More on Desert Golf

One sister is hitting her ball which is in the rough. You can tell by the red post on the left of the picture. We didn't venture far into the cactus or bushes, so we didn't see any snakes. However, we did see donkeys and about 75 goats. It was a strange sight to see goats on the "green". Afterwards we had a barbeque at our place for all of them.

The Desert Golf Course

One of the young missionaries is teeing off on the first tee. As you can see it is pretty desolate and yet here there are no cactus or bushes as your rough. Another missionary went to retrieve my ball from the cactus. You need to take a club with you because of the snakes. The close up picture of cactus includes a dark colored flat surface that is the green. This is all sand that has been mixed with oil. You can use a carpet as a kind of rake to smooth the green before you shoot. The only trouble is that the greens smell. Also your ball does not roll well. Of course, your ball doesn't roll well on the course either. Once the ball hits the sand or rocks it pretty much stops dead. I hadn't golfed for over 40 years and this was Dave's first attempt. He didn't see why so many people get so much enjoyment from playing golf. It could be that the temperature was over 100 and the humidity high and the wind was very strong. His whole head today is very red. We had golf carts and the "kids" saved us the new cart. However, there was a lot of walking because we didn't hit the ball that far and it was easier to just walk. Hole # 1 took over an hour to play. We had a sister missionary who had never played before either and there were six of us playing together. After 3 1/2 hours we had finished 5 holes.

Fun on Preparation Day

Each week we have one day to take care of personal business such as laundry, shopping, haircuts, email,cleaning, etc. and hopefully have some time for fun. This week we decided to get all the missionaries (14) together from all parts of the island and go desert golfing. Eight of them took the bus to this end of the island and we squeezed in cars and went to the course. The well at the golf course ran dry several years ago and has now reverted to what most of the island looks like--desert, rocks, and cactus. Here is a picture of all the missionaries except us as we were taking all the pictures.

TOURING ARUBA

Yesterday our Branch President took us and two senior sisters from Bonaire on a tour of the island. We saw many parts of the island that we had never seen before. We saw beautiful luxurious homes and townhouses, 2 golf courses, and many beautiful beaches. We drove through a national park which mainly consisted of rocks, cactus, and brush. Notice the picture of a cactus wall and a stone wall for fencing. The ocean water is turquoise colored.

Our Week in Aruba

I've mentioned the tall barrel cactus and bushy brush that is all over. These pictures show a little of that.

An exciting event was a baptism in the Caribbean Sea. We had a short service at the chapel and then drove to the beach, had the baptism, sang a song, had a prayer and then had some refreshments.The last picture shows the young elders and young sisters that we have been working with. The first picture shows most of the women at the baptism.

We've discovered on the far side of the island the beautiful high rise hotels. We had a lovely dinner and watched a water fountain show that was coordinated with music.