Thursday, April 10, 2008

Tearing up the Streets - Pt. 2

I promised I would tell you why brought up the story yesterday, so here it is. The city we live in is a small place that was built out on a reef in the water. The town is pretty much houses and sidewalks. No cars, no roads, just sidewalks. These are not overly wide sidewalks either. So, in the process of putting in the new sewer/septic system for the island, where are they laying the pipe? Under the sidewalk. This makes it extremely difficult to get around.

Right now, they are working right in front of our outreach center. When I say right in front, I mean right in front! You have to step across three foot trenches and over frayed electrical wires and go through the muck to get in our gates. So, why is this so relevant right now? We picked this week to start our new outreach to the teens of the island, giving them a place to come study in the mornings before school. They have all been very excited about it so the poor turn out so far is in direct relation to the difficulty of getting into the building. The first day, they even had the street totally blocked off and we had to wind through someone elses yard to get to our place.

Well, we hope it gets better next week, but most importantly, we hope that when the project is complete, the toilets all flush and everything goes where it is supposed to. It reminds me of the old joke, "There's only two things you need to know to be a plumber, water runs downhill and payday's on Friday!" It is actually said with a little more color than that, but you get the point. (BTW, I know there is more to it, so please don't sic the plumber's union on me!) When you need a plumber, nobody else will quite do!

I'll try to post a picture tomorrow of the mess.

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