11/17/83

And cheaper still when it's only 4 weeks away! Things have gone extremely well in the past weeks. The wonderings are over and the situation is more concrete than they have ever been. As it turns out, the Marketing Board approved the M.I.U. last week and I did go to Barbados for a few days to attend the marketing seminar. It was worth the hassles and now I'm ready to jump in with both feet. There are still mountains to climb. We still need to get the unit set up and operating. I still need to be transferred to the Marketing Corp. We have to find the money to purchase stationery and other odds and ends but essentially the machinery is in place. I talked to Mr Griffin and Cynthia (PCV) from BASIS in Barbados and one or the other should be arriving soon to help set up the unit. I've written all the correspondence and once the budget is made up, all that stuff goes to Jethro to handle. We're on our way but to where, I don't know.

Travel arrangements took a turn to frustration while in Barbados. I double checked itinerary and price. We are confirmed and also return will take us to Barbados on Jan. 4th from SLC. It's the payment that is the hassle. CITS won't accept payment because it wasn't booked through them and won't show up on their computer. So they needed an up-to-date itinerary from LIAT. LIAT said I could pay but the itinerary is wrong and the price was too high ($699 versus $549 which is correct, I asked Eastern). So I finally decided to call WESTAM and tell them my troubles and then call home so that they could pay for the tickets and have them waiting in Barbados when we arrive. The positive note is that I got approval for the foreign exchange( $1,200 US) and will cable up the money this morning and send another cable to Mom and Dad to verify. Another positive thing is that both Debbie's and my leaves have been approved. So the formalities are done. I just hope the tickets are waiting for us in Barbados.

Outside of all the hustle and bustle, things are going well. The dogs next door are barking their brains out probably to remind us of our “fun” time in Jamaica that we were experiencing last year about this time. We need to talk to Maxine about our canine insomnia.

The letters still roll in slowly due to Grenada hassle. But things have finally settled down and it looks as though things are looking up.