Beautiful country and more

My tour buddies, Julie Boggs and Annie Scharf

A view of the jeep from the back

A church in one of the towns

Beautiful countryside

A panorama of the southern part of the island

At the donkey sanctuary

The sugar mill at Betty's Hope

A view of the exchange islands, small islands off the coast sitting between
the Caribbean Sea at Atlantic Ocean

Making friends with one of the drivers, Colin

Saturday Julie and I joined Annie Scharf (sister to Pastor Johnston's wife, Cindy) on an Island Safari around the island of Antigua. Rode in a jeep down to the southern part of the island, then up to a donkey sanctuary, a  historic sugar mill. Then we went out to some mangrove islands where we did some kayaking, out to Great Bird Island where we did some snorkeling and saw both the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean at the same time. The whole day was just beautiful! It was kind of fun to get out and see the country. On the way back our jeep stalled in the middle of the road. Pastor Johnston was nearby and was able to pick us up while our driver, Bill, had to wait for his buddies to come at get the jeep started. As Pastor was dropping us off at home, he said, "And tomorrow. Oh, by the way, you will be installed tomorrow." Oh! Good to know...

Sunday at church, Grady Robert Johnston was baptized into God's family. Later in the service, Miss Julie Boggs and Miss Nicole Rosenbaum were installed as teachers at St. John's Lutheran School, St. John's, Antigua. I got someone to video it, but I haven't quite figured out how to get the file onto this blog (something about a server error while it was loading). Maybe it will eventually find its way up. Sunday afternoon, Julie and I spent the better part of an hour trying to move half of a bunk bed frame from my room to the spare room. Got it out into the hallway but needed power tools to take it apart to get it in the other room. (Our handyman Elvis was able to do it Monday afternoon in about 5 mins.) Then we got a call from Pastor - had we made any plans to celebrate our installation? No, we were just sitting at home. Well, would we like to come over for a grill out? Sure. At the Johnston's we had burgers and dogs and enjoyed the company of Pastor Richards, Pastor Sternhagen and his family, and the Johnstons. It was a very nice evening.

Monday was back to work at school. Monday evening I was working at school, labeling books. I was planning to call some people on Skype while I was doing this mindless work, only to find out that the microphone on my webcam wasn't working! Long story short, I believe I have worn out the mic wire from carrying the camera around too much. Dear friend MyKayla is in FL and is kind enough to do some shopping for me to send me a new one. Don't know how long it will take to get down here... Bummer that I already ruined the camera and there isn't a Best Buy nearby to replace it. Guess I will just have to be much more careful. (Almost forgot: the exciting purchases of today were a 5lb bag of brown sugar and a case of 24 rolls of TP!)

Tuesday was our first faculty meeting. The meetings here are so very different from any I have experienced in the States. Here people show up half an hour late, speak their mind (very strongly at times) whenever they want, sometimes even talking over others who are speaking. There is no disrespect meant... It is just how they do things. Wednesday was working on bulletin boards in my classroom, and today (Thursday) was another meeting to go over the school calendar. Was treated to some local fruits by my teacher, Mrs. Titus (she is the grade 2 teacher whose classroom I am taking for the year). I have never seen them before, but they sure are sweet!

Friday evening we have an invite to the Sternhagens' for dinner. The people here are just wonderful, always checking up on us, making sure everything is going alright. It is truly a blessing to get to know these people.