Internet Cafe Project

Our internet cafe project team has set the standard for flexibility and patience.

Since making a porch where the door was appeared to be infeasible, they decided to create a door where access could be provided. As a result, the door faces the house (better for security), and the porch is close to the ground (better for safety). Due to the central location, the cafe team has also been the go-to guys for all the tools. The number of interruptions for tools alone has made the progress achieved quite remarkable!

School project

The admini-stration at the school was thinking big: they wanted to have a fence built and a field graded. They desperately needed a replacement latrine(!) But this week, more than anything, they needed teachers: when we arrived, the principal confessed to us that five of her staff were sick! On the spur of the moment, and without lesson plans (let alone Education degrees), two of the school project team looked after the grades five and six classes. The rest of the team installed a tetherball pole, and will (hopefully) replace the basketball facilities...

Water project

The water at the Salvation Army has been an ongoing problem. The water comes from the city only intermittently, and the cistern beside the house cannot deliver sufficient water pressure. There was, however, a large rain-fed cistern up the hill at the affiliated school. So our ingenious water project team is installing a pump. Now, whenever the city supplies water, it will be pumped up the hill, and gravity will supply the pressure everyone needs!

Building the fence

Tomorrow morning, the indefatigable fence project team is getting back to work in a big way. On arrival, we were surprised by a good amount of prepatory work, and by a team of local friends of the Salvation Army who pitched in to help dig down through the very rocky soil (or, perhaps more accurately, the lightly soiled rocks). Hauling bags of cement up the hill was also a task that made us grateful for the help. Only a few fence-posts remain to be installed.

First full day...

I had to check my watch to be sure that we hadn't already been here for three days :-) -- it has only been one day, but we have accomplished a great deal. Yesterday, after waiting an hour in the line-up to clear customs, we arrived at our lodging just as the "A team" was returning from their day's work.

We joined them for dinner at a cafe down near the beach, and then returned for a devotion led by Jon S. The evening was lovely and cool, and there have been no mosquitoes detected as of today. The cloudless night sky provided a glorious view of even lesser known stars. And the cresent moon was bright and beautiful. While there is a bit of a difficulty without running water, but the ocean (a short drive away) and a bar of soap is quite effective. After waking up before an exhausting 4am this morning, it was an easy matter to fall asleep, in spite of a very small mattress. This morning, everybody's favorite alarm clock, a chorus of roosters, gave us plenty of warning that the sun was about to rise. We wonder if the diner down by the beach would give us a discount if we arrive with freshly plucked "chicken"... Before Sunday service, we scrubbed the lower floor of the school and painted the second color (of three) in the upper floor.

Church on Sunday

Here is the team with our hosts, Anthony and Lisette. We enjoyed a wonderful, heart-felt greeting from the community as we worshipped with the Salvation Army this morning. We had a delightful time of song, sharing, and fellowship. And remind me not to complain when the Bethel service goes beyond 12:15pm!

Welcome to Jamaica!

We made it! Leaving the land of snow (and more snow...) we flew to Charlotte, North Carolina, and from there to Montego Bay. Captain Anthony Sanchez of the Salvation Army Bluefields Corps, our ever-smiling host, was there to drive us across the island. Picking up his wife and daughter, we squeezed nine people and twelve 50-lb bags into the little van. The weather was magnificent, and the drive to the southern coast was uneventful. Many goats, honks, back-yard tombs, orange trees, and digicel outlets later, we arrived in Bluefields, where we quickly found bunking locations and met the rest of our team. They had been tremendously productive over the previous two days. Almost all of the fence-posts had already been cemented, and one floor of the school had already received its first coat of paint. The picture is of the schoolchildren who came to greet the early birds on their arrival on Thursday.