Remember Me?!

I can’t believe how long it’s been! I apologize for those of you who have been waiting for an update on my life here in Jamaica. Well, it’s been a little over 4 months since I arrived and at this point all the wild and crazy experiences have become a part of daily life. Once in awhile I stop and realize the roosters crowing when I get off the bus outside of work or the huge piles of trash burning on the side of the road were not normal to me 4 months ago, but now that’s all a part of everyday life! Before I go any further let me first explain part of why I have not written a blog in so long. About a month ago, I was sitting quietly on my couch with my computer in my lap just minding my own business when all of a sudden I heard a bang! I looked down on my keyboard and there was a lizard about the length of my hand! He scared me out of my mind and made me throw my computer onto our tiled floor! And shortly after my computer went black and didn’t turn back on until I was able to put a new hard drive in and now I have my computer back and can get on the internet again! Below is a picture of the killer lizard! Jamicans call them "croc lizards."

A lot of other things have happened in the past month or so too! For starters my mom and dad came to visit a couple weeks ago! I brought them around to all the children’s homes that I work at regularly and had them meet the children and staff. They rented a car (which my dad drove on the left side of the road with ease) and we drove a few hours through the southern part of the country toward the beach. I brought them to what is so far my favorite part of the island. It’s a little town called Treasure Beach on the southern coast. There are a few hotels and guests houses, but it’s a lot quieter than the other touristy parts of the island like Montego Bay and Negril. The people who live there are by far the most laid back Jamaicans I have come across and are usually very pleasant and polite with the few tourists that hear about and venture out to TB. We enjoyed a relaxing, but far too short weekend at the beach and sitting by the pool. I was sad to have them leave and to return the “real world” of city life and work, but it was so wonderful to have them here and give them a glimpse into my life here. Below is a picture taken at Treasure Beach. The sunsets are amazing!

The week after my parents returned home, my roommate and I packed our bags and headed to Mustard Seed’s apostalate in Moneague called Jacob’s Ladder. Jacob’s Ladder is still in the works, but when it is completed it will be home to over 400 residents and have a completely self-sustaining farm. Right now there are a little over 40 residents all who are over 18 and about 90% of them have a psychiatric disease. Many of the residents are schizophrenic. It’s a really overwhelming place for people who have not spent time around severely psychotic people (which I suppose would be the majority or people in the world!). But it’s also an incredibly peaceful place. There is so much wide open space and there are just dozens of little cottages that line the perimeter of the living area. The residents are really fun to be around as well. Some of them are always excited for visitors and crave one on one attention and Chelsea and I tried to give as much as we could. While there I did some training with the care givers, most of whom have no training at all in caring for psychiatric patients. So, there is a lot of work to be done there, but hopefully with time it will grow and become home to hundreds of deserving children. Below are some pictures I took on our ride back from Moneague. It's a really beautiful ride through the mountains!

Well, that’s what I have for now. The internet here has been touch and go, but hopefully I can work on writing a little more often. I will be heading home to the States the end of April for a couple weeks to get a visa for my last 6 months here. Luckily, I will be able to see some family and friends as well! I am very excited for a little taste of America! Hope all is well with all of you!

A Few New Friends

"Christ is hidden under the suffering appearance of anyone who is hungry, naked, homeless, or dying." - Blessed Teresa of Calcutta Last week Mustard Seed recieved a call that there were 5 abandoned children living in one of the ghettos not far from My Father's House. A few members of the staff headed over to the area shortly after recieving the call and returned to My Father's House with 5 beautiful children who had been abandoned by their mother months earlier. The oldest is 14 and the youngest 5. After a trip to a doctor it was discovered that the youngest two are HIV+ and they are also covered from head to toe with scabies. A home was quickly created for them in what is normally the physiotherapy room because they needed to be separated from the other children until the scabies had been treated. Unfortunately, Mustard Seed cannot keep all 5 of the children because Mustard Seed is only able to permanently keep children who are disabled or HIV+. The oldest three have been sent to other children's homes in the area. However, the two youngest will be staying with Mustard Seed. Once the scabies have healed they will be sent to one of our homes for young HIV+ boys in downtown Kingston. This past Monday I spent some time throughout the day with them. The youngest is 5, but he looks more like a 2 year old in size. He is severly malnourished and his skinny limbs and huge belly make him look like one of the children shown in advertisements asking for money for starving children in Africa. Nonetheless, they are both adorable. The older of the two is 6 and he has a beautiful smile :) We colored for a little while and I clipped the little one's tiny fingernails. I will be sad to see them leave My Father's House, but it will be all the more reason to go downtown to visit them at their new home! Please keep them, as well as their older siblings in your thoughts and prayers! A lot of people have asked me how Mustard Seed recieves all the children we have living at our homes. Well, this story is one example of the ways we recieve kids. Additionally, we are sometimes left children outside our gates or sometimes parents can no longer care for their children and they humbly bring them to us. The Child Development Agency also brings us children. Recently we were asked to provide a home for a young boy who continuously ran away from the children's home where he was living. The home did not know what else to do with him. So far, he seems happy here at Jerusalem! He gets along well with the other children and is always looking for a hug! Once a child comes to Mustard Seed we do all we can to keep them within MSC's homes. Only in rare and dire circumstances will a child be sent somewhere outside of MSC. If you have any other questions please feel free to ask and I will try to answer in future blogs. Peace!

Painting My Room!

I am not sure if all of my blog readers know my living situation. So, before I begin this story let me explain. I live with 3 other people. Chelsea is the other volunteer currently serving with Mustard Seed, Pravi is Fr. Gregory's nephew and a student at the University of the West Indies in Jamaica, and then there is Mikey. Mikey is head of security for Mustard Seed. He used to live in a house on the compund here at Sophie's Place, but the house was washed away during Tropical Storm Gustav. So...now he lives with us in the long-term volunteer quarters. For the most part he keeps to himself. He always says hello when he passes through the living room, but thats the most we see of him usually. At this point I am sure you are all wondering what Mikey has to do with me painting my room. Well, there is one thing about Mikey that can be intimidating for new volunteers- Mikey speaks the most dificult to understand Jamaican English anyone could ever imagine! Even Jamaicans cannot understand him sometimes! Anyway, last Friday morning I saw Mikey and he said something to me. As is usually the case, I could only understand about 1/3 of the question he asked. I knew he was asking me about painting and I knew he was telling me he wanted to paint his room and Chelsea had told him I wanted to paint my room too. So I just sort of said "oh ok yea, sounds good Mikey." Shortly after I realized I had at the very least agreed to paint SOMETHING the next day. I wasn't sure if it was going to be my room, his room, or both and I was definitely unsure where the paint was going to come from! I woke up the next morning and could here Mikey in his room moving stuff around and smelled the distinct aroma of fresh paint. He heard me come out of my room and into the kitchen and he popped open his door and said something about painting. So I told him once I was done with my breakfast I would be ready. Although, I still wasn't sure WHAT I would be ready for. Well I ate my cereal and in the mean time Mikey had gone downstairs. As I put my bowl in the sink he walked through the door with some blue paint! He handed it to me and told me to wait one second. He went into his room and came back out carrying a roller. He told me to put whatever I had left back in his room when I was done. So, just to make sure I asked him if the paint he just gave me was for my room and sure enough he said "yea mon!" So, I went into my room and moved all the furniture as far away from the walls as possible and started painting! Pravi woke up and walked into my room with a confused look and asked "what are you doing?!" "Painting my room!" I responded. He just started laughing. In the end I had a newly painted room. It is now light blue as opposed to dark and dreary dark blue it was before. I still am not entirely sure where Mikey got the paint, but I don't ask questions because I won't understand the answer anyway! So much for moving to a country where they speak my language! The language barrier definitely still exists...trust me!

Christmas in the Ghettos

I remember telling myself while we were distributing toys in the ghettos that I needed to come home and write all that I saw so it would be fresh in my mind. And of course there wasn't time immediately following the Christmas Treat and then the next day I was so exhausted and day after day went by and here I am several weeks later just now sitting down to attempt to describe what may just be the best Christmas I've ever had. I am hesitant to say that...knowing my mom and dad might be a little upset that the 21 Christmases prior to this one were all topped this year and I was a thousand miles from home! But Christmass 2008 was so much different from all the Christmases before that I don't know that it necessarily "beat out" all my prior Christmases. It is really in it's own category. I had been told some really crazy stories about past Christmas Treats. Most people said it was really great, but they never wanted to do it again...What was THAT supposed to mean?! I was about to find out, but before I begin I will say that it was really amazing AND I would probably do it again! Once we started driving away from My Father's House and toward the first ghetto I was excited. As we approached where we would stop someone motioned to look over to the left. Running along the sidewalk and in the streets were hundred of kids...they knew we were coming. It was as if they had been anxiously waiting since the vans had driven off last Christmas. As we continued to drive along kids kept popping out of every gate and doorway. They were running toward the front of the caravan and soon enough all the children were joined by young woman toting little babies in their arms, young men, and even old grandmas hoping to recieve teddy bears for some of the many grandchildren they have been given to raise. The plan was to pull into a church and give the pastor the allotted amount of food for each town (he would then distribute it) and then to hand out stuffed animals from one of the vans. From past experiences they have decided the best way to pass out the stuffed animals is to keep all the doors and windows of the van locked except the front two windows which are lowered just enough for stuffed animals to fit out and not low enough for people to push their way into the window. As you have probably figured out, these people REALLY want stuffed animals. They will do just about anything for as many as they can get. As we quickly learned... The plan was to return to our vans once we heard the band that was traveling with us start to play "Oh come all ye faithful." We heard the song and all started heading back to our van. We were almost all in the van when several people from the town noticed the trash bag with stuffed animals in the back of our van. Two young men were really begging us so someone opened the bag and handed them each one. This seemed to satisfy them, or so we thought. Someone from the crowd thought it might be worth it to try pulling at the trunk door...and unfortunately for us, the door was not locked and they began jumping in the back of the van grabbing at the stuffed animals. One of the Jamaican men traveling in our van came rushing over and tried closing the door on them forcing then to jump out, they managed to grab several stuffed animals. We finally had everyone in the van and we started to drive away and just as we did they opened up the trunk door again and dove in the back...grabbing as much as they could. They ended up getting nearly an entire bag I think before someone jumped out of our van and slammed the door shut again and waited there till we were able to get the key to lock it. It was a bit frightening and probably not the best way to start of the morning. Fortunately, this was the biggest mishap and the rest of the morning was eventful in mostly positive ways. We stopped in 4 more ghettos. The second ghetto was pretty uneventful. What I remember most is that many of the people could care less about the food we handed them. The dogs were more than happy to gobble up the food from the boxes that people simply tossed on the ground as they said "Me no ungry. Me wah teddy bear." It's sad that people are so ungrateful, but you really have to take things like that with a grain of salt I have learned. They are just brutally honest. They would rather have a teddy bear that will last for years to come than a full belly that will no doubt be empty again in a few hours. The positive moment for me in that ghetto was when I had one box of food in my arms looking for someone who might actually want it and I looked over and saw to little children, a brother and sister no doubt, wearing nothing but their underwear. The little girl had a box of food and a teddy bear, the little boy only a teddy bear. I approached them slowly because based on the looks in their eyes they had never seen a white person before. I dropped down onto my knees and asked the little boy if he was hungry. He nodded his head yes. So, I stuck the box of food under his arm because his hands were busy holding tightly onto his new teddy bear. I told him to hold it tight and until he reached home. He just nodded. Man, they were so cute! The next ghetto was where I met Gloria. She was an old woman who I came across on the street while I was handing out boxes of food. She already had food, but she asked me where she could get a teddy bear. I told her she had to go around the corner and wait in line outside the police station (where we had left the stuffed animals for them to distribute). She looked at me with sad eyes and said "They won't give an old lady a teddy bear." I told her they would but she needed to go stand in line. She had a glimpse of hope and started heading in that direction. Not long after I was standing on a corner opposite the police station. I saw her walking away from the line. At the same time, Fr. Gregory came over to see how Chelsea and I were doing. I told him about the old woman and how I really wanted her to get a teddy bear, but it didn't look like she would be able to. As soon as I finished the sentence he yelled over to one of the many men who work for him and he told him he needed a "very special teddy bear for someone." So, off Hanson went into the crowds for the teddy bear just as Fr. requested. Fr. told me to run over and catch the old woman before she was out of site. I ran over and grabbed her shoulder. I whispered "stay with me someone is going to get you a teddy bear." As we stood wating I said "my name is Sarah." She grinned and said "I'm Gloria. Now we are no longer strangers." I told her I was a nurse and she got really excited and told me she was diabetic. So we chatted about that until Hanson appeared holding a big stuffed dog above his head. He saw Fr. who motioned for him to bring it over to me and I gave it to Gloria. She was so happy! Now, onto the next ghetto! I made another friend! We stopped near the bus park in downtown Kingston. So, as buses pulled by the food truck hands would stick out the windows. We would jump up and hand food to the bus passengers and the bus drivers who certainly deserved a free meal as they spent their Christmas working! There was a lull in buses so I took a few boxes of food and crossed the street to where there was a plaza with many people sitting or passing through. I handed out a couple of the boxes of food and noticed a rastaman not too far from where I was handing out food, but he didn't seem too interested at first. Then I starting to walk in the opposite direction and he came up and told me he was heading to Port Royal and he would like a couple boxes of food to give to some kids. I am assuming he was making up the story, but either way I was going to give him the food! Then he started talking to me. Very typical rasta talk at first. Telling me he doesn't judge by the color of skin and what not. It turned out to be a pretty lengthy conversation. He told me his sister has a boat and he likes to go catch fish and if he ever runs into me again he'll get me some fish. He was a really nice guy who was happy to have someone listen to him I think. I certainly didn't mind chatting. Oh, and his name was Solomon! And finally, the last ghetto...Trenchtown. Trenchtown as in the ghetto you hear Bob Marley sing about as well as the ghetto you hear sung about in newer reggae songs. As we approached Trenchtown, Terrance, the Jamaican with us pointed out Bob Marley's house and we saw why the ghetto is called Trenchtown. There is a trench that actually seperates the town into two and we were told that most people from one side are not allowed to cross over to the other side of the trench because of territorial rules and the gangs that run the ghetto makes sure the rules are followed. As we continued to drive through we were quickly joined by hundreds of running children. Many of the streets had been blocked off with piles of anything that could be found (bed frames, washing machines, car parts, etc.). This is to prevent the police from driving through the ghetto. Although, I have a feeling most police wouldn't take the risk even if the streets were not blocked. Finally, we reached the stopping point. There were huge government housing buildings lining the road. I wished so bad I had brought my camera. These buildings cannot even compare to what Americans picture when they think "housing project". They are several stories high and each "apartment" looked like a single room that was about the size of an average bedroom in the States. Maybe smaller. I obviously didn't go inside any of them so I can't be sure exactly what they look like. What I really noticed from the outside was that there was no green anywhere. All the grass and dirt had long been replaced with concrete. There were a few trees here and there, but just barely enough to cast a shadow on those sweltering hot days. The people in Trenchtown were noticeably poor. The children were wearing rags, if anything, over their underwear and many of the adults were similarly dressed. I handed out food until we ran out. Then, I headed to the "juice" truck (Jamaicans call any and all drinkable liquid juice!). I stuck my hands up and the people in the back of the truck just kept passing me cans of juice and soda. I would try and get it to the smaller kids who were two small to push their way to the front of the crowds. While I was doing this I handed a woman carrying a small child a can and she looked at me with the most sincere eyes and in the most grateful voice told me she was so thankful for what we do. Jamaicans do not really understand affirmation. They never tell each other "good job." It's something that seriosuly lacks in this culture so for this woman to gracioiusly thank me was really beautiful. Once we had run out of all our food, drinks, and teddy bears we heard the band play "Oh come all ye faithful" and we headed to the vans. As we drove out of Trenchtown Chelsea sat next to me and said "I never ever want to forget what this place looks like." And that is exactly how I was feeling. Who knows if I will ever return there. If not, I am glad I had the oportunity to experience Christmas in Trenchtown once. As you can see, Christmas 2008 was certainly one to remember. I hope you enjoyed reading. Sorry this has taken so long to post! I also hope everyone reading had a blessed Christmas and New Year! God Bless!

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!