Day 5 Jamaica

 I was up to the house at 7AM and watched the little kids have breakfast. The babies, meaning 1 year olds, were so cute in their high chairs. The boys sit at picnic tables. One day I noticed the boys looking at a yellow pages magazine and eyeing everything in it like Jacob does with his farm magazines. I thought they might enjoy looking through one of my Western Horseman magazines. The boys were funny pointing and asking what everything was. They kept calling the horses donkeys. In the morning Mark always has his morning coffee and often kids finds their way into his lap. The kids are a daily does of sunshine.
 
I kept busy today and was feeling worn out. Today was the first day I was counting how many days we have left.  One of the staff had built two Jamaican push carts, like from the movie “Cool Runnings” for the boys in the Jake House for Christmas. It was top secret and they were hidden in the pre-school building. The pre-school was a small jaunt down the hill. My job with some helpers was to paint these carts. There was a metal gate at the entrance that we had to army crawl under. Inside the school room was a cute little classroom with desk, tables, play centers, all covered in bat poo. The kids had only been on break for a week and the room was already scattered with bat poo. It was gross and completely unhealthy, but here we are in Jamaica and it is all ok. I swept as much of it as I could out of the painting area so we were not sitting in it. Later we discovered one bat in a cardboard box and could hear the squeaks and screeches of one above us as we painted. Jayden, Carly, and I put on the first coat of primer. Hiking back up the hill after painting was very tiring. I was out of breath and my legs were tired. I only did it 3 more times that day. Each time we headed back to the school was a little harder. The older boys wanted to help us and wanted to follow us. We had to get more creative and sneak away.
The plan was to paint the carts Green, black, and yellow Jamaica colors. Next was the black and yellow coats of paint. This time Jayden, Holly, Joy and Brendon helped me paint. The black and yellow was much harder and messier. We were using oil based paint and it was thick. We did not have ideal painting conditions. It was bad enough to have bats in there, it was also very hot in the room and we had to keep the door shut and be sneaky . We also had some cardboard strips and plastic I found in a box to cover sections of the floor to keep paint drips off . It was about impossible to keep things clean. I had paint all over my arms and had to use paint thinner to get it off. I was tired, had climbed the hill and my back was aching terrible when Vicki came to me with the green paint. Here we go again. This time Holly and Alina helped paint the so called green. The green was an ugly blueish greenish color that did not look so good. We had no choice and painted. This paint was thin and drippy. By the time we were all finished I was hurting all over. I did not complain just sucked it up and kept going. 

During the day a group went to distribute bread and rice at the dump. I did not want to go because they were traveling in the “Tipper”. My back was still very much painful. Mark went with a group. From the pictures and the stories it sounded like quite a place. Families and people live in homes in and around the dump. They spend their days rummaging through the dump for food to recook or items they can sell. How awful a persons life would have to be to get to that point. 

Lunch was maccoroni and cheese and supper was lots of rice. By now the PB&J and rice was getting old. I had only been drinking water bottles and nothing else. I missed having flavor, juice, pop, anything. Our supply of snacks and even our supply of water bottles was diminishing due to the kids on our trip. We were finding they were helping themselves to them anytime. Half full and full opened water bottles were being left all over the place and now we were about out. Jayden and Sun did some flipping on the trampoline. He is a cute kid. He has a neat laugh and smile. I like to hear him talk in his native language too. The little girls, referred to as the "babies are between 18 months and 3. They are so cute, Elise will have nothing to do with anyone of our color. She shy's away and screams if someone tries to hold her. Even the staff that is of our color. Kimberly is all smiles and a pretty happy girl. Rhianna loved to be in my arms. Once she found someone's lap to sit on she clung to you. She would wander away, then come running back and leap into your lap. She didn't want anyone else holding her. Zoey and Jada were like twins to me, I had a hard time keeping them apart. Moeisha and Martinez were the older babies, older two year olds. The kids all had runny noses, often many had a cough. One day I noticed one of the babies wheezing. When one gets sick it runs through all of them. There was a lot of snot to deal with. The orphanage had lots of medicine on hand and try to avoid the doctor if they can. A trip to the doctor with a sick child is unbearable. They drive far to a clinic where there are no appointments. They sit for half a day to see the doctor. Another thing we take for granted back home.
 I was missing the boys and really needed to hear their voices on the phone. Harmony let us use her own international calling phone. It was so good to hear the boys and see how they are. 
Joy started reading a Christmas story to the Jake House boys a little each night. They also got to watch a movie. We're not really sure why, with all of us there watching a movie with them, but some of the boys went into the bathroom and started lighting little fires. They would roll up toilet paper like a cigarette and light them on fire then throw it out the window. Boys will be boys and kids will be kids. Yes, they got caught and they got into trouble.  Some of us were up talking until 10:30 even though we were all so tired.