Tonight I am sitting by the seaside road.  In front of me and to my right, there are several yachts tied up.  Each one has a little light on its mast, so the masts tend to look a bit like street lights.  The catamaran in front of me has a large-screen TV on the go, and seems to be a pleasant home on the water.

(No photos today)

To the far south, I see the occasional flash of lightning, and I’m not sure but that it might be off the coast of Venezuela, South America.

Just like at home, people have a strip where they tend to drive their modified cars, with huge stereos blaring. Here, it is the seaside road where I’m sitting.

This morning I got to the studio a bit early in order to place a Skype call to Joanna.  She is attempting to book an earlier flight from Curaçao to Bonaire, but at this point, she hasn’t been able to complete that.  Hopefully she will get hold of an island telephone and give me a call if her plans change.  As it stands, I’ll be going to the airport at 3:30 to pick her up on Saturday.  We are both excited.

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After devotions, I was able to talk to Brad and Brandon about how we might get the technical issues sorted out on the new website.  After a long discussion, we seem to have come up with a plan to get The A Group to make the changes.  However, this is pending the approval from headquarters, which won’t be forthcoming until next week.

I also decided to get a second opinion on my technical assessment of our website issues.  I called Gary Roebbelen, who is the Canadian webmaster for TWR Canada.  My question to him was, Should we delay the launch in order to get our technical issues sorted out, or go ahead and launch with them still malfunctioning?   His answer was very insightful.  He said the thing that is most important is to get the website actually launched.  He has dealt with other websites that have been continuously tweaked for sometimes years, and never do end up going live because they never will be perfect.  So I have consented to launching it within the next two weeks, regardless of whether everything is functioning to my satisfaction.  In the meantime, we intend to make our best effort to have the changes made by The A Group.

I spent much of the morning and afternoon documenting everything that needed to be done, and also verifying some of the changes that had been made.  Several of the requested changes remain outstanding.  I guess I have to be thankful for the small steps that we did manage to make today.

Brandon invited the staff to a Monday luncheon to celebrate my contribution here.  Friday will actually be my last day in the office, as they want me to be able to spend time with my sister, for which I’m very thankful.  Basically, while waiting for the website changes to be completed, I have no other significant projects to work on, so Brandon made the decision to allow me to have the next two weeks off to spend with my sister. Having my sister present for this little celebration will be the icing on the cake!

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After work, I stopped by a few different supermarkets looking for some flea powder, and finally found the last can at the Top Supermarket.  I also picked up some flea treatment for the back yard, and bought some rawhide chew sticks for the dogs to enjoy.  When I did get home, they were immensely grateful for their little presents.

Tonight I decided to take a break from diving and get the place cleaned up to some extent.  I did the stoop and scoop in the back yard for about half an hour.  Then I swept all the floors in the house.  It rather looks like you are sweeping the back yard, as there is so much dust on the floor.  It is different from the house dust in Canada, as here it is mostly very, very fine dirt that blows in off the landscape and through the open louvres.  It is amazing how much dust can collect in just one week. I could probably grow a plant with the dirt I’ve swept up since I’ve been here.

I then went out and picked up two more tanks of Nitrox for my dives on Saturday with Jay.  Tomorrow I will have to pick up my free tank from the Hamlet Dive Shop for when I do the sensor reading Friday evening.  I also hope to make contact again with the Canadian dive master from last night, as he is interested in becoming an ocean monitor.  I know Albert can use all the help he can get in keeping up with the underwater monitoring program.

Tonight is movie night at the Pedersen’s, and then I’m diving with Jay at 8:00 am on Saturday. Depending on when my sister arrives, I may not have time to put up a blog until perhaps Sunday. But I’ll do my best. I feel very fortunate to have had my mother transcribe all my audio blogs. Otherwise I most likely wouldn’t have been able to stay current for the last month. Thanks mom.

Here is an idea for missionary supporters back home. Ask your missionaries if they would benefit from having someone transcribe audio blogs sent to them in mp3. For me it takes about twenty minutes to dictate, and 10 minutes to review and post the next morning. If I have a lot of photos, that takes me about another 10 minutes to go through and delete the blurry ones. Then I just upload the entire series from that day. So total time out of my day to keep my supporters up to date: between 30 to 40 minutes. If I had to type it myself, I’d likely be at it for an hour and a half. Typing also requires a desk, where you can do dictation from anywhere. So if you are a typist, you may want to conisder a transcription ministry.

So, just two more sleeps until my sister arrives!