Mauritius Memories and other Shilling Updates

We just returned from a relaxing week in Mauritius, an Island country close to Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. We were the only Americans there at the resort. Most of the guests were either from India or Europe. The employees at the resort spoke mostly French and some English. We arrived Saturday early evening, and settled in.

On Sunday morning, I ventured out onto the volcanic reef and walked out quite far. I was taking in the beauty and lost my footing and fell. I ended up scraping up my leg. My leg was bleeding quite a bit, so I decided to walk back through the sea which was about knee deep. I was still enjoying the beauty of it all and noticed some beautiful blue sea urchins on the coral beds in the waters. I must of taken my eyes off of, where I was walking for a minute and stepped on a sea urchin. Two of the spines went right through my pool shoe and into my bottom of my foot. At first I did not realize what I had done, but soon figured it out. I managed to walk on my foot all that day and by the evening, it was really hurting (I found out later that the spines go deeper into the bottom of your foot, the longer they are in there).

I limped to the hotel infirmary (first aid room) and the attendant there said that the two spines had to come out and that if they stayed in, it would become infected. By that time it was too painful to pull them out without a local injection in my foot. The doctor was called and arrived at my hotel room about 9:45pm that night. He had to inject two very painful injections into the bottom of my foot to numb it so he could pull the two spines out.

What a relief to get the spines out of my foot. I had to stay out of the water for 24 hours and once I could go back in, I stayed by the pool and enjoyed the sea from a distance. The last day I went hunting for shells with the girls in the sea after I got my nerve back.

A few days later Stan got stung by a yellow wasp after telling Angela that if you do not bother them, they will not bother you. I mean seconds after he said that a wasp landed right on Stan's neck and stung him. He ran to the infirmary and had it treated. You should of seen the welt on his neck. I think we were on a first name basis at the hotel infirmary. They were probably mumbling under their breaths, "those crazy Americans"... :)

In spite of my foot and Stan's neck, we still had a lovely relaxing time. We never left the hotel grounds. Stan did his daily jogs and I worked out in the pool with my Aqua Jogger belt doing my deep water exercises. I read 3 books while I was there and Stan read a book as well. It was good to see him relaxing. The kids had a blast. They went snorkeling off of a glass bottom boat, went for a ride in an inflatable boat pulled by a power boat, canoeing, and they spent a lot of time in the tide pools formed by all of the volcanic rocks finding lots of treasures. Angela did some solo dancing on the dance floor that overlooked the pool and both girls did a lot of pool swimming. The food was all inclusive, so all we needed to do was remember what time was breakfast, lunch and dinner. 7 days of this. :)

The girls start school in a few days. I think we are all ready to get back to our routines. It is almost Spring in South Africa and everything is staring to bloom. I love to watch the bright yellow weaver birds weave their nests in a tree outside our kitchen window. They are busy birds.

Christina will be in her first ice skating competition here in South Africa at the end of Sept. Stan and I went on a wonderful date last night to a live theater and also a wonderful restaurant before the show. We received complementary tickets from the U.S. Consulate. I am now the American Society liaison for the American International School. It is my job to make sure that American families that are new to the American International School are aware of the American Society and have the necessary information to join. They have many American activities throughout the year for families, like Thanksgiving, 4Th of July, etc. I will also be volunteering at the Middle School with the school counselor helping her with many of the programs to encourage virtues, etc.

I cannot believe that we have been here for 6 months now. Time has gone by fast. I feel like I have lived here a lot longer then 6 months.

We are now settled into a church where the girls are happy in their Sunday school programs. Christina attends a Friday night youth group at our church and Stan and I are taking a Wed. night marriage enhancement class. that includes dinner. We are looking forward to getting to know the 15 other couples that will be there.