An Island Tour

Today was a stop work at noon day and we were invited to go for a tour with five others to the upper country, as it is known. It took us five hours and we only travelled 55 miles, so needless to say, there were lots of stops and things to see. Sugar cane is still grown and processed here, but the industry is apparently dying off. We saw fields and fields of pineapples, but we needed a guide since we couldn't even determine at what stage the crop was at. We also visited a cattle ranch and winery, quite a combination. On the way home we stopped at a popular water surfing beach. It is still a growing pastime based on the numbers out in the ocean today.

The new class of participants here at Haggai has 57 men from 32 different countries. The instructors who will teach them come from 8 different countries, none of which are USA or Canada. Tonight at dinner we had representatives from Bangledesh, Pakistan, South Africa, Indonesia, Russia and India. You learn some very interesting things from these fellows, even though you can't generalize on one persons views. They certainly consider Canada as being wide open to imigration, but they also believe that it is tightening up??

Our volunteer work is becoming more routine as we adapt. A new volunteer arrival yesterday is from Elbow, Saskatchewan and he will be the men's volunteer supervisor until next April. He finished his harvest on the weekend and was on the plane Tuesday with his equipment all stored away for the winter. One floor of rooms is being renovated, so there is always something to work at if you look. I become more impressed each day with how this place functions so well with largely volunteer help. This Sunday Marlene and I will do weekend duty from 6:00am until 10:00pm. There are some duties assigned, but from what we are told, the main responsibility is to be available, cover the front desk after the day staff leave, etc. It will be a long day. On the other hand, we had a note from sister-in-law Judy to-day who mentioned that Ontario temperatures were down to 2 degrees, so that will make Sundays duties easier.