Boxing Day Break

Krystin and Samora

 December 26, 2012

A Day of Relaxing

Today is Boxing Day, a big holiday in the UK, so today we took a day off and went to the beach with the Kalama Family.  Frank is the BP of Tortola Branch.  Originally from Hawaii, he served a mission to Spokane Washington and then married Tau from Rarotonga in the Cook Islands.  

Tau, Gaye, Frank

They have lived on islands all their lives and they know how to enjoy living by the sea.  We spent a few hours at Cane Garden Bay.

We were going to go yesterday but the wind was up and the waves were too high.  There were actually some surfers out on the waves.  But today was very nice.  We drove the long way to get there.  We could go by the Ridge Road, but Frank wanted to show us how to get there, so we drove through town and around the south side.  Next time we will be on our own.  It is fairly hard to get hopelessly lost on this island.  Drive far enough and you will be where you started.  We drove almost to the West End, then over Zion’s Hill to Cane Garden Bay.  It is a big sheltered bay where the cruise ships like to bring their passengers.  Actually the ships don’t bring them, the taxis do. They are trucks with open seating in the back.  I imagine it is quite a thrill to ride up and down the steep roads in the back of a truck.

We had fun riding the paddle boards.  They are like very large surf boards upon which the rider sits, kneels, or stands and paddles around.  The Kalama’s have been at it for a long time and do very well standing up.  

Tau and Frankie Kalama

Hina and Tau Kalama

I got to my knees and actually made it to standing before I fell off.  

Brave Elder Patterson

Gaye was content to just sit and paddle around.  

Not so brave Sister Patterson

The water was so clear and so comfortable.  At times there were even rain squalls that rolled through.  It was so fun to just stand out in the rain and get wet.  It diluted the salt from my body.

We saw some guys take a big fishnet out and haul in a load of fish.  It was interesting to watch.  I asked one of the guys hauling the net in how much they made per haul.  He said a good day would be about $2500.  How often do they do it?  Every day he said.  

Cast Your Nets on the Other Side

They watch to see the fish stirring the surface and out they go.  We could actually see the school of fish as they got into a bunch of smaller fish and the bigger ones were stirring up the water as they went after their prey.  Too bad, though, because that attracted the attention of the fishermen and now the fish are in the fish market.  There were also big old frigate birds swooping down to grab a fish or two.  

Frigate Bird

Today is also the big horse racing day on the island.  There is a race track that takes up a good size piece of the valuable flat land.  Boxing Day is the big race day.  We drove past the track as people were arriving for the races.  There did not appear to be any parking for a mile up or down the road.  It would actually be fun to go, but that is not going to happen.

Tomorrow we have a few maintenance things to do. Bills need to be paid.  Telephone, water, cable, etc. are due at the first of the month.  But they do not send out statements.  They just tell their customers that the money is due at the end of every month and if it is not paid on time the service is cut off.  Not a bad way to do business, really, especially when there is no competition.  Many of the services are getting set up to take payments online.  That will be a lot better.  

Tomorrow we will also pick up the new Suzuki Grand Vitara.  This is a small wimpy SUV.  It can haul 5 people and has a reasonable cargo area.  I have mentioned the problem with who will be driving what.  

Steep Driveway

President is quite adamant about the senior couple driving the SUV (or is it that he does not want the YFTM’s to drive it?).  

Elders' Apt Top Right

The truck is more powerful and certainly more useful, but we will do what he tells us to do.  

Hillside Homes

It is looking like President Kalama will be able to purchase one of the trucks, too.  That is great.  That will make it more convenient for them to transport some of the members who do not have vehicles.  We have been doing some of that transporting but the authorities up the line don’t want us to do that and we want to be obedient.  

Life is good.  This is a slow time as the locals take a break between Christmas and New Year’s Day.  Two big cruise ships just went past out location on their way to Road Town, so the town will be full of White tourists, mainly American and European.  They are noisy and dress sloppily.  We just try to keep our heads down.

Happy New Year!  We pray for the blessings of heaven to accompany each of you through 2013.

That’s it for now.