At home the expression " Shop until you drop" has a far different
meaning here! Today I set out in search of corned beef and carnation
milk after consulting with Sandra this morning. Sounds easy but not
here.
The milk had just been restocked but a case of 48 cans of 180g of milk
is very heavy. I managed to get 2 in the cart but had to find help to
get them out and into the trunk of Aunt Pat's car.
The corned beef comes in sleeves of 12 cans so that was much easier
but after buying up all they had, I was 13 cans short. Two stores
later I had the number I needed.
Driving back to meet Sylvanus in the centre of Castries was an
adventure as it seems the drivers are recovering their "joie de vivre"
and they are reverting to their creative driving techniques. Two
cruise ships worth of tourists were also wandering all over the roads
as I don't imagine to many were willing to go down island under the
current road conditions.
Once I found Sylvanus, several of the other van drivers came to help
unload the goods and one even stopped to thank me for the help that we
were providing. There are lots of stories of people working together
to help one another and I hope those stories continue to outweigh the
negative ones.
The shelves in the grocery stores are being restocked, the cruise
ships have returned to the harbour, and convoys of vans are now able
to make the trip from the international airport to the north end where
most of the hotels are located. However, there is still no water
service in the capital or most of the island for that matter. People
are becoming more desperate for the water and many cannot afford to
buy the limited supply that is sometimes available for a few hours.
Today I walked Pheobe,the dog, over the Morne. This is the site of
the college and university for the island. It has suffered little
damage but classes are still cancelled . They have water at the site
as many of the buildings were once old army barracks. Each building
has a huge cachment tank underneath. I watched as people came to fill
buckets and bottles of clear looking water. Even though the school
has water, classes will not resume for at least one more week. I
spoke to one of the computer teachers and he explained that many of
the students from both coasts and the south end of the island still
cannot get to school. They will wait for better transportation
systems to be put in place.
We have heard nothing of the Canadian team that was to arrive on
Sunday with 6 water filtration plants. It may take some time to set
them up and there is not point announcing their presence until they
have been able to produce some good water.
Sandra and I are going to talk again tonight and I hope to hear how
the water tablets are working. We will also discuss what other items
might be helpful. I do have to be careful not to load Sylvanus up
with too much stuff each time. His van needs to be full of passengers
so that the owner makes money to pay both Sylvanus and for gas and
repairs. At the same time, I know that Sylvanus is anxious to do his
part as he can.
So far this system is working well and will have to do until I can
arrange for a safe trip down myself. Continue to pray for energy and
safety for all the crews who continue to work to repair damaged
services and also for wisdom for those in authority that they will
continue to make good decisions for the benefit of the entire country
not just one segment.
Blessings to all;
Auntie Shel
