January Down Time

8 January 2013

Can’t believe here it is the 8^th of January and I have not written anything since New Year’s Eve.  I feel like nothing has really happened.  We had a pretty quiet week last week we printed the list of PEF Participants and began making our calls. By Saturday they were all made and Bob was a little anxious because I still had one name on my list and he knew SLC would be able to see we had not completed all our calls.  But she was in Spanish Town 2 Branch where we went on Sunday so I talked to her then and made sure I recorded it for Bob when we got home so we would have 100%. 

We went to dinner at Wendy’s with Larsens one evening when we were all a little bored with not a lot to do and then on Thursday after a meeting with Pres Brown we went to Larsens and she cut my hair for me.  Then on Friday night we went on their date with them to Kingston Branch.  There was a pretty good little group there but apparently most of the younger people are neighborhood kids who don’t even belong to the Church but just come for the games, movie or activity and the cake or “Sweet” that Sister Larsen always makes for them.

Saturday Bob and I were still at loose ends so we decided to stop at the club in our neighborhood that plays the extremely loud live music usually on Thursday evenings—until 3-4 in the morning, and have lunch.  We were actually the only people there and Bob wanted the Curry Goat so the waitress Tamara, brought the cook out to tell us he really did not have any goat that day.  So we told him to surprise Bob—he looked a little surprised by that request.  A few minutes later she brought out the guy who is in charge of the kitchen and explained that he would have goat the next day but that it had to marinate and simmer etc to get really good so wanted us to be sure to come back this week.  I had a nice fish and chips and Bob ended up with a whole fish with pumpkin and okra in a sauce and a Jamaican dish called Bammy.  Tamara described this as a sort of sweet potato ground up and made into a patty.  I don’t think it was fried but it was basically tasteless so it added mostly bulk to the meal rather than flavor.  It reminded me of bread fruit in texture and taste.  But we both enjoyed our meal so we will go again.

 Jamaicans know how to paint things to make them interesting.  This is our new favorite restaurant.

Sunday we had our follow-up Jobs seminar at Spanish Town 2^nd branch, which unfortunately started off a little disorganized and ended up having only one return participant.  We were pretty disappointed but did the best we could to help those who were there--Sort of hard to follow-up on nothing.

This is actually Amba Brown's baby.  Amba is one of the girls whose hair I have shown a couple of times.  She lives in Spanish Town 2nd Branch.  Cute family.

 This is just a sweet grandmother type sitting in Sunday School class with someone's baby.  She was darling the way she loved that baby and he was just as darling with her.  It is sort of hard to see that she is wearing a hat but a lot of women here do on Sunday especially in other churches. As a matter of fact they dress TO THE NINES!

Monday we did some shopping and then Larsens called us to go to Wendy’s with them and the new senior couple the Pearsons.  We met them there and visited for a while and then came home.  Just as we were leaving to meet the others we received an email from DR telling us that we had 24 or our participants who did not have funds in their accounts when the withdrawal of their loan payment occurred.  We were very disappointed—all but about 2 of that 24 we had just talked to within the last week or so.  It was very disappointing. 

So I think perhaps I was inspired but I sat down and wrote a letter to all the participants sort of explaining how PEF has gone in Jamaica without anyone to really get in there and get things organized and help them meet their education goals and meet their financial obligations.  I felt pretty good about it and Bob did too so I think perhaps it is time to get it approved by Pres Brown and get it out to the participants.  We also sent these 24 a text message telling them to get money into their accounts in two days!  We immediately heard back from two of them so we know it got out there.

I’ll share one sweet little experience.  Friday night at the Kingston Branch we were watching a movie and the Branch President’s little girl Ariana about 6 came in and sat on my lap to watch the movie.  She has taken a liking to me and even came running up to me at the New Years Eve party.  But anyway she was sitting on my lap facing forward watching the movie  and pretty soon she had both of her hands up behind my head running her hands up and down in my hair!—not running her fingers through it just enjoying the soft feel of it.  I have had others ask to feel my hair so I let them then I feel theirs.  This same little girl had dozens of beads in her hair but she said it had to be “pulled” before going back to school because they are not allowed to wear beads in their hair because they are too noisy—which she demonstrated by shaking her head.