Jamaica update from LL

I don't have a lot of "Jamaica" pictures, mostly family and what the others have blogged. I will try to start getting more pictures of our locations to post.

Wednesday and Thursday we spent the day at the Deaf School in Knockpatrick, this is where Kirk and Keri's main home is. Thursday we visited the Deaf village which is a short drive from the school. They have a wood working factory there. We met Chad and Pam Huber and hope to have supper with their family before we leave.

Friday we left for Mo-Bay (Montego Bay) about 2:30 PM. There is another deaf school here, I believe they call it the deaf village and intend to grow the opportunities available here for the deaf community.

It is about a 3 hour drive. 30 minutes of that drive is pretty miserable, curve this way and that and then back again. I think worse than the curves is the constant acceleration and deceleration; it's hard on your neck. We enjoyed the beautiful scenery on the drive and wish I could have taken lots of pictures. I tried to take a few, but the constant swerving doesn't make for very clear pictures.

It rained a good part of the way and we found flooding when we got close to Mo-Bay. It didn't stop traffic, but probably slowed us down a good bit. When we arrived at their "beach" house (you can see the ocean from here), we found there was no power. We cooked what little food there was here (ravioli, macaroni, tuna noodles, and baked beans) by candle light on a gas stove and also ate by candle light. We had hoped to arrive early enough to get some groceries, but the traffic was too bad to venture out again after we got here so we just made do with what was in the cupboards.

Today I washed laundry and then because we don't have an iron here I thought I would be smart and just run the girls and my church clothes through the rinse cycle and hang them to get some of the wrinkles out. What I didn't know is that do to the high humidity it takes a VERY LONG time for clothes to dry here. We may be wearing denim skirts to church tomorrow, hopefully we all have clean ones!!!

Speaking of Church, we will be attending a local church with the visiting work team. It will be interesting to see what Worship is like "Jamaica style".

Chad went with Kirk to pick up the work team from the airport this morning. They are mostly from Pennsylvania with two people flying in from L.A. We had supper with them this evening and then Keri and I took the chilren to spend some time with the students. It gave us good opportunity to use a few signs we know. The children played well with the others and had some opportunity to use what they know.

When the deaf children first saw us in Knockpatrick they were all counting with their fingers how many children we have. They would point to one and hold up 1 finger and then at another and hold 2, etc. then they would look at each other with looks of exclamation - I can imagine they were thinking "they have 6 children!" They don't normally have more than 2 children here. I met one man at the airport that had 14 children, but that was with 7 different mothers!!!

When in Knockpatrick we were eating the same as the students for lunch and supper with plenty of PB&J for those that didn't like what was served. Keri has been making breakfast for us. Here in Mo-Bay we will be eating breakfast and lunch with Keri and supper with the work team.

In Knockpatrick we slept in the men's work-team dorm room. They put a double bed in there for Chad and I and a pack-n-play for Jonas. Jonas was not sleeping well there, so neither was I. I was afraid to leave him in bed with us because the floors are concrete.

In Mo-Bay we are in the house with Kirk's family and have two of the rooms. The boys have one, the girls and Jonas are in with us. Jubilee sleeps in the pack-n-play and Jonas sleeps in our bed which is up against the wall so he won't fall out. I must say I slept great last night. Jonas nursed once and woke up another time or two but went right back to sleep after I reassured him that I was there. I felt better today than I have the whole time we've been here. It's amazing what sleep can do!!!

Jonas wants to go to bed so I guess I do too!!!

Sorry if I gave too many details for some of you, but hopefully some of you will appreciate a little glimpse into our days.