Christmas Eve

 The sun seems to come up right over the ocean. I noted that it went down just off to the right of our room. It looks like it makes a high arch in the sky and comes down close to where it came up. I'm wondering how it all works and why it looks like that.

When I called reception, they told me no turtles had hatched, so I skipped the turtle walk. The Wilson's went and wondered where I had been. They didn't find anything. My ankle doesn't work so well in sand and on gravel. But I told them I would be there on Christmas morning - just in case there were hatching turtles!

Sun coming up over the ocean

There were four or five people raking up the trash that had floated ashore in the night

Plate of fruit for breakfast - yummy!

The Wilsons had planned to go to a fish market that had a smoked fishery. I decided to go along with them as Jeffrey had to deal with some work-related things. I could tell it was serious and hard decisions had to be made.

Our trip was interesting, fun, and not quite what we had expected, but interesting anyway. First, no one goes out on the ocean on Tuesdays. A day of rest for the ocean on Tuesdays. The smoked fish was not being smoked but we could see how they had stacks of wire to hold the fish in wire trays over the fire. I would imagine the fish next to the fire would possibly get burnt, but the rest would get smoked through the layers. But we could only use our imagination. 

No one spoke very much English and the children hardly at all. We did not take the "tour" we were offered but went down to the ocean to see the beach. The children came in ones and twos until we had a small company following us all over the sand on the beach. Elder Wilson said he felt like the Pied Piper. He took some fun pictures of the kids which they loved.

We found plenty of boats that had come to die and plenty of boats that were in use. The fun part was watching men sew up nets. They used their toes to hold the line taunt and very nimble fingers with a "needle" to sew the cord with floaters to the net and also to sew pieces of net together. Lots of head motions to talk as we didn't speak each others language well. They spoke English better than we could figure out their language.

None of these children spoke English. They would just point or bring things they thought were of interest to us. 

Old boat that is just about gone

Sister Wilson started collecting shells. The children quickly brought her all kinds of treasures.

Driving back from the ocean, Sister Wilson saw a woman sewing in a little shack. We stopped to explore and watch them sew without electricity.

Fishing Nets being 'sewn' --

By the time we got back to the resort, I was a little too hot. Fun day but had a headache and just wanted to stay inside with the AC. I worked on the elephant puzzle and then went out at night with the Wilson's for dinner and watching all the many activities the resort had available for fun.

Activities for every age group. Three swimming pools, ball games, archery, chess, etc.

Tennis courts next to our rooms

Singing and Dancing