ok, I admit it, I absolutely love it here in Trinidad.
It is so exciting to be involved in the books again and see a ship full of people each day.
The Trinidadians are a very friendly and fun people and it is a real privilege to be able to be here for these last few weeks of the Logos 2 time in the Caribbean.
This past weekend saw over 8000 people come onboard the ship and over 25000 books sold.
On Sunday there was still a queue to get on the ship after dark.
Sunday morning I went along to the largest church in Trinidad as part of a team. We left the ship at 7am for a service which began at 7.45 in Trinidad's second largest city. There were over 2000 in the congregation. They have been working for some time on constructing a new church building. We thought that we were meeting in the new church and they had just built it without walls (well it never gets cold here). Only after the service did we discover that we were actually meeting in the car park and the sanctuary was being built above us. The church are building it debt free as they raise the money so it will probably be another year before it's finished.
After being taken to a rather unusual take away / restaurant for lunch where we sat down to eat out of styrofoam containers, we headed back to the ship and got stuck in a massive traffic jam for an hour or more. We got some light releif from the guy in the picture below. He tried to get out of the jam by turning across the central reservation verge. But while he was waiting to pull onto the other side of the carriageway, the police car pulled up. The 3 cars waiting behind him all quickly got back onto our side of the road, but this guy jumps out of his car and lifts his bonnet pretending he has broken down. I don't know how long he had to sit there before the police car drove away!
A major part of my time has been taken up trying to help maximise our book sales but getting as much stock as possible up onto deck and rearranging stock to fill gaps and highlight titles we have large quantities of. My working day starts at 8.45 putting out the books that were pulled the previous night from the holds. I tend to work until about 5pm in the book fair then take off for a few hours after supper. At 10pm it's back to the holds to pull the orders for all the books sold that day. We normally finish around midnight so it is a long day.
But it is all worth it when you consider the impact that our books can have on peoples lives. The other day I heard how the governor of the local prison was able to get a masters degree studying with the cheap text books that he had got onboard Logos 2 on a previous visit.
Yesterday it was great to see a group of kids onboard from several childrens homes. They were brought onboard by our main sponsor for this visit "Blink Broadband" and were treated to a programme, free books, lunch and a tour. They were so happy about their experience.
Today I have been off and went with my friend John to the island of Tobago.
John and I both joined OM together in 1985 and he went to Logos while I went to Doulos.
10 years later he was the bookshop manager on Logos 2 and I was bookfair manager on Doulos.
We stayed at his home last summer in Mosbach. So it is great when we get together.
So at 5.30am we left the ship for the airport with a couple of people who were leaving for home.
We got the local flight over to Trinidad and were actually on the runway in Tobago at the advertised time for the flight to take off from Trinidad.
We had a fantastic day on the smaller quieter island where there are no high rise buildings, highways and traffic jams. This was the real Caribbean. Palm trees, white sandy beaches, aqua blue sea. Just what we needed. Thanks mum and dad for the birthday money that made this trip possible. We had a lovely breakfast at a hotel on the beach and then went on a jet ski, then a flat bottom boat trip. We ended up spending the last couple of hours before our return flight back at the hotel again.
The only real disappointment of the day was not having Heather there to share it with me. I know she would have loved to be there and at times like this I really miss her and the kids.
It still seems a long time until 22nd July when I get back to Logos Hope.
