All the Good You Can

DAYS 37-39

The rest of the workdays with our second to last team went by in a blur. Between trying to keep up with finances, grocery shopping, coordinating drivers, etc., I was kept plenty busy. The highlight of my week was on Wednesday afternoon when I went to the Children’s Home with the VBS crew. We took the kids from the Children’s Home to the beach to swim, and it was awesome being able to get to know some of the team members more. A bunch of the girls from Buford and I talked in the water for over an hour in what we called “girl talk.” They told me all the drama with their friends, and it was a great break from all the boy talk I’ve been participating in with Josh, Tom, and Jordan. Since I work in the office, I miss the chance to get to know the teams during the day, so it was great to have this opportunity.

Another highlight was the night Brendalee (who cooks for us in Nassau) needed help in the kitchen so she taught me how to clean, season, and fry fish. We started at three and didn’t have dinner until 7:30. It wasn’t an easy meal to prepare, but it was fun working with her and Cien (Pastor Stubb’s daughter) in the kitchen.

DAY 40

Today was excursion day with the teams. Most of the volunteers had signed up for a snorkeling adventure in the morning, so the interns, TJ, and I took a small group around the island in the morning. We took them to a couple different Forts, and we walked down the Queen’s Staircase (carved out by slaves for the Queen of England), and walked around Bay Street a little bit.

After lunch, which was a little hectic with 42 people (luckily I had taken lunch orders and taken up money, but still hectic), we went back down to Bay Street to the Straw Market. The Straw Market is a big building where hundreds of people set up stalls selling all of the same goods. If you ask the stall owner if they made one of their goods, they will either say yes or say some family member did, and then you will see the exact same good in a hundred other stalls. I saw the business major side of me come out when I wondered why in the world none of them try to differentiate themselves because the stalls that I stopped to look at were the few stalls that happened to specialize or looked different. It’s definitely an interesting place.

Then we drove over to Paradise Island to go to the beach. Again, it was good to be able to hang out with volunteers more, and the beach was beautiful (almost like an Eleuthera beach—almost).

It was July 4^th, so that night we took the team over to Atlantis to see fireworks. Unfortunately we ran late so we saw the fireworks from the bridge over to Paradise Island, but we took them to the hotel and saw the yachts lined up along the water and the ridiculousness of the whole place. The aquarium was neat, but the fish were overcrowded and it just made me sad.

And then after we left, we drove back over to St. Michael’s Chuch and passed Pitt Road on the way, where one of the teams has been working and has been declared by staff members to be the most horrific living conditions in the Bahamas. A ten minute drive away from Atlantis and the million dollar yachts and the room in the bridge that costs $25,000 a night. Ten minutes.

DAY 41

One of the teams left at 5, so I was up at 4 setting out breakfast and seeing them off. Then the other team left at 11, so we woke back up at 8, had breakfast number two, cleaned, and saw them off to the airport.

Abe drove us to lunch at Wendy’s (our favorite place), and we talked about the week and our mission here and how it was going. I learned that they plan to expand the Nassau ministry to be here for the whole summer next year, which is a blessing for the island. It always helps to debrief after a long week.

That night the boys and I went back to Atlantis to really soak up the ridiculousness of it (not my idea). We sat by the yachts and ate pizza and people watched in the casino and it’s just such a different Bahamas life than how we’ve been living. And while I have negative feelings toward it, I know the Bahamians don’t, which makes me feel better. Pastor Stubbs said in his sermon the next day (as it was the beginning of Bahamian Independence Week), “If a nation brings this many people to visit us, then the Bahamas is doing something right.” The Bahamians see it as them sharing the beauty of their nation, not that we come in and take it. It’s just an interesting situation to dwell on for sure.

We each bought a rat trap and had a contest to see who could catch it. Josh won. Rat room no more.

Nassau 4 lyfe

DAY 42

The church was celebrating “Independence Sunday” which meant the service was longer than expected (typical Bahamian worship) and we sang the Bahamian National Anthem and everyone wore his or her blue and yellow.

The team arrived at 12:30, so by the time the service ended we only had about twenty minutes to set up before we had to leave for the airport. We made it though, and we even had lunch for the team. This week’s team is a choral mission group from Virginia Conference. In other words, youth from all different churches audition and interview to be a part of a group that does one week of mission work and then has a two-week tour of Virginia doing performances at different churches. So needless to say, we have been blessed with the gift of music this week.

Abe dropped Tom and I off at the grocery before taking the team to the beach, and I had worked so hard on the grocery list that I knew exactly what we were going to need on each of our TWO grocery trips of the week and it was very successful. I had told Abe the week before on our ninth trip to the grocery that “I just can’t wait to do it better next week,” and we did.

That night I did orientation and devotion, and it was a long day but a good day. We were excited for our last week.

DAY 43 and 44

This week I continued office work and grocery shopping and everything else that needed to happen to keep camp running and keep the team happy. I also worked more on the donor list and the BMH website and other such projects.

On Tuesday Abe decided to leave us. The previous week, this would have made me freak out, but this second week it was fine because I knew we could do it without him. The main issue with his leaving was that we were further limited with getting a ride somewhere (water, groceries, ect.), but other than that we were fine. It was weird feeling that confident about being in charge, but it was definitely a good feeling.

DAY 45

Bahamians celebrate their Independence the night before the actual holiday, so on Wednesday night we took the team down to Fort Charlotte for Bahamian Independence Day festivities. Everyone wore their blue and yellow, and we heard people speak, the royal police band played, some of our team participated in the world record conch blowing exhibition, and we saw fireworks. We tried to stay out to see junkanoo, but it was delayed so we ended up going on home around 1:30.

Trying and failing to see junkanoo

We were a little burnt out. (a lot)

DAY 46

Today was excursion day with the group. Jeff (the bus driver) took us on a tour of the island in the morning, and then after lunch we went to the straw market and the beach on Paradise Island again. That night we just hung out and rested up for their last day on the job site the next day.

Queen's Staircase

DAY 47

Today was the team’s last day on the jobsite, and I mostly just relaxed during the day because most of my jobs were as complete as I could get them. I worked on the donor list some and finances and made some phone calls, but then the day was over. I helped Brendalee with dinner, and then we had closing that night.

We received our best reviews ever on evaluations, and it was a good way to end our weeks with the teams.

DAY 48

Today the team left by about eleven. We cleaned the church and packed all of our stuff into the BMH van, napped a little, and then drove out to the airport with Abe to “pick up a package Brenda sent for me on the Southern Air flight.” Now, our intern friends weren’t supposed to come in from Eleuthera until Sunday, but when Abe called me from Eleuthera on Thursday to check in and happened to mention that “On Saturday we will probably all ride out to the airport in the afternoon as a break from the church to pick up a package,” it was pretty clear immediately that we would be seeing our friends a little earlier than expected.

So in the afternoon we went out to the airport and picked up Brenda, Madison, Maggie, and Ali. It was fun to be together again. We ordered pizza for dinner and then went to Dairy Queen. All the Nassau treats.

DAY 49

Tom had befriended the sister of the homeowner at the house they were working at on Pitt Road, and as a way to say thank you she bought us tickets to a resort on a private island called “Blue Lagoon.” So this morning we drove over to Paradise Island and hopped on a ferry from the Paradise Island Marina over to Blue Lagoon Island.

The best part of the resort for us was a huge inflatable park in the water. From playing King of the Hill on the slide to flipping over the Saturn shaped inflatable to having races across the obstacle course, we didn’t stop laughing all morning. After lunch, most of the group went to take naps in the hammock garden, but Maggie and I went over to the snorkeling beach (it was quieter), and dragged chair into the water and read. I ended up laying down in the water with my head on the chair and sleeping. It was the most relaxing afternoon.

They also had a dolphin exhibit where you could swim with the dolphins. Most of our group didn’t want to go look at the dolphins because it would just make us sad, but I toughed it out. They truly are the most beautiful creatures, and it was awful to see them locked up that way. We all hope that in the future laws change that restrict humans from keeping animals and fish in captivity. Humans should not be allowed to do such terrible things to God’s precious creation. (We also felt this way about the Atlantis aquarium. The tanks are way overcrowded.)

It really was a cool resort but it was funny because we all would have been so much happier on a deserted beach in Eleuthera.

DAY 50

Today we started out the morning working out. It was my first time working out in three weeks, and it wasn’t easy. We did it in the parking lot outside of the church, and every time someone would walk past they would look at us like we were crazy. It was funny.

After working out, we changed and headed down to the straw market because the other interns hadn’t been there yet. While we were down there, I had my exit interview with Abe and Brenda where we talked about the summer and what we learned and how we can improve and what we did improve and how to improve the program.

Once we got back to the church, I packed and we all hung out for a while. After they finished exit interviews, we had a group debrief and then we all dressed up and went to a resort for dinner. The restaurant was right on the water as the sun set, and after we finished eating we walked down and sat on the dock and shared memories from the summer and our funniest moments together. We have shared so many good times this summer, and it’s unbelievable how quickly it went and how much I will miss these people.

View from dinner

We really don't like the aquarium because of its overcrowdedness, and yet we still enjoy it.

The boyz

DAY 51

This morning we finished packing and cleaning and loaded all our stuff in the van and drove to the airport. We said goodbye to Abe and Brenda before we checked in because they were going to domestic departures, and then the seven of us checked in and went through customs and security. We ate lunch and hung out and laughed and looked at pictures and maybe did a little bit of yoga in the middle of the airport.

We had to say goodbye to Jordan first. And then Tom, Madison, Maggie, and I said bye to Josh and Ali and got on the flight to Atlanta.

It was hard to leave the Bahamas, and that is true for several reasons. One, it is the most beautiful, God-filled place I could choose to spend my time. The beauty of God’s creation is everywhere in this world, but Eleuthera is just one of those places where you don’t have to search to find it. And those places are magical. They get in your soul and stay there. Eleuthera has been a part of my soul since my first trip to the Bahamas freshmen year, and even on my third trip to BMH, it hasn’t gotten any easier to leave. In fact, as I’ve made more relationships in Eleuthera, it has only become more difficult to leave.

The second reason I don’t want to leave is because God taught me so much in the Bahamas, and I’m praying I don’t leave those lessons behind when I leave. God taught me to see my strengths, and use them to the benefit of all. God taught me about my weaknesses, and how acknowledging them and understanding them is the best thing you can do. God taught me how to be a leader, how to work with others, how to delegate and plan and make decisions. In the Bahamas I was forced into situations that made me uncomfortable, and I found the strength to work through them and come out on the other side. And by being forced to use my strength, I was made stronger.

The third reason is the people. I don’t want to say goodbye to my intern friends. I don’t want to say goodbye to Abe and Brenda. I don’t want to say goodbye to Brendalee and Pastor Stubbs and Cien. I don’t want to say goodbye to TJ, Bush, and Smitty. I don’t want to say goodbye to Pauline and Maxine. And I definitely don’t want to say goodbye to my intern friends.

The good news is that it isn’t goodbye, because I will surely be coming back to Eleuthera. Whether it’s only for spring break or next summer too, I can’t wait to see what my next trip entails, because if it’s anywhere close to as good as this summer, I will be happy, blessed, and unbelievably thankful.