Adventures In Cleaning

This week we not only finished cleaning our own apartment, we did our first tour of duty inspecting the apartments of the Guadeloupe District missionaries for President  and Sister Herrington. Quel aventure! 

As we learned while living in South East Asia some years ago, keeping  a place clean in the tropics is no easy task.  There is a constant battle with black mold, orange mold, and just about any kind of mold you can think of, plus there is the unwanted stream of guests consisting of cockroaches, spiders, and mosquitoes. The Sisters' apartments were spotless:                                                                        

                 

The Elders' apartments... Mm not so much:

                                                                                       

This second floor apartment was in the middle of Pointe-a-Pitre, the main city in Guadeloupe.  It kind of reminded us of many of the 'Second' World cities we have visited throughout the world.  Not exactly Singapore or Paris. 

                                                                                    

At the next Zone Meeting, we will be giving out awards ... including the Golden Ajax Trophy ( " Elders are you familiar with Ajax?" ) and the Celestially  Clean Award ( " Awww...The sisters always win.")

Our other big learning experience here involves keeping track of and helping the missionaries with their visas, paperwork, and transport to and from the airport.  This has got to be the most expensive and complicated mission in the world.  Missionaries don't just drive to a new area - they fly to a different country.  The first day we were here, I got a phone call from a missionary  who said, " One of our elders is being held by the immigration officers at the airport because he doesn't have his card showing he got his Yellow Fever vaccination.  What do we do?"  Learning curve indeed.  Here is the board we started for some of this month's travel schedules. 

Finally, I haven't mentioned how we are doing with the French. Pas tres bien.  Today we visited the Abymes Branch ( they have an actual church) where we spoke with members who had accents ranging from Haitian to African. I can tell which members have lived in France because they are the only ones I can understand! 

So yes, right now everything here is an adventure for us; whether it is just helping the missionaries, inspecting apartments, driving around the island, or just visiting with members.  If we wanted an adventure in missionary work - we found it! ( God has such a great sense of humor!)

                                                                                   

Abymes Chapel