By Luke Giffen:
Hi all,
Luke again coming to you with my last blog before our new friends come join us in the Bahamas. Matt and Emily are scheduled to join us next Tuesday so we will let them continue the blog and describe all of the awesome things that have been happening on the island.
It has been a few weeks since I last touched base with what we’ve been up to so I’ll start from a couple of weeks ago. About three weeks ago Geordie and I were invited to attend a courtesy call with Marguerite Pindling, the Governor General of the Bahamas. The courtesy call involved a photo shoot and a brief discussion with the Governor General about how preparations for our event have been coming along. This was a very cool experience for the both of us as we definitely felt like royalty! Our photo actually made it into the local paper so I guess we are becoming famous around here. Sadly for Geordie, his positioning in the photo was a bit unfortunate.
Our courtesy call with the Marguerite Pindling, the Governor General of the Bahamas
Two weekends ago Geordie and I took a bus to the west end of the island to visit both Jaws Beach and Clifton Heritage National Park for a nice day trip. I brought along my drone and GoPro to help us capture the amazing beauty of the west end of the island. We took the drone out over the cliffs and were able to get some amazing footage. Later in the day we headed back to the underwater sculpture garden to swim with the fish and Ocean Atlas another time. The water was a perfect temperature and the sun was shining bright. We finished our trip with an hour at Jaws Beach, a beautiful beach with very shallow water. We were lucky enough to be able to swim with a of couple sting rays (though not too close). I made a quick video of our day that can be seen here: https://youtu.be/nooNxw_z5FA
The cliffs at Clifton Heritage National Park
Last weekend we attended the World Relays, the ultimate track championship for relay races. We wore our Canadian colours and were lucky enough to see Canada take home a gold medal in the 4x200m race. Canada beat out hard competition from both Jamaica and America which was exciting to see.
This past week has been the most interesting week yet. Team Nigeria flew into the Bahamas on Sunday to conduct their site visit of our facilities. This was a really incredible experience for me as I learned about the very different culture of Nigeria. It was made more special by the fact that this was my responsibility to ensure a successful visit. The delegation included the Minister of Sport, Secretary General, Director of Sport, and the local Ambassador. Through the week we paid a courtesy call to the Minister of Sport in the Bahamas, Daniel Johnson.
Important Bahamian and Nigerian members after the courtesy call with Minister Daniel Johnson
We finished their visit off today with a site visit to the Atlantis that culminated in a meeting with their Nigerian Beach Soccer team. The team is here competing in the FIFA Beach Soccer Championship and the Minister spoke with the team prior to their first match in a very spirited speech. Overall, I cannot wait to see my new friends again in July.
Minister of Sport with the Nigerian Beach Soccer team
It has been a pleasure writing for all you folks and detailing the amazing experiences Geordie and I have had in the Bahamas. We are lucky enough to be able to stay until the end of July when the games have finished. I cannot wait to experience what the next 3 months has to offer for us and I trust both Matt and Emily will be able to fill you in accordingly.
Until next time,
Luke