Rhonda & Duncan Stewart

Ever since Rhonda & I fell in love, in fact it was probably even before then, I’d

wanted to visit her home Country –The Republic of Trinidad & Tobago, in the West
Indies. Until meeting Rhonda, going to the Caribbean had only been one of those places I would love to visit, but never would have imagined that one day, I’d actually get to go there for real! We got the tickets booked, Rhonda’s brother, John, kindly offered for me to stay at his house, all was looking good for travelling on the 23rd. of August, 2007. We arrived at the airport, only to be told that there had been a “clerical error” with Rhonda’s ticket, and she would not be let on the plane!! So, off I went, having no choice but to get on the flight, whilst Rhonda was left at the airport, trying to get a later flight. God was good to us though, and she was able to get a flight later on the same day, so you can imagine the laugh it caused when, having planned to fly together, I arrived ahead of Rhonda, and welcomed her into Trinidad!!! Just goes to show that God has a sense of humour too I reckon! The moment I went outside the Airport building, I experienced the “warmer” climate of the Caribbean for the first time –BLIMEY it’s HOT!!! Rhonda’s brother, John, met me at the airport, and whilst waiting for Rhonda to arrive on the later flight, he gave me the guided tour of a nearby shopping mall (and John sure does like shoe shops!!)
Rhonda finally arrived –some 6 hours later than planned, and understandably was pretty tired. John drove us to his house, and I met his wife, Beverley, and their daughters, Kerdiesha and Jeannessa for the first time. At this point, I’d like to say another BIG THANKS to John & Bev, K and Jenny, for making me feel so welcome, it really felt like a home from home. Over the next couple of weeks, I met most of Rhonda’s Family, as well as some of her friends, driving around Trinidad on the rather interesting roads. To say they had the odd pot hole would be putting it mildly. Here’s what was said one day whilst out in the car:
RHONDA: “watch out for that ditch!!!”
DUNCAN: “what ditch?” (at this point I’m looking at the sides of the road)
RHONDA: “no, the one in front of you!!!” (at this point there’s an almighty crash as the car enters then abruptly exits this “ditch”, which in fact was a trench in the middle of the road!!!)
We covered a lot of miles, and it was worth it, to see so many wonderful places, and Rhonda is the undisputed un-official tour guide of Trinidad & Tobago for sure! What follows are just some of the many places and fantastic sights that I feel so privileged to have seen. Wednesday, the 9th. of September, 2007 began in just the same way as the previous day. The sun appeared above the crystal clear waters, and after breakfast, we set out again in our little jeep, and hit the coast road on the north side of the island. We decided to “beach hop”, stopping at one or two beaches that we liked the look of. The only difference on this day was that I decided to “pop the big question”, although hadn’t quite decided on when or where I’d ask Rhonda to marry me. I think that this will be a good time to mention that during the previous week, I had gone to meet Rhonda’s Father, Mr. Arthur, for the first time, and asked him for his permission and blessing to marry his daughter. After some interrogation (no, it wasn’t that bad, but I was extremely nervous all the same!), he gave his blessings, and we had a time of prayer. So Rhonda knew for sure that I was going to ask her to marry me, it was now just a question of when.............So back to that Wednesday in Tobago. We’d had our lunch, and although the sun was still high in the sky, we knew that we had a bit of a journey back to our Hotel, and didn’t fancy driving along the narrow roads at night. However, I had by now, one more place for us to visit before we headed back. It was Englishman’s Bay. I made up some story for wanting to go there, and we arrived around 3pm. Not sure if Rhonda was on to me, I tried to act like it was just another trip to the beach (whilst inside, I was feeling ridiculously nervous!) Cont'd