The happenings on Thursday

Thursday May 21, 2009
I slept in this morning so I did not get a chance to write before going to Theodora and that is why this posting is a little late. I also had to get my clothes ready for Pauline to pick up – she is the house keeper and if we lay our clothes out on the bed in a laundry bag with a US $20.00 bill she will pick up the laundry and do it for you. So just bare with me because as we were explained prior to the trip everything is done on Jamaican time which means it could take a long time so I would like to officially say I am now working by Jamaican time. We have breakfast every morning at Summerset prior to leaving for Theodora. This meal is included in the stay so it is a time that we are all usually together. I know the menu by heart – continental breakfast which consists of all the amazing fruit here, pancakes, French toast, Spanish omelet, two eggs with bacon, and they are all served with the juice of the day, toast and all the coffee or tea you can drink. After breakfast we loaded in the van a routine that we are all getting use to--four of us pile in the back seat, four in the middle seat and one in the passenger front seat. Off to Theodora we go, about half way there the van ran out of gas, we heard "oh no" from Bunny the driver and we coasted for the longest time. Cody, Pam’s son was just amazed at how far we went without gas. Sinclair stopped and picked up a gas can and brought gas back to Bunny. Bunny explained that the gage did not work for the gas, once the gas was in Bunny tried to start the van but it would not turn over so they start to push the van with all of us in it – he is able to pop the clutch and we were on our way once more, so we were a little late to Theodora but since there was rain that morning Dustin told us the students may be late or may not even come especially if there is lightning. We found out that Theodora has been hit by lightning before so school is usually canceled if the weather is bad. As we walked in only a few of the students were there. Neon was one; he is always one of the first ones there. Due to the drawings that he showed me I gave him the colored pencils that Suzie gave to me (thank you Suzie). I told him if he wanted to do a drawing we could scan it and include it in the book. He thanked me and immediately started looking for drawing paper. Kerean came in and we reviewed her story. My concern is that she is using her name and places she has lived. Dustin came over to read the story and explained to her it took a lot of guts to write such a powerful story so to make sure she would have no back lash from the community he recommended that the names in the story be changed and possibly even the towns or parishes that she mentions. She understood and started changing her story. She has now given the Jamaican girl in her story the name of Terry (I am so honored). Neon and I sat down and started rewriting his story. I worked on the order that we needed to go in last night so I was just asking him to give me more information about each topic that we had written down the day before. He wanted to tell his story about his Path to Theodora. I have to remember the culture that I am in here and that many of the Jamaicans consider these kids bad kids because of them not finishing school but when you hear their stories your heart breaks. I go into the school each morning with hugs for each and every one of them and knowing the details of some of there stories I have to have a strong will to hold back the tears.
Since next Monday is a holiday and there is no school and we thought we would take the kids to the beach this Friday after we worked on the stories in the morning. Friday’s are an optional day for the kids at Theodora so we are not sure how many will show up so Dustin explained that we needed to meet on Friday because of no class on Monday and that after class we would take everyone to the beach and buy lunch. That means everything to these kids otherwise they would probably not eat. As we got ready to leave Thursday, Kerean came up to me and asked if I could give her money for lunch – this is one of the days that Theodora does not provide lunch. I had not broken a large bill yet but I gave her $200 Jamaican dollars which should get her a juicy patty and a drink but I wanted to do so much more. Pam and I walked to the beach with her son Cody and Dewayne another student from Theodora. We found a bench where we took a seat and talked for a little over an hour. We than grabbed a Taxi and got the same driver as the day before. He goes by Mr. T or that is how everyone knows him by and he is a wonderful person to talk to. He has dreadlocks and is very talkative, which is a great way to find out more about the Jamaican culture. We got back to Summerset and got ready for scuba diving lessons in the pool. Mona has met a guy who is from England. Him and his father run a scuba diving course here and he was willing to come down to see if we liked it. TOTALLY FABULOUS – I loved it. Dustin and one of the girls had a hard time with it but the rest of us thought it was just amazing. Some of us really want to do the scuba diving so we have a group of five that on Monday will get to scuba dive in the ocean – I can’t wait – have my underwater camera ready to go – Thank you Kyle and Jen. The evening dinner was on our own so Pam and I took Dewayne, Boomblast, and Dale out to eat at Alice’s I really like the food there and very reasonable. We returned and played dominoes until Midnight. I turned in but had a difficult time sleeping not sure why but only got about 3 hour’s total of sleep. Oh well I have made it through the day on less than that.