The weather was a comfortable and sunny 65 degrees. Mark attended a lecture on aid and development in Africa and Asia with Brian Stoddard. He was discussing the growth of India and China and how the increase in population will put a greater demand on the world’s food supply. China has been purchasing a vast amount of land in the Congo region of Africa as a place to cultivate more crops. In the not too distant future, India will surpass China in population and is on a steady upward trajectory. The demand for rice, chicken, pork and fish will increase dramatically as the world’s population continues to increase.

After lunch we attended a lecture on the United Arab Emirates or UAE by Werner Salinger. He discussed how the UAE is geographically between Asia and Europe and how the UAE is moving towards becoming an international hub. They have been building an enormous airport, extensive shipping ports and are building a rail system to link the seven emirates within the UAE.

The next activity was a chat with the Rotterdam singers and dancers and a backstage tour of the showroom at sea. There are four singers and six dancers who make up the cast and they come from all over the world. This question and answer session allowed the guests to learn a bit more about each of the cast members and how they are selected to be a member of the cast.

Mark attended the watercolor class where he painted a scene with two Oman mosques. Kent chose instead to visit the gym and sauna.

The show was another set of songs by the Opera Familia family that performed a few nights ago.