February Facts

The dry season has begun here in Trinidad. There are basically two seasons here. The wet season runs from roughly June through December; and the dry season is roughly January through May. We are still getting occasional rains, but they tend not to be as heavy or last as long as they did in the wet season.
Unfortunately, the wet season was also drier than usual this past year. As a result, the reservoirs that supply water to much of the island are lower than usual. In order to make sure that the supply lasts through the whole season, the Water and Sewage Authority (WASA) is encouraging people to conserve water and has issued mandatory restrictions on usage. From what we've been able to understand, the restrictions basically amount to not using hoses for watering lawns, washing cars, etc. "Water police" have been deployed to go around and make sure that people are complying with the order. Yesterday, the front page of one of the papers featured a picture of sprinklers running at the prime minister's residence. The PM announced later in the day that the contractor in charge of lawn care had been fired as a result.
What is frustrating about the apparent water shortage is that last month, when thousands of gallons of water that should have been coming into our tanks were running down the drain instead, WASA didn't seem at all concerned. Thankfully, our tanks have remained full since the leak was fixed several weeks ago. We are hoping that we will be able to keep them that way for the rest of the season.
~Richard

We enter this week with a praise and a prayer request. Let's start with the praise. On Tuesday, David and Shirley Yoder arrived from Pennsylvania to begin a one year term of work here. David will serve as overseer for the churches here. We first met them in Virginia last summer. They and the mission board there were very clear that they hope a local leader will fill that position. But we clearly heard local leaders asking for assistance at this point. The churches here are working hard to develop local church leaders and we have seen leadership grow even in our time here. But at this point there are 4 local pastors and 6 Mennonite churches. So they feel they need to continue to build their base of pastors for now. As a result, everyone is pleased to welcome David and Shirley. We were able to meet them at their apartment on their arrival and very much look forward to working more with them.
Our prayer concern is that the renters we had in our Kansas home will be moving out on Saturday. That means we really hope we can find new renters soon but know that will be difficult since we can only offer a 5 month lease. Anybody want a 5 month sabbatical in Kansas?
~Barb

Today we did not go to school--it was canceled. However, the first we heard of this was on our way out of the school compound yesterday when we were handed a note containing this information. This is Carnival weekend, and lately the number of school children killed has been kind of scary. To get to our school using the public transportation in Trinidad, everyone has to pass through Curepe Junction, where they transfer cars and buses. That has been a slightly dangerous place since last term even, but for this Carnival time the principal did not want anyone from PAWI High School in Curepe Junction. Thus, she canceled school. Next Monday and Tuesday are not officially public holidays, but nobody goes to work or school those days. Some people at our school have planned to take the whole of next week off, but the principal has made it very clear that she wants everyone in school by next Wednesday. So, we have a Carnival break from today (Thursday) until next Tuesday.
~Roxy 'n' Olivia