Since we have been in the Bahamas, we have been planning to host a health care fair on Sweeting's Cay (pronounced "Sweeting's Key"). Friday, we headed east on Grand Bahama until we got to McLean's town. We had arranged for a boat to come pick us up and take us to Sweeting's since it is located off the coast of Grand Bahama. As we arrived and waited, we all crossed our fingers that the boat driver would show up since they commonly don't. For a small, run down boat to take us the 10 minute trip to Sweeting's and the 10 minute trip back from Sweeting's cost us $150.
Sweeting's is about 3 miles long and less than 1 mile wide. There are 129 people living there 29 of them being children and adolescents. There is one road that runs almost the length of the island. There are a few houses that are available to rent for the night, which is where we ended up staying. Visitors come to stay at Sweeting's after a day of fishing, particularly bone fishing.
In order to get to the church where we would be hosting our health care fair, we had to walk over a mile. By the end of the day, we had clocked over 8 miles of walking. Walking there is the perfect way to see to town because you literally pass almost everyone's house, the school, the one community clinic, the electrical company and the three bars on the island. There are no grocery stores or gas stations. Most of the houses are in bad condition and only a few of them have air conditioning units. The ones that do have air conditioning units aren't able to always use them because of the cost of electricity.
By the time we walked to the church where we were holding our fair, we were all drenched from the heat and humidity down here. Thankfully, we were allowed to set up in the church itself where there was air conditioning. I have never in my life been more thankful.
To get word out about the fair, we literally walked up the street and told kids to come down to the church. What was so neat about this island was the cohesiveness of the community. Parents don't have to think twice about their 5 year old leaving the house with their friends to walk down to the church. We had them decorate name tags and "health kits" for them to put all of the goodies we gave them in. We did lessons and activities on heart health, exercise, dental health and nutrition. We taught them how to count their pulse at rest then did an activity like jumping jacks and got them to recount it to show how it increases. During dental health, they learned about brushing teeth properly, flossing and using mouth wash. These kids were so excited to use the crayons to color our nutrition plates that Michelle Obama just released. We quizzed them on the 5 food groups and what foods are better to eat than others.
After we finished the health care fair, we left and joined in on the Independence Day festival. This month marks the 38th year of independence from Britain and they held a ceremony as part of the celebration. As we came in to the area, we were greeted with open arms and people got up to find us all chairs to sit in. As the ceremony started, they stopped to announce that there were visitors from Virginia and every single person applauded us. The Reverend said an opening prayer and thanked the Lord for bringing us down to Sweeting's Cay. They continued to recognize us and thank us for being there four more times during this ceremony. They also sang their national anthem that is full of beautiful words and sung so proudly. There is such a sense of pride here that's honestly contagious. We all felt so honored to be a part of their culture for the day and found ourselves amazed at the unity these people have with each other and their country.
After the ceremony we took some time off to go snorkeling in the bay. We then headed back to the church to show a movie for the children and after some technical difficulties, we were able to get through about half of Finding Nemo. As we sent the children home, it was clear how much of an impact we had on them and they on us. It took everything I had to not bring all of them home with us.
Naturally after a long day of work, we needed a night to play. We decided that it was oh so important to check out the culture of the nightlife (obviously a requirement of our project). We headed to the bar next door called the Sea Gull. As we walked in, the Reverend from the ceremony was there playing pool and we went to the bar to get a drink. I ordered a gin and tonic and what I got was a cup with gin in it, one ice cube and maybe there was a spash of tonic. We went out to the screened in porch where there was the loudest music I have ever heard. While we started out a bit shy, the scene quickly turned into a dance party with locals wanting to join in our circle to dance. Oddly enough, people would go outside on the dock to smoke cigarettes but it quickly became apparent that they stayed inside to smoke pot. Turns out, being in an enclosed porch for hours while people are smoking makes you feel funny...
In the morning, we attended the Baptist church ceremony. As we arrived, we were introduced again by the Reverend to the whole church. He then volunteered us to help weigh each person as part of their weight loss program they are doing. This meant that while the "Power and Praise" (aka the sing along gospel choir music) was going on, we were in the middle of the church weighing each person. A tad bit awkward I'd say.
The service itself was beautiful though and it was the typical scene of a gospel Baptist church with hands raised and "Amens" after everything. We also spent a lot of time giving applause to the Lord.
Overall, it was an amazing weekend and the boat did show up to take us home. It was utterly exhausting, yet so enlightening. We met children who didn't have breakfast because their mother didn't have any food to make them. We had kids who walked around in their socks the whole day. There is one nurse on the island and no doctors. There are less than 13 jobs on the island and so everyone else has to either commute to another island or attempt to make a living fishing with the small boats they can afford. In other words, the majority of the adults here just hang out all day and wander around drinking. Kids here don't like the summer months because there's no school and nothing to do. One of the kids said to us, "There's never been so many white people here". We also hung out with a 16 year old guy all day who wanted to help us and who has dreams to go to college in the US and maybe even Virginia to study psychology. We can only hope that he finds a way to leave the 168 other people behind and make a life for himself outside of Sweeting's Cay.
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