Daytrip!

Hello world, yes it is true we survived a Jamaican daytrip with a busload of youth from Trenchtown! We set off at seven in the morning for a long, windy, and loud bustrip to the north side of the island. Arriving at New generation camp, where we spent our first two days in Jamaica, we were as ready as we'd ever be for a crazy afternoon of fun and games with a group of kids who were... well let's just say a handful is an understatement. From the get go we knew communication was going to be an issue because all of these kids speak fairly thick Patois, which they will sometimes tone down when they’re speaking to you but when they talk to each other it’s a mile a minute, not to mention the fact that these kids are very upfront emotionally and will speak their mind without hesitation. Which combined led to us having to stress very often the values for the day, “Build people up, help people grow, because people matter.” It was beautiful though to see these kids come together and develop teamwork and understanding through group activities, games, and challenges. God used this experience to humble us and teach us to rely on him when we come to new situations that we don't know how to deal with, and taught us to look for the good in everything even when it seems like everything is going wrong sometimes.

And so with our most stretching and tiring day so far behind us, we have been blessed with a few days of rest and vacationing. Sunday was filled by church at Swallowfield Chapel then relaxing at our billet Nel's house, and playing with her grandchildren Asim and Kemba (interpretive dancing to classical music, connect-four, a walk in the park). Monday, much to the girl's enthusiasm) we got down to some shopping with the help of Patrick and managed to get pretty much all our souvenirs in one fell swoop, then visited Devon House (a used-to-be plantation) for some awesome ice-cream, and finished up with a trip to the movies (Underworld Awakening!). Today we're off for our last beach-day of the trip and hoping to get our tan's up to snuff, still pretty white but what can you do? And then tomorrow is our last kids club in Denhim town and thursday morning bright and early we're off!