We are in Nassua, yes, that is the Bahamas!! It gets old when you tell people you are taking the seniors from the school on a mission trip to Nassau and they give you the look and a snort, like HA, yea right! I know, it sounds ludricous. And, looking at the beach I'm enjoying for about 2 hours everyday, I'd think the same thing. Stunning!!! Soft sand, crystal clear water, amazing.
So, what are we doing? We are working at the All Saints AIDS camp. Basically, an old leper colony outside of main town area in Nassua. Think nursing home/homeless village, but of course, no nurse. The residents live in individual, one-room shacks that are about 6 X 10. The rooms are up on stilts. They are wood frame with nothing. There are some children here.
The baby above is named Asia. She walked around on a porch all day. They have a one room hut and that is it. Darling sweet angel. The teen girls had a fit for her.
We cleared off rooms and porches and painted. The strong guys demolished a shed...using 1 sledgehammer, one pike(think enormous and heavey railroad spike), and a long 2 X 4. I'm sure OSHA would have had a complete coronary watching those boys ;) They were really amazing and worked so hard. What really jumps out to me is the stark contrast in haves and have-nots. You've got places like Atlantis with bazillions of dollars flowing through and then places like the AIDS camps with nothing.
These teenagers are incredible. They work hard, are eager to help in any way. I led them into a hut and walked over to a bed bound woman. They were leery, but after watching me hug and introduce myself, they all followed suit. No signs of fear or disgust on their faces. They served the least of these and gave money out of their own pockets to buy more supplies. I'm so darn impressed. 9 out of the 13 kids here want to go into the medical field. I told the director and she said I could bring them to help with dressing changes. I think they are stunned by the lack of resources, medical care and hope. This is why mission trips are so darn beneficial. Can you imagine what 9 teenagers with very smart brains and a love for Christ can do in the medical field--awesome to think of the ripple effect this experience will have on these kids.
The above pic is an example of a mission trip gone wrong. A group came in several years ago and wanted to beautify things. There is gloppy old concrete that I'm assuming was to be a fountain and planter of some sort. The camp has extremely limited money. How in the world were they supposed to maintain something like that? So, instead of the natural tropical flora to look at, there is old ugly groupings of concrete.
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