Freeport

Day two

I started the day with Dori and Ashley on the top deck of the boat. We watched excitedly as the ship pulled into port. I have this list of things I want to do before I die and one of the things on it is to see as much of the world as I can. This trip was getting me a little closer to that goal. I watched as we pulled in and I looked around at the island. I was surprised at how dirty and unbeautiful it all looked. I had had this idea in my head of how everything was going to be and it wasn’t living up to the image. I started to worry a little at that point. Were we really going to have fun here?

We all met up as a group to catch our taxi it felt like there was some tension in the group but we all seemed to brush it off when Nathan showed up. He was our taxi driver and had grown up on the island. It was pretty hard to hear Nathan from where I was sitting but he was telling us about the island and his family. We past a beautiful church that Nathan told us was his mother’s. He went on to tell us that her 96th birthday was coming this Sunday. I couldn’t even image living that long and from what it sounded like she still loved every minute of it. He went on to say that he wouldn’t be able to go to his mother’s birthday party that they were having at her church because he would be working. Cindy and I made it a point to talk to his boss to try and get the day off. I’m not sure it helped any but we had to try.

We reached Paradise Cove for a day of snorkeling. I was surprised at how different it looked against everything else we had seen at Freeport. The water was beautiful and clear and the sand was so white. I didn’t expect it but it lived up to my initial thoughts of what the Bahamas would look like to me. It was a shock that something so beautiful could be hidden away amongst all the falling down buildings and rocks.

Before we could go into the water we had to have safety training. I clearly should have paid closer attention because the fire coral we had been warned about still ended up getting me in the shin. But at least it wasn’t a shark! I loved getting to see this part of the earth it was an eye opener to me. I watched the fish swimming by they looked like birds flying across the sky. There were all kinds of fish large, small, scary, funny, colorful, and dull. I couldn’t help feeling small myself being in that water and seeing all those fish. I didn’t know how far they had been in the ocean or all the things they had seen, but I’m sure they didn’t have a list they wanted to check off of the things they wanted to see. I thought about how much I worry about things that are out of my hands. I saw the fish and I thought about their lives. They live in this big ocean and they are most likely not even going to see one percent of the ocean no matter how long they live. I looked at all the colors and sizes they are all designed in a way to keep them alive. Their bright colors keep away prey their size makes it possible to survive. All of them were made by God and all of them were made for a reason. I watched them swimming around and I thought about my worries. I thought about how I’ve got to trust God with all of them. These fish swim around with bright colors trusting that those colors will save them from any danger. Meanwhile I worry about things out of my control. If a fish can trust in God and his design I’ve got to be capable of the same.

Freeport was much more than I ever expected or could even image. It wasn’t so pretty on the outside it was dirty and falling apart even, but it had this place hidden inside it. I’ve learned that I still judge a book by its cover sometimes but that doesn’t mean that the stories inside aren’t worth reading.

-Kelly