Visitors

Marlene & I had some visitors yesterday – Uncle Mac & Aunt Phyllis Thompson - are on a 10 day Hawaiian cruise from Los Angeles (6 days are at sea) and the Feb 25th was their day on Maui. They dropped anchor at Lahaina around 8:00am, which is a 45 minute car drive, or a 1 ½ hour bus ride. Since it was a work day for us, we had arranged that they would jump on the Maui bus system and enjoy the scenery. Then I found out the bus schedule had changed and I sent the new schedule to them by snail mail. Then I found out what I sent was the wrong information, and I phoned and left a voicemail at their home with the correct info. Turns out they didn’t get either my letter or the voicemail before they left, but being the world travellers they are, they did just fine and arrived here shortly after lunch. We had a leisurely tour of the facility and a nice visit before driving them back to Lahaina for their 5:30 departure. It was a short visit, but pleasant all the same, particularly since Mac & Phyllis are the first visitors we have had since our first volunteer term in 2005 when Steph and Mike came for a short holiday.
Our participants are now into their final week of classes with Convocation this coming Thursday. This is the point when you start to see some anxiety over going home. After being away from family, careers, etc. for three weeks, this is understandable. One of the participants, a University professor from southern Mexico came up to us very proudly this week, to explain that he had found our blog on the internet. Apparently, when he “googles” Haggai, our blog appeared on the list of Haggai subjects. One of the volunteers here, a pastor from Saskatchewan who is on a three month sabbatical, also told us he had found our blog and used it to get a feel for what a volunteer term was all about.
This week was the end of the regional presentations which is always interesting. There presentations become more professional all the time with the aid of internet information and audio visual tools. However, it remains a mystery to me how countries like Russia and Brazil can be so wealthy in natural resources, education, etc. and yet provide it’s citizens with such poor social security programs. The only explanation for it that I ever get is “corruption”! And yet the “West” keeps sending aid in various forms.
Tonight, seven of us volunteers are going to a nightclub show, “Warren & Annabelles” in Lahaina. So it is a big social outing for us.
Marlene is back taking her sunset pictures.