Christmas Treat Preparations

Christmas in Jamaica...the days leading up to Christmas were pretty frustrating for me. I was jelaous of everyone being home with their families and of all the snow falling in the States. I was bummed that it really felt nothing like Christmas. Even on Christmas Eve morning I was not feeling much at all of the Christmas spirit. The plan was to sleep in a little and then head over to the main headquarters of MSC (My Father's House) to help with preparations for "Christmas Treat." Christmas Treat is a generic phrase here in the Carribean. From what I have gathered it usually means some sort of event held for the poor, or the elderly, or the children at Christmas time. Usully food is provided. MSC's annual Christmas Treat involves several days of preparations of cooking meals for 2000 people, gathering 7000 stuffed animals, and decorating several trucks and vans used to drive around and distribute the food and stuffed animals in the ghettos surrounding Kingston. The ride to my Father's House was quite hectic itself. Jamaicans seem to wait till Christmas Eve to do their Christmas shooping. The streets were filled with vendors selling everything from dresses to fruit to car phone chargers! Now, these vendors are there on a daily basis, but it seemed like their stock had tripled overnight and there were ten times as many shoppers as usual! Finally we made it to My Father's House and were quickly put to work folding small cardboard boxes that had been donated to put the food in. We did this until it was time for Mass. At that time, we headed to the children's home to start the never ended process of wheeling all the kids to the chapel (this is actually done everyday by the caretakers for prayer time). The kids were all dressed up in their Christmas outfits. Much like the clothes they wore for the pageant. After Mass all the kids were wheeled back to the children's home and a couple of us helped get them out of their dress clothes and into their pajamas and then into their beds. Once most of the kids were settled Chelsea and I headed over the cooking area that had been set up. There were about 12 make-shift coal firepits burning all with huge pots filled with hot oil to fry chicken. For the next several hours we fried chicken. I took a break for about an hour and half when I accompanied someone else to the grocery store and pharmacy looking for a couple last minute items. The pharmacy was a mad house! It was about 9:30pm and there were people everywhere! I finally found the balloons I had been sent in search of and got out of there! All in all we fried 2000 pieces of chicken. The army, who escorts us into the ghettos to distribute the food cooks another 2000 meals. Chelsea and I took a nap from about 1am till 3am. Although I have no idea how we managed to sleep with the incredibly loud music going on right down the road! After waking up at 3 and quickly showering we returned to the work area. This time packing the food into the boxes and then packing it into larger containers to be put on the army truck. By about 8am everyone was there ready to load into vans filled with stuffed animals and head out to the ghettos. We were a bit delayed because the army's truck had some problems, but finally about 9 we left My Father's House in a caravan of trucks and vans... Coming Soon: The Rest of Christmas Morning!

The Upliftment Pageant

I am back as promised! So, this past Friday was the Annual Upliftment Pageant. Every year several children are chosen to participate in a beauty pageant. They all get their hair done and all the best clothes are pulled out of boxes to be worn. Throughout the years people have donated tons of children's dress clothes. This includes gorgeous dresses for the girls and suits and tuxes for the boys. They only wear these clothes for special occasions like Christmas and the pageant! Well, the event ended up being an all day affair. It was supposed to start at 10 o'clock. But like most things in Jamaica it didn't start on time. So, about 11:30 the MCs starting calling the kids names and one by one the children came out and strutted their stuff wearing their "Casual Attire." It was so fun to watch all of them! They were all SO excited to show off their clothes and new hair-dos! Several of the girls would come out shaking their hips back and forth as they walked and the boys came out dancing and everyone had smiles from ear to ear! After a couple hours all the kids had been called out. They also had a local highschool band there to play music and some of the people from the community came to watch. Next was the "Evening Wear." This was by far the best. The kids were SO dressed up. Here are some pictures:

The day finally ended about 5 o'clock or so. It was definitely a success. As you can see the kids were thrilled to be the center of attention! I hope you have enjoyed the pictures!

Long time no write!

I am so sorry it has been so long since my last post! I think I just got into the routine of life and have not had the chance to sit down and write. Although I have had some eventful days since Thanksgiving so get ready for a lengthy post! Well for starters, last weekend Chelsea and I headed to Port Antonio for a little break and some much needed beach time! Port Antonio is on the northeastern coast of Jamaica. It took us a few hours to get there by way of a mini bus, which we caught in Halfway Tree, where there is a huge bus terminal and lots of taxis and mini buses headed to pretty much every part of the island. Finding the bus in itself was the first part of the adventure. We had a taxi drop us in the main taxi park where we asked one of the many taxi drivers begging to drive us "anywhere we wanted" where we could catch a bus to Port Antonio he pointed in a direction toward the main bus terminal so we continued walking that way. We then came to where several mini buses were loading people and they started begging us to get in their buses we said no because they weren't going where we wanted to go, but I asked where we could find a bus for Port Antonio and we were again pointed in a direction a little further away! So, we kept walking and came to another street with several mini buses lined up loading people in and we started walking down the sidewalk and finally a man came up to us and said "Port Antonio?!" We replied "yes!" and he loaded us into his bus which already had a good amount of people, but he insisted we "sit up front." They like to load as many people that can possible fit in these mini buses. The buses are sort of like big vans with seats for maybe 40 people or so. Well, usually they can squish more like 55-60 people. And when you sit up front you are conveniently RIGHT next to the driver and one lucky person gets the "seat" that faces backward. Well, I was the lucky winner! Or not so lucky once the ride started and we drove up and down and around mountains with many curves...Chelsea and I were both praying the whole way that I would not get sick...she said my face was practically green and my whole body was breaking out in a cold sweat. I am certain the only reason I did not get totally sick was by the grace of God! Finally we made a stop about halfway there for someone to use the bathroom and Chelsea and I made a quick switch and I was able to ride facing foward while Chelsea got the backwards seat, but she managed it a little better than I did! We finally arrived in Port Antonio! After some sitting around waiting for check in time at the guest house and then going to the guest house only to wait because no one was there to check us in we finally deciding to just leave and find a taxi to bring us to the beach with all our luggage! We made it to Frenchman's Cove to spend the day on the beach! It was by far one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever been to and we were served drinks and food the whole time we were there! I think all in all we spent around $20 US for everything at the beach that day...not bad at all! Below are a couple pictures from the beach:

We headed back to our guest house at about 4:00 in the afternoon and met a really nice family who had us jump in their already packed cab because they didn't want us to have to wait for one to drive by and the husband told us to call them next time we come into town because they rent out cottages for even cheaper than we were paying for our guest house room (which was hardly anything by American standards!) and then he told the taxi driver to bring us to get patties (Jamaica's unique fast food item) and then drop us right at our guest house! Otherwise we would have just been dropped in the middle of town and had to walk back to our guest house and probably would not have had time to grab patties before it started getting dark. So, that was pretty amazing! I must say the veiw from the balcony outside our room at the guest house was worth the extra few bucks I think. Here are some pictures:

The next day, Sunday, we went to Mass in town and then spent a couple hours at the beach in town right next to the marina where smaller cruise ships sometimes dock for the day. There weren't any while we were there so we pretty much had the whole beach to ourselves except for a European couple that was not only at the beach, but also staying next door to us at the guest house!

We headed home after lunch and had a much more enjoyable bus ride thanks to seats facing foward! Although we did manage to pack more people than I have EVER seen on one of these mini buses...I laughed really hard as I was squished between Chelsea and a Jamaican woman with two HUGE bags filled with items she was most likely taking into town to sell and on my lap I was holding an old man's large plastic bag of oranges that he had asked me to hold so he could join the group of 7 or 8 men who were standing in a space that could fit maybe 3 men "comfortably" so all the women with their bags could get a seat. We tried to take a picture, but there was no way to do it without looking like "white tourists" so we resisted.

Okay, for now I think that will have to do. I will try and write another post this evening about the annual Upliftment Pageant that they hold for the children. Until then, I hope you have enjoyed my first weekend adventure story!