Service Day: The Beginning

So after a wonderful night sleep last night, I woke up at 7 a.m to the sound of Tammy's beautiful voice at our door. My roomies (Lori and Lindsey) and I got ready and headed off to breakfast which was awesome! They made the bacon just the way I like it, a little chewy drippin with grease. After our morning preperation we piled into Robert's van and headed to the school. I was a little nervous about how today was going to go but it ended up being better than I could ever have imagined. We arrived at Uppertop Lincoln Early Childhood Institution and were greeted with curious stares. The kids were sooo cute. Of course all it took was for Tammy to warm up the group, well both groups to be honest, and then it was like we were there the whole time. We played ring around the rosy along with some intense games of duck duck goose. I couldn't believe that the kids didn't know how to play duck duck goose! Me and Alyson were pros at teaching the game though so our group had it down pat in no time. Well except for the little boy Michael who spent about 10 minutes going around saying duck and not picking a goose ever. The kids especially enjoyed playing with our digital cameras. It was like being swarmed by an angry mob except they were adorable kids. I did especially enjoy a little boy named Omario. He was sooo polite and cute. I wanted to take him home but Nicole reminded me that it would be considered kidnapping so I gave up that dream due to the legal consequences. After playtime with the kids we began the work. We started to move stuff out of the room we planned on painting today and we were welcomed by some disgusting inhabitants, cockroaches. It made me sick to think that these kids played in the toys that these cockroaches inhabit. It was hard not to show emotion when one sprung out at you suddenly, but a couple of the kids in the room assured us they did not enjoy them either. We painted all morning and afternoon and accomplished alot. We decided we will finish the rest on Sunday when the kids aren't there so we can get a little more done and not have to worry about running them over. We will visit the school on Wednesday also to give the kids some school supplies (which are a hot commodity here in Jamaica) and toys. After our service work we came back to teh hotel and got ready for dinner at The Three Dives. I got to taste authentic jerk chicken from Jamaica and decided I should probably lay off the jerk sauce because it was HOTTT!!! After dinner was done, our wonderful driver Robert drove us home and I headed to bed and got to talk to Austin (my boyfriend) which made me feel better before I went to sleep. So now I'm completely wore out and babbling. Goodnight everyone I'm going to go cuddle with Lindsey now since we get to share a bed : ). I can't wait to share more of my adventures with you tomorrow!