Bahama Mama

20 Feb 2013

We made it!  We are now at our furthest point from home and next Monday we turn and start the long journey back.  But in the meantime, these next few days will be glorious. 

The entire morning was spent packing for our five days in the Bahamas.  We moved from the hotel parking lot, to just down the street at a lovely park, where we had breakfast and a nice view while we stepped over and on each other packing our bags and getting the RV ready.  It took longer than expected.  I had to do a little research about where to park the RV and where to stop and get LP gas so the refrigerator wouldn’t quit while we were away.  I found a place right on the way to the airport, so that worked out.  And then on the way to the off site airport parking, we saw another place advertising only $2.99 a day – half of what I was going to pay.  How can that be?  I think the cheapest I can find in Seattle is $13 a day, even with a coupon.  So we stopped in there and ended up at the airport earlier than we expected.

The Orlando Airport is almost a destination place in itself, so there was much to look at but we didn’t buy a thing.  We were just happy with the free wi-fi so we were all entertained while we waited.  I even completed another article and got that sent off.

It’s only a 51 minute flight from Orlando to Nassau so they barely had time to get us something to drink before we landed.  And the killer for Kaleb was that Jet Blue has a TV on the back of every seat with 36 channels – for free!  Talk about entertainment.  But I found looking out the window much more interesting as the shapes of the island chains and the color of the water was prettier than a picture.

Louise Godfrey, age 77, and missionary for 47 years now, picked us up at the airport with her daughter, Sheila, who is a year older than me and Sheila’s grandson, Jacob, age 3.5.  They all talk with a very southern accent (from North Carolina) and that Jacob talks very deliberately with that slow southern drawl and I simply MUST get it on video.  What a hoot. 

Sheila drove us all over the island (they drive on the left side here) and answered the million questions I had about them personally and the island in general.  I’ve never met any of them before and only Kory knew Louise.  They kept us going until dark when we stopped at Louise house and had dinner before zooming off to church for the Wednesday night program.  Louise reminds me so much of my grandma England as she starts off nearly every sentence with, “Now, Mickey….” And then she says whatever.  My grandma’s sister, Dora, from Missouri did that all the time when I talked to her on the phone.   Funny.

Kory was the main speaker tonight at a Calvary Haitian Baptist Church – a Creole church!  How funny was that?  He had a translator, of course, and we were the only white folks in the place.  He told how he became the Hallelujah guy and about the first time he came to Nassau and met Louise.  He did an incredibly great job.  I think it helped he had to keep stopping to be translated because he didn’t really mess up at all, which is so not Kory.  It’s hard for him to just get two sentences out when he’s talking to me, without messing up.  God is good.

We came to bless Louise and the church however we can, so we’ll see what the Lord has in mind for us while we are here.  The time will go by too quickly, but I’m going to enjoy every one of the 82 degree days in the forecast, and the 72 degrees at night.  Hallelujah!