The Latest

This blog post will be just the highlights as it has been almost a month since I have posted and so much has happened.

During the last two weeks of May, I led a tourist group on a boat safari through the southern part of the country. June can be touch and go here as the monsoon is changing and the weather can be very unpredictable. However, the weather was great until our last day. On the safari we visited inhabited islands and uninhabited islands as well as spent several hours snorkeling and cruising. It was a lot of fun. We saw dolphins, sea turtles, sting rays, eels, and more reef fish than you can imagine. I got some great pics and plan to update my photo album soon. The area we visited has the smallest population in the country. The biggest island only had 600 people and the smallest island had only 90 people living there at the time. We met some really nice people on the island and hope to visit them again in the future.

The day after I sent the tour group back to the USA, our friends Arey and Nasara were married. Angie worked hard helping Nashara get ready for the big day. I think they shopped for dress material, shoes and decorations for a month or so, but it really got hectic towards the end. Angie was up with Nasara every night until almost 1 am working on stuff. It was really crazy. Both Braden and Kyndal stood in the wedding party as the new couple greeted their friends. Kyndal had a beautiful dress and Braden was dressed nice in black pants and a blue shirt. I took several pictures of the wedding. Weddings here are a bit different that the western weddings. We were fortunate to be invited to watch the actual wedding ceremony which is usually reserved for just the family. There were no candles, or soloist, no wedding march, or giving away of the bride. We sat in a small room and listened to the Magistrate speak in both the local language and Arabic and performed his simple wedding procedures. Arey and Nasara signed some documents, I think at one point there was some reading or a prayer from the Quern and then the dowery was given. It was very different, very simple, very much a formality and much more like a legal court procedure than a ceremony. The fun began after the legal procedure. Arey and Nasara stood at the door of the hotel and greeted friends and received gifts as people entered. Once the friends and family were there, they proceeded to the dinner and then promptly exited. The couple greeted the entire time of the party. Once the party was over, the couple shared a dinner together in the room where all the others had eaten and then it was time to cut the wedding cake. The couple requested that Kyndal cut the cake… so she did. No one ate the cake nor was their a guarder thrown and no one blue bubbles or threw rice as the couple swiftly ran out of the reception. By the time the couple was finished eating, almost everyone was gone. We figured it was time for us to leave so I’m not real sure what happened after that. Just kidding, I think I know.

Angie was exhausted from all the late nights and our door to our home had been more like a revolving door over the last month and Angie made a request to her travel agent (that’s me) to get her out of there. There were people coming and going at all hours, all day, every day for the last month and she expected it to be worse the next few days. It was time for a break! So I sent a few emails to some nearby resorts and got a great rate for people who hold a work visa. It was a great time and spent two nights at the resort.

I have spent the last few days working hard on our plans for our return visit to the USA. There are so many things to do here, so that we can be gone for that length of time. There are friends to see, meetings to setup, hotels to reserve, oh so much stuff. I also have a tour group coming tomorrow and I have been working hard at preparing for their Adventure Tour. They will leave on the morning of the 14th and we leave on the early morning of the 15th. So there, thats my excuse for not blogging sooner. I can check my email from my phone while on a boat or an island, but I cant update my blog.

So, our itinerary is set for our visit to the states and we have several meetings already set. Here is our schedule…. We would love to have lunch with you if you are in the area with us. We will be sending invitations to home meetings in the next few weeks once the meetings are scheduled.