Week 1 in Barbados: Summary

 

Sunday Evening Walk

What a week!  After two weeks of training through the MTC for our assignment, we left on a delayed Jet Blue flight late Friday night and landed in Boston early Saturday morning.  Had flights been on time, we were looking at a 30 minute layover luckily with gates very close to each other.  As luck would have it, the flight was delayed about an hour so it was a little tender mercy.  There aren’t daily flights to , so that was truly a blessing!  After living through our first transfer week in the mission all done by air, it truly is a test of patience and faith when flying to the southern Caribbean.  Red eye flights aren’t our favorite, but we were able to catch a nap on the 4 hour flight from Boston to Barbados.  Needless to say that all is a blur now.

We are quickly being immersed in our assignments and mission life.  Doug is learning the ins and outs of the finance role of missionaries.  His job is probably the most difficult as he will be dealing with 8 different countries, governments, and monetary units.  It’s wild!  I get to chat with the missionaries on their various ailments or just to allow them to destress.  I worked on and finished up the emergency plan and was able to orient 2 new missionaries yesterday!  I’m used to being busy, so I’ll find some new projects this week. 

Our apartment is typical island style, but has AC so can’t complain.  The grounds are lush with fruits & flowers.  We have a resident dog named Marley in the complex.  He looks just like the dog from the movie Marley & Me, so someone has a sense of humor or this is where they send Hollywood dogs to retire.  Our complex has about 12 apartments, 4 of which are rented by senior missionaries.  2 will be going home soon (September & November).  I posted a video on our most interesting neighbors….the monkeys .  They are mostly active early mornings and are quite a bit bigger than anticipated.

We walk to work M-F 9-5, which is literally about 50 steps.  Currently we share a car with the other missionaries, but will get one to ourselves in November.  It’s fine bc we are all on same schedule anyway.  We are also about 75 steps to Hastings Beach.  Sand is beautiful.  Water is beautiful.  Great snorkeling everywhere as there are coral reefs almost everywhere as well!  Young missionaries can be on the beach in dry sand as long as no one else is on the beach.  They can’t get in or near the water.  Senior missionaries—-can go swimming anytime. Weather is always 85, sunny and humid.  By day 2, I realized no since fighting the humidity, so curly hair it is or ponytails.  Skin, however, loves the moisture!

There are 72 missionaries in our mission spread between the 8 islands.  4 of the islands are French speaking and require French visas, a whole other layer of bureaucracy.  There are 3 branches of members here on Barbados.  We will be on Barbados the whole time, but we hope to island hop to a few of the islands on p-day or for a zone conference before we leave.  The chapels are all open air buildings with ceiling fans.  At 10 am, it isn’t too bad with the fans and breeze.  The outside noise can be distracting at times, but so far it’s been fine.  Members are so welcoming and have a strong commitment to the gospel of Jesus Christ!

Doug has picked up driving on the left side again like a champ.  There are quite a few Jamaicans here on Barbados including restaurants, so Doug has the best of all worlds.  Next pday, we Hope to go to the open air markets and get local produce and goods!  Prices are double what they are in the states.  Gas is the same all over the island, no matter the station.  We do have a PriceSmart, which is Costco like just not as big.  We went yesterday for the first time with another mission couple. 

We went to a different beach on Saturday with the same couple.  Sand was beautiful and water was crystal clear.  I should have packed my float & anchor.  Next Saturday, all the senior missionaries are going to a beach called Batt’s Rock to snorkel. 

Most of the islands were formed from volcanoes , so you see rocks at the beach.  Barbados is a very clean island though!  It’s old & historic, but it’s clean.  There are stushy communities for sure, but we live the genuine island  style which is simple.  We are getting use to the slower pace, but it takes some practice. We have weekly devotionals with all missionaries via Zoom.  Technology is essential in this mission.  All islands have a senior MLS couple on them to look over the missionaries, except for 2 of our French ones currently.  Anyone speak French & want to serve in Barbados??? It’s pretty awesome! Still trying to learn some basic French, as well as do some study in the French Book of Mormon Kolopoki style.

This was long and I hope I answered many of the questions that you’ve sent.  We do have wifi, so we can text and Facebook and we use What’s app.  They also issued us an android mission phone.  After years of iPhone  use, this is like learning a foreign language!  Can’t complain, because we can talk to our kids often, keep in touch with you, and get our daily grandkid videos as we watch them grow!

We  the gospel of Jesus Christ!  Doug jokes that we came on a mission to have a full-time volunteer job.  It is so fulfilling though working with the young missionaries and seeing them light up when they see you at church, on the street, or in the office.  I remember when my kids were out serving and I hope they had friendly senior missionaries to lighten their loads as well.  We  them all! Elders are already wanting Doug to play basketball and golf with them on pday. 

That’s our first full week here!  So grateful for this experience and to be in this part of the vineyard!  Life is better with Sandy toes!