Trip Report Part V - A River Runs Through It
[ Follow Ups ] [ Abaco Message Board ]
Posted by Paul King on November 19, 1999 at 06:35:04:
The connections between Charleston, South Carolina and the Bahamas run deep. After the end of the American Revolution, some loyalists who had remained commited to the English crown choose to leave the United States rather than endure the scorn and discrimination of their American communities. Some of the loyalists packed their belongings, including their slaves, on ships and headed for the islands of the Bahamas. Many of those early refugees were from the Charleston area. Hope Town was one of the early settlements, founded about 1785.
Wyannie Malone, a widow from Charleston with four children, is generally credited with being one of the original settlers. Other settlers from the Charleston area attempted to recreate the splendor of plantation society on other islands, such as Eluthera. As Amelia's class at Pinckney Elementary School began collecting school supplies
for J.A. Pinder School, two other schools became commited to lending a hand to the kids at Sandy Point. These two schools are Ellington and Blaney Elementary Schools. I have been fortunate to have worked in Ellington and Blaney Schools for several years. These are both rural schools generally serving students from what is called the sea islands. It is an area notable for it's natural beauty of massive oak trees dripping with spanish moss, marshes, tidal creeks, and rivers, gradually giving way to the ocean. Both schools are Title I schools which means that they themselves are considered schools that are eligible for extra federal assistance. The children at these schools are very similar to the students in the Bahamas, polite, soft-spoken and very appreciative of any extra attention. When I shared with the principals at these two schools my pride in the relief effort at Pinckney Elementary the principals at Ellington and Blaney immediately wanted to do something to assist the children at Sandy Point. When I expressed concern about resources being taken away from their students I was assurred not to worry about that. Hours before Amelia and I left to drive to Ft. Lauderdale with the school supplies, Ms. Bellman, a teacher at Schroder Middle School presented us with yet another box of school supplies that she had collected at her school. Ms. Bellman is a Bahamian citizen. As was mentioned earlier, the connections between Charleston and the Bahamas run deep. As Amelia and I stepped into Ms. McKinney's sixth grade class her students immediately stood as one and in unison greeted us with "Good morning Mr. ......", Mr Wells interjected "Mr. King" and the kids repeated, "Mr. King." Some of the kids continued with "and lit-tle girl." As they sat back down Mr. Wells introduced Amelia to the class and explained that we were from Charleston, South Carolina and had brought school supplies for them. As I looked into these ten or twelve beautiful faces I had absolutely no idea how to communicate to them how much our Charleston County school children had come to care about them. I stammered a few words but it was, I'm sure, quite odd for this complete stranger dressed in shorts and sandals wearing am Abaco baseball hat to be talking about some schools, someplace, and how much we all cared about them. About that time they all stood again. With big smiling faces in unison they chimed "Good morning Mr. Charlie King!!" Charlie had entered the room and stood there like a kid who had just been given the best Christmas present in the world. It was a really special moment to see the bond between these Island kids and Charlie. We were introduced to Ms. McKinney who has been teaching at Pinder for two years. She is a twenty-something teacher originally from Eluthera. Very dark, and very beautiful. Her hair was braided in corn rows and she was elegant and informal all at the same time. She had been teaching at Sandy Point because it was fairly close to her home and was quite like Eluthera. We left Ms. McKinney's class and visited the other four classes. There are 75 students at J.A. Pinder in five classes grades one - six. Grades four and five are combined. All classes were attentive and polite. We had the opportunity to meet all the teachers. Amelia sat with the third graders for a picture in their tiny classroom. To take the picture I had to stand outside the room. The 4 x 8 sheet of plywood and the chairs for the eight kids to sit on filled the entire room. Mr. Wells took us to the largest of the three buildings on the campus. This was the building that had suffered the most damage. Before the storm it had served as classroom to three grades, including the third grade. The building had partitions on tracks that could be used to create the classrooms or to open them up and serve as an auditorium. This main building of Pinder School is in great disrepair. Not only was it flooded by six feet of water, but the roof was torn away in the storm and the ceiling was virtually destroyed. The floor had been covered with tiles that since the storm had been removed and all that remained was the sticky residue from flooring glue and salt water. On the chalk board was the date and the lesson from the last day of school before the storm.
Follow Ups:
|