Hello and welcome to the May blog! The good news this month is that we finally had a dry month in the dry season. Sprinkles of rain in the morning, of course, but those leave the flora looking fresh and sparkling. We even had some trips to the beach when it was quiet, calm and comfortable. So we are able, finally, to mourn the lack of a dry season from December 2010 to May 2011. We shake our fists, along with the rest of the population, at the present high humidity and the other variables of nature. The papaya season is also in full swing; breakfast has become much sweeter and worthwhile. One of the congregation owns a papaya tree of note. It has the ability to produce the most remarkably tasty fruit. Before Grenada extended my education, I would not have believed that a tree can make such an enormous difference to the fruit that grows on it. I'm sure this will cause several hundred Ontario Fruit Growers to smile, if not laugh out loud!
Belair P.C. had its harvest on the 5th of May. It will be another week before we have all the income and expense worked out but the general feeling is that we have done well from a financial point of view. There was also a beach picnic on the 21st of May which was blessed by perfect weather; this led in turn to cricket, soccer, swimming, eating and drinking. Thanks were said for the goodness of God to us and the Young's finally arrived home just a little pink from the sun. On the 28th of May there was a celebration of Ann's birthday. She will be away from Belair for the arrival of our new grandchild when her birthday is due. And so a noisy, happy celebration took place with twenty plus young children on hand to devour cake, ice cream and sandwiches; there were also the required party hats, balloons and games. What a lovely crowd! Who had the most fun? It was a toss-up between the Birthday-girl and the "Rev"!
MacDonald held a day retreat for the fifth year students before they were plunged into their final exams. I was invited along and, as usual, was able to learn more about the relationships between the school, the students and their families. There was an excellent speaker who talked about what College, the next educational level, would expect from them. He took great pains to plant in their minds the thought they were going to have to take control of their own futures as the time of others babysitting them was past. Other speakers talked about how to write exams, the importance of concentrating on the task at hand and other pieces of timely and appropriate information. The exam season for all the students at MacDonald is now in full swing and will not end until the middle of June. Soon the notes of The Elizabethan Serenade will be heard from the sound system as the graduating class prepares itself for their final walk down the aisle on the 8th of July.
Belair Primary School continues to be a source of challenge and high reward. All of the children, except Leonson, have now completed the first part of their CALS training and have moved on into the second part where the reading comprehension tests and their language skills are being challenged some more. The computers have become infested by a bug or virus we have come to call Ribits. It reduces the availability of the individual computer as too many different hands on their keyboards cause them to be infiltrated by many assorted afflictions. Where is that indispensable body, the I.T. person? The Ministry of Education, I am told, employs one only to look after school machines on the Island. He is, therefore, in high demand and always has too much to do. Ce la vie! The annual primary school cricket competition will be starting soon. There has been a sports teacher at Belair for the past few Tuesdays. He had his whole group learning how to bowl last week. What truly remarkable patience on the teacher's part. What "arms" on the students' part. What a source of fun and admiration for us!
As we prepare to separate for a few weeks life in Grenada will change again. Ann will head north on the 2nd of June and I will spend six weeks without her. From this point in time it looks like a long absence. Yet Easter is just six weeks behind us and it seems like yesterday. And so we commit ourselves separately, yet as one, into God's good hands. We do this where the living world of God intersects with our earthly lives. In John 15 Jesus talks about the things he has taught us so that his joy may be in us and that when his joy is in us it multiplies our own joy and makes it complete. Most Christians recognize that Jesus calls us not just to be dutiful, but to be joyful. So we offer God thanks for the joy that we will continue to find in each other and ask Jesus, humbly, to continue to make that joy complete long after our stay in Grenada ends!
