The week before school started here we had a three day VBS at church. Todd and I are not children's workers but we wanted to do something special for the children in Anchovy. The team of seventy that Todd just finished hosting on the south side of the Island did VBS at churches in the mornings. They had everything pre-planned and prepared for each day. We inherited the surplus of supplies so all we had to do was follow their guides.We really didn't know how many to expect because on any given Sunday at church, our children's attendance runs anywhere from Nathan alone to fifteen kids. We went prepared for twenty five though. It's a good thing we did, too.
Each child was given a name tag when they arrived. We have found that to be so helpful because most of the time when they tell us their names we can't understand them. It makes it much easier if they spell it for us and we can see it written.
Wednesday was our first day and we started with only five kids, a baby and three adults. That quickly changed. True to Jamaican culture more continued to trickle in.
Soon we had ten kids and several idle hecklers that hung around in the back.
Todd told a bible story and had some of the kids role play it as he told it. It seemed to keep the kids attention a little better.
One of their crafts was to make a necklace out of twine and thread foam shapes onto the twine. Then tie it around their necks and it makes a cute little necklace. One, these kids will treasure.
Such concentration.
Before long we had twenty one kids and four adults.
You can tell by Todd's shirt just how hot it was.
At the end, they all came up to be prayed for.
Day two arrived with just a handful due to the threat of Hurricane Gustav. We started the day off with Todd painting Jamaican flags on the back of hands of those who wanted one. Since the Jamaican track and field team did so well at the Olympics this year, patriotism is at an all time high.
Judienne gets a flag.
Wendy intently watches "Pasta" paint her flag.
They were so good not to complain about having to color their pictures in their chairs.
On day two we only had nine kids but we had several idle hecklers that congregated in the back and were very distracting.
They had a golf ball and were playing a friendly match of football while we tried to keep the kids attention and have VBS. It is very hard to ignore these idlers and we have no "authority" to ask them to leave because after all we are using their community center.But, when you look around and see this precious face holding her "light" up...
...somehow it seems worth all the aggravation.*Day three was cancelled because of Hurricane Gustav.*
As you can tell Jackie doesn't have anything to steal except herself. She is a squatter on the railroad property. You can see the railroad tracks that she crosses to get to her humble home. We would love to find Jackie a job so she can move into a safer home. As long as she has to live where she does she will remain so vulnerable to those that have nothing better to do than take advantage of others. At times we feel so helpless.
Nathan and I flew Spirit Airlines this time as Air Jamaica wasn't running any specials. This experience was better than the last. They seemed to have turned over a new leaf. Both flights from Tampa and Fort Lauderdale left on time. On both flights, we had three seats to ourselves so Nathan was able to lay down. We still had to bring our own snacks on the plane because I didn't want to pay $6 for a bag of chips.
I decided to take some pictures from the plane window this time. It was really hazy and taking the picture through the double paned plane window made them kind of fuzzy. One of the cruise ships was in port.
The water was still pretty despite the conditions. We were seated three seats from the back of the plane so I decided there was no hurry in getting off of the plane. We took our time. On the long walk to immigration Nathan's Croc caught on the tile floor and he took a dive. His DS went one way, backpack another and his pull behind landed on his legs. He whacked his knee and elbow pretty good but he didn't cry. When we made it to immigration, for the first time since we have been traveling in and out of Jamaica the officer got it right. She processed our passports without asking me fifty questions about why we live here and what we do. She made her stamps, marked her initials and dated all the right places and said, "Welcome home!"
On the way to the Chinese restaurant for lunch we passed a local fisherman. I have seen lots of fishermen with stringers of fish but this one was the biggest of all.
If you look close you can see that most of the fish are red snappers but right at the top is a lobster. Yummy! I was starving. My white chocolate mocha from Starbucks was long gone.
