Adventures with Henry and Lynn - by John

Hello all, this week was an adventuresome week for us, here are some highlights:

A great trip to St. Lucia

As you may know, Charlene’s Mom and Dad are visiting. Last week we drove down to St. Lucia, which is on the east coast, about 550km away. We had a great time down there, going to the beach, shopping, fishing (see next snippet) and generally relaxing. We were fortunate to stay in a really nice house, with our own pool. Here are some pictures:

Loaded down for the long ride

Having fun at the beach!
Our fabulous St. Lucia house, complete with pool

Braaing at the pool

Deep Sea Fishing – the Revenge of the Fish

Do you think it’s a good idea for a couple of prairie boys to go fishing in the Indian Ocean? Well, we did. While we were in St. Lucia we thought we would sign up for a day long Deep Sea Fishing expedition. Our skipper picked us up at 4:30 a.m., we drove down to the beach and launched into the surf. So far, so good. We motored out about a couple of kilometers, and the wind really picked up. The waves were VERY LARGE, much larger than Lake of the Woods for instance. Much, much bigger. Did I mention it was a smallish boat? While we fished, the boat rocked and rocked….and rocked. The ocean was a beautiful shade of green, matched by our skin color. While the other fishermen on the boat were pulling up interesting fish, we were giving the fish something back. It didn’t take long before any further thought of fishing was put aside for the fervent hope of an immediate departure from this world, bowing to Poseidon over the rail, moaning quietly with eyes tightly shut and head between knees….for the following six hours. Other than that, we had a great time. We even caught a few fish for all our efforts.

This looks pretty safe, eh?

Let's see if we can spot some fish!

The catch of the day

Swazi Shopping

Do you think it’s a good idea for a couple of prairie girls to go shopping in Swaziland? Well, Charlene and Mom think so, and therefore the Swazi economy is going to do just fine this year. On our way back from St. Lucia we drove through Swaziland, and of course we had to stop at many different craft markets. The ladies had a great time, shopping for Christmas presents and souvenirs. They spent quite a bit of time doing it, they are really good shoppers. How do you pack a nearly life-sized carved wooden giraffe?

A whole lot of ... stuff!

Hey Lady, for you a special price!

At the conclusion of a good deal, a handshake with JJ

Luggage direct to Zambia

Early last week we were wondering how we were going to get all our stuff to Zambia, since we have accumulated one or two personal items since we arrived. MCC has a bunch of household items in storage in Zambia already, so we don’t have to ship any pots and pans, but we do have a bunch of clothes, a printer, a microwave (thanks again, Uncle Dave!) and so on. The basic problem is that we have too much stuff and the airlines have cut the luggage allowance again, so we were in a bit of a bind.

While we were trying to figure out what to do, a friend told us about a friend of a friend, who had a business in Zambia. His name is Paul, and when we gave him a call he was very friendly and happy to help us out. In fact, he was going to drive up in just a few days. Much frenzied packing followed, and about a week ago we dropped off three big hockey bags and three big boxes at his place. Paul was going up about mid-week, so hopefully the stuff should be arriving any time now.

It's amazing how smoothly our transition to Zambia is going, we have a lot of people to thank for their thoughts and especially their prayers.

No really, it's carry-on luggage

Starting to Say Goodbye

We’re starting to say Goodbye to our friends in White River. This is prime summer vacation time, so a lot of people are going away on holidays. Here’s a picture of our pastor Cecil Edwards. As you can see, he is fond of very color vests (waistcoats in SA).

Bye Cecil, it was great being in your church! You were a blessing to us on many occasions.