Baptisms In The Sea

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Last week I mentioned that we were going to have a baptism in the ocean after church and that it had been postponed. This week it happened and there were five people who took the plunge. There was an air of excitement as everyone left the church and walked the short distance down to the beach and out onto the dock. I think everyone stayed to witness this event. The excitement grew when we learned that there were to be five baptisms today, two men and two women from the colonia and one boy from England who has been living here for a few  years with his family. There was singing on the dock and rejoicing as each person professed his faith and was baptized. 


I didn't have my camera with me today and was disappointed until I remembered that I now have a camera in my phone (another high-tech marvel). So I took lots of pictures but then realized that I didn't bring the cable to connect the phone to my computer. Oh well, no problem....I'll just e-mail them to myself. Nope, that didn't work. BUT! I was able to send them to Facebook, so if you want to see the pictures, click on the link below.




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Happy Day

Today is Rachel's birthday. To celebrate, I drug out this picture which was taken in San Antonio when she still lived in Texas. We had a girls' weekend with my sister and niece, staying on the Riverwalk. What a fun time that was!! We should definitely do that again.

Happy birthday, Rachel. May your day be filled with as much joy and laughter as that weekend was.

The Air Show

We went to West Bay yesterday afternoon with Bob, Debi and Emily to snorkel and to watch the air show. The pilots were all staying at Infinity Bay and the place was packed. Lots of extra tables and chairs set up, music playing, a beach buffet being served. The beach was full of people, cameras in hand, watching the show. I forgot my camera, left it at home!! Debi left hers in the car. Thankfully, Emily had brought hers, so she and Debi managed to get some really good shots of the show and were kind enough to share these with me.  Thanks, mi amigas!!

The Carnival Legend was leaving the island just as the air show began. This made for a great photo op for us and I imagine the passengers had a pretty good view of the show as well.

There were two bi-planes and one monoplane doing stunts: climb and stall, loops and rolls, flying so low over the water that they frightened snorkelers and fish alike. They performed for about 90 minutes. It was a crazy, loud, wonderful show. 

We did snorkel during the last part of the show. The fish were quite obviously disturbed by the noise or the vibration; it was interesting to watch them react when the planes came really low just above the water. At one point, Debi and I both popped our heads up above water and said "this is a bit scary! Maybe we should go back in." But we toughed it out. The water was still a bit murky from the huge storm on Wednesday night and the high waves on Thursday, so visibility was not as great. That didn't stop Bob and Emily from going waaaaay out, looking for sea turtles.

We had a great time.

Car Repairs...continued

We may actually have air-conditioning in our car again. I say "may" because we just got the car back today, on a day when we are experiencing very cool temperatures and strong northerly winds - not the best day to test an air-conditioner's power to cool.

 Last year I wrote about our frequent attempts to get our car's air conditioner repaired. At first we tried finding some freon and having someone charge up the a/c. Then a friend recommended a mechanic who worked at the Kia dealership and who was allegedly good with Toyotas. We took the Rav4 in to him and he worked on it a couple of times, but never got it fixed properly. He finally said he would need to replace some parts, and we gave him the money to order them from the mainland. (Sounds risky, I know, but that is how things are often done here.) He had our car for 13 days while parts were being ordered, shipped, returned and reordered when the wrong parts arrived, and on and on. Finally, after calling Henry everyday, stopping by to check on his progress, the job was finished, we got our car back and the a/c worked! Until the freon all leaked out. Again. We decided to just live with it until we were ready to leave the island and then leave the car with Henry, again, to be repaired.

This is where it gets interesting. We had left the car with friends and asked them to drop it off with Henry. We figured he could take as long as he needed without inconveniencing us and hopefully! this time, get it fixed right. And he did take his time. Our friends would periodically stop by and check on it whenever they happened to be out that way. Weeks went by. Henry was never there. Finally, they learned that Henry really wasn't there. Ever. He had been fired.  Our car was also not there! The Kia dealership claimed to not know anything about the car's location but when pressured, did finally give directions to Henry's house. Another friend's car had also vanished along with Henry and the Rav4, so Bob and Jeremy went looking for Henry.

As they approached  the house, they spotted the Rav4. No sign of Henry or anyone else and no sign of Jeremy's car. They kept looking and finally saw Jeremy's vehicle parked way behind the house, hidden in the jungle. Bob took our car right then and there. Jeremy, for whatever reason, elected to wait and give Henry another chance to redeem himself, which, unfortunately, did not turn out well for Jeremy. His car was stripped clean - a total loss.

So, when we returned this year, our car was waiting for us - thankfully - but still no a/c. Don had learned about another guy who could actually leak check an air-conditioner, so we took the car in this week and left it with Freddy - with the warning that he could only have it for two days. On day two, Freddy said that he had found the leak and welded the offending place. He also changed the oil and filter. The bill? $153.97.

We're feeling pretty optimistic...so far.

Spectacular Snorkeling

That's really the only way to describe it....spectacular. I so wish I had had an underwater camera on Saturday when we went to West Bay (Tabyana Beach) with friends Kristin, Debi, Bob and their daughter, Emily. We started out at Infinity Bay Resort and swam and snorkeled straight out over the reef. It was a beautiful, clear day, the best kind for seeing the most color. And boy! did we ever see a lot of colorful fish!! We also saw some of the largest parrotfish I've ever seen, up to 3 or 4 feet in length. I had never seen an adult Midnight parrotfish (navy blue, as you might imagine, with vivid blue streaks along its back), or an adult Rainbow parrotfish, who is a rather garishly painted creature with an orangey/gold head and front half of the body, back half green, orangey fins edged in green, greenish lips outlined with a darker gray or black, a bit of blue splashed over the eyes. (Think Andy Warhol.)

We also saw several large  black and yellow French Angel fish and the brilliant blue and yellow Queen Angel fish, just beautiful. There were lots of the blue and yellow striped grunts, yellowtail snappers, blue tangs, younger yellow tangs, dark blue damselfish with brilliant blue dots, many types of black and white  or black and yellow butterfly fish, a black and white spotted trunkfish, Sargent Majors with their black and white stripes and a smudge of yellow on their backs. silvery red squirrelfish. There were many, many small fish in blue, purple, yellow, and multi-colored hues. So much fun to just hover over the coral and watch the fish swim.

Another highlight of the day was the large sea turtle. Bob chased him and we chased Bob. After that, I headed back in. I happened to look down and realize the water was incredibly deep and dark blue and then up and back at the beach and could not believe how far out we were (read: how far out I was!!). My first thought: "uh, oh. I have a long swim back." But I made it without any problems. Thank goodness for fins, though, otherwise I might still be out there!

Island Visits

I've been neglecting my blogging and now have a backlog of things to talk about, so this is the second blog for today...



Today was just a fabulous day, starting with worship at Sonrise this morning. The teams from Michigan and Minnesota were loading up their luggage, ready to depart for the airport right after worship. Don worked with these teams this week, building a house in Flowers Bay for a woman from our church. I'll let Don tell you about his experience in another blog.

The second thing I noticed today was that the church was packed, and not just with the teams...there were a LOT of people there from the colonia. No doubt the result of the teams working up there this week. Amazing. And tons of kids in childrens' worship. One of those people attending today was our gardener, Enrique...then I noticed his son, Carlos, was also there. Very cool!!

One of the teams put on an incredible skit, telling the story of the Bread of Life, pretty much in pantomime and with great music in the background. We had singing in Spanish and English.
 The sermon was delivered by a pastor with the Minnesota team and as usual, was translated by our friend and former Spanish teacher,  Esmerelda. Just an excellent message and great worship.

We thought there was going to be a baptism today, in the sea, and we were looking forward to that, but for some reason, it was postponed until next week.

We had been invited to come visit our friend George, the cab driver we recently helped, at his home and meet his wife. (I blogged about him coming to visit us recently and bringing his three sweet children.) We had told him we would be there around 1:30, after the baptism. Since that was postponed, we first had lunch before going to George's house. As we walked up the steps to the house and saw the chicken being barbequed, we had a sinking feeling that we had just made a faux pax. Yup, they were expecting us for lunch, and his wife had been cooking all morning. Oh my! Somehow, when Don and George were making plans, that was not well communicated. It really got lost when George and Kris first talked and then Kris had Don follow up with George. We felt just horrible!! But they were very gracious about it, and his wife packed up plates of food for us to take home for our supper tonight. We had a lovely visit and enjoyed meeting his wife and two of her sisters. George is "Spanish", meaning he's from the mainland and speaks Spanish (although he is bilingual); his wife is an islander and speaks English, so we are getting quite an education in Honduran life and culture from the two of them.  Next time, Kris will fix lunch for them - and make sure that is clearly communicated!

We're blooming!

We have these fabulous green and yellow leaved trees growing on our property and I have not been able to find out the name of it. 

They bloom in February and March.

I love the leaves, but I really love these magnificent flowers. I think they look somewhat like a bottle brush at one end.  I like that all the trees don't bloom at the same time so it prolongs the flowering season. Last year we didn't have very many blooms, but it is looking like this year will make up for it.

We're also seeing a number of different looking lizards, like this guy sunning himself on the rim of our chiminea.

This is a closeup look at the Pride of Barbados. You can see why it is one of my favorites.

Such a beautiful, elegant flower. I just had to share it with you. 

Enjoy!