October 3rd

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We started Sunday with birding at the Spanish Lagoon. It’s easy to get up early because our hostess likes us to keep the outdoor lights on – so the light comes in the windows a bit. Of course we said hello to the burrowing owls, and then stood watch at the flowering cactus to try to catch better photos of the hummingbirds.

Then it was off to worship with Ronald from The Kitchen, at the Centro Familiar Hosannah church. We got there in plenty of time, not knowing exactly where it was in the city of Orangestad, or where to park, etc. The entrance area was packed with people having coffee and pastries and even scrambled eggs. Hmmm? And canned praise music was already going – so it was a challenge to understand our Spanish-speaking friends and the new people they aimed our way because they could speak English better. We met a young woman from South Africa who had only been in Aruba for 3 weeks to study medicine at the local med school. She needed an English interpreter too when it was sermon time, but we all managed pretty well during the praise songs. The pastor is from Peru. The members were joyfilled eager worshippers. No charismatic expressions but lots of dancing and singing and praising. It was great. Over 3 hours of worship. Our interpreters did amazing jobs, but I have to admit I couldn’t hear all the translation when the noise of the worshippers rose when the pastor made an important point. This was a full house (150?) with many children, teenagers, and people of all ages.

We bid our new friends goodbye and stopped briefly at Superfoods before returning home for lunch.

Then changed and headed to Mangel Halto for a drift snorkel – but found the waves WAY bigger than before. We have been so very fortunately with the mild winds and great visibility. We drove up to our usual n.w. side of the island for an hour swim and the visibility was not as good as all the previous times. But we couldn’t miss a day!

Dinner was our last steak of amberjack after checking in with our little family on Whatsapp.

Tomorrow is our last full day!!!! This has been an amazing vacation and the very best pre-knee replacement P.T. program imaginable.

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