Vacation in St. Lucia - by Charlene

If you’re thinking of the island in the Caribbean, this is not it - but it would rank very close in our opinion. Some of you are aware of the stressful times that we’ve faced in the last month or so and this vacation was exactly what we needed. There’s something about fresh air, sunshine and jumping waves in the ocean that induces restful nights and rejuvenates the soul. We’ll write more about our work situation once there are more details to share but right now MCC is looking for another organization for us to partner with so that we can continue our work here.

St. Lucia (more info on this link) is a national world heritage site and it contains beaches, coral reefs, a game park, thousands of wild hippos and crocs, humpback whales in winter (now), leatherback turtles in summer and over 500 species of birds. We stayed in St. Lucia for 5 nights and then drove through Swaziland on our way back home on Sunday. Our vacation highlights included a whale-watching tour on the Indian Ocean where our boat got to see the first new baby humpback whale of the season. At only 1-2 days old, it was estimated that the baby weighed around 800 kilos! We got completely drenched despite the rain coats we had been given but it was well worth it. We also enjoyed 4 different beach sites on the coast with one of them being full of rocks forming tide pools and full of shells, fossils and crabs.

Today was back to reality as the kids went back to school for their first day of the third term. Term 4 ends at the beginning of December at which time the girls will finally finish their grades that they began in Winnipeg in Sept/05.