Family Mellmann

Trinity Baptist School has a long-standing tradition of having a Junior/Senior Banquet at the end of the school year.  The old tradition was that the junior class (and their parents) would plan, design, and execute a banquet to honor the seniors.  There were themes, props, skits and stories, slideshows, and often a speaker, and of course, a lovely meal. The tradition has changed in recent years, but the end  result is still the same; honor and celebrate the senior class for their successful completion of high school.  Tonight was the night for the banquet. This is the graduating class of 2019.  Patrick, Alex, Ian, and James.  The juniors (2) and seniors (4) of Trinity. In town for the end-of-year festivities, Linda Peacock attended the evening.  Mrs. Peacock was Patrick's first teacher when he started attending Trinity, and she saw him through the first (somewhat challenging) three years as he transitioned from public school to the more rigorous Trinity curriculum.  She r

Today is our last graduation practice.  Next time it will be for real.

Graduation practice #1 The Trinity Baptist School Class of 2019

They made it!  Some of them have more facial hair than when they left, and they look a little...wrinkled, but not bad for a midnight arrival.  And they're home. A couple of families came to get their guys, but the rest of them (3 of the 4 seniors, 1 of the 2 juniors, and the pastor who accompanied them) were stuck riding home with me (Boston MA to Williston VT).  The pastor stuck it out for the first couple hours of the drive, but eventually even he fell asleep.  Meanwhile, the boys were long gone. We arrived back at the school at 4:00 AM and by 4:15 Patrick and I were home and crawling into our own beds.  Tonight we will celebrate with a dinner out and hopefully hear some of the stories of their trip.

Today the boys come home from their journey to Dominica.  They have worked hard, met new people, served a missionary family and their community, and experienced a culture very different from their own. Patrick sent me this picture from his last morning on the island; a glorious display of color during sunrise.  Not a bad send off as they pack for their journey home.

It's their last full day in Dominica; tomorrow the boys begin their journey home.  After working all morning they had an opportunity to do some shopping at a Dominican market.   In the evening, the best place to hang out is the balcony of the Cornelius home where the boys enjoy the "cool" breeze off the ocean and some evening conversation.

The boys have been working really hard.  It's nearly 90F and sunny most of the time, yet they have rebuilt a home destroyed by hurricane, and reconstructed the yard, and they have dug through soil and rock to cut out this space where a building expansion will go.  All that dirt and rock has to go somewhere so Patrick has been on wheelbarrow duty hauling dirt. They do get time to relax and cool off.  Here, they found one of Dominica's black sand beaches to cool their toes and make their mark.  The black sand is a reminder of Dominica's volcanic origins.

 This is the couple hosting the Trinity boys.  They are missionaries Tony and Martha Cornelius.  Tony is the senior pastor of a church and they have lived on Dominica for twenty-five years. In between working and trying to cool off in the shade or some waterway, the boys get to meet local people and experience island life and culture.  They met a young man who, armed with a spear and goggles, brought in his lobster dinner.  Like many Caribbean islands, the people of Dominica are generally poor and live off the land for many things.  Mangos and bananas are plentiful here (Patrick reports that the mangos are amazing) and there is some farming.  While we consider lobster to be a luxury dinner, here they are as commonplace as crayfish in the bayou.

Sunday - church service with their host family (missionaries).  That's  Patrick's left shoulder there on the right edge of the picture.  There wasn't much reported on today's activities, but it did involve playing in the ocean.  I'm guessing they will go back to work tomorrow.

It seems that today was a work day of a different kind.  Dominica is divided into political regions called parrishes, similar to Louisiana and similar to how many states have counties.  Today the team did some hiking and technical climbing in the mountains of Saint Patrick's Parrish.  Their reward for three hours of climbing in Caribbean heat was the Boiling Lake (that sounds refreshing after 3 hours of climbing, doesn't it?).  The Boiling Lake is roughly 3 miles (uphill) from the nearest road). Nestled in the Morne Trois Pitons National Park, the lake is actually a flooded fumerole; an opening in the planet's crust which emits steam and gases.  By nature, fumeroles are typically located within close proximity to a volcano.  Doninica's Boiling Lake is the second largest hot lake in the world at roughly 200 x 250 feet.  It's called Boiling Lake because it is in a perpetual rolling-boil state. Generally I would say that I'm jealous of these guys spending a cou

Today was Katherine's spring piano recital.  Katherine has pretty bad stage fright so just getting on the stage is a feat, but she got up there AND played her song.  Despite trembling fingers, she finished the whole thing.

It looks like the guys are really getting stuff done.  Today they finished the house they have been working on.  Ouillie now has a proper home for the first time since his old house was destroyed by hurricane. I haven't heard anything from Patrick directly but it looks like he's still walking and talking so things must be fine. 🙄 In the evening they held a gathering of church folks and guests.  The fellowship was well attended. Interspersed with songs, Patrick and Ian (two of the seniors) gave testimonies and there was a short message.

Reports are coming in that the boys are working hard.  I don't know about that, but they sure look dirty.  Today they continued work on the home they are rebuilding and cleared some ground to be the front yard of the home.  You can get a glimpse in this picture of how hilly it is at this location.  They had to move quite a bit of dirt to make that flat space.  And it's a balmy 85F there today.

The boys are hard at work building a house for one of the church members.  This family hasn't had a house since the hurricane hit.  The gentleman in front of the house is the missionary host.  And while the picture of the boys makes it look like they're just standing around, I'm sure Mr. Boardman is keeping them good and busy most of the time.

More than 24 hours in travel from the school in Vermont to the island of Dominica, and they made it. I don't have a daily schedule of what they will be doing, but I'm guessing that they will have a little time off tomorrow, some get-to-know-you time with their hosts and the local church, and a lay of the land.  Whatever they do, I'm sure it will be a fun experience.

It must be the end of the school year.  The elementary students are WIRED.  The juniors and seniors are gone on their missions trip.  And the rest of the high school is off doing field trips.  That means that Katherine has been out Monday and Tuesday of this week visiting the Maritime Museum (Monday) and Fort Ticonderoga (Tuesday).  There was more planned for the Tuesday trip, but the wind and rain closed the ferries so they had to change their tour schedule to accommodate the extra drive time. Somewhere in this clump of 7th through 10th graders is Katherine.  Let's play a round of Where's Waldo. :)

And they're off!  The juniors (two) and seniors (four) of Trinity Baptist School, and one adult chaperone, are on their way to Dominica for almost two weeks of construction work on an island devestated by the hurricanes in late 2017.  They will be helping a local missionary with whom this trip has been coordinated. While most of their time will be spent working, there will also be time for some hiking, getting wet, and socializing with local residents. Since infrastructure (like cell service and internet access) is still inconsistent and unreliable, updates will be equally unpredictable.  Regardless, I am sure that they will get sunburned...I mean have a good time.

Celebrating motherhood has roots dating back to the ancient Greeks and Romans.  A more modern form of Mother’s Day appears in the early Christian festival known as “Mothering Sunday”, a once major tradition in the United Kingdom and parts of Europe (according to the History Channel).  It was a time when the faithful would return to their “mother church” (their “home” church) for a special service. Another…version…of Mother’s Day took form in the 19 th century, before the Civil War, when Ann Reeves Jarvis helped to create Mothers’ Day Work Clubs to teach local women how to properly care for their children.  After the war, these clubs helped to bridge the divided country.  In 1868 Jarvis organized “Mothers’ Friendship Day,” at which mothers gathered with former Union and Confederate soldiers to promote reconciliation. The Mother’s Day tradition that we recognize today most likely owes its genesis to Anna Jarvis, daughter of Ann Reeves Jarvis, who championed a day set aside to ho