Day Four - Hard at work and a little relaxation

DAY FOUR – WEDNESDAY

Day Four started out overcast and the temperature was a blessed ten degrees cooler than the day before – a mere 85 degrees – until the sun emerged around 11 am. Our tasks for the day were to continue painting the rectory and preparing food packages for distribution.

Sara began her day at 6:30 am on the beach across the street from our condos.

SARA - “Waking up at 6:30 in the morning is a lot easier when you get to be in a beautiful place accomplishing amazing things. One of my favorite things I’ve done so far is to wake up early and take a walk on the beach by myself. I felt completely safe, and every person I saw greeted me with a “Hello, How are you?”, always with a smile on their face. I feel so fortunate to be here and excited for more activities to come.”

On Day Four the parish joined us in our work. Two men set up scaffolding for us early in the morning. Other men supplied us with ladders. Camella, a member of the vestry, joined the paint crew. Jenness and Janice returned as well.

Painting on Day Four moved from the ground floor to the upper story – complete with scaffolding and ladders. Every girl had a chance to paint on the scaffolding. Some were challenged by the height and the climb, but all were game. The upper story looks GREAT. Chris was in charge of the scaffold painting. He and girls tried an experiment to see whether it was true that everyone would greet us with a wave.

CHRIS: “Everyone here in the Bahamas is super friendly, always stopping to chat or wave hello and lend a hand if needed. We learned that if someone waves and you don’t respond, they get offended. Yesterday while up on the scaffolding painting the rectory, Claire and I started a game of waving to everyone who passed, looking for anyone who didn’t wave or say hello back. We lost the game. Not a single person didn’t respond to us!!”

The second story balcony area is accessible through the house but the house was locked and we didn’t want to tramp paint on the carpet. So we set up a ladder and climbed over the balcony. Paint, brushes and buckets were hoisted over using a rope.

Once again Janice and Jenness joined the painters and painted, and painted, and painted. We painted from 8:30 in the morning to 3:30 in the afternoon with a 45 minute lunch break. Many hands make light work though and we managed to get almost all of it painted with two coats – just few hours left for Day Four.

Lunch was leftover red beans and rice. Which was delicious after a day to blend the flavors. After lunch the group split in two with some painting and some assembling food packages. The food distribution ministry at St. Patrick’s began about 18 months ago. St. Patrick’s has three parish churches – one at Gregory Town, one in Governor’s Harbor and one south in Savannah Sound.

ALEXIS – “Yesterday our youth mission trip to the Bahamas went well. Our group was finishing up the painting on the house. We also helped make care packages that will be given out by us. We ended the day with a meeting to talk about all we learned as a group.”

After work concluded for the day we went into Governor’s Harbor for ice cream. The view from the shop was breathtaking with St. Patrick’s church visible right at the bend.

Camella’s family owns a lake/resort called the Green Turtle Pond. It is a large lake formed by a blow hole. The blow hole is formed by two limestone tubes – one from the Atlantic side and one from the Caribbean side. When the tide shifts the water in the lake is pushed and pulled. Camella’s resort is called Green Turtle Pond because of the presence of a small population of green sea turtles. Green sea turtles, which are endangered, are one of the largest on earth and are indigenous to the Bahamas. These turtles nest in South America and swim to the Bahamas as adults where they feast on the sea grass providing an important ecological link in environmental diversity. The green turtle preserve was started by Camella’s grandfather. After his death it lay quiet until a cousin of hers from Everett, WA encouraged the family to resurrect the preserve as a place for tourists to kayak, body board and enjoy the turtles. A group of girls and Fr. Lance were able to visit the “pond”.

After two days of hard work we were all ready for refreshment. We piled into the truck and went to Sky Beach Resort which has an infinity pool that overlooks the Atlantic Ocean. One the way we saw a host of red crabs all crossing the highway from the Caribbean side to the Atlantic side. This is mating season and the crabs are out from about 4:30 pm to 6:30 pm. You have to try and avoid running over them as they cross the road. In other seasons these crabs are invisible in the bush.

Sky Beach was so beautiful and relaxing after a hard three days. The sand on the beach is like flour it is so fine. The Atlantic breaks off in a steep shelf, with the waves crashing gently on short. The pool was about 85 degrees with a bar built into the side. We were greeted by Shannon, who has been with us every day, bringing ice, taking us to the store, providing support and encouragement. Shannon and Cece (who manages Sky Beach) paid for the bartender to give each girl a smoothie!

FAITH – “We went to the Beach Club which is a swimming pool. It has access to the Atlantic Ocean. We swam in both and I had a mango smoothie at the pool bar. Two of the ladies we met, Shannon and Cece, bought us all one drink. When we went to the ocean the sand was so soft and the water was pretty warm. The water was super salty and it stung my eyes. It was still pretty though.”

After the pool we were tired and hungry. We closed our day with a wonderful dinner at the Sunset Inn. This restaurant is pointed towards the sunset and sits across the water from Governor’s Harbor. We all had local seafood – especially conch. The bugs were out however and we went through most of a bottle of bug spray. The sun went down through a towering bank of thunderclouds. The light went from yellow to orange to red and finally to sundown. As it has every night we witnessed a stunning lightening display.

After dinner it was back to our units for a nightly meeting, internet time, phone calls home and bed.