Soularize 2007 :: Day One

Day one of Soularize started out way too early in my humble opinion.  Either that or the night before was too short.  I woke up covered in bites from the sea lice the night before. 

So Thursday we all woke up being with small chunks of flesh missing and headed to the Wynham Resorts to board some buses and head to Paradise Island so we could get to the docks and head out a private island.  The boat was three stories and like an idiot I headed to the top deck.  The first part was calm.  We saw Tiger Woods house, Eddie Murray's private island and headed to open waters where the water got rough.  On the top deck, a bunch of us got tossed around for a bit before we got to the private island.  Many us, including N.T. Wright here when snorkeling.  I had never gone before and after Mike DeVries gave some important tips on how not to swallow sea water (global sea levels actually went down that afternoon), it was a lot of fun and not something that one can easily do in Saskatchewan, even in the summer (algae and too cold).  It did rain several times but the way I looked at it, I wasn't going to get any wetter whatever we did and that rain was tropical rain after all.  By the time we had left the island, I was pretty much sun burn free but on the way back, I got burnt nicely.

 

After another swim in the ocean, it was time for a reception at New Providence Community Church.  The church features an elaborate art garden with sculptures showing the Bahamas history of slavery and oppression.  While the reception at the church was supposed to be held in the garden, the day's rains forced it onto the church porch where wine, Kalik beer, and soda.

After the wine tasting and the reception, Bishop Tom spoke for an hour.  I am pretty familiar with N.T. Wright's work and Kingdom theology but he said some things about eschatology and the kingdom that kept me up thinking for a bit after his session and challenged me because according to his talk, I tend to separate church and state too much and perhaps give to Caesar more than what Caesar deserves.  I hope to talk some more with him about this.

Perhaps the highlight of the day was that later in the day, I was relaxing on the deck (and my bedroom this week) feeling the sea spray when Todd walks right into the sliding door hard enough to cut his forehead open.

Some more on Soularize from Alan, Kyle, and Mike.  Here is my Flickr set of Rose Island

Technorati tags: Soularize 2007, TheOoze, Soularize, Rose Island, Bahamas, snorkeling, New Providence Community Church, N.T. Wright