It’s 5:50 am, the sun is rising and I am wide awake – I’m suffering from jetlag for the second time. I don some running shoes and clothes and step out of my air conditioned but otherwise humble accomodation onto the large spanish style balcony that reminds me of the movie Zoro, and into the warm, sticky air of the Caribbean island of Trinidad. I descend the beautifully crafted spiral staircase to the ground below where I meet a number of other jet-lagged travellers for the morning run. As we leave the training compound, I notice the gutters on the side of the road are not the slight step up that we are used to in australia, rather a large trench exists on either side of the road to handle massive amounts of stormwater during the rainy season. Driveways form miniature bridges accross these casms from which eminates a smell that is not very pleasent for that time of morning.

Every person that we pass along the way waves to us and says ‘Good morning’ and we respond in kind. In the Caribbean it is very rude not to warmly greet someone you make eye contact with and I’m sure we also stand out as some of the only white people on the island. As we turn a corner onto the main street there are cars honking and weaving around each other, there seem to be very few rules. Every third or fourth car is either a sporty new Japanese car or an older car that has been heavily modified, everyone loves fast cars. In our short journey we make out churches (half the population are nominal christians who occasionally attend church) and a Hindu school (around 40%) are hindu.

Exausted, I am more than happy to return to the training facility to have  a shower and spend some time with God before breakfast, but I am excited to be in such a different country and excited to see how God will use me in such a place.

At Pre Ship Training I am learning about local culture, the ship structure, methods of evangelism and spiritual disciplines (like quiet time and bible reading). It is an intensive week that will do well to prepare me for my two years on the ship and with each day that passes I am more eager to actually board this vessel.