A progress note...

Greetings all!
Spent the day yesterday at Hellshire Beach - one of my projects. In the course of the day, we had a coop board meeting to allow them to express what their priorities are and what they see being done about them. The language was an impediment initially especially with one man who was, shall I say, guarded. He used the languag to create distance and keep the 'new comer' out of the loop. By the end of the meeting he was conversing in perfect english and even asked if I could teach him to use the computer at some point. I'll tack that onto the list or sub it out but I will try to make it happen at some level. The salt and sand of the beach could be a bit of a problem for my laptop no?
The President of the coop and the entourage took me around and met most of the business owners and we all had a few words of greeting in the process of setting the stage for more in depth interactions as I start to develop the community profile. There is SO much work to do and much of it is urgent to the point of "Jesus, lets get GOING!!!". I know I am expressing my Americanism here but really, with only 2 feet of sand elevation separating the only access road from the eastern approach of most hurricanes, you get a sense that they will need their fishing boats for more than just fishing pretty soon. The reef was badly damaged during the last hurricanes and now the wave force is being applied directly to the beach. They have lost ~ 30 feet of beach in two months. There is a lot more to this story but I need to get all the information. Already I hear at least 5 different sides to each story I am told.
At any rate, it is entertaining and we WILL make progress so watch this space!
Love, to all,

Matt