Mornings are getting easier. Today I didn't go back to sleep for the first time after breakfast. I have been sorely disappointed in breakfast this year. I love cereal and all, but I could eat that in my room and not have to get up 2 HOURS to be AT breakfast. Today we had porridge, but I ate cereal, the days before were cereal and Sunday was baked oatmeal. (I had cereal.)
Today at the school we had a lot more interaction with the kids. I prepped the girl who was doing the lesson and things were kept more on a child's level. They loved singing again, thought the skit was hilarious, and they did a lot of participating as an audience. I felt better about devotions today than I have either of the two previous day. I was glad to end on a good note. There was some reinforcement and points driven home from the last few days, we prayed and then closed.
One little girl I had never talked to before came straight to me and wanted me to walk her back to her class and I agreed. We were about to have to leave anyway. I walked with her to the little school house in front of the main building and she said, "I wish you were my mother." I asked her why she said that and if she had a mother and she said yes. Then I asked her if she had a sister. She said had a little 1-year-old sister who spoke Spanish, but didn't live with her...the point was that she didn't have an older sister. I told her that her mom probably works very hard to do a very good job taking care of her and loves her very much, but that we could "almost" be like sisters. Then she looked up at me and asked, "What was your name again?" I thought that was great. "Will you be my mom? What's your name?"
Spencer came back and all of the kids LOVED getting to see him again. They had asked for him by name the day before and were distraught when he didn't return to see them. Needless to say they were ecstatic to see him today.
Today on the worksite I started on the roofing team. I already felt like the team leaders were not thrilled with me because I forgot to change shoes and all I was wearing were flip flops...it would be a long day on my feet but I was convinced it would be fine. My tennis shoes don't stay on my feet anyway... but it was hard work and things I had no experience (or skill) at doing. No one did a particularly good job of teaching me either so even though I picked it all up pretty quickly it was very slow moving. I wasn't really bothered by it, I was just enjoying the view of the island and the Bay (we have been at a much higher elevation that even the base so you can see so much more.) Unfortunately it took us a very long time to get started today. There was a ton of little detail work, but it was almost more effective to just do it rather than find someone who needed a job and could do, wanted to do it and explain to them HOW to do it. We started to get behind, we realized, when it was getting close to lunch and all of the rafters that would soon hold the roof were not up.
We took a break for lunch which Patricia, the lady we are building the house for, cooked for us. It was great. Yesterday we had a very traditional Jamaican lunch of spicy fish, dumplings, and yam and today we had a chicken and rice dish. Both beat a PBJ anyday.
After lunch it seemed that I had gotten demoted. I was a little bitter for awhile until I realized I wasn't replaced or traded in for anyone that I felt would have been insulting. I wasn't even traded in for a boy...I was traded in for a Jamaican. That was ok by me, at least we would start working efficiently now...or so I thought.
Pretty much all afternoon I played with the kids or did random odd detail jobs. I blew bubbles, took pictures, did some trim work, cut some "zinc" (what they call sheet metal for the tin roof) and that could very well be all. I handed things, held things in place and did all kinds of THOSE things...but not too much hard-core-that-makes-me-feel-very-accomplished kind of things or get-my-aggression-out things, like hammering. The icing on the cake is that even though I got kicked off the roofing team we still didn't get the roof on and finish the house today. I was a little disappointed.
We had an injury on-site today, a board or something fell down or was dropped and hit a girl in the forehead. It was a typical head wound and bled like crazy. I was really glad I wasn't in charge on my site because I would have panicked. I got the first aid kit ASAP, but didn't deal well with the blood and was convinced that she was going-to-HAVE-to-have-stitches-and-that-we-were-going-to-have-to-take-her-to-the-hospital-no-life-flight-her-back-to-America. The bleeding stopped VERY quickly and we were able to get a better look at the cut and see that it really was going to be fine. We could tell it was a corner of whatever it was that hit her. I think I could've handled the situation, but I also think I was having terrible flashbacks of when Hadley, a little girl that I was baby-sitting, flipped out of a trampoline's net and landed on some gravel, on her head, and had to be taken to the hospital for stitches...It was a bad day. I thought I might never baby-sit again because of all of the thoughts going through my mind of what COULD have happened IF...but luckily I did start [much more carefully] baby-sitting again. And to think I wanted to be a doctor.
Bob, our director at the Wesley foundation joined the Montego Bay team today and will remain with us for the duration of the trip...which is quickly coming to a close. I am SO sad that I have to leave this place. I am really very very sad. I don't want to ever come back...I think that is about all for today...tomorrow we will have a much more restful day than the labor intensive ones we have had the last three days. We will have more of a ministry day which I will fill you in on after it has happened... yay.
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