Tuesday, June 30th

Plumbing by Craig and Dick,

Painting duo Kathryn and Alisa,

Painting floor Emily

The five amigos enjoying the ocean

Hi family and friends!

Today's word has to be RAIN. Several of us woke up around 5 this morning to the sounds of high winds, thunder, and torrential rain (so some of us gave up the idea of maybe actually going for a run while we're here...) and then just lay in bed readjusting our ideas of what we would get done today. It has pretty much rained all day, sometimes hard, sometimes a nice easy rain, but when that wind and heavy rain gets going, we wonder how much worse a hurricane would be. Except for flooding on the sides of the roads (and think about how that complicates our learning curve on left-side driving), the town handles all this rain just fine!

Needless to say, very little outdoor work can be done--somehow, power tools and water don't mix, according to Craig and Dick! Fortunately, there's lots to be done indoors--kitchen and bathroom painting, upstairs floor painting, sanding the new wall in a classroom in preparation for sanding, and Emily pointed out a little sink problem in one of the bathrooms that necessitated a trip by three men--Craig, Dick, and Todd--to the hardware store for new faucet and plumbing stuff. Since this is the first time these three felt the need to go together, I think they were feeling a little cooped up by the weather.

After work yesterday, 5 of our team walked down the little ramp the church has to the ocean and enjoyed an hour of cooling off in the warm water. Kathryn (our birthday girl today! Happy birthday, our much loved friend!), Derek, A.J., Craig, and Todd cannot wait to do that again. Ellen and I, with help from Alisa and Emily, made spaghetti for dinner and extorted promises from the 5 swimmer/snorkelers that Tuesday would be our day to swim while they made dinner. Everyone agreed, but we're making an exception for our birthday girl!

We all met some wonderful people yesterday and are working on making those relationships more significant today as we talk while we work. Each day we are more amazed by the work done at ECC and how Lyn Major's dream has evolved into a school serving so many with support from different communities. All of us talked last night about how much the teachers at this school, Gary, Pam, and Margaret are the ones we've met so far, are so committed to their work and the idea of just making a difference in life that matters. That's the reason our team loves doing this work-to be a part of something so significant!

Monday, June 29th

Approaching the Bahamas Saturday night

Dinner first night
Our OFFICIAL meeting site

Cards at the Nassau airport Sunday afternoon

It's been an amazing 24 hours!!! We spent several hours in the Nassau airport yesterday waiting for our little airplane to fly to Marsh Harbour--it ran about 45 minutes late, and the Bahamasair officials always apologized about that whenever they made an announcement. When was the last time you heard that from an airline! When we arrived after a peaceful 30 minute plane ride to the small town here, Pastor Campbell, our host at the church we are staying at, greeted us, helped us with our luggage, and drove most of us to the church. I talked to a young man behind one of the two counters inside the airport building who led me to our rental minivan, and then I drove behind the bus the pastor drove--ON THE LEFT SIDE OF THE STREET!--while Todd did navigation duty in the passenger seat. The beautiful building that is the church is built right on the edge of the sea--I am temporarily a hero for having been so lucky to "find" this place--courtesy of Lyn Major's recommendation--she is the school's director. What a peaceful setting for our work this week. Some of the ladies of the church had cooked us a delicious dinner of baked chicken, a delicious rice dish, salad, vegies, and a to-die-for chocolate cake. Pastor Campbell then took us to Every Child Counts school so we would know where it was, then said goodnight. After gathering together for our nightly meeting outside at oceanside, we set up our beds in the assigned rooms and then played a particularly loud game of hearts.

Today, we arrived at ECC shortly after 8:00 and talked to a couple teachers who greeted us. Once we reviewed our work list--everything from scrubbing walls to prepare them for painting tomorrow, to clearing a room and washing the floor to paint IT tomorrow, to putting up shelves in a garden shed, to fixing various doors, windows, and cabinets--Todd and I made a supply list and went shopping at the hardware store across the street with the project funds we all contribute. I brought him and the supplies back to the school, and then Ellen and I went grocery shopping for lunch and breakfast the next 4 days. When we returned, everyone else had already made a serious dent in our project chores and were ready for food and Gatorade and water. It's been a humid day--lots of rain off and on and very little sun. The breeze feels wonderful. Since lunch, we've been scrubbing walls and fixing doors.

I'll upload a few pictures for you and then the teachers are ready to go home, so I will update you on our adventures more tomorrow. Take care!

June 28th

It's Sunday afternoon and I have 10 minutes to update you before we catch our taxi over to the airport for our short ride to Marsh Harbour! We've walked all over downtown today, checking out old buildings and climbing 66 steps to see the old Water Tower and Fort Fincastle, then a long walkabout over to Fort Charlotte where we were greeted by a great view of Atlantis on Paradise Island. We walked back to where the cruise ships dock to check out the shops, but no serious shopping happened today because we still have luggage weight issues to deal with! When we return at the end of the week, that's when serious shopping can begin.

We wish you were here. The humidity is pretty ridiculous, but the ocean views and kindness of the residents are amazing. We were lightly rained on during our adventures, but it cooled us off. We had lunch at Senor Frog's where a pretty intense karaoke crowd entertained us with plenty of oldies. It's been a fun, bonding day to get us ready for the hard work of the week ahead. Once we settle in quiet Marsh Harbour, we'll probably break out the card games again! Pictures, unfortunately, will have to wait until I find a computer that will let me upload them. Just want to give you something to look forward to!

Saturday, June 27th

Our travels to Nassau today went very smoothly! I am sitting here writing you from a corner in the lobby of our hotel, the Towne Hotel, a very quaint place that is also providing seating space for about 7 other hotel patrons to work on their laptops, while a young woman and I work on the computers provided. However, the internet is running slowly, so I will try to update the blog tomorrow with pictures rather than tonight!

The Phoenix contingent of our team arrived at Sky Harbor this morning before 5:30 a.m., breezed through check-in and security, and then left for Atlanta in an on-time flight! Once we arrived in Atlanta, Todd, Craig, and Emily quickly grabbed lunch, because they were catching the flight to Nassau before the rest of us. We waited at our gate for a few hours; meanwhile, Kathryn flew in from Michigan to round out our numbers, Derek, A.J., Ellen, and Dick played a great game of crazy rummy for an hour or so, while Alisa and I spent some very relaxing time coloring Disney pictures!

One highlight of the trip already is our flight to Nassau. While enroute, our pilot told us NASA would be launching a rocket at Cape Canaveral (sp?) that had been delayed a bit because of weather. Sure enough, as we passed the site, the rocket was catapulted into the air! Kathryn saw it happen since she was sitting on the left side of the plane; the rest of us had to be content with seeing the spiralling plume of white smoke it left behind it! I wonder if the plane would have leaned if we had all known to rush to that side of the plane the minute before it happened!

Once we arrived here, we collected our luggage, met up with the three who flew first, and traveled in the van they had arranged to bring us here. We quickly dropped off our luggage and then walked over to Conche Fritters for a dinner that hit the spot--conche chowder, conche burgers, and conche fritters were popular choices among our group.

Don't know when I'll get a chance to add more--tomorrow will probably be another crazy day, and we won't have a handy hotel lobby that provides free internet at the end of the day! So I will probably report on our adventures sometime Monday. Enjoy the rest of your weekend. We will think of you all as we saunter through the turquoise waters on the beach tomorrow!

Getting Ready

Welcome to our team's record of our journey and work in Marsh Harbour, Abaco Island, Bahamas at the Every Child Counts School. If you want to see what inspired us to contribute to their progress, check out their website at http://www.everychildcountsabaco.org/.

( above is last year's GROW team)

We are leaving early Saturday morning, June 27th, to make our way to the Bahamas, and will actually arrive in Marsh Harbour on Sunday night. We hope you check in with our blog occasionally to see our progress. The plan is to update it at least daily while we are in Marsh Harbour, but we will see how reliable the internet connections are in that tiny town. Let us know what you think of our adventures with your comments, and we can't wait to share the entire story with you when we return home after the 4th of July weekend--we'll be spending that holiday in Nassau!