Like this:

This is Rob’s tale about pig’s tail. There is not much to say actually, but I somehow find a way to say a lot even when I don’t intend to. Yeah, I know Mr. Wiseguy or Wisegirl, you are not the only one(s) who have told me that!  However, as I was saying, this is Rob’s tale about pig’s tail, so I will tell the tale! For  lunch we had white rice served with  black beans cooked with pig”s tail. It was my next to the last meal, and I knew that by request I was going to have pizza this evening, so I went for it. And actually it was quite good! It looks really bad, especially when cooked with black beans in a black sauce that makes everything look as though you are eating tar, but basically it tasted like, um, let’s see, well, it tasted like pork!!!!! Imagine that. Just porky. No, it wasn’t curly like fries at Arby’s!  It was round and quite tasty. Eat it in the dark and you would never know it was a tail.

Some of you, from your responses, thought I was leaving Thursday after that reflective type blog on Wed. Nope. I leave tomorrow (Sat) at 12:40 if all goes right (I think we turn right. The pilot has a gps lady to tell which way to go) to Barbados. I am scheduled to  arrive in Atlanta about 8 something where I will overnight, then fly to Louisville to arrive @ 9:30 a.m.. I hope to hurry to church that morning because I am supposed to sing, but more importantly, Bob Russell is supposed to preach! Hope all the flights work well for me.

Yesterday after class, I took a one hour ferry ride to Bequia Island to do some more snorkeling. Cost me a whole $20 for the trip and snorkeling! What a steal, and I got to do it in the bluest warmest water …… it was so sweet! On the boat with me was a couple that was going diving while I snorkeled. I was jealous of them. Lord forgive my covetousness, and bless all those pigmys in Africa. I had on a Steelers t-shirt and hat, (plus other clothes!) and the girl asked if I happened to be from Pittsburgh or was just a Steelers fan. I told her of my roots and she said that she was from Sharon, Pa. just up interstate 79 and was a Steelers fan. She had been to Kennywood many times so she knew where I was from near the Burgh. She introduced me to her husband especially when I told her I was  from Louisville because that is where he was raised. He is a 1982 graduate of St. X high school and was a swimmer when in school. (k, if  you insist, we can do it all together again on the count of three. Ready? One, THREE! “Wow, what a small world!” Sorry to fool you on the count, but I just couldn’t wait to get it out. The small world quote was one of the first statements to come out of the Louisville guys mouth too. (I chuckled inside when he said it.) It was nice to visit. Cards or Cats? I know that is what Louisville folks are thinking. Well, as I was leaving I said to her, “Go Steelers!” and to him “Go Cards!”, but he said “I am a Cats fan.” Good thing we were close to the dock when I pushed him back  into the water! Lol. They are in their 30′s and live in Chicago, but they took a year off work, bought the boat in Spain (they did not sail it back) but did sail from Florida to different islands on their way to Bequia and other islands, then they plan to sail back to Chesapeake Bay and sell their boat and go home. It is so odd to me that there are really people like that out there who do those adventurous things. How awesome! Imagine treating sailing like you would driving a car across the state or the nation. That is braver than I would be, I guarantee it. I would feel like Captain Hook as though there was an alligator or a shark following me everywhere I went!

I am wrapping my mind around leaving here, especially after having done most of my packing. Lord willing I will be in Atlanta this time tomorrow night. No more tropical breezes and sun and warmth. Back to cold and snow and winter coats. I was thinking of some of the things I have done without for three weeks like my cell phone, a vehicle, television for the most part, the Olympics, sports, shopping, fast food, white people, evenings alone, hot showers, a dryer, etc. I was blessed to have a washer to use, but I had to hang my clothes with clothespins on the line behind the school. Just like the students. But they don’t have a washer!!! No, they scrub their clothes as Ismel was doing this afternoon in a plastic tub in a cement sink in the back near the clotheslines. How many college students in USA would do that?

But one thing I have missed is room to move. When your residence is 11 by 18 in the miles category, it is easy to get claustrophobic. The ocean is your barrier. There is not a lot to do as far as entertainment, etc. Suddenly your world seems smaller. When you can’t drive because you would wreck into someone because you forgot to drive on the right side o f the road and gas is exorbitant, your world shrinks even more. Feet become very important. If you want to shop, every store owner about has a monopoly. We were talking the other day on where to buy a desk lamp, and two stores were the options. Two! And your world shrinks some more. Getting away to the other islands or out on the water is an open doorway and a fresh feeling of breeze on the bald head, but also a fresh feeling of freedom. Snorkeling opens a whole new world, also.

Well this is getting long again. So let me tell you about tonight, and when I get back home I will do some retrospectives.

I went to the store and bought a cake mix and ice cream. $42 e.c., still about $18 U. S. But I had to get rid of my E.C. money anyway, and I had to toss in $2 U.S. I wanted to have a party tonight. The students made the cake and topped it with the Pillsbury icing I had bought. The ice cream was some chocolate packed in a plastic tub, about a quarter gallon I imagine. The cake was fantastic and is served by the slice here, not by the piece. I had pushed the tables together so we were family-stylin’ it. The surprise was mine when first a student prayed for me with wonderful words and heartfelt thoughts to the Father. Then Gregory spoke followed by Ismel, and doggone it, they brought tears to my eyes. Such thanks and kind words of praise. We will miss each other. I shared with them some of the thoughts I have shared with you as to meeting from different worlds for three weeks and then leaving to be used by God until we meet sometime, perhaps not until heaven. Then we served the ice cream because it was melting in this heat (sorry Louisville), then the cake. They are not served together. You eat your ice cream (perhaps because it melts so quickly) and then you serve the cake, one in a bowl and the other on a plate. You can figure which. Serving each separately was better, because it made the time together last longer. A good time was had by all. (I just had to use that small town newspaper worn out, throw-it-in-the-trash phrase.) Then I returned their graded tests to them and they didn’t like me any more. Lol.

This has been a good experience and I will miss the people. Once again, I owe a great debt of thanks to the elders and people of Shively Christian for their patience and kindness in not just allowing me to go, but in supporting my going with encouraging words and prayers. Thanks to First Christian in New Salem, which paid for my plane ticket after I preached a revival there, and a few individuals like Betsy and Bettie who also helped financially. And thanks to all of you who have traveled with me, as my brother wrote a couple nights back, by reading the blog, responding a time or two and praying for me. There is so much more to tell you, including our dinner conversation when Rohan came to eat with us and talk got to eating iguana. He catches them to eat……

There will be more to tell as it surfaces through the next few weeks. So, until then my friends, next time you oder a burger, ask for a side of pig’ s tail, snort, snort!

Th,th, th, that’s all folks!  See you stateside.

Rob

P.S. This morning while giving the Life of Christ final, I heard from the dogs, the rooster, the plane and the forever ambulance. No goats this time, but the cow made a very mooooving goodbye on behalf of the other animals and distractions. First time I had heard from the cow.

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