K, so I spent last week in the Bahamas. Sounds glamorous, maybe exotic. Hold it. This was no vacation- it was a service project/missions trip through my church. For several reasons which cannot be listed since the internet is not as anonymous as some like to think, : ) - let it be sufficient to say it was a full week, and leave it at that. Rough start to the trip - American Airlines lost our bags, one of the leaders on the other team joining us had a grand mal seizure, a second leader got the flu and a body washed up on shore in front of the hotel. This was the first 24 hours. Welcome to the Bahamas mon. Things improved significantly after that - no more corpses, autopsy reports - (one of the girls on the other team thought it would be a good idea to give John Doe mouth-to-mouth, despite the fact he'd been in the water for a couple of days...). The biggest hurdle for us after that was the breath-taking heat. Don't get me wrong, I live in Virginia, it gets hot here. But the Bahamas in August has the climatic equivalent to a dryer full of towels halfway through the cycle. Seriously. Next time you - or whoever you con into it - does a load of laundry, open the dryer when the towels have been tumbling for about 20 minutes and take a nice deep breath. That hot, wet, suffocating feeling is how the Bhamas feel this time of year. I haven't walked around with underwear that soggy since before I was potty trained. Don't get me wrong - Nassau is a beautiful place and New Providence is a beautiful island. The people are warm and friendly, very gracious hosts. It's just HOT this time of year (It's hurricane season) - last Thursday was 111 when you factor in the heat index, and dang it, if you were there you'd count it too.
All that to say, it's good to be home. I'm grateful for my friends who were kind enough to move into my house and take care of my daughters, my pool and my dogs, and I'm really grateful for the AC in my house and my car. And since in the Bahamas gas is over $6 & milk is over $8 a gallon - I'll stop complaining about prices - at least for a little while. Until I forget & start to take things for granted again.
1 comment:
Wow, that sounds like that was some trip--especially the beginning of it! In spite of the heat and humidity and dead body and all, I hope that it was at least rewarding for you spiritually. I'm sure that your work there was appreciated. I'm glad you made it back home safely. Air conditioning is definitely something to be grateful for. There really is no place quite like home.
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