Another Project Undertaken

Wednesday, March 17

The next morning, Lyle, Debbie and I picked up the supplies in the Harbour and, with Rudy’s taxi heavily laden with 2 x 4’s and sixteen foot siding pieces, we returned to Paget Farm to begin the renovation of Christine Hanson’s house. The demolition of the back wall (where her bedroom is located) went fairly quickly, as there wasn’t much solid wood left to hold the structure together! Inside, we found the space, which was mostly occupied by Christine’s rusting metal bed and an old wooden dresser, to be dark, hot and confining. In the course of the demolition, Lyle was startled by a rat which scurried out a hole in the bedroom wall and disappeared through another hole into the dank basement room that appeared to have long ago served as a kitchen.

Walking gingerly on the spongy floor, we removed the rotting siding, scraps of tin, and an old bed sheet that had been tacked along the inside of the back wall in an effort to block the wind and rain. We also pulled out a large number of old rags that had been stuffed into holes in the disintegrating walls. We then set about replacing the top and bottom plates as well as the crumbling studs along the rear wall of the house. The reframing was proceeding nicely when I rolled back a piece of the badly deteriorated flooring (linoleum and scraps of carpet) to reveal a honeycombed black mass in place of one of the floor boards. It was seething with tiny termites or wood lice as they are known in Bequia. While toe-nailing studs a short time later I made the mistake of stepping back onto this “nest” and it immediately collapsed and fell away under my weight. I was able to recover my footing but the experience confirmed what we’d already come to realize. Although there wouldn’t be time to replace all of the boards in the couple of days we had available for the project, we would have to do something to stabilize the floor. Otherwise, the day would come – and it wasn’t likely to be too far off - when the contents of the bedroom, and perhaps Christine herself, would end up crashing through the floor into the low kitchen beneath the house.

By the early afternoon, we had completed the structural work and, at Christine’s request, had reframed a couple of new window openings in the bedroom. Lyle and Debbie began installing the wooden, ship-lap siding along the sixteen foot span of the back wall, but I had to leave for the Harbour to attend the monthly meeting of the Bequia Mission Local Committee.

Before reporting on the events of this meeting, I should note the other big news of the day, about which the entire island seemed to be buzzing. The whaling crew had apparently “struck a whale” somewhere off the north coast of Bequia

We always enjoy sitting in on the BMLC meeting which is held in the Council Chambers behind the Administrative Building in Port Elizabeth. In addition to the Committee Chair, Sylvester Tannis, also in attendance were BMLC members: Patsy Chambers (Secretary), Carmette Gooding (Treasurer), Catherine Phillips (Community Health Nurse), Morrie Hercules (Vice-Chair of the BMLC and Principal of the Bequia SDA Secondary School), Myrtle James, and Tauran Ollivierre, who hails from Paget Farm but teaches at the Bequia Community High School. Linda Harrier (Mission supporter from Evanston, Illinois) completed the group around the long table, along with Sandra, Jean and me.

The meeting started on a very happy note when a local lady, known in the community as Daffodil, arrived with Sivan, Gale Penniston’s baby boy, which we had met last year while completing the renovations on the house owned by her step-father, Ainsley Farrell (which was also home to Gale and her three of her four children). At the time of the renovation, Sivan was only a few months old and we were very concerned for his health and well-being, as he appeared to be very thin, somewhat listless, and – we suspected – malnourished. Although Gale, who is developmentally challenged, still sees him regularly, Sivan now resides with and is cared for by Daffodil. Now a toddler of about eighteen months, it is obvious from his full cheeks, ready smile, and sparkling eyes that he is flourishing under her care. Sandra and I have often thought, and worried, about Sivan over the course of the past winter, and we were now very thankful for the committee’s intervention to help arrange better care for him. We had come to realize during our visit last year that Gale loves her children very much, but for various reasons is unable to provide the kind of care that they (particularly Sivan, as an infant) need to thrive.

A lively discussion of regular BMLC business ensued, during which the committee re-affirmed their commitment to meeting monthly and also to provide us with twice-yearly financial statements, immediately prior to receiving funds ($10 000 CAD) from the Bequia Mission parent organization in Canada, on January 15 and July 15 each year. I should clarify that the committee always maintains very thorough and clear accounting statements, but Jean does not always receive them in a timely manner, e.g. prior to tax time or to the filing the Mission’s Charitable Return with Revenue Canada.

There was also some discussion of how those seniors, chronically ill individuals, etc. are identified as being in need of a food hamper. The committee members explained that they receive recommendations from the Bequia Hospital Head Nurse, Sister Adorna Peters and the Community Health Nurses, as well as from individual committee members who know the individuals and families in question. Along with the seventy or so people who received food hampers this week, the BMLC also provides a stipend of $50 E.C. (about $20 CAD) every other month to fifty-eight elderly shut-ins, to help them purchase food, medicine, etc. as needed. This program grew out of the weekly seniors’ hot lunch program which Sandra and I initiated when we lived on Bequia in 2001-02. A couple of years ago the committee decided that, instead of providing a weekly hot lunch, it would be better to provide a $50 E.C. allowance once a month to elderly shut-ins and others in the community, including a few developmentally challenged and chronically ill adults. However, with the various other expenditures that they are making (e.g. providing lunches at school each day for about thirty sponsored children, assisting individuals with emergency medical needs, and paying the tuition for a dozen, deserving post-secondary students) they are only able to fund the $50 stipend for needy seniors, every other month. There was some good news, however, as by tapping into the government-sponsored feeding program at the new Bequia Anglican Primary School, the BMLC has been able to reduce the cost of lunches for sponsored children at this school to only $2.00 E.C. (from $7 - $8.00 in the past). Thankfully, the funds saved can now be re-directed to other areas of need.
As always, we left the meeting feeling thankful for the exceptional volunteer service which the committee is providing for the people of Bequia and reenergized to continue fund-raising in Canada so as to maintain the Mission’s support of their important work.