Hear from the Third Church IMPACT team about their first full day in Abaco. They tackled various projects including painting, siding, and helping out at the Central Abaco Primary School with kindergarteners. Read about their experiences and the lasting effects of Hurricane Dorian they witnessed.
After the turbulent plane ride on our way to Abaco, our group of thirteen settled into beautiful Camp Abaco last night (Monday night). The recent thunderstorm passed quickly and soon the sky lit up again as we explored along the beach for a few hours. We organized ourselves into our bunk houses and familiarized ourselves with the camp routines. At our evening Impact discussion, we determined that the rest we found through the afternoon in creation left us refreshed and ready to start the work ahead of us.
Tuesday morning we jumped right into serving in various areas. We divided ourselves into groups– sanding sheetrock, interior painting, exterior painting, siding, and visiting the school. We saw buildings in various states of repair; some were merely rubble, some were shells, compared to others newly built. Doug prepared the tools and projects, making it easy to maximize our time and resources to get the most work done. After many hours, the siding was almost complete, and a new layer of blue paint covered another house.
The other group worked with Ms. Mills, a Many Hands Bahamian employee, within Central Abaco Primary School. She serves as an aid to grades Kindergarten through 3rd and is also in charge of library classes. Her room is a refuge for kids who struggle with school subjects and often feel like burdens to their teachers. This may be because of the various levels of education of parents or an inability to speak English if they are Haitian. We helped a bunch of enthusiastic kindergarteners learn a few new letters of the alphabet and their sounds. We enjoyed each other’s company and there were many smiles and laughs. At break time, all of the kids were excited to meet us and swarmed around us asking for hugs and our names. They were very curious and welcoming to us as strangers.
While driving to and from our worksites throughout the day, we witnessed the effects of Hurricane Dorian (2019) in almost every area. Nothing was left untouched. Both wealthy and poor neighborhoods were affected as well as government buildings and public structures.
We are grateful to be a small part of the reconstruction happening in Abaco, while we also recognize the great amount of work left to be done. We are excited to see what the rest of the week holds!
– Sydney and Rob
