Bahamas Slideshow

July 5th

Mornin' family and friends. Happy belated 4th of July! The computers were ALWAYS busy yesterday--everyone catching up on holiday greetings, maybe--so I jumped on for a quick note this morning before I finish packing and we head off to the airport for an early flight.

As I write, there is a major lightning show going on out there with thunder I can hear even inside this huge hotel with the background music loud as it always seems to be in the lobby here. I've seen more lightning here in the Bahamas in the past 9 days than I think we see all year in Phoenix. I got up early to watch the sunrise on the beach yesterday and lightning accompanied that, as well, but it was much farther out to sea than today. Right now it's directly overhead, but as fast as most of the storms seem to move here, it should move out before our plane takes off in three hours.

I will post pictures after I get home. Uploading them will use up time I don't have this morning.

Okay, I know I am probably the last woman in the world to finally experience snorkeling, but it is definitely my new, very favorite thing in the world to do!! 8 of our team went out on a catamaran yesterday morning and were in the water checking out the fish for nearly an hour. I hung back on the boat at first to capture pictures, and from that vantage point, it looks odd--lots of bodies just floating in the water, occasionally kicking their fins. Once I put on my mask and got in the water, I was completely hooked. The tropical environment was stunning. One woman in another party who was with us said she's snorkeled lots of places and this was the best ever. So I am sure that once again, we were blessed with a PEAK experience.

The afternoon was devoted to shopping for souvenirs--for some of us--and beach time afterwards. We had dinner as a team together, decided that our community dinners together were far superior (really and truly! the food at this resort has been disappointing, but if that's the only complaint besides the mosquitoes, pretty darn good week!), and then had a box seat on the beach for an absolutely incredible fireworks show! None of us had ever seen anything like it, and the 4th of July isn't even the Bahamas holiday. Yet another example of wonderful hospitality from a generous people.

I'll give an update or two once we are back home. We have lots of pictures and once we collectively upload those, I'll let you know where to find them. Let us know what you thought of our blog and our daily adventures. We've missed you.

Friday, July 3rd

Dick, Craig, Todd building the gate






Our entire group, with Lyn, her son Vincent, and teacher Gary, in front of the school



















Emily, Alisa, Kathryn sanding
















Dick and Ellen in front of the school

A.J. with the coconut he finally cracked open showing the group.








Hi from Nassau, everyone!

The past two days have been a fantastic blur of activity! And all of us have pretty much loved nearly every minute.

Wednesday afternoon, Ellen and I left the rest of the crew early, around 3 pm, to take the 20 minute ferry ride with Lyn, the school director, over to Elbow Cay, where Hopetown is located. She went home with her boys, and Ellen and I walked the quiet, sleepy residential town, enjoying all the pastel Cape Cod style homes there. Shops closed at 4 and 5 pm, so walking was about all we got to do until we caught the 6:30 ferry back to Marsh Harbour where Todd and Dick figured out where to find it after a couple misturns. :)

Meanwhile, the others had returned to our church home, and after the hot, sticky day, none of them could wait to jump into the water just outside. However, this time while they were all taking turns snorkeling again with Craig and Emily's equipment, with the snorkelers swimming off to some rocks to see amazing fish, and the rest staying close to the rocky coast of our church, Alisa, who was right in the middle of 4 or 5 others, was stung by jellyfish on both of her arms. Somehow, the others who were a foot away from her, fortunately escaped. She had a rough hour or so, and when Todd picked us up from the ferry, his first words after I buckled my seatbelt were, "I need to tell you something about Alisa, but first you need to know that she is going to be fine." All of you parents out there know exactly how quick those words stopped my heart! And she is fine. We heard later that jellyfish (and these were little ones, because the snorkelers had seen them where they were, right up against their goggles) tend to come out after storms. I wish we had known that Wednesday.

Anyway, by the time we got back to the church, the A-squad of Kathryn, Derek, and A.J., with back-up from Emily and Alisa, had "brinner" almost done--what a feast! French toast, bacon, sausage, fresh fruit salad. We ate and ate and ate. After they cleaned up, we had our nightly meeting to recap Wednesday and plan Thursday, and then broke out the snacks and cards.

Thursday we finished up our work in the morning. Dick, Todd, and Craig made a super sturdy gate to put at the top of the stairs in one of the buildings, the girls finished painting and then sanded the bookshelves from the day before, Derek continued working with the drywaller in the other building, A.J. mowed the knee-high (no exaggeration) grass in the never ending yard, and Ellen cleaned up behind all of us. We finished and said our good-byes and thank yous and exchanged contact information with all that we had made connections with--always a tough thing to do. We arrived back at the church right around noon, to inhale lunch, change into our swimsuits and sunscreen, and then hop into Pastor Campbell's bus to make the 40 minute drive to Treasure Cay. It was an unbelievably beautiful place--white fine sand going on for miles, and we literally saw only 3 other people there. If this is the 2nd most beautiful beach in the world, we can't even imagine how the first place one can beat it. None of us have ever seen anything this incredible!

We arrived home by 5 pm, showered while Dick grilled us hotdogs and pulled out every possible leftover we had--another amazing feast. Then we spent an hour and a half or so cleaning up after ourselves to leave the church a better place, as we always try to do. We met for a while, agreed we'd made some wonderful new friendships, both in Marsh Harbour and on our team, and then played Hearts. But the morning was coming early--we needed to get up at 5 a.m. to catch our 7:20 flight to Nassau--so we ended a bit earlier than usual.

And now I sit here at a computer kiosk in the Sheraton we're staying at for the weekend. They generously allowed all of us to check in at 9 a.m. this morning when we got here, so we dropped stuff off and then pretty much scattered to the winds after that. Some went snorkeling, some went into town to see the shops, and Alisa and I hit the beach to just veg for the afternoon. We watched a thunder and lightning storm out at sea that was incredible, but it never came into shore.

The R&R time at the end of each GROW trip is a good transition--we all talked about how the work we've done really takes us out of our natural environment and creates something "euphoric" was Kathryn's word for it. The work we do is important, the people we've met have created something really special, and the location is unforgettable. None of us is ready to go back to our "ordinary" lives. The weekend will help get us ready. And we hope you are ready to put up with our stories over and over and look at the million pictures we've collectively taken. :) Next year you'll have to come with us!!!

Wednesday, July 1st

This plaque by ECC's school is why we do what we do!

Derek and A.J. enjoy jamming each evening

The birthday girl is delighted!

Alisa and Emily, the cake decorators

Todd and Dick, carpenters extraodinaire!

The sun rose this morning!!! It was a beautiful sunrise that only Craig saw, but he took a picture to show us the rest and maybe I'll be able to send that picture later. Most of us assumed there would be more rain, so no one planned on an early morning. But with every good thing, there's a shadow--steam city here in Marsh Harbour. Our one day reprieve with the cooler temperatures the rain brought is over. Back to sweating!

The men made a delicious dinner last night--chicken, rice, salad, more garlic bread on the texas toast bread we all loved the night before. Even though it was sprinkling, I convinced Kathryn to go in the water with me since it was her birthday, and Derek and A.J. went right along. They brought Craig and Emily's snorkeling equipment and the three of them traded that on and off for 45 minutes or so while I tread water in perfect temperature. Meanwhile, Alisa and Emily were decorating the chocolate cake we got to sing to Kathryn after dinner--she definitely was surprised and touched. And of course we had ice cream with the cake, and had popcorn and cheese and crackers while we played Hearts later on. There is no shortage of eating around here!

With the return of the sun, Craig, Ellen, and I decided to walk to the school this morning, while Todd brought the others in the van--it's only a little over 2 miles. Craig went ahead and Ellen and I stopped at the bakery to get some more of the fresh baked bread for lunch and dinner (the younger set is making "brinner" as A.J. calls it for tonight, and wanted this bread for French toast). Once again, the bread was too warm from the oven to slice! Fortunately, it was ridiculously warm in the bakery or Ellen and I would never had left because everything smelled so wonderful!

Today brought more painting, sanding, fixing windows, and Todd and Dick jumped on a new big project--making 6 3-shelf bookcases for the school. As I type this, they are already almost finished even though they didn't buy the wood until mid-morning. What a crew. The kitchen and bathroom look brand new, the floors upstairs that we painted are bright and shiny, the doors and windows all close easily. I know the staff is very happy with us.

I'm taking the ferry over to another island to see the little town of Hopetown where the school director, Lyn Majors, lives--she's taking me down there in a half hour or so. No one else really had the burning desire I did to see it--getting in the water on a sunny day is much more appealing to the younger set! I don't know that I'll get a chance to jump on tomorrow because we are only working half a day, and then the minister of the church at which we're staying is taking us up to Treasure Cay to see the beach there--everyone needs to pray for sun! Friday morning early we are flying back to Nassau for a couple days of R&R there, so once we are settled, I'll see if I can find a cafe somewhere there to write. I hope everyone there is not too hot! The ocean breezes here at least cool us off regularly! We miss you and wish you were here with us.