Saturday, June 8, 2024

Saturday, June 8, 2024

• Cleaned the church
• A bad experience at the landfill
• Pidgeon Island trip

This morning we got up early and went to the church to help clean. Well, only one other person came, the young woman's president, Sister Celina George. She is very dedicated. It was the young women's turn to clean the church. No young women came and we suspected that might be the case. Usually the sister missionaries help clean on the the young women's turn, but they did not show up. We got after it and it actually did not take that long, maybe an hour. We hauled a bunch of junk to the garbage dump and took Sister George home since she lives close to the dump. 

So the dump is just that a dump and the smell is off the chart bad. There were flies everywhere. The girls, Sister George and Tina, did not want to get out. So as I backed up these two guy's and a little boy came to the truck to help unload it. I thought they must work at the dump. They were very hard to understand. Anyway they helped me unload the stuff and there was an old water cooler that we were throwing away. The guy said something to me, but he was one of those people that I just couldn't understand what he was saying. Anyway, he through the water cooler back into the truck and I thought he said to take it to Aarons in Castries. Anyway he and the little boy jumped into the back. Sister George didn't like that. She didn't want us to take her home because she didn't want him to know where she lived. I felt bad that I did not understand what the guy had said. Sister George said just let me out at the corner where you turn off to the dump and she would walk home. So that is what we did. It is a little walk but not to far. Oh, she said, when I get out lock your doors and do not let them in. Well we were not sure what to do, we knew we were not going off the main road anywhere. We finally figured out that he wanted to take the drinking fountain to a scrap yard to get the money out of it. Anyway we stopped at one and no one was there. He wanted us to take it to another place about a mile the other way. We did and when we got there he unloaded it, but left the little boy, about 5 in the back of the truck, I assume so we wouldn't leave him. Anyway he got back in and wanted us to take him back to the corner that goes to the dump. He got out and got the little boy out and came and shook my hand and said he would always have my back. Maybe we made a friend, who knows. All I know is that we were glad to get him out of the truck and no one got hurt.

We came home and had lunch then went to Pidgeon Island. This is what I would call a state or national park. Actually it is no longer an island because they have hauled dirt to make it connected to St Lucia. Anyway, we are now considered citizens of St. Lucia which has some benefits. It cost us $10 EC apiece and if we are not a citizen it is $25 US dollars apiece. That would be about $65 EC apiece. 

The soldier barracks at Pidgeon Island. How do you like the cowboy hat?

At any rate, we hiked the trails and went to the Capitan Rodney fort, which was interesting. We hiked around to see the other buildings. I guess the island was mostly a military island back in the day. After hiking around, we went and got our swimming and snorkeling gear out of the truck and went swimming until the park closed, which is 4:45 pm. Odd closing time. I would guess it is the off season closing time, but I might be wrong. 

Cannon at Fort Rodney

Aiming out to Sea

We had a nice evening. We came home and had dinner and I looked at the video's I took with the GoPro that Tanner gave us. It was a little murky but you could see fish close up. It was kind of cool. Swimming in the ocean really makes my skin feel soft. 

Don't know what this was, but had some nice brick work