Day 4 Jamaica

 Sundays for the kids are church and to the beach. Since there was a big staff party planned in the early afternoon. That cut our day short and church turned into singing praise songs on the bus to the beach. Everyone still dressed up as the girls all brought dresses to wear to church. There were around 20 kids that joined us for the beach. The bus was crowded and almost everyone had a kid on their lap. I had Omar, a 5 year old boy sit on my lap. We began singing praise and worship songs as we made our way down the mountain and on the way to the beach, about a 45 minute drive. Hearing all the kids voices singing out in that bus was pretty neat. Then it happened, a terrible warm sensation on my lap. Omar peed on me. I couldn't believe it. I did not want to make a big deal, I cringed and told the people around me then just tried to keep singing and not think about it. The drive seemed to get longer and then it happened again. 4 times during the trip to the beach and I felt it each time. By the end, I was sitting in a puddle and it had run down my legs and onto the floor. Yes, it was that bad. Everyone unloaded the bus and I in my cute little dress headed straight to the public bathroom and took a shower in my dress. I washed it thoroughly and hung it to dry and wear back. I had no choice and I was very thankful that we did not attend church that morning. All was good after that.
 

The beach was gorgeous. The white sand, palm trees, sunshine, and turquoise water. It was heavenly. I have never been to a beach with such clear blue water an no waves. The beach had many tourists, most older and many unpleasantly in their speedos. They gawked at us and the children as if the children were  a tourist attraction. They even took pictures. Some of the native adults had some pretty skimpy swimsuits, or instead of swimsuits sports bras. Yikes. The ocean was amazing. I swam and floated out in it. I played with the kids. Most of them did not like to go out in the water very far and didn’t really trust you holding them. They liked to play in the sand. Raymian spelled out his name in the sand and had me guess letters that he wrote. It seems the kids are warming up to us more and so are we. I just love being surrounded by these adorable chocolate brown sweet kids. The guys all swam out to the floating trampoline with Lou. They dove into the water and jumped on the trampoline. Lou is very athletic and did flips. We passed out our PB&J sandwiches and had lunch on the beach. Some of the littler kids had trouble keeping the sand out of the sandwich. When we eat the sandwiches that have become a main food group for me lately, I am just thankful to have something to eat. 
When we  were ready to leave, the kids rinsed off in showers and changed. I doubled up beach towels on my lap for the ride home. Our bus driver seemed to give us an extra crazy drive home. Not that he was trying, but he was so rammy and jammy. At one point he was passing a car and a another car was coming around the curve on the mountain and he flew back on his side. I cannot believe how crazy they drive here. It is amazing they don’t have more car crashes. Most of the young kids fell asleep in our laps on the way back. We made it back to the orphanage around 1:30. We had to get the younger ones down for a nap. The rest of the day was the big Christmas party Katie and Vicki were putting on for the staff. They had a guy grilling chicken all day on a little grill. They had 20 chickens. Those chickens fed all the kids, all the staff, and all of us. They took a machete and chopped the chicken in small chunks and put them on your plate with bones and all. It made it very hard to eat and looked like a lot, but there wasn’t much chicken to eat on the bone. It was very good Jerk style chicken. They also had a heap of beans and rice. There was speakers and music for dancing. The kids really love the music. The boys have such natural rhythm, it is neat to see them dance. They move and groove to the music in a way us white people just can not compare. The boys pound the speakers like they are drums and dance all around. Our kids from the team enjoyed dancing too. The girls got “Cracker” to dance with them too. We had some Toby Mac music jammin. We also had lots of holding time of all the kids. With the staff and their kids at the party, it was pretty wild. Many of the staff live as far as an hour away. Alina brought props for a photo booth and took photos of the staff and all the kids. That was fun to see everyone enjoy. The little kids usually go to bed around 7:00PM. Vicki told the Pod Mom’s to let them stay up a little longer. The kids were so wild and overstimulated by bedtime the babies were screaming.