December 30st

Today, we were served peas and coconut, a butter curry with a different roti, boiled bananas (but a different kind), and masala tea to 'break our fast'. It was a yummy way to start. Then we walked on the beach, hardly anyone about this morning at 10ish. No fishermen coming or going. There was a solo jogger and some way in the distance. We seemingly had the beach to ourselves, except for the birds. There are the ever present crows; some seagulls that have an extra black spot on their heads, like an extra eye; one predatory-type bird; a few plover-type birds; some  white, some gray egrets; an ibis and lastly a striped bird (don't know what kind of bird it is). We still are fascinated with the 'artwork' of the two toned sand colored beach. Jeff actually took a video if it. Anyway, we got some steps in while enjoying nature and art.

We rinsed and then cooled down at our place for 3-4 hours. I am feeling much better, but I passed my cold, unfortunately, to our hostess, Deeja!  🙁  I could see she was not feeling well yesterday, and when I asked she pointed to her throat. I felt bad. We haven't heard anymore about Francis' father. This segues into us going to dinner and our waiter guy. We had already been sitted and order taken by the waitress. He came up to us and just said one word, “hospital.” His demeanor said it all, not good. I reached out my hand and he grabbed mine. A lot was expressed without words. I am tearing up as I write this. God created us to emote so powerfully to each other… so overwhelming. I pray, to that great God, for him and his family. On a much lighter note, our supper was great. We had Chicken Tikka, which is the actually skewered chicken we were after; and Kerala Fish Masala, which was white snapper fish. We had two drinks each: Jeff- lemonana and fresh lime; me- orange mojito and watermelon juice. Then we split a cold coffee shake. Sunset worked out as we waited for our food, ate our food, and split the shake. We witnessed God's handiwork in many different ways today.