the gas tank curves and then leads into the tank and my hose won't make the turn. So I crawl under the bus and try to follow the gas line to see if there is any other way to get the bad fuel out when I notice a drain plug on the tank. So I jack up the bus and crawl underneath it. I find the drain plug and unscrew it and diesel starts flowing into my old water jug, then the next, then the next, then the next - until I fill all 5 jugs and screw the plug back in.
Now I pull out my reserve diesel fuel that I save in plastic drums for use when a hurricane knocks the gas station (or my friend) out of diesel. The backup has saved me before and once again it will do the trick. Once I am about half full I take it for a spin and all seems well.
So I curse the gas station and call my friend saying his tenant gas station is selling bad diesel and I would really like to start using him again. He apologizes but doesn't have any diesel himself right now. So I sigh and start ferreting around for other sources of diesel on the island.
Later that afternoon - cough, spit, cough, stall, and the problem is back. Someone asks how old my diesel was that I had pulled out of the garage and I, quite frankly, didn't know. Can diesel go bad? Maybe, especially if condensation or rain got into the drum I had used.
So, once again, crawl under the van, jack it up, drain the fuel (did I mention the stinging ants that live here - they don't appreciate Deacons laying in the grass under his van one little bit). So for a second time I take a spin after draining the tank, but this time there is no difference.
My only choice now is to ship the bus to Nassau and bring it to the dealer. This is something I have avoided using local mechanics to do oil changes, filter changes and regular maintenance. Then I have the bright idea of going to one of my members who drives the local school but. That is diesel and he maintains it. So I drop the bus off with him - but this is where it gets interesting.
When I drop off the bus he says, "Deac, come with me" and he leads me to the front of his house. I really have no idea why we're taking this little stroll until he says "Deac, do you see this hole?" and there is a small circle about 6" across where the earth was recently turned over. Then he says, "See that one?" and points to another spot about 8' away, and then another and another. He tells me that he came home from work that morning (he works nights at a 2nd job) and he noticed the first one right in front of his front steps and then discovered they completely encircled his home. During the night, someone had come and dug these holes, filled them with some kind of white powder and pennies, then covered them up. When he found the first one he dug it up to see what it was and that's what he found buried in each hole. The only explanation, Voodoo. It turns out this is a common hex, or curse, supposedly anyone who steps on the buried pennies will become penniless.
So - I take some time to belittle the curse, explaining that Jesus is stronger than any hex and he believes in Jesus, "Yes Faddah, I believe in Jesus, I know this is bad but Jesus keep me strong". It was a rather interesting 20 minute conversation to say the least. Then I had to go deal with his wife who had her own fears on this topic, but she too was convinced nothing would come with it - but could I come by tomorrow with holy water?
Anyway - after that bit of excitement I walk home and he starts work on the bus. The next day is Monday and we need the bus to transport kids home from CCD. Monday morning, no bus, I wait as long as I can, still no bus. I end up calling someone from Cargill who works in Fresh Creek and he offers to take the kids home if there's no bus - and there wasn't.
At eight that night I hear our bus pulling into the yard. "Deac, it wasn't the diesel, and it wasn't the fuel filter - there is a 3rd primer pump filter hidden on the other side of the bus that looks like it never was changed - it was totally plugged with goo". He had found the problem.
Alleluia - Alleluia - Alleluia -- with that I feel more comfortable with the diesel from the local station and we are back in business. Hopefully we have de-bunked the Voodoo business as well and nipped that one in the bud, but I'd love to discover who is digging holes and filling them with pennies.
One last new thing on our plate has to do with crime. Violent crime is out of hand here, we are a nation of 350,000 with a murder rate, after 9 months, of over 100. That is an incredibly hi number if you study murder statistics. The local government has a firearms amnesty program for the month of OCT and the Archbishop has asked that all Catholic Parishes be a drop off point for illegal firearms if their owners are fearful of dropping them off at the police station. So, while nobody has visited us yet, should anyone want to deliver illegal firearms to us, we will take them and get them off the street and then deliver them to the police station ourselves. Just one more interesting twist to ministry in the Bahamas.
Keep us in your prayers - we sure can use them.
Till next time.
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Just an update for you all
Hello my friends -
Well things here are starting to ramp up.
Our new AA group is meeting at the Fr. Gabriel Roerig Parish Center on Saturday mornings and it seems to off to a great start.
Our CCD program seems to be pretty well set and, when you add in RCIA, bible studies, Adoration, . . . our week will be very full. All of this will crank up the first week of OCT.
Next week we will be travelling to Nassau for our monthly 'Pastoral Day' where all the clergy of the Bahamas come together for a day of prayer and community. This one will be unique in that the Archdiocese of the Bahamas is implementing VIRTUS, an educational program for clergy and those that work with youth about protecting children. This is a program the Archdiocese of Boston implemented years ago and I have already taken the class twice - but I'll be doing it again here. Nassau has not had any cases of clergy sexually abusing children but this will do a good job of educating us about the issue and protecting our children.
Usually when we go to Nassau for this meeting we stay Wed-Fri and enjoy time away and get some shopping in for those items we cannot get on Andros. This will be a Tue-Wed trip however because of other things on our schedule. For example, when we did RCIA last year we had two women who have crazy schedules. The result was that when Easter came around they were months behind in their classes and we felt it best to defer their acceptance into the church. So - all summer long we have been doing make-up classes to catch them up. Then we have 3 new people who want to begin RCIA this year. So we will have the new people on Mon night and the catching up people on Wed night. The end result is we do the Mon night class, fly to Nassau Tues morning, shop on Tues, attend the Wed Pastoral Day, then fly back to do the Wed night class. Run, run, run.
The following week CCD starts so our weekly schedule will be
Monday afternoon - grades 7-9
Monday night - RCIA for those from Fresh Creek
Tues afternoon - grades 10-12 (our confirmation class)
Tues night - RCIA for those from Cargill Creek
Wed afternoon - grades 1-6 from Fresh Creek
Wed night - RCIA makeup from last year
Thurs afternoon - grades 1-6 from Cargill Creek
Friday - we saved for ourselves (except for 1st Fri Adoration and Bible Study the 2nd and 4th Friday evenings and a need to do homily prep for the weekend)
Saturday should be finalizing the homily prior to the Saturday weekend liturgy
Sunday is full with 3 liturgies from 8AM until 4 PM
It will be interesting to get back into all this after taking a breather over the summer
Keep us in your prayers.
On a lighter note - fruits and veggies on Andros seem to come in all at once. What I mean by that is you will have weeks of Mangos - and nothing else, but Mangos are everywhere. Then its cabbages, then sappodillies, then onions, etc. You get swamped with gifts of that one particular produce, from everyone (and I do mean swamped). Right now its avacados - they grow them huge here and they call them pears. These avacados are all delivered, sold, or give away, rock hard. They are inedible - but a week on the window sill and they are delicious. The problem is that you go from zero - to 12 really ripe avacados all at once. And the gifts keep on coming.
When we first arrived here 3 years ago I planted a pit near a sea-grape plant that was on its last legs. The sea grape is long gone but the pit took root and is now 3-4' tall. In another year or two I will be picking my own avacados!
The same thing happened with a mango pit - although I think this pit was just tossed aside by one of our children. It landed under a bush by the front of the church and now it is taller than I am!
My last bit of news is related to the community in North Andros. The Archbishop has given us permission to build a chapel there called Our Lady of Hope. I did some research on Our Lady of Hope and found the National Shrine to Our Lady of Hope in the US is in Tewksbury, MA. It turns out this was a devotion fostered by the Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI). Coincidentally, the OMI's used to be located at St. Jean de Baptiste parish in Lowell, MA - the host parish of St. Joseph High School for Boys on Merrimack St (where I went to High School).
I sent them an email explaining what we are doing and they sent a packet of prayer cards and booklets explaining about the apparition of Our Lady of Hope in France. We have distributed them to our local folks and I will be giving some to the Archbishop when we see him next week. God is amazing!!
Next week I will be meeting with contractors to try to get a sense of how much a simple chapel would cost to build - nothing more that 4 walls and a roof. The community in No. Andros has already donated enough to clear the land and put in the foundation but we clearly will need to do a development campaign to add those four walls and a roof. I'll let you know what I find out.
Enough for now - keep us in your prayers
Deacon Frank Tremblay
Well things here are starting to ramp up.
Our new AA group is meeting at the Fr. Gabriel Roerig Parish Center on Saturday mornings and it seems to off to a great start.
Our CCD program seems to be pretty well set and, when you add in RCIA, bible studies, Adoration, . . . our week will be very full. All of this will crank up the first week of OCT.
Next week we will be travelling to Nassau for our monthly 'Pastoral Day' where all the clergy of the Bahamas come together for a day of prayer and community. This one will be unique in that the Archdiocese of the Bahamas is implementing VIRTUS, an educational program for clergy and those that work with youth about protecting children. This is a program the Archdiocese of Boston implemented years ago and I have already taken the class twice - but I'll be doing it again here. Nassau has not had any cases of clergy sexually abusing children but this will do a good job of educating us about the issue and protecting our children.
Usually when we go to Nassau for this meeting we stay Wed-Fri and enjoy time away and get some shopping in for those items we cannot get on Andros. This will be a Tue-Wed trip however because of other things on our schedule. For example, when we did RCIA last year we had two women who have crazy schedules. The result was that when Easter came around they were months behind in their classes and we felt it best to defer their acceptance into the church. So - all summer long we have been doing make-up classes to catch them up. Then we have 3 new people who want to begin RCIA this year. So we will have the new people on Mon night and the catching up people on Wed night. The end result is we do the Mon night class, fly to Nassau Tues morning, shop on Tues, attend the Wed Pastoral Day, then fly back to do the Wed night class. Run, run, run.
The following week CCD starts so our weekly schedule will be
Monday afternoon - grades 7-9
Monday night - RCIA for those from Fresh Creek
Tues afternoon - grades 10-12 (our confirmation class)
Tues night - RCIA for those from Cargill Creek
Wed afternoon - grades 1-6 from Fresh Creek
Wed night - RCIA makeup from last year
Thurs afternoon - grades 1-6 from Cargill Creek
Friday - we saved for ourselves (except for 1st Fri Adoration and Bible Study the 2nd and 4th Friday evenings and a need to do homily prep for the weekend)
Saturday should be finalizing the homily prior to the Saturday weekend liturgy
Sunday is full with 3 liturgies from 8AM until 4 PM
It will be interesting to get back into all this after taking a breather over the summer
Keep us in your prayers.
On a lighter note - fruits and veggies on Andros seem to come in all at once. What I mean by that is you will have weeks of Mangos - and nothing else, but Mangos are everywhere. Then its cabbages, then sappodillies, then onions, etc. You get swamped with gifts of that one particular produce, from everyone (and I do mean swamped). Right now its avacados - they grow them huge here and they call them pears. These avacados are all delivered, sold, or give away, rock hard. They are inedible - but a week on the window sill and they are delicious. The problem is that you go from zero - to 12 really ripe avacados all at once. And the gifts keep on coming.
When we first arrived here 3 years ago I planted a pit near a sea-grape plant that was on its last legs. The sea grape is long gone but the pit took root and is now 3-4' tall. In another year or two I will be picking my own avacados!
The same thing happened with a mango pit - although I think this pit was just tossed aside by one of our children. It landed under a bush by the front of the church and now it is taller than I am!
My last bit of news is related to the community in North Andros. The Archbishop has given us permission to build a chapel there called Our Lady of Hope. I did some research on Our Lady of Hope and found the National Shrine to Our Lady of Hope in the US is in Tewksbury, MA. It turns out this was a devotion fostered by the Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI). Coincidentally, the OMI's used to be located at St. Jean de Baptiste parish in Lowell, MA - the host parish of St. Joseph High School for Boys on Merrimack St (where I went to High School).
I sent them an email explaining what we are doing and they sent a packet of prayer cards and booklets explaining about the apparition of Our Lady of Hope in France. We have distributed them to our local folks and I will be giving some to the Archbishop when we see him next week. God is amazing!!
Next week I will be meeting with contractors to try to get a sense of how much a simple chapel would cost to build - nothing more that 4 walls and a roof. The community in No. Andros has already donated enough to clear the land and put in the foundation but we clearly will need to do a development campaign to add those four walls and a roof. I'll let you know what I find out.
Enough for now - keep us in your prayers
Deacon Frank Tremblay
Saturday, September 3, 2011
AA on Andros!
Well surprise surprise - two blog entries in two days - this is a record!
With Ginni away I just had to tell someone about my morning and today you, my blog readers, are the lucky ones.
This morning is rainy and overcast but, true to form, our local homeless man limped his way up the driveway for his daily sandwich. I had given him a Maryknoll magazine we had for something to read and he sat on the porch watching the rain and eating when a car pulled up.
I went out to meet whoever it was to find it was Ernie - an employee at the AUTEC Navy Base. He had a bahamian man with him and a 3-ring binder. It turns out that Ernie is active in the Alcoholic Anonymous group at AUTEC and he'd been coming off-base to meet with this man who had just started his road to sobriety. They had been meeting in a park, then in a local bahamian home, but today the home wasn't available, and with the rain, neither was the park and he hoped he could meet on the porch.
I told them they were always welcome to come here to have the meeting, but with my other friend eating his sandwich I thought they needed more privacy than this area and invited them into the rectory to use the screen porch. They gladly accepted and spent a little over an hour there.
When they were done I made a point of telling them that if they EVER needed a place to host an AA meeting for the Bahamians we would be very open to being a place they could meet. Ernie jumped at the offer and said, "OK, how about Saturday's at 9:30". So it looks like we are now blessed to have the first and only AA meeting on Andros! I couldn't be happier.
Then, Ernie looks at our homeless friend and invites him to come too! Now this fellow has a definite issue with rum and drugs and when he asked what AA was I explained that it was a meeting for people who had problems with rum and a way to help stay sober. He actually said, "You know, I could use dat Deac" and Ernie laughs (turns out Ernie knows him only too well).
Drugs and alcohol are a major problem in the Bahamas and on an island like Andros there are literally no resources to address the issue. If the established AA group on the Navy Base really is willing to come off base and conduct a Saturday morning AA meeting at our church it would be a great beginning to something that could make a very real difference.
Keep this one in your prayers - till next time.
With Ginni away I just had to tell someone about my morning and today you, my blog readers, are the lucky ones.
This morning is rainy and overcast but, true to form, our local homeless man limped his way up the driveway for his daily sandwich. I had given him a Maryknoll magazine we had for something to read and he sat on the porch watching the rain and eating when a car pulled up.
I went out to meet whoever it was to find it was Ernie - an employee at the AUTEC Navy Base. He had a bahamian man with him and a 3-ring binder. It turns out that Ernie is active in the Alcoholic Anonymous group at AUTEC and he'd been coming off-base to meet with this man who had just started his road to sobriety. They had been meeting in a park, then in a local bahamian home, but today the home wasn't available, and with the rain, neither was the park and he hoped he could meet on the porch.
I told them they were always welcome to come here to have the meeting, but with my other friend eating his sandwich I thought they needed more privacy than this area and invited them into the rectory to use the screen porch. They gladly accepted and spent a little over an hour there.
When they were done I made a point of telling them that if they EVER needed a place to host an AA meeting for the Bahamians we would be very open to being a place they could meet. Ernie jumped at the offer and said, "OK, how about Saturday's at 9:30". So it looks like we are now blessed to have the first and only AA meeting on Andros! I couldn't be happier.
Then, Ernie looks at our homeless friend and invites him to come too! Now this fellow has a definite issue with rum and drugs and when he asked what AA was I explained that it was a meeting for people who had problems with rum and a way to help stay sober. He actually said, "You know, I could use dat Deac" and Ernie laughs (turns out Ernie knows him only too well).
Drugs and alcohol are a major problem in the Bahamas and on an island like Andros there are literally no resources to address the issue. If the established AA group on the Navy Base really is willing to come off base and conduct a Saturday morning AA meeting at our church it would be a great beginning to something that could make a very real difference.
Keep this one in your prayers - till next time.
Friday, September 2, 2011
Another week without Ginni
Well its been two months and finally Ginni is due back next week Wednesday, less than a week. In that time she's missed a baptism, a funeral, a hurricane, my first encounter with a tarantula, lots of work planning CCD, and yesterday my newest Bahamian experience - a camelion frog.
Yep, a frog that actually changes colors to match his (or her) surroundings. Now frogs are very common here, but to see one huddled up on top of a white bench we have in an open patio - and to see the frog also be totally white, well that was amazing.
Ginni has our camera else I certainly would have taken pics of this guy (and the tarantula) to share with you all. During her US trip she was going to visit our newest grandson so she HAD to take the camera for that.
On the spiritual front, tonight we are going to try something new at our monthly First Friday Adoration services. Instead of my doing a short reflection we will sing the Chaplet of Divine Mercy. This should be interesting since those that attend the Holy Hour are somewhat musically challenged. I trust that God will understand and accept what we offer.
While summer is a slow time for me here this month is crunch time to get ready for next years religious ed classes and RCIA. I have been cranking on the laptop to put together a curriculum for the High School and the Primary School kids we will have. We estimate that this year we will have almost 50 students. Before she left Ginni and I decided that since we have no 1st communion kids this year that we would use the parables to teach the Primary School kids about the life and teachings of Jesus. For the High School kids, however, it will be Confirmation year so our classes there will have to cover the doctrine they will need to learn. Suffice it to say its alot of material to pull together. Doing this without Ginni also has the risk of her coming back, looking at what I've done, and say, "Gee - did you forget about ---", and she'll be totally right and I'll have to re-work it. For now all I can do is keep plowing away and we'll see what happens.
A complication we always have is primary school. There is only 1 High School so we can grab all our kids off the bus as it passes the Parish Ctr and do them in one class. The Primary Schools are spread all over the island so we have kids in at least 4 different schools over a wide geographic area. Planning how to pull them together when some parents don't have cars, parents work, schedules don't cooperate, . . . With minimal to no parental catechists.
Once Ginni returns the planning and scheduling of our classes will be a big one.
Well, enough for now
Keep us in your prayers
Yep, a frog that actually changes colors to match his (or her) surroundings. Now frogs are very common here, but to see one huddled up on top of a white bench we have in an open patio - and to see the frog also be totally white, well that was amazing.
Ginni has our camera else I certainly would have taken pics of this guy (and the tarantula) to share with you all. During her US trip she was going to visit our newest grandson so she HAD to take the camera for that.
On the spiritual front, tonight we are going to try something new at our monthly First Friday Adoration services. Instead of my doing a short reflection we will sing the Chaplet of Divine Mercy. This should be interesting since those that attend the Holy Hour are somewhat musically challenged. I trust that God will understand and accept what we offer.
While summer is a slow time for me here this month is crunch time to get ready for next years religious ed classes and RCIA. I have been cranking on the laptop to put together a curriculum for the High School and the Primary School kids we will have. We estimate that this year we will have almost 50 students. Before she left Ginni and I decided that since we have no 1st communion kids this year that we would use the parables to teach the Primary School kids about the life and teachings of Jesus. For the High School kids, however, it will be Confirmation year so our classes there will have to cover the doctrine they will need to learn. Suffice it to say its alot of material to pull together. Doing this without Ginni also has the risk of her coming back, looking at what I've done, and say, "Gee - did you forget about ---", and she'll be totally right and I'll have to re-work it. For now all I can do is keep plowing away and we'll see what happens.
A complication we always have is primary school. There is only 1 High School so we can grab all our kids off the bus as it passes the Parish Ctr and do them in one class. The Primary Schools are spread all over the island so we have kids in at least 4 different schools over a wide geographic area. Planning how to pull them together when some parents don't have cars, parents work, schedules don't cooperate, . . . With minimal to no parental catechists.
Once Ginni returns the planning and scheduling of our classes will be a big one.
Well, enough for now
Keep us in your prayers
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Funerals and Hurricanes
Hello again - much to share so let me get right at it.
Since my last post I have been awakened by early morning visitors at my door several times. The first was at 4AM when someone came to tell me that I was needed at the clinic because someone had died. I threw on some clothes, grabbed a prayer book for this type of situation and 15 minutes later I walked into the clinic, which was packed!
It seems that at 2AM this man, a known asthmatic, knocked on the door of the doctor's house, told him "I be dying" and collapsed. Once at the clinic they tried resusitating him, but to no avail, the asthma had been putting a strain on his heart for years and this attack would be his last.
When I arrived the crowd literally parted like the Red Sea and I walked straight into the examination room (there is only one) and, surrounding the gurney were his family and closest of friends. I began to pray spontaneously, then opened the book and read the Rite in praying over the deceased. After prayers they took him to the morgue amid much wailing and crying from the crowd.
I stayed for a little while, but this was a Saturday night (now Sun morning) and, having an 8AM liturgy, I left to try to get a bit more sleep (unsuccessfully).
Here in the Bahamas when someone dies on these remote islands they ship the body off to Nassau since we have no morticians. Usually the funeral is 2 weeks later, always a Saturday morning.
I helped the family plan the funeral and it was clear to me that since he was only in his 30s this would be a huge event - I was not wrong. Every seat in the church was full, I added 8 pews I had in storage to an open patio area we have outside the church and that filled up, then people stood outside peering in the windows. During the service, once again there was the Bahamian wailing and crying and falling down and fainting and screaming and it was clear that he was much loved by all. After the formal funeral service we walked (in 97 degree August heat) to the cemetery. The herse had gone to the cemetery to set up the awning over the gravesite and, with such a huge crowd, the herse could not get back to the church. The church parking lot was full, the driveway, both sides of the street leading to the church - absolute grid lock - so the pall bearers carried the casket out the church, down the driveway to the street, then placing it on the gurney we rolled the casket all the way through town to the cemetery with the entire church walking behind us singing away. Quite the send off - Bahamian style!
The second early morning visitor was knocking on my door a few days ago at 6AM. Their teenage daughter was sick and they needed a place to stay until the clinic opened at 8. She was running a temp and doubled over with cramps. Now, I should explain that Dengue Fever is rampant on Nassau and she had just visited there. This is a mosquito born virus that is quite nasty. Hundreds of cases have been confirmed, 3 have died, and the estimate is that the number of actual cases is in the thousands. We did our best to keep her comfortable, not an easy task, and eventually they left for the clinic. They returned a few hours later en route home to tell me the doc had given her a shot for pain, but all they could do was let it run its course. Island medicine can be a challenge.
As you know, this week hurricane Irene has decided to visit the Bahamas and I have been in prep mode all week. The US Navy has evacuated AUTEC and I put up over 50 hurricane shutters on our house and the church and just when I thought I was about done, with only 3 windows to go, discovered that the frame the shutters connect to was missing on one window. I found the frame in the garage and, although it was bent and rusty and stashed away because it was a wreck, I was going to have to use it.
What complicated this is that it was the top bracket of a window using 88" shutters where the window sill was about 6' off the ground. I have no extension ladder so I took my step ladder, leaned it against the side of the church, climbed to the very top step and, holding my drill over my head, drilled the pilot holes for the screws into the concrete wall - not an easy task. Then I repeated this on the other side of the window for the 2nd screw. Balancing on the balls of my feet I then had to screw in the screws (again over my head into concrete). Suffice it to say the screws did not cooperate and each took quite awhile to penetrate the cement. Once done I hoisted the hurricane shutter into place, to find I had hung the bracket 1" too low and the shutter wouldn't fit. So, up the ladder again, take out the screws, take down the bracket, drill new holes, screw new screws to get the bracket in place - all the while balancing on the topmost step of this ladder leaning precariously against the side of the church, while Irene is sending me the early waves of 30 MPH gust, lightning, and the occasional gale of rain which caused me climb down and wait for it to pass. Finally done, the shutters up, I called it a day after 12 hours of getting the shutters up on the church and the rectory. I was pooped!
Today the storm is nearer, it is a constant 40MPH wind with gusts to 60 but the storm itself has veered to the East. It will still do a number on the Bahamas but my island should be spared the most destructive force of the storm which will be here tonight, tomorrow and finally leave the next day.
Gotta run - till next time.
Since my last post I have been awakened by early morning visitors at my door several times. The first was at 4AM when someone came to tell me that I was needed at the clinic because someone had died. I threw on some clothes, grabbed a prayer book for this type of situation and 15 minutes later I walked into the clinic, which was packed!
It seems that at 2AM this man, a known asthmatic, knocked on the door of the doctor's house, told him "I be dying" and collapsed. Once at the clinic they tried resusitating him, but to no avail, the asthma had been putting a strain on his heart for years and this attack would be his last.
When I arrived the crowd literally parted like the Red Sea and I walked straight into the examination room (there is only one) and, surrounding the gurney were his family and closest of friends. I began to pray spontaneously, then opened the book and read the Rite in praying over the deceased. After prayers they took him to the morgue amid much wailing and crying from the crowd.
I stayed for a little while, but this was a Saturday night (now Sun morning) and, having an 8AM liturgy, I left to try to get a bit more sleep (unsuccessfully).
Here in the Bahamas when someone dies on these remote islands they ship the body off to Nassau since we have no morticians. Usually the funeral is 2 weeks later, always a Saturday morning.
I helped the family plan the funeral and it was clear to me that since he was only in his 30s this would be a huge event - I was not wrong. Every seat in the church was full, I added 8 pews I had in storage to an open patio area we have outside the church and that filled up, then people stood outside peering in the windows. During the service, once again there was the Bahamian wailing and crying and falling down and fainting and screaming and it was clear that he was much loved by all. After the formal funeral service we walked (in 97 degree August heat) to the cemetery. The herse had gone to the cemetery to set up the awning over the gravesite and, with such a huge crowd, the herse could not get back to the church. The church parking lot was full, the driveway, both sides of the street leading to the church - absolute grid lock - so the pall bearers carried the casket out the church, down the driveway to the street, then placing it on the gurney we rolled the casket all the way through town to the cemetery with the entire church walking behind us singing away. Quite the send off - Bahamian style!
The second early morning visitor was knocking on my door a few days ago at 6AM. Their teenage daughter was sick and they needed a place to stay until the clinic opened at 8. She was running a temp and doubled over with cramps. Now, I should explain that Dengue Fever is rampant on Nassau and she had just visited there. This is a mosquito born virus that is quite nasty. Hundreds of cases have been confirmed, 3 have died, and the estimate is that the number of actual cases is in the thousands. We did our best to keep her comfortable, not an easy task, and eventually they left for the clinic. They returned a few hours later en route home to tell me the doc had given her a shot for pain, but all they could do was let it run its course. Island medicine can be a challenge.
As you know, this week hurricane Irene has decided to visit the Bahamas and I have been in prep mode all week. The US Navy has evacuated AUTEC and I put up over 50 hurricane shutters on our house and the church and just when I thought I was about done, with only 3 windows to go, discovered that the frame the shutters connect to was missing on one window. I found the frame in the garage and, although it was bent and rusty and stashed away because it was a wreck, I was going to have to use it.
What complicated this is that it was the top bracket of a window using 88" shutters where the window sill was about 6' off the ground. I have no extension ladder so I took my step ladder, leaned it against the side of the church, climbed to the very top step and, holding my drill over my head, drilled the pilot holes for the screws into the concrete wall - not an easy task. Then I repeated this on the other side of the window for the 2nd screw. Balancing on the balls of my feet I then had to screw in the screws (again over my head into concrete). Suffice it to say the screws did not cooperate and each took quite awhile to penetrate the cement. Once done I hoisted the hurricane shutter into place, to find I had hung the bracket 1" too low and the shutter wouldn't fit. So, up the ladder again, take out the screws, take down the bracket, drill new holes, screw new screws to get the bracket in place - all the while balancing on the topmost step of this ladder leaning precariously against the side of the church, while Irene is sending me the early waves of 30 MPH gust, lightning, and the occasional gale of rain which caused me climb down and wait for it to pass. Finally done, the shutters up, I called it a day after 12 hours of getting the shutters up on the church and the rectory. I was pooped!
Today the storm is nearer, it is a constant 40MPH wind with gusts to 60 but the storm itself has veered to the East. It will still do a number on the Bahamas but my island should be spared the most destructive force of the storm which will be here tonight, tomorrow and finally leave the next day.
Gotta run - till next time.
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