I have never been in such a beautiful place.  It feels like a page in Surfer Magazine came to life.  I’m writing here in a huge thatched roof building with a concrete slab floor looking out over blue green water past a point covered with mangrove forest and out to five green islands in the distance.  In the foreground, Micah and Melia dig castles for the crabs they catech just beyond the thatched umbrellas and the green crabgrass lawn.  I can hear the fishermen calling out to my right as three sailors with bright yellow shirts hammer and otherwise repair their ancient looking dhows to be ready for sailing before the tide goes out.

    On both points of the bay giant “ras-es” stand as tiny headlands new separated from the capes by shallow water.  In the next few hours water will retreat several hundred yards out into the distance.

    Yesterday the tide was out when we arrived and the tiny fleet of fishing boats to my right were aground.  This gave us the chance to walk out to Nick’s land.  A few years ago Nick purchased two plots of beachfront here.  Ali our driver helps him to negotiate island politics and another man he hired named Snake has more knowledge more particular to this part of the island and watches the land while Nick is gone, planting trees, flowers, etc.

    Nick seriously dreams of building a house and moving here.  A Tanzanian frined currently holds title to the land until Nick can start a business which would then allow him to gain residency (he would in effect hire himself as an expert in a kayaking tours business).  Then he would do both his consulting work and kayaking business while working out of a home office.  He never read The World is Flat but he is certainly trying to live it.  Of course he has worries.  It was a $16,000 investment (I can’t remember if that was for one plot or both), and he still isn’t sure that all this will work.  Getting title in a country with poorly developed courts, etc. makes this very risky.

    Nick’s little bay however is breathtaking with rocky cliffs on the north and a beautifully white sand beach, papaya trees, newly planted bougainville, lime trees and two netted tents.  Although this may seem remote to us this is a busy place.  Five women from the village were laughing constantly together as they harvested seaweed.  Tow fishermen worked on their boats.  Another man was working out, doing calisthenics and sprinting along the beach, thumping himself on the ground, doing jerky stretches, sit-ups and push-ups.
    Nick consulted with Ali and Snake while our family swam way out in the waist deep water to the Ras.  Nick joined us for splashing games as I took photographs of the sunset.  All this while our church, family and friends began to stir for antoher work day far on the other side of the world.

    We enjoyed candlelight supper in this room with Melia falling asleep at the table.  Hot restless sleep paired with the children under a mosquito net that was too short.  Morning under cloudy skies.  I’ve got to get into the water while it is still here.