No, don't be ridiculous.
That is not the house I rented. This is where I stayed after I test drove and bought a car yesterday.
While getting a latte twenty minutes after landing in Provo I saw an add for a Jeep Wrangler. “Call Gary,” said the note.
“I bet you anything that is Gary and Margo,” said I as I reached for the phone.
Sure enough. I met Gary and Margo when they lived on Grand Turk. Gary is a construction supervisor and he built the Flowrider. With the downturn here he has been laid off and they are moving back to Canada. After negotiating the jeep, I casually let Gary know that I could not get a hotel room. Of course it would have been rude not to invite me over. But it worked out great because for their last two months here they have been house sitting an amazingly cool house overlooking the Caicos Bank. I should have been staying with them every time I have been here the last four weeks.
You would think this was all good news. Anyway, I won't bother with the details. But I am amazed at how some people are so focused on the details.
My day ended poorly with stress, tension, and negative feelings toward being here. I went to the airport to try and catch an earlier flight, but as I was checking in they were boarding the plane and I had not returned my rental car yet.
I left and went back into town to visit a piece of property we are looking at. I walked around. did some step measurements. Dreamed a little. The entire time I could here this yapping sound. I kept thinking that someone should go take care of their dog. After forty minutes I started looking around for the sound.
I eventually came across a tiny and very skinny black puppy who had fallen in an electrical conduit pit; about six feet deep. Great, so much for self pity and loathing. I jumped into the pit. I took my dress shirt off and covered the puppy so it would not bite me (if you remember I had this happen before). I lifted to puppy out of the pit and put it back up on the road. By the time I climbed out of the pit the puppy was running down the road with its tail between its legs.
I am reminded of something my father use to say to me often, and I often repeat to others: Don't let your emotions be controlled by your circumstances. I am working on another as well: Strive to have a positive effect on those who come across your path.
I drove back to the airport, got on a plane, and flew home.
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Friday, March 20, 2009
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Coral Reclamation Comes to an End
Life takes turns that are often unexpected. Before a year ago I never really considered becoming a certified scuba diver. On Saturday I completed my 46th dive. This has been since June 22, when I completed my dive cert.
Saturday was the final dive on the Grand Turk BioRock. Lucy, the marine biologist, has been working with the DECR for more than a year leading the coral reclamation work. When I came to Grand Turk, the museum provided volunteers for the BioRock work. Under my dictum of developing sustainable partnerships, the museum tries to provide a volunteer anytime the DECR needs bodies in the water. I have assisted with 22 DECR dives doing coral reclamation.
I don't think Dinah really ever considered becoming a certified scuba diver either. She completed her cert in December, I believe. During the last three coral moves, Dinah and I have worked as one of the teams moving coral from the Cruise Center site. These corals were then attached to one of the two BioRock sites, which are artificial reefs.
I like working under water. The focus is very different than typical recreational diving. Coral collection is completed typically in 30 minutes. As people have left Grand Turk, I have become a senior volunteer (this has nothing to do with age by the way). We collect coral from the area south of the Cruise Center. When ships come in their props stir up sand that settles on and kills the coral over a large area. We dive in an area about 30 feet under water working in teams of two. One diver looks for at risk corals that are on the floor. These corals are removed with a hammer and chisel. The second diver puts these corals into a laundry basket and swims them back to a very large basket that is then attached to a boat and moved to the BioRock site. On my best day, I collected 40 corals with Lucas. Dinah and I collected 18, then 25, and then 20. But on our last two dives we brought back the largest corals. So that is a plus.
Attaching the coral to the BioRock often entails a 70 to 90 minute dive. This getsw long and sometimes it gets very cold as your core body temperature drops. This month the water has been very cold. I have gone from always wearing a short suit to double suiting. I wear both my short suit and my long suit. Oh, do you remember when I was debating if I should buy a new long suit when I was in Columbus in November? Well I did - and I should have. It is 78 degrees on land and 74 degrees in the water here right now and it is freezing!
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Leah is Leaving Today
Well, sort of.
We finished the mural project this week. Leah Samuelson has been here for eight weeks as a representative of Artist on Call, an organization that provides artists to work with children in areas that are in distress, are at risk, or have suffered catastrophe. The museum received a post hurricane grant to do several art related initiatives that Leah has been leading.
We have completed three murals, held three water color painting workshops, a portfolio review, and gave presentations to both the West Indies Collegiate and the Meridian Club on Pine Cay. Today an article came out in the newspaper about the mural we painted on Provo.
On Wednesday Dr. Nathan Corbit, the founder of Build a Bridge and Artists on Call, flew in to the TCI to see the work that Leah Samuelson has been doing with the museum. This is the longest that Artist on Call has ever had an artist in one location, and this is the most murals they have ever completed in one location. Dr. Corbit and his wife were here for the dedication of the Ona Glinton Mural on Thursday with the Permanent Secretary of Education, Dr. Fulford. They flew out today.
We neglected to get Leah a ticket to fly out until this morning. She has just missed the first two standby flights, and now is going to miss her US Airways flight out of Provo. This may be an unexpected mini vacation for her as we were still working on the large blue mural until yesterday, and today the weather is great.
But, maybe just an overnight in Charlotte.
We finished the mural project this week. Leah Samuelson has been here for eight weeks as a representative of Artist on Call, an organization that provides artists to work with children in areas that are in distress, are at risk, or have suffered catastrophe. The museum received a post hurricane grant to do several art related initiatives that Leah has been leading.
We have completed three murals, held three water color painting workshops, a portfolio review, and gave presentations to both the West Indies Collegiate and the Meridian Club on Pine Cay. Today an article came out in the newspaper about the mural we painted on Provo.On Wednesday Dr. Nathan Corbit, the founder of Build a Bridge and Artists on Call, flew in to the TCI to see the work that Leah Samuelson has been doing with the museum. This is the longest that Artist on Call has ever had an artist in one location, and this is the most murals they have ever completed in one location. Dr. Corbit and his wife were here for the dedication of the Ona Glinton Mural on Thursday with the Permanent Secretary of Education, Dr. Fulford. They flew out today.
We neglected to get Leah a ticket to fly out until this morning. She has just missed the first two standby flights, and now is going to miss her US Airways flight out of Provo. This may be an unexpected mini vacation for her as we were still working on the large blue mural until yesterday, and today the weather is great.
But, maybe just an overnight in Charlotte.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Measuring Anchors
I have been in Provo and Pine Cay this week. A year ago these trips were sooooo cool. Now it is a lot like work. Well, its a lot like really easy work with great food, boating, swimming and midnight walks along the beach. But as life is viewed through the filter of your past experience, to me this feels a lot like work.
Leah, Don, and I gave a presentation on Tuesday night about what the museum has accomplished in the last year. This was for the Pine Cay Project, an educational foundation that has granted the funding for our mural projects, as well as five other small projects the museum is currently doing. The foundation is made up of Pine Cay homeowners, so many of the contributers as well as the treasure were able to attend.
On Wednesday we went to Ft. George to assess erosion caused by the September hurricanes. We were going to return to Provo but stayed in Pine Cay for a lengthy lunch to discuss international educational foundations and their possible role in funding the national museum.
We got back to Provo just in time for Leah to catch her flight back to Grand Turk. Leah and Dinah will be working on completing the mural on Grand Turk this weekend. I have stayed in Provo where I have had to go to a really important dinner, a breakthrough breakfast meeting, a lunch board meeting, and dinner at Rotary. In between I have been measuring anchors.
Leah, Don, and I gave a presentation on Tuesday night about what the museum has accomplished in the last year. This was for the Pine Cay Project, an educational foundation that has granted the funding for our mural projects, as well as five other small projects the museum is currently doing. The foundation is made up of Pine Cay homeowners, so many of the contributers as well as the treasure were able to attend.
On Wednesday we went to Ft. George to assess erosion caused by the September hurricanes. We were going to return to Provo but stayed in Pine Cay for a lengthy lunch to discuss international educational foundations and their possible role in funding the national museum.
We got back to Provo just in time for Leah to catch her flight back to Grand Turk. Leah and Dinah will be working on completing the mural on Grand Turk this weekend. I have stayed in Provo where I have had to go to a really important dinner, a breakthrough breakfast meeting, a lunch board meeting, and dinner at Rotary. In between I have been measuring anchors.
International Sunday
This Sunday was International Sunday at Salem Baptist Church in Grand Turk. Guess who was the guest speaker? No really guess?
Yes, that is correct.
The week before, I attended a meeting after church for all foreign nationals who attend Salem. As they started talking about what was going to happen next Sunday I started looking around. I used my quick observation skills and deductive logic to postulate, "This stinks, I am going to have to preach."
I try very hard here to separate who I was in the states with who I am here. Because the islands are so small you become what you do. I am Museum Neal. 100% of who I am is the museum.
When it came to deciding a theme, I suggested the theme of captivity and exodus. I spoke on Daniel. If you know me well you have heard this sermon more than once. But the story of Daniel is a story of someone removed from their home, their church, their community, and their family and forced to live in another cultural environment. It is a story of how to be true to who your are while assimilating into a new surrounding.
I also talked about our story. I spoke of how we got here, how it was Deneen's desire to look for a "beach and an adventure," how great the first year on Grand Turk turned out to be. I also spoke of our individual hardship and loss after the hurricanes. I talked about how I realize that the best parts of me have left the island and that makes it a real struggle.
I started by stating that I could never preach in my home church because they limit you to 20 minutes. But because Salem has an hour sermon ever week I would do fine. I am geared to talk the length of a history class after all. Introduction, body, conclusion: 55 minutes.
When I finished, the moderator, who I do not know very well, stood up to close and said "This is not just Neal's story. This is my story. This is how I have felt since sending my son back home to go to school after the hurricanes."
I have been getting comments like this all week.
On International Sunday I shared a story that I thought was my story.
But on International Sunday I found that is was all of our story.
Yes, that is correct.
The week before, I attended a meeting after church for all foreign nationals who attend Salem. As they started talking about what was going to happen next Sunday I started looking around. I used my quick observation skills and deductive logic to postulate, "This stinks, I am going to have to preach."
I try very hard here to separate who I was in the states with who I am here. Because the islands are so small you become what you do. I am Museum Neal. 100% of who I am is the museum.
When it came to deciding a theme, I suggested the theme of captivity and exodus. I spoke on Daniel. If you know me well you have heard this sermon more than once. But the story of Daniel is a story of someone removed from their home, their church, their community, and their family and forced to live in another cultural environment. It is a story of how to be true to who your are while assimilating into a new surrounding.
I also talked about our story. I spoke of how we got here, how it was Deneen's desire to look for a "beach and an adventure," how great the first year on Grand Turk turned out to be. I also spoke of our individual hardship and loss after the hurricanes. I talked about how I realize that the best parts of me have left the island and that makes it a real struggle.
I started by stating that I could never preach in my home church because they limit you to 20 minutes. But because Salem has an hour sermon ever week I would do fine. I am geared to talk the length of a history class after all. Introduction, body, conclusion: 55 minutes.
When I finished, the moderator, who I do not know very well, stood up to close and said "This is not just Neal's story. This is my story. This is how I have felt since sending my son back home to go to school after the hurricanes."
I have been getting comments like this all week.
On International Sunday I shared a story that I thought was my story.
But on International Sunday I found that is was all of our story.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
I Picked a Bad Week to Stop Sniffin Glue
I lost my wallet this week. This has been absolutely miserable. I had both driver's licenses and all my credit cards in my wallet. This now seems like a mistake to have them all together. Not that it matters here, but not having credit cards would make it extremely hard to get back to the states.
I remember having it Saturday evening when I took it out and realized I did not have any money to pay for ice cream. Leah only had two dollars in her pocket. Unfortunately for everyone but me, I had ordered first and was already eating two dollars worth of chocolate ice cream. I had to ride in the back of the pickup on top of scaffolding. I was sure that my wallet fell out of my pocket soemwhere between Cool Beans and home.
Losing your wallet here stinks. Losing it at home is bad, but here I can't cancel my cards and have new ones sent to me right away. I spent Sunday looking everywhere for the wallet. I could not find it anywhere. But this figures, as it capped off a weekend that did not need more capping off.
Friday morning I came to work in the best of moods. I received a call at 8:30 that our container of hurricane fix up stuff had finally arrived and been cleared through customs.
When I arrived at the museum I discovered that we were having water pump problems again. This has been going on all week. it requires someone to go into the pump house and knock the relay so that the pump resets.
The last time this was done, however, whoever reset the pump spilled a gallon of red roof paint in the pump room and then proceeded to walk through the red paint. Then they walked all over the concrete pad where the AC pumps sit. Then they walked down the path to the museum. They evidently then walked into the museum. After this they saw their mistake and tried to clean the red paint off of the museum carpet with gasoline. Well, at least this was not just minutes before cruise ship tours were scheduled to come. Oh, sorry, yes it was.
When the day finally ended, I was looking forward to a relaxing late evening dive. We were in the boat and on the Library dive site by 5:00pm and in the water by 5:05. The dive started well, but my ears did not adjust past 25 feet. I worked through this, but coming back up from 50 feet to 30 feet I got severe vertigo as my ears went through a reverse block. I became very dizzy and disoriented. I finished the dive, but another diver ran out of air and we surfaced quite aways from the boat. This was about 5:45 and we surfaced to one of the coolest sunsets I have seen here. This made the dive worth while, but my head was all messed up and I was sick to my stomach from the reverse block.
On Saturday I did two morning dives with the DECR moving coral. Working dives keep you focused. I am also typically not willing to admit that I don't feel well. So I worked through the fact that I still felt messed up. Saturday was not turning into a fun filled, easy go lucky kind of day.
Work on the mural progressed on Saturday morning. Community involvement has been mixed, but the mural is turning out very well. The idea here was that local artists or people with an interest in the arts would come out and help paint sections of the mural. But the story I like to keep telling is when on Saturday someone pulled up and dropped off their 5-year-old so that he could help paint, and then left.
On Sunday the Canadian veterinarians finished up at the museum and flew home. They completed 125 operations in the week they were here. This included Pounder who got neutered on Saturday. We have been making fun of him all week. Telling him his day was coming and I keep saying "come here girl." This makes me laugh every time.
I was hoping to clean up and put the labs back together, but there were still a dozen dogs who had to stay over night. Some of these dogs were living in conditions where it was not safe for them to go home right away.
Call me a sucker.
Pounder has been very put out by the usurper who is living with us for a few days. He will not come in the house. He also won't be petted.
This morning I left for Provo on a flight at 8:30. I have to go, but without credit cards I cant get a rental car or a hotel room.
At 7:00 I took the little dog out to use the bathroom. There on the ground were two of my credit cards. Further out into the yard I found two more. On the other side of the house I found the wallet. In the neighbors yard I found my driver's license.
Sometime on Saturday Pounder must have found my wallet laying somewhere. You can imagine the rest of the story.
I remember having it Saturday evening when I took it out and realized I did not have any money to pay for ice cream. Leah only had two dollars in her pocket. Unfortunately for everyone but me, I had ordered first and was already eating two dollars worth of chocolate ice cream. I had to ride in the back of the pickup on top of scaffolding. I was sure that my wallet fell out of my pocket soemwhere between Cool Beans and home.
Losing your wallet here stinks. Losing it at home is bad, but here I can't cancel my cards and have new ones sent to me right away. I spent Sunday looking everywhere for the wallet. I could not find it anywhere. But this figures, as it capped off a weekend that did not need more capping off.
Friday morning I came to work in the best of moods. I received a call at 8:30 that our container of hurricane fix up stuff had finally arrived and been cleared through customs.
When I arrived at the museum I discovered that we were having water pump problems again. This has been going on all week. it requires someone to go into the pump house and knock the relay so that the pump resets.
The last time this was done, however, whoever reset the pump spilled a gallon of red roof paint in the pump room and then proceeded to walk through the red paint. Then they walked all over the concrete pad where the AC pumps sit. Then they walked down the path to the museum. They evidently then walked into the museum. After this they saw their mistake and tried to clean the red paint off of the museum carpet with gasoline. Well, at least this was not just minutes before cruise ship tours were scheduled to come. Oh, sorry, yes it was.
When the day finally ended, I was looking forward to a relaxing late evening dive. We were in the boat and on the Library dive site by 5:00pm and in the water by 5:05. The dive started well, but my ears did not adjust past 25 feet. I worked through this, but coming back up from 50 feet to 30 feet I got severe vertigo as my ears went through a reverse block. I became very dizzy and disoriented. I finished the dive, but another diver ran out of air and we surfaced quite aways from the boat. This was about 5:45 and we surfaced to one of the coolest sunsets I have seen here. This made the dive worth while, but my head was all messed up and I was sick to my stomach from the reverse block.
On Saturday I did two morning dives with the DECR moving coral. Working dives keep you focused. I am also typically not willing to admit that I don't feel well. So I worked through the fact that I still felt messed up. Saturday was not turning into a fun filled, easy go lucky kind of day.
Work on the mural progressed on Saturday morning. Community involvement has been mixed, but the mural is turning out very well. The idea here was that local artists or people with an interest in the arts would come out and help paint sections of the mural. But the story I like to keep telling is when on Saturday someone pulled up and dropped off their 5-year-old so that he could help paint, and then left.On Sunday the Canadian veterinarians finished up at the museum and flew home. They completed 125 operations in the week they were here. This included Pounder who got neutered on Saturday. We have been making fun of him all week. Telling him his day was coming and I keep saying "come here girl." This makes me laugh every time.
I was hoping to clean up and put the labs back together, but there were still a dozen dogs who had to stay over night. Some of these dogs were living in conditions where it was not safe for them to go home right away.
Call me a sucker.
Pounder has been very put out by the usurper who is living with us for a few days. He will not come in the house. He also won't be petted.This morning I left for Provo on a flight at 8:30. I have to go, but without credit cards I cant get a rental car or a hotel room.
At 7:00 I took the little dog out to use the bathroom. There on the ground were two of my credit cards. Further out into the yard I found two more. On the other side of the house I found the wallet. In the neighbors yard I found my driver's license.
Sometime on Saturday Pounder must have found my wallet laying somewhere. You can imagine the rest of the story.
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