A Day of Challenges
Ginger, getting things done one machete swing at a time!
By William Montgomery
Ever have one of those days? This was one of them.
We started the day down by 4 people: Ed, Jay and Teddy were all out with various stomach ailments or dehydration, and Jane stayed back to keep an eye on the sick bay patients. With Jorge also recovering from a cough/cold we were at significantly reduced strength before we left the hotel.
Then about 1/3 of the way to the school the bus developed transmission problems and we were stuck cruising at 5 mph in 1st gear the rest of the way. Peter and Ginger taught us some camp songs to pass the time.
With the bus down for maintenance the school managed to rent another one to bring the kids from Mozovi (with some delays) and us to and from the hotel (and airport) next 2 days.
I’ve been concentrating on the grounds work, with over a dozen mature tropical trees to prune. All were at about forehead height when we arrived — the branches of one had actually rooted themselves to the top of a basketball hoop support!
With Ed & Jane out from my team, Ginger jumped in to cleanup the many banana plants with a machete. She was highly successful after encountering some fire ants and rethinking her attire. Fortunately, Dominican fire ants don’t seem to be nearly as painful as those in the southern US.
Meanwhile, the highlight of the day for those preparing for Vacation Bible School was the discovery of a very large arachnid in the room — believed to be a Pantropical Huntsman Spider aka Cane Spider. Jorge fearlessly confronted it with a machete and clippers, but it’s not considered dangerous to humans so he took mercy on it and after a lengthy chase safely evicted it to pursue other prey.
With all the talk of machetes you might be concerned that after 7 days together the missioners’ patience with one another has begun to wear thin. Not to worry — we all pitched in and accomplished a lot today.
With a lot of help from Antonio, an assistant at the school (and his machete!) the trees are basically complete resulting in a huge pile of debris to be hauled away. The bookshelves are all assembled and sealed with a particularly noxious stain/insecticide/preservative. VBS and crafts had their own challenges and successes.
I was sorry to miss the VBS and crafts today in our push to finish the grounds work, but I was touched when the kids were just playing later and one young girl came up to me and said, “What happened?” At first I didn’t know what she meant, then she said “Where were you?” I think I helped her yesterday and she was looking for me. I tried to explain that I had some other work to do and she looked down sadly, so then I said “Mañana!” and she perked up, gave me a smile and said “OK!” Very sweet.
After a day like today I think we all needed a lift. In addition to a stop for ice cream on the way back, when we got to the hotel there was a young lady in a beautiful gown getting photographed for her quinceañera (15th birthday). A nice celebratory moment to end the day, and all our members were healthy enough to make evening worship and dinner.
One more day of service and bonding as a team. Peace to all.
Pantropical Huntsman Spider (Cane Spider)
Today’s update comes from William Montgomery. William Montgomery serves on the Buildings and Grounds Committee and is currently focusing on our outdoor spaces. He is also a lay eucharistic visitor and married to Patricia Montgomery.
