Renovations Complete

Thursday, March 18

The next morning, we returned to Paget Farm to continue the renovation of Christine Hanson’s home. I worked on building new shutters to cover the window openings while Lyle and Debbie finished the back wall and set about to replace the badly rotted siding along the front wall of the house. Around mid-morning, some shouting from the surrounding houses caused us to look out past the airport where we could see a small boat towing what looked like some large fishing floats. We soon realized that it was the whalers towing the humpback cow that they had killed yesterday around to the whaling station off LaPompe.

Around noon, I had to leave to attend a meeting at the Bequia Hospital regarding an inquiry which we had received, via the Mission’s website. It was from a faculty member at an American college’s Medical School, which was interested in partnering the possibility of partnering with the Bequia Mission to send a team of faculty, interns and recent grads to Bequia, as early as this July, to conduct a medical outreach clinic. His most recent email contained a long list of medical (mostly first aid and surgical) supplies which he envisioned they would be able to bring with them. Sister Peters and I had arranged the meeting to discuss the proposal. Also in attendance were Dr. Robertson, the island’s only physician and the hospital’s dispenser (pharmacist), a very articulate and professional young woman from Guyana, whose name I neglected to record. In addition, BMLC Chair Sylvester Tannis joined us, as his contacts and knowledge of the inner workings of the SVG Government would no doubt prove to be invaluable in helping to secure permission for the visiting American team to conduct an outreach clinic at the hospital. Upon hearing the list of equipment and trained personnel that would accompany the visiting team, Sr. Peters and the others were very interested. It was agreed that I would write back to our contact at the Medical Faculty, indicating our interest in pursuing his offer of assistance, and to see where it lead from there. I did so later that evening, copied to those who had attended the meeting earlier in the day, and the following day received a reply indicating that he would put together a formal proposal for a July 2010 outreach clinic. He envisioned a project of about 10 – 12 days, which could hopefully be conducted on an annual basis, and would send the proposal when it was ready, so that Sylvester and Sister Peters could begin the process of obtaining permission from the SVG Ministry of Health.

Following the meeting, I caught a dollar van back to Paget Farm to rejoin Lyle and Debbie at the Hanson house. As the van passed through Friendship and LaPompe I could see a large number of people and boats around the small whaling key just offshore, and although I couldn’t see the partially submerged whale carcass on which they were working, the waters in front of the small, rocky island were crimson with its blood.
Back at Christine’s house, I put the finishing touches on the wooden shutters and helped Lyle and Debbie pack up the tools before carrying them down the hill to wait for Rudy’s taxi. As had become the daily ritual, we were anxious to get back to Lower Bay for a relaxing swim at the beach. Most of the renovation work of the past couple of days had been conducted under the blazing sun and it seems to take at least a half hour of soaking in the surf before your body’s cools to a comfortable temperature.