Monday, September 22, 2008

Who's your neighbor?

Yesterday was Ike plus 14. I have been on island for eleven days. It has taken nine days of continuous work, sun up to sun down, to get the three buildings I am directly responsible for aired out and dry. On Sunday I had a day of rest, so I spent the day helping other people with their houses. I helped my neighbor get his roof tarped, and then I opened the Harrison's house and bleached out mold that had begun to creep up their walls.

Matthew has has come to Grand Turk to take care of his parents house which is next to our house here. They were here in the late 1990s for four years when his dad worked building roads and the electrical generators. Matthew was 16. His parents worked in several places in the Caribbean. He was born in the Caymen Islands. He went to a boarding school in England but spent his holidays in Grand Turk. He learned to dive here. Of all the places they had lived, they bought a home in Grand Turk so that they could eventually come back.

After dark Matthew came over for dinner. I was able to get fresh snapper yesterday and we had pan fried snapper with home made potato chips. We sat out on the porch (which is now cleaned off) and talked about life until midnight.

It is very windy today. We are beginning to feel the effects of a tropical depression that is coming across Puerto Rico. This is making me nervous as I an unsure whether I should be thinking about moving out the last of the stuff from the back bedrooms (which I think will loose their tarps in a large storm). The wind made it very hard to get a tarp on, but it made it very easy to sleep.

1 comment:

colleen and bion said...

Hi Neal,
We wanted to thank you so much for checking out the cottages and cleaning it too.
Bion and our son Jason are coming down the morning of October 8th and spending the night. Please let us know if you need anything that they could bring down with them when they come.
Take care! Our thoughts and prayers are with you!
Colleen and Bion