Wahgwan
Well it’s been another busy week in Jamaica here some of the highlights. We visited Havendale Basic school with children ages 3-6. They are requesting some computers from the Church. This a Salvation Army School and we are working with Captain Mitchell. He is a good man dedicated to helping others. His idea for the computers is to let the school children learn basic computer skills during the day, in the afternoon local teenagers well be allowed to use the computers for school work and job searches. Later in the evening a group of senior citizens who volunteer at the Salvation Army will learn Internet, email, and computer skills. Captain Mitchell works full time for the Salvation Army and like us is not paid for his work there. He is given a home at the Salvation Army’s Havendale Compound and a car but has to work a second job to provide for his young family. We took some picture at the school. One little boy was crying so mom kneeled down to help. The little guy just through his arms around mom and wouldn’t let go. This Mission is great fun!
Thursday was our anniversary so we called Elder and Sister Smith and drove up in the mountains for a hike and picnic. Lots a beautiful country, we even got into some pine trees. The hike was different. With plants everywhere we walked through some tunnels that were not dirt tunnels but tree-plant tunnels. You can look at the pictures. It was 70 degrees with a cool breeze but we were still sweating.
Saturday was a service project with a big group of young men and young woman from Spanish Town Branch’s 1 & 2. They helped us reorganize the humanitarian supplies that have been housed in a 30 foot container. They were a great group of kids and worked really had in a lot of heat. The supplies are kept in a metal box from an old diesel trailer; it was like a big oven.
Most of the time we had only one adult leader but did not really need them because the kids were so well behaved and willing to work. I had one of the Young Women’s class president take charge and she did a good job. When I asked her what she wanted for lunch she said she had never done anything like this before and wanted me to help her decide on lunch. Well I am not much help, I just told her she was in charge and I would do whatever she wanted. She turned out to be a real leader because she called all the kids together and made them decide what they wanted. At the end of our visit we were able to help him out with some of our kits to help his schools. He has the Basic school, a blind school, and an elderly home that he assists with. Also we gave him some of the Hygiene Kits to take to the prison. The prisoners are not even given basic soap, towel, clothes, or any of the things we consider “normal” for being housed in a prison. They only get one meal a day and have to make deals for anything extra. Even in the hospitals you must provide your own bedding and food.
We were all glad when the job was done and it was Pizza time.
P.S. The greeting at the top is not another of my misspellings I am just trying out some of my Jamaican. See if you can guess what it means email us with your guess’s and we let you know next week. And you could even write and send us news from home!
Love to all Elder and Sis. Murdock, Mom and Dad, Friends and Family