Work day 2 (June 8, 2010)

Luke 6:38- Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

That scripture was in my head all day today as we continued our journey. We started the day with a delicious breakfast and sent the guys off to the worksite. The girls all stayed back and would go into town with Betty, Gregory and myself to grocery shop for food baskets.

For anybody who doesn't know, IsleGo started "food baskets" when it was brought to attention that although we were providing shelter, many (if not most) of the people we built houses for were still going hungry. A food basket contains food that the Jamaican's would typically buy to prepare meals for about two weeks. We have individuals in different communities that are aware of who is going hungry and they provide us with places to provide. It's one of my favorite things to do because we get to walk around, see the community, get to know the people we're delivering food to and pray with them. It's always an emotional eye-opener to teams who haven't left the worksite and haven't seen the living conditions that people just like you and I are living in.

Today we took the girls shopping, picked up the boys and got to meet Mr. Ken and Miss Rosie. We first delivered to Mr. Ken's house. The house was one room with a bed and a refrigerator. The walls were thin wood and a roof that was barley attached. When we arrived Mr. Ken was sitting in the door way in a folding chair looking out into the bushes. I told him we brought him groceries and would love to sit and talk with him and his eyes just lit up with excitement! It's funny how God works... most times we deliver food baskets the people we're led to have been praying for their next meal. Ken told us he's been having stomach problems and let us pray for him before we left for Rosie's.

Rosie is Mr. Brown's (who works around Civil Heights) wife. The have 4 kids and no steady income or resources aside from some housecleaning work on the side. She truly appreciated anybody that would pray for her and her children as well as the opportunity for work. If there was any way to explain the living conditions they were in, I would. Aside from saying it was basically pieces of wood/sheet metal bolted together to create a shelter, I don't know how to explain it without pictures. I do not in ANY way want to degrade any of our brothers and sisters here but I do want to open the eyes of anybody who hasn't seen anything like this. There are people praying for their next meal when we're trying to decide WHICH place we'll go to dinner and choosing which meal we're going to pick. I have seen babies drinking sugar water here because the mothers can't afford milk. It's absolutely heartbreaking...

After delivering food baskets and seeing Donovan explain the fruits and vegetables and purposes of each and every tree/bush/shrub growing on Miss Rosie's property, we went back to the worksite where the team finished the trench before lunch (so they can start cementing tomorrow!!).

Lunch today was beef patties with coco bread and whewww were they delicious. Its funny how things that are so simple can be so satisfying. Today after lunch a lot of the team wanted to have a chance to play with some kids while some of them wanted to get back to the worksite. I talked to Cynthia earlier this morning (the principal of the school I worked at all last summer) and she wanted to get together at the community center. It all worked out that I took the kid half to Grace while the others went off to the worksite. It was great to see Char and Katie spend time with Cynthia after having spent so much time with her last summer. The kindergarten class just won a trophy for intelligence! She brought the trophy, plaque AND award. So proud of them! We also met her new teaching assistant who has worked with special needs kids here for years. It's unbelievable hearing the stories about these kids- imagine how hard it is in the states and take away 100% of the resources we have available. These are physical AND mental needs. She's one amazing lady.

When I left home I really felt like I had unfinished business and was leaving without having anything settled. Money owed, leaving people hanging in different areas and just left feeling like this were unstable but God told me over and over I needed to be going. Today while I was at Grace I got a phone call from home that just didn't settle well and made me feel like I was putting others out in order for me to be here. If anybody knows me... I was literally feeling sick over it. I was praying and trying to figure out how to get everything taken care of while I'm here at the same time while I was directing the 800 Jamaican kids surrounding me as well as the few that were there from our team. I was watching Char hand out bags of markers and basically watched her in a brutal fight over Crayola markers. I just naturally went up to her and said "look around, you may want to start giving one per child instead of a bag with every color to a few of them." She began doing that and I sat back down to the frustration in my brain when God put the realization in my head that I was watching literally HUNDREDS of kids line up for 1 single Crayola marker that would make their day (or however long it takes to dry up). There was another boy who came up and blew bubbles in my face and giggled harder than anybody I've ever seen in my life. I looked out the window where there were hundreds more children playing and heard a car horn. That's when all of the kids started SCREAMING at the top of their lungs and sprinting... they were chasing after the sugar cane trucks to try to get some sweeties. After looking around and seeing all of this raw, plain joy in such a simple form made me start laughing. Not just a little laugh but one of those laughs where you can't stop no matter how hard you try. That's when I realized (again) that I'm here for a reason and no matter what's going on back home, I'm here and that's exactly where I should be.

After the center we came back to the villas for goat night! We had dinner and Red stopped by before work! I called him to see when I'd be seeing him and after a 2 minute discussion of me having to convince him that I was actually in town, he brought his paintings and we were able to catch up. Around 8:00 we started our late-night zumba in the dark with only the noise of latin music and the waves crashing. I looked up at one point and saw the stars... I tried to make out a dipper... north star... anything... but there were so many more stars that there wasn't a chance. That's when I (again) realized that I am truly truly blessed and have indeed gained more than I have given.

Cementing in the morning and off to play with the kids tomorrow afternoon :)

Love & miss you all.