Tales of Trinidad: Discovering Tobago

Here we are in beautiful Tobago! This island is only 6 miles long and 2 miles wide. The saying goes, "Nothing is very far away in Tobago." Honestly, We feel like we've died and gone to heaven with our surroundings but lack the dear people we love so much!
Monday the 11th we finished all the cleaning and packing and said goodbye to our home of 4 months in Guyana. There are many things I will not miss but they are already documented so there is no need to rehash them.
Pamela has a sister that lives in Wales, which is on the way to Georgetown, so we picked up Pamela, Joel and sweet Ra-ella and drove into Georgetown. Wales is beautiful with rice paddies and sugar cane fields. We arrived at Pamela's sister's home, which was amazingly beautiful and very modern. We had a nice visit, she fed us and we said our last goodbyes to them. Many tears later, we were on our way. These folks will never be forgotten and have a lasting place in our hearts.
We got into Georgetown and went to the mall to kill some time. It really is a pretty good one. We dropped the car off and took our bags to the Whitaker's. We had a lovely dinner and a nice visit with them. We slept well and were up Tuesday morning at 4 am to get to the airport by 6. Our favorite taxi driver, Sherlock, got us safely to the airport. Our flight was on time and we landed in Trinidad. Going through immigration was nothing like last time. We walked right up to the portal and got all of our papers stamped and approved. We can stay in Trinidad for one year and then we have to get another medical exam and probably pay another $67 US each for another visa. Going through customs was another breeze. Word to the wise, if you are going to the Caribbean, don't go during "Carnival" which is the last of Feb. to the second week in March. It is a mad house.
The Trinidad missionaries picked us up and drove us to the William's (the senior couple in Trinidad)
We walked around a bit by the apartment and were delighted to discover a wonderful grocery store with all kinds of food we haven't seen for months! Frozen blueberries to put on my oatmeal! That afternoon the Williams took us to a fabulous shopping mall! Wow! We spent a couple of hours there and then went back to the apartment. The Williams are so gracious and kind.
The next morning, Elder Williams drove us to the airport and we flew the 20 minute flight to Tobago. We got a very nice lady taxi driver to take us to President George's, (the branch president here) home where the mission car was being stored. President George had put the battery from his car into the mission car (not sure exactly why...) so we had to go find a place to buy a battery to give his back.
So, we googled battery places in Tobago and headed out. We found it and they didn't have any and suggested another place giving us directions that we really couldn't figure out. We drove around for awhile stopping at any car place we saw, learning they had no batteries and instructions to find another place. We saw quite a bit of Tobago...the streets are very narrow and instead of ditches on each side of the road they have 6 by 4 inch cement strips that line the ditches, pretty precarious driving situation. We googled batteries again and it came up with Massey's which is like Target. We found it, they put a new battery in, we dropped off the other battery and we were off to get the keys to our new home.
Our new place is on a golf course and walking distance to the ocean. I don't want to gush about living here but we feel very spoiled with this opportunity. There is a walking path around the course and we discovered a Mangrove forest with a boardwalk through it. Mangroves are critical in stabilizing shore lands and protecting them from erosion. Fascinating! It's the dry season here so it's not especially green but there are still some lovely flowering trees and bushes to enjoy. It will be fun to see it come to life when the rains begins.
The condo itself is lovely too. It has a very large kitchen, two bedrooms, three bathrooms, living/dining area, a washer and dryer, (I washed Dave's white shirts 3 times with bleach to get all the Guyana water stain off of them and I almost forgot to use the dryer, ) a dishwasher, a TV and stereo system, really great internet, a back deck, a swimming pool, no loud music, barking dogs or chickens and clean water 24/7! Like I said, I don't want to gush.... It's all on the ground floor as well. No more climbing that long set of steep stairs with groceries.
We went and bought groceries and started unpacking. That was all Wednesday!
Thursday, we unpacked some more and tried to get our phones to work here, which we are still working on. Hopefully we will get that done tomorrow on Monday. We went to the Elder's apartment that has been vacated and met with the landlord to terminate the lease. He was very nice. We then started packing up stuff to move out. It really wasn't much, just a lot of Books of Mormon, pamphlets, and other things. Unfortunately it was up a very long flight of stairs so it was up and down carrying as much as we could each time. We still need to go back and get the bed and mattresses and then it will be all cleaned out. Some other Elders had come earlier a couple months ago and clean out the kitchen contents so it wasn't very much to do. We did find two cricket bats and two cutting swords under the bed. These swords are used for cutting down weeds and chopping coconuts open. Not sure what to do with them...
Friday, with such a wonderful internet, I finally got to knuckle down and figure out the new assignment of Housing Manager. There are 68 properties that have to be managed in 6 different countries, Renewing and Terminating leases, sending out apartment inspections, and procuring other housing as needed. And...keeping accurate documentation in a file. I have shed a few (many) tears with this but now I feel like I can do it and even feel somewhat proud of myself that I'm getting it. Dave has helped a lot with teaching me how to work an Excel spreadsheet and how to download and transfer files etc. There is no way I could have learned these things without him. I don't know how long I will have this assignment but now it doesn't matter because I get it....mostly.....and it will only become easier the more I do it. Yay for doing hard things and getting way out of my comfort zone!
Saturday was more Housing work for me and Dave worked on the financial report again. It's a difficult task when you have three different currency to deal with and keeping track of what the Church pays for out of mission funds and what we pay for out of our pockets. Really, I guess we pay for it all since we pay into the mission fund every month. It just has to be separated and reported on every month. I also got a professional hair cut that will grow out to be fairly cute, I think...
Sunday, we had stake conference with a video / Skype type thing. There were 16 people that came. It was pretty good but a little hard to hear clearly what was said. Afterwards we visited with Pres. George to find out how we can help him and the members while we are here. It was decided that we would do our visiting, trying to love people back to church and start some "linger longers" like we had in Mississippi, and organized some branch activities as well. We are excited to get to work!
All in all, it's been a busy week and Dave and I continue to improve on our understanding of each other and figuring out how to do things. Being married for 20 years with spouses working is very different then being retired/plus mission companions 24/7 and it has introduced some new situations that we have had to work through. It all boils down to: we dearly love each other and we are completely committed to our marriage and to serving the Lord. It is quite the ride!

Our first sunset in our new place

One of the views

I don't know where all the people are, but these beaches are quite nice.

The brownish orange stuff is seaweed. Evidently, it has been very bad this year.

This is just a short walk from our place.

Cool looking water pipes

There is a lovely lily pond on the path around the golf course

This is as large as a dinner plate

There are white ones, lavender ones and hot pink ones

The leaves are amazing too!

We spotted a mom and her chicks walking on the lily pads

This flower is only dime size

This is a tiny one too

Beautiful hibiscus every where

This is a cool pod of something...maybe we will see it in bloom another time

It looks like a tree died and they made it into a planter

This is a mangrove forest. This picture doesn't show how really cool this is

A very large...probably the size of a Reese's Peanut butter cup, spider.

Notice how thick and tangled up the roots are.

The boardwalk in the mangrove forest. You can't see it but the tree sends branches down into ground and more sand and mud gather around the roots and new land is created. Fascinating!