Tobago

 

We had to go to Trinidad for training and since our work is winding down, we decided to take a little vacation to Tobago. This was really posh, but we got off-season rates. We wanted to see the beauty of the Caribbean and we got it. We spent three days at the Coco Reef Resort. We also celebrated our sixth wedding anniversay. This isn't what a mission is all about, but we did it anyway.

 

 

A white sand beach and blue water. What a concept!

 

If you left your plate for even a minute, these guys would clean it for you. Here they are going after a basket of toast, left behind.

 

The hotel had a breakfast buffet that had everything you can think of. It also had this man who encouraged the guests to take pictures with his birds. He is holding a hawk. The owl is also his. It's interesting to see big birds like these close up.

 

Here's looking at you kid!

 

 

The lobby area

 

Our room

 

Glorious flowers

 

We took a ride in a glass bottomed boat and Wayne got to snorkle. I would have, but realized that without my glasses I couldn't see a thing.

 

The view from the balcony of our room.

 

These men are beginning to pull in a large fishing net. The boat is in the middle of the net.

 

If you wanted to use this beach, you would have it all to yourself. Count the number of people you see.

 

One of the many bays.

 

Around the end of the island to the Atlantic side. The house on the small island was once owned by Ian Fleming. The large island is called Little Tobago.

President Gamiette

 

Our new Mission President and his family. They invited us to dinner on Friday night and we got to meet his family. We have been able to work with him for two years and love him dearly. We admire his spirituality and his ability to teach. His family is delightful and we enjoyed our evening with them.

Training in Trinidad

 

This is the group of supervisors in the West Indies Mission. I'm putting their names here so that I don't forget. Back from left: Brother Adams from St. Vincent. He was just called a week before the training. The Langfords, Brother Warren from Trinidad, Sister Lorette Ibrahim from Suriname, Elder and Sister Green who serve in Trinidad and will be going home the day after we are. Front from left: Sister Ramdanie from Trinidad, Sister Sarah Naine who is the Seminary and Institute secretary from Guadeloupe. She was President Gamiette's secretary and Elder Alvarado is going to continue to use her. Sister Warren who serves with her husband in Trinidad, Sister Bibi Majid from Canje, Berbice, Guyana, Sister Shaundell Hedrington, from Georgetown, Guyana and Sister Seema, also from Trinidad. The training was intensive and covered two days. We all went home exhausted.

Tomatoes

 

 

Here's our garden - we have lots of tomatoes and have started harvesting them. They grow much faster here than they do in Walnut Creek. They don't taste any better than the ones we buy in the store - but we planted them to watch them grow. It has been fun.

Paramaribo

 

 

 

 

We love going to Paramaribo. This time we stopped to look at the fresh flower market. We have not found any fresh cut flowers in Guyana. The people love flowers and decorate their homes with lots of them, but they are all plastic!

 

 

We had to pose for pictures with such beautiful flowers in the background.

Rice Field

 

This is the first time we have seen a rice field with people in it. This is an extended family, planting rice.

Baptism in Suriname

 

 

We needed to make another trip to Suriname to train the supervisors. Sister Hymas went with us so that she could see how to get there when she and her husband go on mission business. We toured all of the branch buildings and when we got to Uitijk, we found the elders had almost finished filling the baptismal font. This little girl had just celebrated her eighth birthday and was going to be baptised by her uncle. We were asked to stay and we did. These cute little boys are cousins.