Day 18

            Charles asked me last night if I would preach this morning and I readily agreed. When we got to church he had a special seat for me up front and a large bottle of water. Half way through the praise and worship music before the message, Pastor Charles leans over to me and says, "You can preach from 11:00 to 12:00, but don't feel rushed if you want to go longer it will be fine." I've never preached an hour-long sermon in my life; I don't think I am going to feel rushed. I prepared material for a 20-30 minute sermon. Now I know why he gave me so much water. This is going to be interesting.

            I got through the sermon. I don't know how long it took, but waiting for translation stretched it out significantly. No one fell asleep, not even the Americans, so I felt it was a success.

            The first thing I did after church was get rid of my tie. The inventor of the tie did not have Africa in mind when they came up with that fashion statement.

            Pastor Charles announces that we are going to go swimming for the afternoon in the Indian Ocean. We first stopped at a place that had a number of pools and beach access. It sounds idyllic - it's not. The beach access was so littered with sea grass and trash no one wanted to attempt it in bare feet. The pools ranged in color from green to dark brown depending on how many kids were in the pool and what they were doing in the pool. We didn't want to let our imaginations run to far with that one, most decided not to swim. I ventured into one of the green pools in an attempt to cool off. I avoided putting my head in the water because I believed that to be akin to giving myself a swirly in the locker room toilet. Some may question my decision to go in at all, but I was hot.

            We opted to walk down the road a half-mile to some more hospitable beach access. The water was great and yes, Judi, I did put on my sun block. There were a couple of hazards in the water: Sea grass that liked to wrap around your leg or be flung through the air by one or your comrades - relatively harmless unless you get a handful right in the face. Pumice, which would appear suddenly under your feet to deliver small cuts and abrasions - somewhat more harmful due to the drawing of blood. And finally there is Roger swimming under water to sneak up, grab your leg and scare you - essentially harmless if you are male (not a target), but potentially terrifying if you are female.