Day 3

Water Mission Day 3 Friday 1/17/20

Today was another busy day. Picked up Frank, Laurie and Pat from the Green Turtle Cay ferry at 7:30am and took them to the airport at Marsh Harbour for their flight out. Good bye to Team 6. Team 7 is in the house now. Then back to Treasure Cay to pick up more water jugs, Chlorine tablets and motor oil to take to the Marsh Harbour RO plant. Spent some time with Dominque at the Marsh Harbour plant and then out to New Vision Church to test their well water and coordinate installation of another distribution plant. Had a great opportunity to talk with Lydia who is coordinating all of the church’s relief efforts. They have just started a school at the church to get kids back in the classroom. She told us today that the lack of schools was one of the key holdups for families to return to Marsh Harbour. They’ve got 82 families of kids back in school and another 80 that would like to attend. Their problem is there is no room for additional classes at their church. This women is one of the saints I’ve meet here in Marsh Harbour.

Today we made another 6,000 gallons in MH. Tomorrow Chris, Beth and I are heading to Man-of-War Cay to complete their fresh water flush system for their 4,000 gallon per day plant. It will be a great opportunity to see more of Abaco Cays.

Had an opportunity yesterday to stop in at Abaco Beach Resort/Boat Harbour Marina and talk to Glen Kelly the harbour master. It was really nice to catch up with Glen and see the progress there. Funny, as we drove in there were people wandering with cocktails in their hands and Hawaiian shirts. The restaurant is open for ABR guests and special invitees like us. Work on the marina is ongoing. The fuel dock is complete and has a lonely gas pump on it.

Barge and excavator/pile driving rig work working on dock 1 and a truck load of new pilings arrive while I was there. The marina has been cleaned up for the most part and there are not piles of debris around. All in all it looked like good progress and an active work site. Bruce is coming back this week I heard.

Today Beth and I had a chance to walk the beach here at Treasure Cay. It was one of the most spectacular and beautiful beaches in the Bahama’s and is one of the first posts we made on the PohlesAweigh blog. This beach was our very first beach we walked on in the Bahamas in 2016. Not only that, we had our first Conch Chowder at Coco’s on the beach. Here is the before picture.

Here a couple of pictures from today.

Each day is such a roller coaster of emotions. From the joy of seeing old friends from here in the Bahamas and making new friends, to the sadness of seeing the complete loss of so much. It is stunning to drive past the Mud and just see cleared land all the way to center of Marsh Harbour. What really struck me as we walked the beach was how temporary all of our worldly things are and how easily they can be taken away. Each house here represented someone’s slice of paradise that has been destroyed. While there is no doubt the island will recover how about these people today?

However my sadness is always replaced by the joy of seeing the resilience of the islanders here. Yesterday at New Vision Church the laughter and noise of a basketball court full of children was wonderful. The sincere thanks from the people who come to get water from us every day always brings joy both from the appreciation of the people and the giving hearts of those from Water Missions, Samaritan’s Purse and all of the other volunteers on the island.

It is weird also how adaptable we all are.  Now I see past the destruction and see more of the improvements every day.  More dump trucks and less debris, tarps being taken down and new roofs installed, people cleaning up location by location.

I met a woman yesterday who was the Chef at Snappa’s and she was just returning from Eleuthera where she and her husband were working. They came back because, as she said, they can’t begin to recover and rebuild unless they come back here. Now the infrastructure and supplies are getting back to the point where it is possible to live here in Marsh Harbour.