Nassau, Bahamas Day 1 Continued: Connecting The Dots Around The World.

The contest actually starts on January 12th.. That will be the official 1st day of the contest when we embark from Nassau.  We have just been “practicing!”  Thank you for playing along!

Warm weather of mid 70’s in Nassau was a welcome feeling as we left Charlotte, North Carolina at 18 degrees F Sunday morning.  The welcome calypso band playing at Immigrations was certainly a pleasant surprise as we waited to enter Nassau. This warm greeting  from the local band was only a start to an education in how the entire island, including the omelet lady (another post later this week)  at the resort is working to create a pleasant experience for all who come here.

We found a bag porter who helped us get the bags through customs without a glitch.  He took us right to a large SUV taxi driven by a delightful girl named, Tamika who explained she owned the vehicle and worked for herself. She was born and raised in Nassau and shared some interesting statistics such as the size of the island being 7 miles wide by 26 miles long with only 200,000 residents. According to Tamika this week is supposed to be in the 70’s as last week they were in the 60’s which is cold for Nassau.   We asked her to stop at a food store and we purchased bottled water, soda and snacks to save excess mark up at the resort.  We made arrangements with her to pick us up on Tuesday at 11:30 to board the ship by noon so we continue to “manage our mess” in an organized manner. The attitude of the locals was one of kindness and appreciation  for the business. Lessons to take back to our local areas.

Learning to roll with the punches is part of having “balance” in travel.  Sunday morning in Charlotte, NC we expected to go to a Money Exchange outlet in the airport during our 3 hour layover to obtain $30.00 in currency for each of the 11 countries where we will be dock.  I had the 11 envelopes all ready to organize the funds and be prepared when we arrived and needed to get cabs for our first location.  We had our first opportunity to exercise the “10 second rule.” The money exchange store was closed because it was Sunday.  We had the plan all arranged in our minds for the last couple months and now there was nothing we could do about the store being closed.  We just implemented the 10 second rule of being upset LESS than 10 seconds and made a new plan B to find a bank in Nassau on Monday or Wednesday when we have time to go get the change.  The activity did not turn out the way we wanted it to but the end result will be the same, just on a different day in a different place. The bottom line will be the same as we will get the different currency in the 11 different envelopes and the money issue should be smooth sailing.   Our taxi driver let us know we could walk to Royal Bank from the hotel and get that job taken care of. Problem solved and less than 10 seconds of stress.

The vision for me in this trip is to “Connect The Dots Around The World.” I had no preconceived idea of how any of the dots would start to connect but they have already started to come together. Your comments and input will be invaluable as I post on my blog with a stream of consciousness writing along with just sharing what I am thinking and the observations I am making from exactly what I am experiencing.

The “bar of expectation” for many businesses and services is a moving target today and we have had our experience with this two times in the first day of travel.  As the world economy is changing the fight for the discretionary dollar is actually going to the street with customers one on one. Watch how this is evidenced by the video where a “meal hawker” aka host, actually comes over to the taxi we just got out of to entice us to eat at the restaurant he works for.

This is certainly an example of meeting the customer where they are!  The street or beach vendors are also “asking for the business.” The worst it can be from asking for the business is someone saying “no” so if you are not afraid to get out of your comfort zone to ask for new business, it might be there. We went to “Big Ten”  for dinner and actually never went back to Twin Brothers so you see.. David asked us to go to his restaurant we did.

Now here we go!  Fun in the sun and it’s almost time to get on the ship and sail! It was a peaceful day with 3 hours in the sun to get going on our required read  “Three Cups of  Tea” by Greg Mortrenson.  An inspiration to all and another post will be coming sharing the PASSION this man had for building schools for children who want to learn.

The Island of Nassau relies on tourism for it’s very existence. The atmosphere of all the service providers is one of trying to please and create a memorable experience for everyone here.  Taking this attitude of a community working together to survive can come right back home to our local areas where we need to come together on what we are trying to do to survive also.

This is the 1st GLOBAL lesson that we can apply to our LOCAL communities as we go “Glocal” in our thinking!

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