Day 6

Today was a day of hard work, and yet, lots of reflection on the days past... the experiences... the memories that we'd hold in our hearts for years to come...

This is by far one of my favorite pictures from the trip...

...as well as this one.


Thursday was our last day of work, so we worked tirelessly to finish all the projects we started, and to make sure that everyone on the compound was taken care of before we left. I started out the day by helping to construct a new vanity for one of the temp. missionaries who was in desperate need of anything but the blob of rotton wood holding her bathroom sink up. However, as I was working on said project, I was suddenly pulled from my post and forced down the side of the mountain by all the guys (who all knew of my fear of heights by the way), to be the second to last person in line to recieve the concrete to finish up making the stairs.

Let me tell you: I have never worked so hard in my entire life!!! I thought my heart was going to come flying out of my chest at any given moment! I don't know how you guys do it, but I think I learned that day, that unless I am in top physical condition, that I will not be doing that again any time soon. OW! But no matter how taxing on my body it was, it doesn't change the fact that it was still very rewarding, and kind of fun! (Now, ask the guys who worked on it all week how fun it was, and they may not agree with me!)

The room that we gutted on day 1 had the finishing touches put on it, because the new missionaries were to fly in that evening. Unfortunately, I don't have an "after picture", but it looked great!

In the afternoon, I helped with the vanity a little more; and only feet from where we were working, the boys were entertaining themselves outside thier dorm with a little game of swords before VBS.

My friends.

We made bracelets with the older kids for VBS today, which was much less hectic. They were able to weave words like "faith", "Jesus", and "WWJD", and they seemed to have a great time learning how to put these together! I made one that says, "Jamaica". I wear it everyday.

Love these girls. Natalee is the one on the left, and Oshane is on the right. Natalee is just drop-dead gorgeous. She's eleven years old (one of the oldest in the orphanage), and as you can see, takes her role with the other children very seriously. She has a sweetness and a softness about her that is just such a blessing to see, and I never heard her speak one harsh word to anyone while I was there. She's so precious. And Oshane. hahaha This little girl is smart and has such a curious little personality. She craves love, attention, and the spot light: if even just a little bit. This one will definitely be a doctor, or a pastor: no matter what though, she's definitely going far someday.

Scrabble was the game of choice for a few of us tonight, and my goofy little friend Lindsay of course had to put her own little twist on things, and lay down the word, "butty". When asked to use it in a sentence, she simply said, "When I walked into the room, it smelled butty". How can you say no to that?! hahaha So, she was given points for creativity.

Believe it or not, we are grown-ups. Really. But we just had to do this - it was huge! So, we were simply scaling our roach-friend with scrabble tiles to demonstrate it's enormity.

And this little guy is just one of many who would camp out outside our bedroom doors and windows at night. They're fast and "squiggly": so when a few of the guys had one in thier room one night, it was hilarious trying to watch them catch it: they move so fast!! It's on account of these little monsters that we can't sleep with our windows open - because they'd march right in and sleep with us!

After we tortured our roach friend, and blinded our "leezard" friend (as we so affectionately called them), we headed off to bed in anticipation for our "free day" at "Lime Cay": an island off the coast of Kingston, where we would spend the day swimming, snorkeling, sun-bathing, and doing a whole lot of nothing: or so we thought...