Potholes, Mistakes, and Messes in the Bahamas

If you are going to do something besides sit around playing phone games and munching junkfood,

expect to run into problems that you will need to overcome.

Like potholes and flat tires.

So there in Bahamas, you have to drive on the left side of the road instead of the right side as we do in America, because the Bahamas used to be under British rule, right? And the steering wheel is also on the right side of the vehicle rather than the left, which makes it all the more confusing, coupled with different ways of turning on turn signals and ending up turning on the windshield wipers instead!

And of course, Sam was very eager to try driving, so he came along with his dad and me to shop for groceries for the crew the first evening, so that he could drive on the way home. 

The pastor had given Jonathan keys to his van for our crew to use the whole time.

Now the roads do not have white lines on the edges, and some of the edges are washed out from the hurricane, to say nothing of how pitch dark it was without street lights.

Well, we hit a bad pothole right on the edge of the road, and then Thump, thump, thump.

Oh, no! We groan and decide we'll have to pull off the road. I watched in consternation as Jonathan and Sam get out and check to see which tire went flat.

"Which one is it?" I asked tremulously.

"Both of them," Sam said.

Had I heard right?

It was true. Not only were they flat, but the aluminum wheel rims were both dented as well. 

Sam and his dad looked about and found the jack and the spare tire donut (screwed underneath the passenger side of the van), and began to change the front tire. That being done, we tried to decide what to do about the back tire without calling the pastor, but nothing could be done. We had to make the call and drop the bad news.

I was thankful for how I can trust that Jonathan will be kind to his son and patient. He could have stood there blaming and yelling and sighing and otherwise blowing up and worrying about how we are going to tell the pastor, but instead, he just quietly stood there and helped where he could as he allowed Sam to fix his own mistake. The pastor came and hammered the back rim back into place enough that he could blow up the tire with his air compressor, and to our relief, the air held!

Jonathan let pastor know we would take care of getting new tires. After all, the old ones were old and worn anyway and needed to be replaced.

I didn't know if Jonathan would allow Sam to continue driving, but he did. There is no other way to help a young man learn something than to allow him to do it, even if he messes up a little at first. 

I was proud of both my husband and son as they took responsibility, figured out how to fix the problem, and went on with life being thankful it wasn't worse. 

There were no mosquitos out that night, and it was balmy warm. I stood there neither shivering nor sweating.

***********

And if you are going to do something besides blog, facebook, or read novels, 

you are going to have messes to clean up behind yourself.

When Bahamian folk promised to bring meals, we ladies went outside and worked right along with our husbands and sons and nephews on the cleanup.

The enormous blue tarps that had been tacked on the roofs now became holders for all the torn off roofing and nails.

We had to wear gloves and try not to let the pieces of fiberglass roofing touch our skin because that fiberglass would scrape us immediately and leave us itching like crazy.

We also had to collect lots of these pink plastic wrappers for the roofing bundles before they blew all over creation!

Then whatever young man was available would tote the heavy wheelbarrow to the trash pile.

Every property had its own trash heap waiting for a truck to come take it to the dump.

Jonathan and Toni unscrewed the old church sign so we could replace it later, while Clark Freer and Nelson Wenger keep getting nails pulled out of the old roof and get new felt laid.

What a mess under our feet!

It looked like a forever task when we first went out to clean up, and this picture is taken after a lot of it was already cleaned up, but many hands make light work.

Always we would have to watch very carefully not to step on nails. Probably nearly everyone stepped on a nail at one time or another. Even I did, but thankfully none were serious. 

With there being only one single wheelbarrow on the property, the guys decided to turn the tarps into makeshift wheelbarrows.

Away go two guys with some trash.

I pulled as many pieces of roofing out of the bushes as I could.

David, Timmy, and Rex trying to pull up the sagging stop sign!

Different ones ran magnets over the ground to pick up nails. This time it was Jeff Paulus.

Here is what the magnet looked like after one or two go-arounds. We don't want to leave nails to make more flat tires where the cars park in front of the church!

More cleanup work on the back side of the church on Monday, as the guys screen the ground for trash and nails. Everywhere I looked that last day, the guys were all over the place cleaning up and looking for any nails.
This is Sam against the wall, and further on are more guys.
You should have seen this area only hours earlier. Big difference.

"A roofing job is only as good as the cleanup done afterward," Rex McDowell reminded us. He had heard this from another roofer.
And there he was, way out from the church,
big, tall Rex, stooping over and picking up trash and putting it in the wheelbarrow.

If you want people to appreciate your hard work, don't leave a mess behind you.

That could go for just about any kind of job.

Work hard.

And then clean up behind yourself.

It says a lot about your character.