Family

(This blog was written on Sunday, July 17th )

Well, we are here.

We flew through the night and arrived in the Bahamas at around 9:30.

We were met at the airport by a short, rather gruff bus driver, driving an old weather beaten school bus. He drove on the right side of the bus, but the wrong side of the road, as is custom here.

When we arrived at the Bahamas Retreat Center, we were not met with the facility that they show in their web page ( www.bahamasretreatcenter.com ) but rather, a run down, beaten facility.

We do have beds, and cold, salt-water showers that make you never feel quite clean. But we are not here on vacation....we are here to work.

The days have been long, and hot. The humidity here makes your body react in interesting ways, like how you instantly form a "protective layer" of sweat as soon as you walk out a door. Your clothes stick to your body. Your actions slow to a crawl, almost as though you are walking through water.

It is miserable.

But is it? We went to the beach for a short time on the first day...the local beach, not the tourist beach. We were the only white people there, but we were not pointed at or harassed by the locals. To the contrary, they wanted to play frisbee with us in the water. The young children wanted to talk to us and learn our names. It was almost like we walked into some 100 member family reunion and they accepted us. It was difficult to tell who belonged with who, and what family was actually that. There is a different mentality here - one of union and family.

Everything moves slower - a lot slower. No "sense of urgency" as they say. It is okay, you fall into it pretty quick - it's a bit like trying to get a teenager to do anything before noon - it can be a struggle and nothing is guaranteed.

The bus ride back to the center was through a route that opened our eyes. If you have been to the Bahamas before, then you are familiar with a lot of the constant construction (Or rather, lack thereof), but once you get off the beaten tourist path you are met with poverty. Garbage is everywhere. Stray dogs run about between houses, digging through the garbage. People sit outside in the 90 degree heat because they cannot afford A/C.

But we can ignore it for now. We don't need to face it.....yet. Tomorrow we will be thrust headlong into the poverty. The young adults I have brought are a good group, but they are staying in their little  sub-groups of two or three. That will change.

Tomorrow we put our faith to action. Tonight, we sleep....if we can get the A/C in the dorms working....