Tuesday May 19, 2009
Well as I write this on Wednesday morning I am setting on the cliffs at the edge of the ocean. The group walked down to Negril Escape where we can go swimming without being hassled by someone trying to sell you something. Today we don’t go to Theodora until 1:00 so are free time is in the morning. I could sooooo get use to this. Yesterday we set down with our groups. I took Neon and Kerean up to the church and we talked about what they wanted to write about. Kerean wants to write about child abuse. She has gone through it and I think she has some scars on her from this. She informed me that she thinks it is very important to let people know about the stories. I found out she wants to focus it towards young men before they have children so I think her abuse may have come from her father. I am sure I will find out more as we start her story. I am sure I may have some tears as we write her story. Neon is so sweet he came up to me as I arrived and informed me that he had something for me. He gave me a bag and said Mangoes and let me tell you they are three of the largest mangoes I have seen – delicious…. All I can say is the fruit her is completely different from the states so many flavors coming from them. Neon is not sure what he wants to write but I know I will get a story from him. After we talked we met up with Jennifer’s group. She has Michele who wrote a story last year about a dream of being a professional pool player so we walked down the road and there was a small bar that yes had a pool table in it. I played a game with her and David the other student that Jennifer is working with. Michelle lit up at the pool table. Jennifer stated that is the most that she had said and she and I just hit it off. She looked at me and said you really know how to play pool and totally had a smile the whole time. She want me to go with her on Friday night to play pool and I had to let her know that I was not sure what are schedule is like but we will get together one night to do this. After the pool game Nicola the other student that I am working with joined us. We stopped by the store and I brought drinks and snacks for everyone. They all grabbed a small bag of chips but when I told them they could get the large back they put the small ones back and was trilled to get the large bag. Lay’s potato chips, they say they really like the American chips but they don’t get them very often because of the cost. We walked down to the craft shops where Nicola grandmother has a shop. I met her grandmother and aunt and got to see the craft shop that she has. This is the only income that her grandmother has and there are so many shops in this one compact area. From there we walked down to the beach. During this entire walk I had given my camera to the student and told them to take pictures of what ever they wanted. This way if they are having problems with a story we can look at the picture and ask why they took that picture. We stopped on the beach under a tree and talked there for a good hour. David has had a really rough life. He is so positive though and he is living with Nicola’s aunt so there is a very strong bond between them. He had been abused as a child and both of his parents have died. He has been moved from relative to relative where the abuse continued and is now with a wonderful family. He invited us to go to church with them on Sunday. As soon as we find out our schedule we will know if we can commit to activities with the students. It was just a great day with the students, I think that on Wednesday we will walk to the church they are wanting us to go to and I may get to see Kerean’s daughter. After leaving Theodora we walked down the beach quite a way to get to Niah’s to have her patties. They have been the best so far. I could go there again and again. After eating lunch we returned to Summerset and hug out by the pool. Pam, her son and I, along with Dewayne a student from Theodora walked down to the cliffs, further down from where I am writing this blog. We watched the divers which was amazing. I want to go back and take the camera because the things they were doing totally blew my mind. We stopped to eat on the way back at a road side shop – could totally go vegetarian here with no problem. We returned around 9:00 pm and set and talked till around 11:30. As I said at the beginning of this post I am at the cliffs and could totally get use to this. It will be hard coming back to reality when I return.