Clevely Island Tours

This afternoon I became a tour guide! I had just realized at about 2.40 pm that Nick had a guitar pupil coming at 3, so I initiated a quick tidy-up, with the boys, of the lounge, which hadn’t recovered yet from being a sick bed room – all of Caleb’s distractions and amusements were still lying all over. We were just into that when the doorbell rang, and the ringer was the chaplain on the Saga Ruby, which docked earlier this afternoon, and sails again this evening. He and his wife are Baptists, so they came to see if the island’s Baptist Minister was home, since they had called at the Anglican church and he advised them to try here. They needed a bit of Baptist fellowship! They have been on board the ship since the beginning of January, literally sailing around the world, and return home to the UK in two weeks’ time. He is newly retired, and was offered this position as ship’s chaplain. It’s fully paid-for, what a marvelous adventure for them! So we chatted a bit and had tea and some coconut fingers which thankfully were left over from yesterday, and then I offered to take them for a quick drive around the island, since they had only seen Jamestown which is very boring compared to the beauty inland. The boys came with, and Nick stayed home to teach guitar. I took them up Ladder Hill to Plantation House, then Knollcombes (Boer Cemetery), and then all the way to Bluehill. Then we turned around and came back, stopping at the top of Jacob’s Ladder for them to get the view down. We saw many of their fellow passengers all over the island, on guided tours mostly. The boys chatted non-stop to Yvonne in the back, and I relayed some bits of island interest to Frank. Since I didn’t have anything particular planned for today, I was very glad that I could help them. Yvonne has two grandsons aged 6 and 4, so related very well to Caleb and Aaron.

This morning I took Caleb’s bandage off, and we were all very disappointed at the result, including Caleb. It’s a huge cut, about 7 cm, from the top of his belly button all the way around and down a bit, and another cut across the top. It looks exactly the same as it did before, absolutely no difference in aesthetics. I tried to take a photo, but Caleb tearfully refused, saying it’s too ugly. We went to the hospital at 11 to get a new bandage put on, and the nurse also commented that it didn’t look much different. We’re hoping that when the wound has healed it will look slightly better, and also that as the swelling goes down and Caleb grows, the skin will be a bit absorbed into the rest of his body! Very disappointing though. We were expecting a small cut, maybe 2 cm or so, definitely not this huge one. But at least the muscles underneath have been pulled together, so there is no risk anymore with the hernia.