What happens in the Bahamas...

So I have failed to blog about the rest of my 5 days in the Bahamas...and for good reason. Let's just file most of it under "What happens in the Bahamas, stays in the Bahamas..." Seems to be a running theme with my family and these islands. Need I refresh your memories on when the 5 O'Keefe kids, the 3 Padgett kids, and our significant others took a cruise to Nassau 2 1/2 years ago for my brother's 40th birthday. We like to file that experience under "What happened on the Fascination, stays on the Fascination..." (innocent smile)

But here is what I can tell you...

Thursday, Tina literally worked ALL DAY! and I literally sat on the beach ALL DAY! I think I finally started to wind down that day. The need to "constantly be doing something" finally started to subside...maybe because I was so thoroughly entertained by my sister's crazy bride and her crazy tattooed entourage (and their cute little puppy) with all of the drunk antics at the beach...swimming, volleyball...yes, quite an entertaining bunch. They asked me to play at one point, but I wasn't drinking and they were totally jungle-ballers...I knew I would just get annoyed. I'm kind of high-maintenance when it comes to athletic competition. : ) The wedding party definitely provided me with hours of entertainment over the next couple of days. I even found out from hotel staff-turned friends later on that the bride wet her bed one night. Yikes!

Friday was much of the same...laying out on the beach, reading, and watching the wedding party...I got through a good portion of C.S. Lewis's "The Problem of Pain" and finished "A Grief Observed." His works have really been speaking to me. He dissects matter of faith so succinctly, so intentionally, and yet so honestly in his reservations that it is almost impossible to question his logic because he describes it so thoroughly. I guess that is the product and matter of execution for an atheist-turned-Christian. You've got to dig into and sort out all aspects of a topic before you can really put your heart and soul into it. Anyway, I'm not ready to comment on what I've been processing through yet, but let me just say that what I thought was my so-called "grief and pain" is really not mine at all. It is really someone else's' inner issues whose faith is built on a house of cards, and trying to make me believe that mine is too...but my so-called house of cards while initially shaken, will not be moved. Perhaps it is more sold that I've been led to believe. God kind of rocks like that.

But back to my vacation...Friday night was definitely an interesting experience. Tina dragged me to this show where twin brothers impersonated famous singers like Barbara Streisand, Elton John, Cher and some others. The show was one of several events planned for a group of journalists who were visiting the hotel. I was invited to several of these functions as my sister was entertaining a journalist from "Modern Bride" this trip. The show was interesting to say the least. Barbara was great. Elton was OK. Cher was scandalously dressed and let's just say that I have no idea how he/she managed to hide her junk in that outfit. I felt a little dirty even trying to look and see how it was done. Kasper (event planner at the resort) and Justin (an executive chef at the resort) who showed up in true Bahamian fashion-LATE to the show spent a lot of her performance trying to explain it to me, but I am still just really confused as to how that was even possible and let's just leave it at that.

After the performance, Tina, Kasper, Justin and I went to a club called 22 Above (I think). Boy was I thankful for Kasper and Justin. FINALLY people who were young, fun, and not on their honeymoon! I was soooooo thankful they took me out that night. Kasper is from Amsterdam and has worked for Starwood for a few years now in Miami and in the Bahamas. He wants to go to New York when his visa is up, but I think he should come to Chicago : ) Justin is from Miami and his wife still lives there. He also did his culinary training in Paris and lived in other parts of Europe for a while! Yeah for new friends who can help me get around while I'm over there in July!!! We had a very good time at the club! There was an excellent Bahamian band playing and we pretty much just hung out, drank and talked most of the night. Tina and Justin decided to be lame and retire early! Kas and I....well, let's just say he's a fun and fantastic guy ; )

The next morning I was invited to go snorkeling with the journalists. Kasper, Jennifer (total sweetheart and in charge of the journalists) and Kirk (who they call the "Director of Fun") were on the excursion too. Unfortunately, I had to be there at 8am and was more than just slightly hung over; so as you can imagine, boating and swimming...uh yah! Actually, it was a lot of fun. I snorkeled at the first reef we stopped at. It was incredibly beautiful. The different design patterns of the reef and the beautiful colors of the fish were AMAZING! At one point, Kasper threw fish food at me and literally hundreds of fish came splashing all around me fighting for it. It felt really weird! Then Kasper got bit by one! HAHA! Serves him right for throwing fish food at me! For the last 2 bot stops, I decided to stay on the boat for and just take pictures. The 2nd stop was another reef which was just as beautiful. It was also on the most Western side of the island where all of the "rich" people live. There was one house that was incredible. It is owned by the 9 West designer. Yes, I took one look at that house and thought to myself "I definitely helped him pay for that!" haha! The last stop of the excursion was where we got to swim with sharks! The captain drove the boat all they way out to the shelf where the ocean drops off from 40 feet to 60,000 feet! Definitely a neat sight to see. The captains dropped shark bait down to the bottom around 40 feet where all the sharks started swarming. I was told they were Reef sharks and some of them were as big as 10 feet long! The divers had to stay at the surface and hold on to a rope so as not to splash around and attract attention from the sharks below. Actually, I should say everyone else swam with the sharks. I decided to keep all of my fingers and toes and stay in the boat; but I did get some pretty awesome pictures and video! Kasper stayed with me. He said he was going on a dive next week, but I think he really just chickened out! When everyone was out of the water, the captain pulled the bait back up and started feeding the sharks, so I have some pretty great pictures of the sharks at the surface fighting each other for food! After the dive, we went to this organic farm for lunch. It was incredible to walk around. This place completely sustains itself with all of the organic produce it produces...I mean literally everything made at the restaurant was grown on the farm...all except for the Gatorade...haha! It was another great place to experience while on the island...I'll post pictures on facebook of all of this soon...

Despite my not feeling so well, hanging out with the journalists that day was fun. I was a journalism major in college, so it was neat to chat with some of the writers and hear about their exciting adventures (aka...what my life "could have been") while diving and later at lunch. Don't worry, I'm not in any hurry to leave teaching! I say "some" of the journalists were cool because a few of them were just plain lame. There was this one guy David who was a freelance travel writer from Canada. He was all talk and no substance. I sat there listening to his stories thinking to myself...he goes to all of these really neat places, but has he ever really discovered the true beauty, the true culture, the true desperation, of these place??? Maybe it was just his MO or my misjudgment of him, but as he talked and talked about places like Cuba or the Dominican Rep, he seemed to have these blinders on that only promoted the stereotypes of what these countries are all about and not the true culture. I wanted to ask him so many questions but I thought I would only get a BS answer. I guess that's why Americans are so shut off from the reality of the rest of the world sometimes...I mean, if he is the type of people disseminating the information about these places, no wonder we all look like morons when it comes to foreign affairs. We are never given the whole story. OK...off my soap box now...There was another guy, Hunter, from Alabama (I think) I don't remember what he wrote for or really even about what, but he was kind of quirky...the kind of guy who seemed up for anything. Anita was awesome. Probably late 30's. Not married. Wrote for "Modern Bride" and a total party girl! I talked to her for maybe 10 minutes (in my nauseated state) before she was inviting me to Miami to take me out...haha! Jennifer was just a total sweetheart. She didn't snorkel so we sat on the boat and just chatted about life most of the morning...she lives near Fort Lauderdale with her husband. We got a long splendidly! And finally, there was Kirk. He works for the resort, is a local Bahamian, and it was interesting to sit with him at lunch and talk about his family, his work, and just his general impressions of growing up on the island and his dreams for the future. All in all, everyone was great and I was thankful for their company.

When I got back to the resort, I took a desperately needed nap and later decided to get off the beach resort and went for a run on the street. For part of the path, there were beautifully landscaped gardens in the middle of the road, and the rest of the road was boarded by cute and brightly-colored English-colonial style homes or hotels. I know this island and many others in the Bahamas are poor, and part of me really wished I could see those parts of the islands; but at the same time I kept trying to tell myself that I'm on VACATION and NOT a mission trip. There is plenty of time for that later...besides, my heart is in Haiti. Philip and Pastor LeFluer would be peeved if I mission hopped to the Bahamas : ) Later that night, I just went and sat by the beach for a while, had some good reflection/prayer time and watched the crazy bride's ceremony and reception. It was really beautiful. Kasper was overseeing a prom at the hotel that night. He had invited me to tag along, but I didn't want to bother him while he was working...plus he was probably super tired too. He didn't get a nap from the weekend's fun; but I did get to see some of the teens all dressed up. Soooo adorable...ahhh the days of prom and sorority formals. I need some place to go to get all dressed up for...

My last day in the Bahamas was spent in Nassau shopping. I did the touristy thing...Senior Frogs, straw market, etc. I discovered that I am slightly addicted to expensive Italian leather. Tina is addicted to jewelry : ) Ha! Later that night, we spent some time in the casino...I gambled my first $5 EVER which sufficiently kept me entertained for about an hour's worth of fun. We headed back to the hotel bar later to watch the NBA finals game. LA won. Booooo! As I am writing this, I am on the plane headed home, and AGAIN I have not had a good experience flying with American Airlines through Miami. Go figure. I won't bore you with the details. It isn't as exciting as say the whole getting stuck in a hurricane in a third world country experience of last August; but I did get to meet a group in Miami's airport who were on their way to Haiti. I talked to a few teenage girls who were super excited. I told them a little bit about my experience and told them to be careful because they might just leave their hearts there as I did after my first trip. It was a nice/fitting way to end this first leg of my summer world adventure....now, back to Chicago for a few days before part 2 begins!!!

T-13 days until Europe...I'm so excited that I can hardly contain myself!!!