posted May 21st

Greetings from Grand Cayman where we arrived 5 days ago—our first Caribbean destination where we’ll be spending 6 weeks before travelling to Jamaica & finally on to Fiji in August!

Arriving here was quite a challenge for us as we had absolutely no contact with anyone before arriving on the plane: no name to contact on arrival, no phone number to ring….absolutely nothing. Our situation was made even more precarious by the fact that I (Peter) underwent a hernia operation only 5 weeks ago & am not supposed to lift anything for at least 3 months. (Actually, when we asked the doctor when I could begin to lift suitcases again, he replied ‘not before 3 months, preferably 6 months, preferably never!’)

As our work of conducting free drug-awareness programs in the schools is completely voluntary, we don’t receive any salary & so we needed a miracle to find donated accommodation before the sun went down!

I have to admit to being slightly worried that we could end up in a situation where we would be spending many hours dragging our suitcases from one hotel to another to another, searching for a kind-hearted director or owner. We’re happy to say that God did a miracle & the place He led us to through our internet research turned out to be exactly the right place: a very kind-hearted local owner that lives on the property, that was willing to help, (thank you Tootie!)

If you come to the Cayman Islands or you hear of anyone else coming this way, please recommend Eldemire’s Tropical Island Inn—it’s a lovely Caribbean-style house, not far from the capital, with the sea nearby & a large measure of peace & quiet!

With our accommodation set up, we immediately jumped into action to go around the schools & make appointments to conduct programs on the dangers of drugs & smoking. This always takes a little time to organise but we’re pleased to say that we did our first 2 programs today at a good school called ‘Triple C’, (Creative Christian Character) ––staff were very helpful & student reactions were good.