Hello and welcome to the April blog! The "dry season" this year continues to be both wet and uncomfortable. The deluge the week before Easter was such that the Western road from Sauteurs to St. George's was blocked by an enormous mud slide. It took a large back hoe and many human hands twenty-four hours to open the road. As if this were not enough, two houses were swept into the river at Gouyave and quite a bit of damage done to a bridge on the same road. There was a herculean effort from the local town folk there and the highway was again open in twenty-four hours. When we finally travelled to St. George's over the road on Maundy Thursday the surface was still slippery from the mud and debris. The Grand Etang road which cuts across the mountains in the centre of the Island to St. George's was also damaged, quite severely in places by the same storms. Then, in the middle of April, a hurricane started to form just north of Puerto Rico. Hurricanes are not supposed to happen until July! It quickly dispersed when it hit the cold air from North America.
The next Election in Grenada will be held in 2012. April saw a few opening salvos in the upcoming battle. Raw politics were evident, Grenadian style! There was no mention of the country facing a new direction or of turning from what could be argued as doing the same things all over again; that is, we will continue to take the same actions, made the same choices or think the same thoughts. Is it possible that Grenadians could be encouraged to turn the focus of their lives toward a new reality? Are there woes in Grenada that most people could agree on? Please take your choice of what is worst: too much debt, personal and national, not enough jobs, no political harmony, climate change and natural disaster, the lack of love in society and the collapse of compassion. I think everyone would agree on one thing. The country is headed in the wrong direction. Somehow it has gotten on to the wrong track. The crux of the matter, for me, is that no one can agree on what the right track is. Surely all of these things must ring a bell with Canadians as they go to the polls next week.
My Grandparents would point out from time to time that if you put two Presbyterians in a room you would get at least three points of view! The same applies to Grenadians. What to do about it? After all us Canadians don't even talk about politics or religion! Here the separation of church and state would be helpful. So would the understanding of what is financial and educational accountability by the various Ministries. If we were allowed to vote, who would we vote for? That choice would be as uncomfortable for us in Grenada as it is for us to make a decision in the present Canadian General Election. I would also like to be clear. Grenada is not different from most other third world countries. There is great wealth here yet the May Day parades on the 2nd of May will be indicative of thorny industrial relations be they of the private or public sector. It will be interesting for me to watch if there finally will be a recognition of the Revolution that was so brutally put down in 1983. The question is will the charismatic Maurice Bishop's heritage be celebrated officially or not in 2013? There was some movement by the Government to start this process this present year at the Independence Day celebrations. As an expatriate Scot I know very well history cannot be rewritten. Can people here learn to live with the past and be given the freedom to celebrate it as they will? Time will tell.
MacDonald did badly, for them, at the Inter-Collegiate games back on the 6th and 7th of April. Enough said! The Easter holidays also reduced the time I spent at the school by a large amount. The teacher I was "standing in" for is back to work and, as exams take over from the months of May and June, there will be little for me to do. The next event will be the final assembly for the graduating Fifth Form on the 3rd of May. The class will graduate, after their exams, on the 8th of July.
The children at Belair Primary school continue with a near miraculous turn around. Thank you for all your prayers, keep them coming, please! Even young Leonson who was causing the greatest amount of concern has moved forward quite dramatically. Self-confidence is part of it all, as is the self-respect a good teacher/pupil relationship brings. Anyway, there is some time to go for him on the programme, we will see how it all went soon enough. Congratulations Ann!
Time flew at Belair Presbyterian Church through the Lent and the Easter celebration. Now we are getting geared up for our "harvest" on the 5th of May. The "harvest", the main fund raising event for the year leaves everyone exhausted from the physical and mental strain of it all. In the past though it has raised sufficient funds for Belair to live through the year and be able to handle most of the unexpected expenses that are always forthcoming from older church buildings.
On a personal note we lost a friend of forty years in Calgary at the end of April. He finally lost his battle with heart disease; one that he had been fighting for around thirty years. Because we were so close we now feel we are so far away. What a strange existence living overseas can quickly become. Yet we forget that life is made up of a balance between what we see as "good" or "bad", "helpful" or "unhelpful". At times like that I feel almost as strange and fearful as the disciples locked away in a room despite Mary's testimony about her face to face meeting with the risen Jesus. Like me the disciples are withdrawn, immobile and physically incapable of meaningful movement. Jesus came to the disciples where they are, just as they are. He offers one of his most precious gifts, twice. "Peace be with you." Jesus says it again for the one we call "Doubting Thomas" so that he might have the gift of Easter faith. (John 20). And, if we will allow him, the one who said "I am standing at the door knocking" (Rev. 3) will come in to whatever state our heart, mind and soul are in. With him inside courage comes back and the immense gift of Easter faith. Help us all, Lord, to risk giving whatever little we may have knowing that you are with us each step of our way.
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Reflections on Grenada – March 2011
Hello and welcome to the March blog! The weather in March continued to be wet and stormy. It was also quite cool in the evenings when the sun went down. While that may have pleased us the locals were looking for something to wrap up in. Dannie's tomato plants are in full production and are providing us and many others with tomatoes by the dozen. Have you ever eaten a sun-warmed tomato just off the plant with a little "fake" salt? Wonderful! Dannie has cultivated some more of the ground that surrounds the manse and has planted corn there. It should be ready in July we are told. Because of the drought over the last two years this will be our first chance to try the plums on a tree behind the manse. When Dannie catches me looking at them he grins and says, "not yet, Chief." He's usually right; I'll listen to his advice and let them ripen for a while longer!
Our washing machine broke down at the start of the month. We looked at each other while thinking of an alternative way to wash our dirty laundry. The prospect we were presented with was grim. We phoned the people we bought it from next day and a technician was with us the day after. The day after that the machine was picked up, taken to St. George's and fixed! (Thank you, Lord, for service contracts.) It was returned to us on the fifth day. We are still impressed with the people involved. In the midst of this we had some company the Rev and Mrs Prinselaar from Thunder Bay, ON. They are a missionary couple who were here in the early 1980's from the United Church of Canada. The changes from "the things their eyes had seen"compared to "how we see things" thirty years later can be seen as either remarkable or remarkably troubling. They lived in St. George's when they were here and visited "the country". We live in "the country" and visit St. George's. Thank you, Lord, for no small mercy in where we live!
I went back to teaching at MacDonald at the end of March. I took over a few classes of the school councillor, Sally Palmer, a rather remarkable lady. She had suffered a painful accident and will be off for a few weeks. On the other hand this complicates the problems I am having with my left knee. Hopefully, the doctor here will be able to come to a decision as to how to proceed very soon. Next month the children who are members of MacDonald Drum Corp will take part in the band competition for senior schools in St. George's. The school athletes will perform in the Inter-collegiate Sports Days on the 6th and 7th of April. I'm afraid academics have practically disappeared. Let the games begin!
Belair primary School continues along the final stages of the test literacy programme (CALS) there. The children continue to challenge and please us. The reports that the CALS programme generates leave no doubt that the children involved are being taught at their own speed and to the extent of their ability. They are all on the right road. Ann, most days, has her life full of excited, smiling children. Thank you, kids.
Belair P.C. continues its journey through Lent to Easter. Our two youth who were in Trinidad as guests of the Presbyterian Church in Trinidad and Tobago returned home with much food for thought. They were challenged to look at themselves and their future differently. One of their greatest needs is to find satisfying employment. Could that be available in Trinidad? Trinidad is known locally as the "New York" of the Caribbean. I know the people there to be warm, generous and friendly just like most of the New Yorker's I have met. I hope both girls make the right decision. They have God and many people to lean on!
Emmanuel Kant wrote, "Everything that has a price does not have a value." We have set some time aside in the next three months for deciding on the future of our ministry here with God's leading and encouraging wisdom. Where do we start to attach value to what we do? Do we have the sole right to have the say in this? What is leadership? Leadership in Grenada is mostly dictatorship from what we have experienced. People still fight physically to uphold the right of the workers in a trade union. What is the value placed on life here? The many geckoes that scurry around our deck do their utmost to eat the many species of ants which they find there. Then there are the birds in the trees around us that praise God so beautifully with their songs. They feed on the geckoes. Who can decide on what has value and what does not? What does any church any where do to support all the people who it needs to support? What would happen to any church if the financial support of its wealthier congregations were withdrawn? Yet the Christian church is blooming. Where? Africa, Asia and South America are one answer. What value is it giving to its people there?
In Luke 18 we can read Jesus' story about the Pharisee and the tax collector. If we place ourselves with the tax collector asking humbly for God's mercy we can realize that we are sinners. We can then ask God to help us know our need without becoming disheartened. Then there is the Pharisee. Not only did he think the world of himself but he did it at the expense of other people. Do we not look down on others from any height we have exalted ourselves to? Who is to blame? Where did "blame" come from and how did it become part of my vocabulary? Jesus will tell you no one is to blame; that even the most difficult situations present us with an opportunity to be drawn into God's kingdom.
Deo Gratias.
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