Tales of Trinidad: More Discovery

This week we had some cool things happen. Monday, we finished cleaning out the Elder's apartment. We only had the bed to dismantle and haul away but that was quite the job since it was on the second floor and there was only the two of us. Dave just threw the mattresses off the balcony and then dropped all the bed parts to land on the mattresses. It worked really well actually. Then we had to load them and haul them in our car. We got her done and were grateful it all worked out.

Wednesday was Zone Conference and we did a video link to Trinidad. Sister Baird was very good at moving the computer camera to who ever was speaking. It really is amazing to be taught so well by these young Elders and Pres. and Sister Baird always have wonderful messages for us. It gets you enthused to do the work.

Thursday, we went to the mall to find a YSA that works there, Leanna. She is preparing to serve a mission so we are going to help her get all the paperwork etc. done. In order for us to do any visiting of the members we need someone to guide us so we can then "pin" them on the google map. She agreed to go with us after work that night.
There are guard shacks with those long arms that go up and down across the road at the place where we live. I went for a walk and decided to chat with the guard. He was a very nice young man and I asked if he had ever read the Book of Mormon. He said he had seen it but not read it. I offered to bring him one so he would have some good reading material as he sat in the shack for 8 hours a day. He said that would be fine. Since we are the only representatives of the Church on the island we need to be a little more proactive with the missionary work. Pres. Baird told us that if there are any investigators or less actives that need teaching, we will be doing that. Didn't expect that, but it'll be good.

We picked Leanna up at 7 pm then proceeded to explore Tobago in the dark...which isn't the best...because the roads are narrow, have that deep concrete ditch on both sides, are very curvy and cars are going pretty fast (in my opinion) Just to understand: Think what it's like on a mountain road going around a curve of which you can't see the oncoming traffic. That's what it's like in Tobago on steroids. I had no idea that it would have mountains and valleys. I promised myself I wouldn't go on and on about the traffic ever again but it's such a "thing" oh, oh, I almost forgot, while we are on the subject of traffic, drivers are quite kind here in that they will stop and let you get on the road and they don't pull out in front of you but wait until there is an opening and they don't pass into oncoming traffic. It is so refreshing and calming to my soul. Dave doesn't have to be pushy or aggressive here to get places, he can be accommodating and kind because that's what goes on here. Funny, you wouldn't think traffic had a personality but it appears to be so in our experience. No more watching out for people, bikes, animals and passing cars, now it's treacherous narrow mountain roads all over but with kind people.
We made it to Sister Shirley Henry's home. She is a sweet lady that is too large to leave her home. It happened to be someone's birthday in her home that night so we just introduced ourselves, gave hugs and said we would return at a better time. We then drove Leanna home and met her mother, who was a member but converted to Muslim. Very nice though. So, now we had two places pinned to begin to map out the branch members and know how to get back to their homes.

Friday, we decided to drive completely around the island. Easier said than done. We started at the farthest tip on the Caribbean side, Tobago is surrounded by two bodies of water, not sure how that is possible but that's the way it is. Caribbean Sea on the northwest, called the Leeward side, and the Atlantic Ocean on the Southeast, called the Windward side. It lives up to it's name too. There seems to always be a wind when you walk along the ocean. We drove along and went down any street that had a sign for a beach. The first was Buccoo. It is a quaint little town with a beautiful white sandy beach with vibrant blue water. Lots of boats that offer tours of the island. There were maybe 10 people on the beach. We drove further and made stops. It was interesting how different each beach spot was. Some had large rocky shores on the sand and others had lots of palm trees.Some were free of any commercial progress and in their natural state and others had restaurants and bars etc. Each beautiful in it's own way and lots of variety. It was also very nice that you could go to any beach and not pay a fee.
As we were driving we noticed a sign for a Vacation home for rent. Jema's Guesthouse. Our children and their spouses are coming to visit us in Feb. 2020 so we decided to check it out. We followed the signs and ended up in a beautiful place in a valley all it's own. It had a darling home with a large front porch. It was occupied by travelers but they told us we could find Jema in the back. We met her and told her what we needed and she said she would get back to us after she talked with her husband who lived in Germany. She splits her time, 6 months in Tobago and 6 months in Germany. As we were leaving she asked about our badges. She had never heard of the Church, Mormons, Joseph Smith or the Book of Mormon. We told her about the restoration and gave her a Book of Mormon. It was an incredible experience and I kept getting goosebumps on my arms as we were talking. She said she had tried a lot of religions but wasn't happy with any. She feels like there are things missing from the Bible. Really a lovely lady and we hope she will read and pray about the things we talked about.
We left her and continued on our journey. At some point we took a wrong road. The roads are very confusing for newcomers. We ended up taking a road that crossed the island instead of going around the shore. Very curvy up and down, I'll call them mountains. We drove around for about 3 hours and only managed to go a little bit around the island. Still an adventure! And we were supposed to find Jema. She even said " God sent you here"

Saturday, we decided we would go and do service for Jema. She runs that whole Guesthouse which has 6 or 7 bedrooms, by herself plus all the yard work. We tried to call but she didn't answer so we just drove there. We found that she was not feeling well, that's why she didn't answer her phone. She was quite happy when we said we would love to come and do some service for her and it was decided we would come back on Wednesday.
Sunday, Church began at 9:15 when the majority of people came, the Branch Pres. included. He is great young man, only 23 and unmarried. A mighty large assignment for this young man. We had 15 people attend. Dave and I spoke. The next hour RS/PR lesson was spent going over the branch roster and having them tell me about each person. There were a handful that no one knew. There were only 4 of us and they were leaders in RS so it was great to go over it. We made plans to go visiting with Sis. Cupid and Sis. George this week. Lots and lots of work to be done.

We walked the whole boardwalk in the mangrove forest and found this cool platform.

Honestly, pictures cannot help you appreciate the enormity and wonder of this forest.

This is a basic neighborhood.

The quality of life here is leaps and bounds above what it is in much of Guyana.

Dave dropping bed parts

The trunk couldn't close and would spring up so Dave had to "McGyver" a solution. We found a long strip of plastic box strapping material, a hair tie and a stick. Luckily the bed frame had holes in it so he put the hair tie around the stick and stuck it in the hole and it became a stopper going horizontal over the hole, then he laced the plastic strip through the lining of the trunk and looped the strip through the hair tie and knotted it and "Wahla" it held well for the 20 minute ride and we even had to undo it when we got to our destination.

Loaded and ready to go with a hope and a prayer

They have orange watermelons here! Yummy like red watermelons

Can you guess which way the wind blows?

This is a termites nest on a mangrove tree

Get ready for lots of flower pictures...

This flower is the size of a dime

This stem is cool, it's just so thick for such a tiny flower, another dime size one

This one is the size of a quarter

All of these flowers are what we see as we take our walk around the golf course, usually daily

One of the shore lines

Cool pelican

Another shoreline

This is one of the country's past time. Goat racing. They have some beautiful stadiums for this event

A beautiful beach with no one on it...this was taken on a Friday afternoon

different beach ...

This is Jema's Guesthouse

She has a Calabash tree in her yard. These are like gourds and used to make bowls and other utensils. They have a very hard shell and the inside isn't eaten.

Very plentiful in African and was brought over by slaves