More Pictures

I forgot to say that I have more pictures of the hike on my shutterfly site if you
click on the link at the top of the page . Also I finally figured out how to
get all the sports day pics up there too... a few months after the fact:)
Enjoy!
Blessings.

Blue Mountain Hike

We have been planning a Blue Mountain hike for months.
It started in Jan.... and because of busy schedules 5 months
later we were finally able to go.

Saturday afternoon I met up with this group in Kingston
and we drove up to the "2nd base" of the Blue Mountains.

A little before 5 we parked loaded up and took off for the
summit. Holy Cow... I am out of shape!

walking up to the 3rd base

part of the trail

the last picture Sat. night as we took a break to enjoy
the view before we walked the last leg to our camp arriving at
around 10 to try and sleep for a few hours.

We were up and hiking again at 2 Sunday morning
to reach the summit by sunrise. The boys were ready to go...
Tashi and I were ready to go back to bed:)

now the pictures get out of order

hikingstopping to take pictures

more hiking....

Plants we passed

Mountain Views

The Sunrise

Made it to the summit at 5:05 a.m.

stopping for a pic on the way down

Working my way down to the 3rd base

At the 3rd base and getting ready to walk the last leg
back to the bus to take us home.
and back to the bus around noon on Sunday.

Praise Jesus for a great safe weekend of hiking!
Praise Jesus that today I am Not sore:)

Mmmm... Summer!

I had a few mangos around and one night last week had the
great idea to make a mango milkshake... Yum!

That got me thinking of growing up and helping out at Granny's
or just going over to pick and eat strawberries from her patch:)
If we were lucky she would tell us to bring the strawberries we
collected in and she made us fresh strawberry milkshakes.
Yum!

Today as I was running errands and getting things ready for
the monthly birthday party I ran to the store to get soda for
the birthday kids and on my way in a man was selling these
beauties. While shopping for the soda I thought to myself
okay... if the strawberries cost... this much... I will get some.
I got the soda and went to talk to the man about getting some
strawberries. We chatted for a while and of course they
were not what I had set in my head I would pay... just a bit
more:) so I got myself some strawberries! Yum!

I also got one of these. I am told its a strawberry plant but
I am clueless about plants so I could have bought a weed
and am now attempting to grow it:)
As I was driving home with the party things my strawberries
and plant I got to thinking. I don't know plants at all... what
if I just bought a ganja plant and am going to attempt to grow
it being clueless to what it is. I looked at it more closely once
I got home and I am pretty sure its not ganja.
If I don't kill it first we will see what we get from it!
Heres praying for a green thumb!

Happy Labor Day

Today is Labor Day in Jamaica, and Yes its a national holiday
down here so most people are off work, BUT instead of going
to work at their normal jobs people do acts of community
service around the areas they live

For example: the picture above.
There were multiple little crews of guys mixing cement
and filling pot holes in the road. They then put big branches,
flowers, or cement blocks over the areas so cars would not
drive over them and mash them up. I also saw some giving
a fresh coat of paint to the cross walks and other road markings,
and here at KP people came in to plant fruit trees for us.
We now have new mango, apple, grape, and leeche trees!

What did I do on this Sunny Holiday?

I went to the beach for a few hours.
(Our goal was 4 hours but God knew that with the old
sunscreen I used that 2.5 hours was all my whitey
body could take before getting miserably burnt.)

with these fun people. Then we went to Jack Sprat for
pizza before heading home.

Thanks Jesus for Fun Day!

Black River Safari

Thursday Morning at breakfast Dr. Buzz and fam. informed me
since they would probably finish up with the kids that day that
Friday they wanted a free day. Okay I thought, I will just take them
to Y.S. like we do all the other teams... only problem was Y.S. was
closed since it was holiday weekend (Monday is labor day) so
we started asking around for different options they could do since
they really didn't want to go to the beach. The Black River Safari
was suggested and thats what they decided to do.

Friday morning was beautiful as we loaded the bus and drove
to Black River. I had never been before but Praise God I found it
easy enough. Finding the safari took some time though as we
drove through Black River... didn't see it, had to turn around
and ask directions before finding ourselves at

Ire Safari!

Once on our pontoon we went out on the river and our
tour guide, Omar, started giving us the History of Black River
it was the first city in Jamaica to get electricity, it even had
electricity before New York City, because something was found
at Black River that was used to make ink.

As Omar was giving us his spiel on the history of Black River
our boat kept moving closer and closer to these trees FULL of
egrets nests, also part of the tour, and as he continued to talk
about Black River and the egrets, we got closer and closer to these
nests and all these birds. As you can see from the picture (that was
not zoomed in on) we were close and the entire time I was telling
myself don't freak out... don't freak out... don't freak out... don't freak
out. Finally his spiel about the birds was done and we moved on.
Thank You Jesus!

There were lots of cool plants. I liked the water lilies,

and these mangrove trees. They are so cool
in how they grow down towards the water
and they just keep branching off and growing
until they reach the water. And they just float
and tangle themselves together so they don't fall
over. Very Cool.

Then we saw some of these

American Crocodiles are common on the Black River
it looks like our tour guide Omar is getting his arm
eaten when really he is just "playing" with the croc
while he feeds it chicken parts:)

He had names for all of the but I don't remember what they
are.

The safari wasn't really what I was expecting... more like
an enjoyable and relaxing boat ride for a few hours.

Praise Jesus for New Experiences!

Dr Buzz

Dr. Buzz, Sharon, and Stewart came to give my kids dental
care this week
Typically we have 2 dentists but only Dr. Buzz could come
this year. Praise God prayers were answered and more
kids then not had clean reports on their teeth, so everyone
who needed extra care (fillings, extractions, root canals) got
the care they needed.

Dr Buzz

Stewart doing cleanings he is stuyding to follow in his
father's footsteps and become a dentist too.

the kids continually looking in the windows as the dentist
worked.

My part in this crazy week

I got to call the kids needed for their dental check ups and
make sure they were "bibed" and ready to see the dentist

get the kid's folders out with dental records ready to look
over, and little bags packed and ready to hand out to
everyone who came for a cleaning/exam

I got to sterilize trays and set them up for whatever procedure
was up next, and just be around to interpret or do whatever
was needed.

one of the last procedures of the week was on Richard. As you can see from the picture on the right he had half of one of his front teeth knocked out. Dr. Buzz performed a root canal on Richard and then was able to reconstruct the missing part of his front tooth. When I gave Richard a mirror to show him what Dr. Buzz just did his reaction was priceless. It made my heart smile so big, and once he left I went and stood outside the door to watch him run around and show all his friends his "new" front tooth.

Praise God for willing servants!

What Do You Do?

People asked me all the time
"What do you do?"
A team left a picture cd so I was able to use some of
their pictures to show you a little of what I get to do with teams.

I get to document, organize, and distribute all the
donations that the teams bring in.

interpret for teams

take them down to big tree for a Jamaican cookout

showing them how to make dampers
to cook over the fire

and I sit on my counter while I have my girls braid
the teams hair.

There's a little more to it but it's a small glimpse

Its a rough job but someones got to do it:)