Irene

We finished our ministry today after one last long slog and had hoped to do a few day trips the early part of next week to celebrate but it looks as though Irene has other ideas.  

Tomorrow we were going to do a big hike in the National Park not too far from here, which is supposed to be very beautiful.  A subtropical forest with massive caves complete with stalagmites, stalactites, pre-Columbian pictographs and rock carvings.  Then we were supposed to be hosting a congregation party in the evening and on Tuesday we were planning to take a Catamaran out to a nearby island (the only real tourist day-trip available in this area).

Unfortunately though, Tropical Storm Irene is on her way and is set to turn into a Hurricane by the time she hits us tomorrow, which means it's highly unlikely we'll be doing any of those things.  The brothers take disaster preparedness very seriously so our solitary elder has been busy making sure everyone's safe and is stocked up with enough provisions.  One poor sister lives in a particularly vulnerable area - she lost her home to Hurricane George a few years ago so we invited her to come and stay with us until the storm passes.  She's brought her 2 nieces and her elderly mother with her.  All the arrangements were made very hurriedly this evening and because we'd been purposefully running down our provisions to last just a few remaining days, we had to rush out and fill our cupboards again with 4 extra guests on their way.  Jumbo, our local Supermarket, was packed with people panic-buying and many of the smaller shops have already run out of necessities like water and beer.

It's only supposed to be a category 1 hurricane which is a piddly little bit of a storm so I'm sure we'll all be fine but it's a bit disappointing we'll probably be stuck in the house for a day or two.  We lose power for perhaps 2 or 3 hours a day normally but in a storm it can be for much longer.  In fact one of the brothers told me that a hurricane they had a while back took out the power for 4 months for part of the city.  Just think, 4 months without rachael's hair straighteners or my electric razor.  You wouldn't even recognise us.

I threatened our visiting sister that part of the deal of her staying with us is that she must speak English whilst she's here, but alas she didn't understand me.  I'm very outnumbered anyway, 5 females all speaking Spanish with only 1 who can speak English properly, well American English anyway.  I'm presuming the Grandma speaks Spanish, though I've not heard a word out of her yet.  All evening she's just been sitting down in silence grasping her torn piece of cardboard that she occasionally uses to fan herself.  I think i'm in for a few days of cabin fever.