Bees, Birthdays, Break ins

Some weeks are just like a roller coaster ride - lots of strain to get to the top, exhilaration as you crest the top and start down, hairpin turns (ours include potholes), and a quick stop at the end.  That's what this week has been.

Getting the food initiative started has been lots of stress and strain, but started it is -- chicken coops are going up all over Kingston, we received the lease payment for the 11 garden projects in Spanish Town and we have now delivered 45 of our 70 beehives.  At the RADA training sessions, we have 40-50 people and they are all excited about the opportunity to learn; and of course the training moves their project along.  You've got to do something to keep the momentum going.

Tuesday and Wednesday nights, we delivered beehives -- well, Theron drives and lifts and places them and I ride in the seat.  We can get 10 hive boxes in the truck at one time.  We pick them up around 7:30 p.m. (You have to deliver bees in the dark of night.) then drive to the apiary site.  Some of these sites are a long way, like Patrick's site in Mandeville.  The direction was it's over by Comfort Hall.  Come to find out, there's no comfort in this place.  The site is indeed by that town and well beyond - at least a 1.5 hour drive from Mandeville on narrow, overgrown, potholed roads!  To give you some perspective, we pick up the bees in May Pen; drive 1 hour to Mandeville; then drive 1.5 hours to his site; the site is a good 15 minute walk, down hill over boulders and you can only carry one hive at a time, thus 5 trips. - it's now well after 11:00 p.m.  Then we drive back out and travel another 1/2 hour to President Morrison's site.  We drive to his site, unload in 1/2 an hour and get back to Andersen's house about 2:30 a.m.  We are so grateful that Andersens have a room for us in Mandeville.

Lyndon Butler, the person we are buying the bees from.

A few of Butler's hives

Just a little story, Patrick was carrying one box down and the lid slide over and bees escaped.  He had not totally zipped his hood and some got in and stung his face.  I walked down the first time and those escaped bees were pretty mad, I killed a few and received 2 stings.  Brave person that I am.  That's Tuesday.

Delivering bees in Santa Cruz.

Wednesday, we drive to Santa Cruz and purchase materials to build their first chicken coop and deliver "supers" to one of the bee sites and then drive the 2 hours back to May Pen for another bee load.  This time we return through Mandeville and over to Santa Cruz.  Luckily, both sites here are a short drive off the road and we can actually drive right up to the stands.  We arrived back at Andersen's home about midnight.  Not bad.  That's Wednesday.  These are actually "cresting" moments.  The people receiving these hives are so grateful and excited.

Thursday we have to be in Old Harbour for the 3rd bee training class that starts at 9:30 a.m. - an hour drive from Mandeville.  The class goes on and on and on.  At about 3:00 p.m., I have had it and go to the truck to read a book.  I recommend "Deception Point" by Dan Brown, it's really good.  The class breaks up at 6:00 p.m.  We were going to deliver more bees tonight, but I could see Theron was tired and just living on adrenalin, so we drove to Kingston and home.  That's the bees!

Friday was sleep in late, went to a wheelchair coordination meeting at Food For The Poor in Spanish Town and enjoyed a birthday dinner for Theron, Sister Hendricks and Sister Flake at the Terra Nova.  They have a delicious (and expensive) blue cheese stuffed filet mignon!  That's the birthday!

This sign indicates the world ends on my 60th birthday - Somehow I kind of agree with it!

In our Friday meeting at Food For The Poor, Susan Moore told us that their phone weren't working because someone stole the cables off from the poles to sell for scrap metal.

Today, Saturday, was District Priesthood meeting at the Spanish Town chapel.  Now, Theron didn't really want to go, but he did.  While in the meeting, someone broke the passenger side window in our truck and stole our GPS.  Elder Flake was also at the meeting and they also broke his window and stole his GPS.  Now, that really is a loss for us as it had all of our back wood, cow trail sites saved; all of our food project sites were in there.  We have been here 15 months with nothing stolen and now this.  However, this is not all of the weeks break-ins.

Wednesday night, someone broke into our new 40' emergency container (also located at the Spanish Town Chapel) and stole a few boxes of hygiene kits, tarps, etc.  It interesting to call the police and say that someone just stole something that we give away for free.  We assume that they will sell the items at the local market but I don't think we'll go looking for it.  We HOPE that's the (last) of the break-ins.

So goes the roller coaster ride this week.  We're at a bit of a low spot now but we're sure there are many more turns, twists, ups, and down (and potholes) in the remaining 3 months 16 days (but who's counting).

They took the boxes from the container and threw them over the fence.

They took a tent, but not the poles and left a hand tied quilt.

Bee-attitudes

There are quite a few things that we haven't found in Jamaica.  Some of those missing items such as brown sugar are shipped to us by family and friends in the U.S.  Luckily, one of the things not found in Jamaica are Killer Bees, and as you may have guessed we're really not complaining about that.  In fact, on Wednesday we decided that was a good thing as that is when we started delivering bee colonies to our 20 prospective apiarists (bee keepers). 

Last month we contracted with Mr. Lynden Butler to create 100 new hives for us by splitting some of his hives.  A hive is split by moving 3-4 of the 10 frames of comb from an existing bee colony and placing them in an empty hive box.  The bees that have been moved will then create a new queen and begin growing the hive colony in the new box. Once the hive is strong it can be transported to a new area.

Technically our first deliveries were on Wednesday/Thursday since the transport of bees needs to be after dark when the worker bees have all returned to the hive. It wouldn't make much sense to transport the hive during the day when all the bees are out doing their bee business, so shortly after dark we drove our truck to Mr. Butler's and there met Norvel Bedward, the agronomist from Food For The Poor, who helped us deliver our first ten hives. 

Hives with dark masses of bees huddled near the opening (also, note the bee flying at the camera)

We donned our bee veils, gloves, and took our flashlights to look at Mr. Butler's apiary of about 250 hives located right next to his home.  Many of the hives had swarms of bees "sleeping" just outside of the hive opening and quite a few bees were patrolling the area.  We quickly learned, that just like my spouse, bees have an attitude about being awakened in the middle of the night by a bright light.  They would swarm on the flashlights (I think they were trying to learn how to shut them off so they could go back to sleep) so we tried not to shine the lights directly on the hives.

Mr. Butler applied smoke to the hive and the bees quickly disappeared inside.  A piece of window screen was then nailed over the slot to keep the bees inside during transport.  We spent over an hour preparing the 10 hive boxes and carrying them to our two trucks.  Shanna learned about the bee-attitudes as she received three stings before we finished loading the hives.  I guess the bees heard me call her "honey" and responded accordingly. 
Although the bees are contained in the hive by the piece of screen there are quite a few bees that will travel on the outside of the boxes and will then transfer to flying and crawling around the bee keeper (in this case ME!).   This was a problem only when it was time to take off the bee veil and get back in the truck.   First it was necessary to brush off the crawling bees and then walk around until the flying bees lost interest in us (luckily they don't have a long attention span). Once the buzzing stopped, we remove the gloves and veils and jumped in the truck. One of the gloves was then used to kill the remaining few bees that have found their way inside the truck.  The hives were delivered without incident and we were home shortly after midnight.

The second night Thursday/Friday we made two trips and hauled 15 hives.  Norvel was not able to help us so we became the bee "experts" to the three recipients of bees that night.  One of the recipients slid a hive body off the hive base board which spilled bees all over the bed of the truck.  I then had to get the hive back together and carry the box to the the apiary with a great many bees accompanying me whom all seem to have a bad bee-attitude about their sleep again being interrupted!  We tried to smoke the bees but the primary function of smoke is to prevent the bees from communicating the danger to the hive.  These bees had already sent out the alarm when the hive was disrupted so they weren't calmed much by the smoke.  This time it took quite a few minutes to rid myself of the bees before I could remove the protective clothing and return to the truck.

On the second day after receiving their hives, the beekeepers needed to remove the hive lids and placed a "super" (empty hive box) on top of the hive and replace the lid.  We were a little worried about some of our new apiarists so we traveled back out to assist in the "supering" and with a little coaching, they seemed to do fine.  We helped instill confidence by ACTING like we had worked with bees all our lives and amazingly it seemed to work.

Theron looking at a frame containing new bee larvae.

We planned to deliver more hives on Friday and Saturday, but Mr. Butler is a Seventh Day Adventist and so, like the Jews, his Sabbath begins at sundown on Friday.  We found that we were in need of a day of rest ourselves so were happy to have a few nights without a midnight ride around Jamaica.
It is amazing how nonchalant you become about the little critters after working with them only a short time. I guess that our "bee-attitudes" have changed as we've gotten to understand them better. but then I guess that understanding usually helps us get over fears and prejudices that we may have.


It's been a year since we first started talking about a bee project.  We wish we could have delivered sooner but we are very pleased with the people who are getting the bee hives and they are very excited about the gift that they are receiving.  It has been very rewarding to see them start out on their adventure and we only hope that their "bee-attitudes" continue to be positive ones.

One of my favorite television programs as a kid was Green Acres with Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor.  I found its off-beat humor and the pretext of the city folk working on the farm quite humorous, I just didn't realize how closely I would come to resembling the lead character.  However, I now find myself frequently out working on the farm in my white shirt and tie and Shanna in her dress (but but a slightly more modest dress and without all the jewelry).

White Shirt and Tie - Chicken Coop Inspector

This week we bought the material for our first chicken coop and, like all proud parents, stopped by numerous time to see how our baby was doing.  Elder and Sister Flake worked directly with the Peart family and the branch members who were doing the construction.  Elder Flake and I spent four hours Monday morning in hardware stores buying the tools, cement blocks, cement, lumber, zinc (corrugated steel), poultry netting (chicken wire), hinges, hasp, lock, nails, and screws.  Things just take longer here than what you are familiar with at home.  We still need to buy the chicken feeders, waterers, warming lights and of course the chickens, feed, and vet supplies, but those will come after the training is finished and other coops have been built. 

Speaking of training, when I accepted this mission call, I figured I wouldn't be doing a lot of gospel teaching, but that one page document signed by the prophet certainly didn't indicate the scope of teaching that I would be doing.  Here again, in my Eddie Albert roll as the out of place city dweller in the wilds of Jamaica, I found myself conducting an hour and a half training session for the members of the Constant Spring and Boulevard Branches on the economics and financial aspects of chicken raising!  I titled my presentation Chicken Scratch and explained to the 40+ members in attendance that we were going to talk about chickens and money and that scratch is another name for money.  I also told them that the title describes my efforts at writing on the blackboard!

I really didn't do much to prepare for the presentation, but I was amazed when they started asking questions at how well prepared I had become.  i.e. At the age of one week a chick uses 80% of its feed for growth and at week seven only 20% of its consumed food results in weight gain. - Adding cheaper corn meal to the feed is only cost effective if given during the week before slaughter.  (When I return home I'm going to attend our Stake Mission Prep class and let them know what kind of training missionaries really need!)

Some of the training consisted of asking them questions about how to insure their projects continue to be self sustaining.  "What do you say when your neighbor, brother, etc, says to you - you've got a bunch of chickens, can I have one to eat?"  When you sell your chickens and the buyer says, "I'll pay you next week", what does that do to your project budget?

Salisbury Plain water tank delivery

Friday we purchased a 1000 gallon water tank and hauled it up the mountain to the Salisbury Plain Greenhouse project.  We met with Mr. Murray of Christiana Potato Grower's who offered to give some starts off from a Macadamia nut tree to include in the tree project.  Macadamia nuts are not known in Jamaica but should do very well and could provide a great cash crop.  We offered to take a couple of the men from the 4H with us to do the starts.  It's a four hour drive so it will be another long day.

Delivery of Bee Boxes in Old Harbor

Storing Bee boxes in the church

This week we took delivery of 60 bee boxes and delivered them to many of the projects.  On Saturday we loaded bee boxes in two pick-ups and had a "Senior Couples Travel Day" with Flakes, Daniels, and Andersens.  We took them through some beautiful parts of the island and had a pleasant day which included pizza on Treasure Beach South of Mandeville.

Daniels, Schaefermeyers Flakes, Andersens at Jack Sprats Pizza on Treasure Beach

We just completed a small project refurbishing a room for the ancillary staff at Errol Miller Residence Hall.  This was an effort directed by Sister Arienne Segree as part of her graduation requirements.  Small project but still requires a lot of paper work and documentation.

Painting Crew with Mormon Helping Hands Vests

Kingston Branch service component at Errol Miller Residence Hall Project

  I'm sure we did a few other things this past week but if we didn't take a picture, I can't remember what they were.

1 ship, 8 days, 6000 served

The USNS Comfort arrived on April 12 and set up the clinic on shore the next day.  Medical assistance was provided from April 14 to the 21st and the ship pulled anchor today, April 23 for Peru.  We received a phone call today from a branch president telling us that the ship was still in the harbor and would be doing more medical service -- the rumors they are many.

The waiting area during a calm time.

Our volunteer efforts were to help the Ministry of Health people organize the people and get them in the cue for the Navy to put a wrist band on them indicating the type of medical service they would receive.  They could select one only examination from eye, dental, adult general medical and pediatric care.  To move from the crowd at the gate to a seat under the tent to the Navy cue requires getting an assigned number from us, thus, we were mobbed, pushed, and sought after. We can literally relate to the man who lay by the Pool of Bethesda waiting to touch the water and be healed and he could not because everyone ran over the top of him and got there first (John 5:5-6).  Each morning we would arrive and the croud pressing the gate would be larger and larger.  One morning, the woman from the Ministry of Health tried to open the gate to let in a woman who had a medical emergency and the crowd crashed the gate, knocked down several older people and streamed into the waiting area.  It was chaos and very difficult to restore order and get the tickets distributed.  We had police using their sticks to try to control the crowd and we had to back out several times when it looked like the mob was going to push past the police.  I now know what it feels like to be the Walmart employee holding the last Tickle-Me-Elmo doll on Black Friday!

We estimate that about 6,000 people received medical care of some kind; that's over 600 people per day.  And, that's about how many didn't get in.  That was the hard job to turn people away because the number of people the doctors could treat for the day was "finished."  (That's the Jamaican word for done, ended, etc., but they don't believe you so they hang around hoping.)

This was the hardest volunteer effort we have done because it was so long - 6-8 hours a day - every day except Sunday and standing most of the time.  Both of us are so tired, sore, and sunburned.  Well, enough about us, let us tell you some of the stories.

Story 1 - The Duhaneys
Elder and Sister Duhaney (age mid-50's) live in lower Kingston and attend the Kingston Branch (the one we attend).  We had contacted the Navy in his behalf to see if they would operate on his eyes; he is almost blind.  They selected to pre-screen him.  Sister Duhaney accompanies him.  He has macular degeneration and there is nothing they can do; however, the doctor notices a large mass on Sister Duhaney's back and she is accepted for surgery.  We saw them take the launch to the boat and she was almost in tears to think she will get this surgery.

Story 2 - Jahie Francis, age 9
Jahie we were told had cataracts in both eyes, we sent his name to the Navy for pre-screening, but he was not accepted.  They came to the National Stadium and saw the optometrist there.  The doctor told his mother he does not have cataracts, just bad eyes.  This young man was fitted with glasses and was amazed at what he is able to see.  His smile was so large and he was just looking at everything around him and beginning to explore a world he did not know.  His younger brother was also fitted with glasses.

Boarding the boat to travel to the ship.
Melissa is 3rd on the ramp.  Sister Duhaney is in the green dress.

Story 3 - Melissa Smith, age 22
Sunday night at 9:30 p.m. we get a phone call from the ship asking if we know anyone with a cleft palette.  One of the surgeons would like to operate on several people with this birth defect and they haven't had one.  In talking with Sister Russell on  Friday when she and her husband were volunteering, she mentioned a sister who had a lip that looked like a cleft palette malady.  We called Sister Russell, she called Melissa, and yes she had been born with a cleft palette.  She had, had four operations when she was young.  Yes, she would travel down and be pre-screened.  however, Port Antonio is 2.5 hours from Kingston and she has no money for travel.  How do we find a ride for her;   Chance, we don't think so, Elder and Sister Smith from Ochee have to come in on Monday to bring their truck for inspection.

Melissa is a candidate for a surgery, but she elects for the lip portion not a reconstruction of both the palette and lip.  She told us she has an exam in early May and can't afford the recovery time.  We haven't seen her since the surgery but will post pictures when we get them.

These are just three stories from this experience.  So many people came back to us and showed us their new glasses or were so glad to get some cream for a burn or a prescription for a malady.  Getting eye glasses is very expensive and the Ministry doesn't have a way to get glasses even if they could prescribe them.  The Navy brings boxes of every strength.  Dental public health is almost non-existent and private dentists are very expensive.

LDS Charities had 100 volunteers who served 382 hours during this time.  We will recover, on our own, without medical assistance other than the Ambian I took Thursday night.

The berth of a 40' container

It seemed like last week was a week of culminations.  The USNS Comfort arrived, we had one new project approved, and we berthed our 40' container of national emergency supplies.  We have been working on this berthing since September.  Our first container was diverted to St. Lucia during tropical depression Nicole.  After that, we began to prepare all the paperwork to get custom clearances and a GCT (general consumer tax) tax waiver of 17.5% of the total value and import duty of 40-60%.  We then had to get a clearance from the Coconut Board to import the 12,500 bars of soap that are part of the hygiene kits. 

Customs inspector, doc worker, and shipping broker

This container will be permanently berthed behind the Spanish Town Chapel as a first line emergency response for hurricanes, natural disasters, and civil unrest.  Last year, we didn't have access to these supplies and they were sorely needed.

Customs inspectors verifying that the contents match the paper work

The Ministry of Finance called us on Monday to say that our custom and tax waivers had been approved.  We immediately called the shipping broker and scheduled a customs review and deliver to the site.  This all came together on Wednesday.

Backing our container through the chapel gates. No small feat.

The crane lowered it into place.

It will need to be painted even though it says Glory on the side.

Our hearts are full of thanks to everyone who contributes to the Church's Humanitarian program.  This container is going to be so valuable to us!!  As you can see, it doesn't match the building, so we'll spring for some paint.

After last week and these next two weeks, we are going to take a couple of P-days and go to a tropical part of the island.  Upcoming events are building the first chicken coops, delivering 95 beehives, teaching square foot gardening, and teaching dry pack canning.

We are Comforted - USNS Comfort

We have known about the USNS Comfort coming to Jamaica for several months and have been in communication with Church Headquarters and finally two weeks ago the US Navy.  Yes, it was official and they would like us to assist as volunteers.  Wednesday, the USNS Comfort pulled into Kingston Harbor and the Navy began setting up at the National stadium site to administer dental, optical, general medicine, physical therapy and some pediatric care to the general public.  They began pre-screening surgeries of patients that the Ministry of Health had referred to them.  It's a once in a lifetime experience and we are glad it was part of our lifetime here.

This is our tour group, Fitches in blue are on-board the ship running LDS efforts.

Thursday, we were able to tour the ship and were able to take Susan Moore from Food for the Poor and President Deans the District President of Spanish Town and all the senior missionaries.  This is a big humanitarian effort.  LDS Charities (The Church) provided 8 semi-truck loads of medical supplies for the trip.  This will be a five months cruise going throughout South America and then end in Haiti.
Our volunteer effort is to do crowd control at the "unsecured" entry point so that the crowds of 700 or more can be served each day.  The Navy will provide care for about 220 adults in general medicine, 180 children will be served, 130 or so dental patients and 200 or so optical patients.  We have had so many people show up that we have had to turn a lot of people away.

A little about the ship:

The ship is a converted oil tanker that they "gutted it and dropped in a hospital."  There are 4 wards 'forward' and 8 wards 'aft'.  (you have to use correct nautical terms or they will throw you out one of those little round windows).

The Comfort was built for use as a combat casualty hospital.  The ship also provides disaster relief around the world, and its current mission: Continuing Promise - is a quality of life Humanitarian mission.  Right now, the Navy has 10 ships helping in Japan.

There are only two helicopters on the ship - storage is a problem.  However, when the Comfort was helping in Haiti they had two helicopters landing every 6 minutes...so their capacity is much larger.

The Comfort is based in Baltimore, Maryland and can be ready for duty with only 5 days notice!

The ship carries 30 thousand gallons of fuel.  It takes in sea water, processes it and uses it for drinking, cooking, and all other water uses on board.  They make their own oxygen, also.  

Inside one of the operating rooms.

Recovery

Surgical rooms are in the middle of the ship - providing the maximum stability - if the sea gets rough - they pull up anchor and go around in circles which keep the operating rooms more stable!  They can do a maximum of 32 operations a day.

There is a full modern laboratory, burn unit, physical therapy, ICU, labor and delivery, and a great 'spin room' for exercising.  The ship provides education to the native health care people - even Vet services for cattle! They repair medical equipment and are doing research on diseases in ships both Navy and cruise ships.

The Comfort has a state of the art CAT -scan machine.  When the Comfort is docked in Baltimore, it has the largest blood bank in the whole USA!

The USNS Comfort docked in Kingston Harbor.

LDS Charities is very much involved with this mission. There are 26 LDS nurses and doctors and other personnel on board here in Jamaica.  Only 12 of them will stay with the mission the whole 5 months - others will come and go...all in all there will be 71 LDS professionals involved.  Elder and Sister Fitch are the leaders while at sea.  Elder Fitch is a Captain Retired and a dentist - and the Priesthood Group Leader for the whole 5 months.  They are both set apart Church Service Missionaries.   Elder Fitch told us that the doctors leave their practice for 4-6 weeks, and when the mission is completed the LDS personnel will have donated over 5,000 man days - 12 hour days!  A side note:  The ship needs language translation while in Latin America - they have 5 on board and called Salt Lake to see if they could arrange for more.  Salt Lake asked the Navy how many more do you needed?  The Navy said they could use at least 5.  Salt Lake told them they could provide over 50 at each stop!  Gotta love those LDS missionaries around the world!!

They are short on storage space. This is a long hallway of donated supplies.

How do you every get anything done?

We start each day with what I have dubbed "staff meeting."  We write down the things we need to get done, people we need to visit, calls we need to make and so forth.  Monday, there were 11 items on the agenda to get done.  Just before we left the apartment, we reviewed our e-mail and happy day, the Ministry of Finance had granted our customs and tax waiver for the 40' container of emergency supplies we want to bring into the country and permanently place behind the Spanish Town Chapel.  We have been working on this waiver for about 5 months getting all of the paper work ready (including approval from the coconut board to import the 12,500 bars of hand soap) and the container has now been on the docks for over 2 weeks.  This container was ordered by the Church to help us with our first response efforts in cases of natural disaster or civil unrest.  This item wasn't discussed at staff meeting but but picking up the tax waiver quickly became #1 on the list.  With the waivers, we now have to prepare a foundation for the container; we've only had 5 months to prepare the foundation, but I guess it was the cold weather and we were waiting for the spring thaw -- oh, wait -- I was thinnking of your weather.  Sorry for the snow this week!  Building the foundation becomes #2; it wasn't on the original list either.

Elder Schaefermeyer and Elder Flake hired two members, Brother Dakins and Brother Bennett, to help them and off they go to Spanish Town with picks and shovels and they work all day.  Brother Dakins says he will work for $2500JD - for a whole days work? -- Yes.  (That's about $28.00US).  Brother Bennett usually makes about $1500JD per day ($18.00US).  How do you support a family on these wages.  Brother Bennett washes cars at the mission office and maintains the yard at the mission home.  He rides a bike everywhere.  As he told us on the ride to Spanish Town, he wants to buy a car so his family can all go to Church (How do you buy a car on that wage?).  It took the four of them a day and a half to dig the footings build the frames and hand mix and pour the concrete.  The footings are in and the two old guys are stiff and sore.  Hopefully Tuesday of this week they will deliver the container.  That's on for staff meeting on Tuesday.

Brother Dakins and Brother Bennett digging footings for cement foundation of 40' container.

The construction crew - Bro. Bennett, Theron, Elder Flake, and Bro. Dakins.

Monday, I am now at home doing paperwork and cleaning.  I get a call from Food for the Poor that a school order we placed is available for pick up on Tuesday.  I plan on going there to pick out the books from their donations.  The rest of the order won't be ready until Wednesday.  Sister Flake and I put on our best P-day clothes and climb over and through stacks of boxes and pick out 26 boxes of books.  The foundation gets worked on and that's all for this day.  There's still 11 items on the to-do list.

Wednesday, we go to FFP in Spanish Town to pick up the order.  (That's 3 days straight traveling to Spanish Town.  Everything we needed to do is in Kingston, go figure.)  Our little community of Caledonia has two schools that need books, paper, and other supplies.  We placed an order for these items.  What a fun time to take these supplies to them - 26 boxes of books, cricket equipment, hooded sweatshirts for the cricket team, paper, pencils, pens, a couple of bulletin boards, and other miscellaneous items.  These two schools are so far up in the mountains that they are forgotten.


A man was walking by as we were delivering books.  He was excited to get 3 books.

 At Freedom Basic School, we had several in the nearby homes come to us and want a book.  We gave two teachers and one man walking by 3-4 books and they quickly began reading them.  This is a precious item for them; books are a rare commodity and one they can't afford.  We arrived there well after school had let out so only the principal was at Mt. Industry Primary School.  We started unloading the car and the principal pulled up a chair and started going through the boxes.  She was teary eyed as we gave her these books and supplies.  We were told that the school has only one or two books on the shelves of the library.  We are now down to 10 items on the task list.  We'll get it done in no time.

The principal of Mt. Industry Primary School looking at new books.

I just don't know where the week goes and why we can't get our task items accomplished.  We start this Monday with 8 things that are carried over from last week.  This week, we probably won't get them done -- wait for our blog next week.  We are involved in a special treat.  Wait and see.  It is one of the items on our task list!