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!