Jamaican Journal – Day 2
Last night was extremely long. I am using the room that Joshua and Jonathan normally stay in. The bed is very small and a bit ‘firm’, I believe that the mattress is probably made of the locally grown coconuts. I fear that I might fall through it or snap the legs off because every time I turn over or move it makes a cracking wood sound. I miss my big bed and my many pillows and my memory foam. I wonder if it still remembers me? I don’t wish to complain about it though because I know that it will help me learn to appreciate home even more, and that is a good thing. I had hoped to sleep until 8:30 or 9 but my back did not agree to that plan. I got up to the sound of activity and the tweeting of Pastor Nathan’s parakeets who were overly exuberant for 7:30 in the morning.
I collected my shower supplies and a change of clothes and headed down the hall to take a shower. Someone was already in there so I waited. While waiting I remembered that Pastor Nathan said that if you wanted hot water for your shower you must turn on the water heater about a half hour before showering. I flipped the switch on the wall which was off and thought that someone else may have already done the heating before I got up, since they were already showering. When it was my turn to get in the shower I turned the hot faucet all the way up to see how hot it would get. It was neither hot nor cold and I could understand why the Lord dislikes lukewarm so very much. There is no water pressure so the water just comes out of the tub faucet and not the shower head. There is a bowl near the drain that catches the water which you bend over and pick up and throw over your head multiple times during the process. It reminded me of what it would be like if baptism was an Olympic sport. Thank God I didn’t have to bathe in the ocean or some area stream. There is much less privacy in those instances. I finished quickly and shaved and brushed my teeth. I didn’t bother combing my hair though, there was no time for that.
Breakfast was on the table and the family was gathered around waiting for me to finish so they could eat. I sat down at the table next to Kenny, Sister Gail’s nephew, and little Jonathan. We had bread, which was very nutty and grainy, in a good healthy way. There was also ham and yellow pepper omelet slices and cereal with sweet milk. I asked what the difference was between milk and sweet milk and they told me it was sweet and the other was not so sweet. I should have known. I had a cup of instant Jamaican Blue coffee and a glass of kiwi punch which was very good. I am beginning to feel like a turkey the month before Thanksgiving. I know they are trying to fatten me up, but I don’t quite understand why. I am already fatter than any of them. Maybe they think that eating is all Americans enjoy doing. Millie said, “At least you will not starve as Pastor Ronnie feared.” I hope they don’t charge me an extra fee for excess weight on the flight back. There is a holiday embargo after all.
After breakfast we went into town to visit the money changers at the Cambio who give you large amounts of Jamaican money for very little American money. I gave them $40 and they gave me back $2760 in Jamaican money which comes out to around $69 dollars Jamaican for every one dollar U.S.! Of course everything works out to be about the same price as it is in the states which I found when I paid $80 Jamaican for a 2 liter of Diet Pepsi, that works out to be $1.16 U.S. Sister Gail and I walked to the grocery, the bank, and to the Christian book store. Later Pastor Nathan wanted me to try each kind of Patty: Chicken, Beef, and Shrimp. They were all out of Lobster so we skipped that. I must say that I am suspicious about what the Jamaicans refer to as shrimp because the picture looked a lot more like crawfish than shrimp and it tasted like fish that had been sitting out in the heat too long. I don’t think I will try the shrimp ones again.
We stopped by a street vendor who was selling roasted breadfruit, but he was all out of roasted ones and told us to come back in a half hour. We intended to have the breadfruit for breakfast but forgot to go back and get it. We will probably go back tomorrow. I asked Pastor Nathan if breadfruit tasted like bread and he told me no, I then asked if it was used to make sandwiches and again he said no. Neither he or Sister Gail could explain to me why they call it breadfruit.
Our final stop before returning to the house was to another fruit vendor who cracks open green coconuts for you to drink the coconut water. After you have emptied the water he splits it in half for you to eat the ‘jelly’ inside. Jelly is sweet and kind of the consistency of a poached egg white. It didn’t taste like coconut at all. Green coconuts are not matured or ripened enough to contain the dry coconut meat that I am familiar with. My coconut didn’t even have any jelly in it. The jelly is what becomes the meat after it ages appropriately. I had a very young coconut. You pay the same price whether it has jelly or not. We went home to bring patties to the children and Kenny for lunch.
I took a brief nap when we got home and think I may have found a position that will allow me to sleep through the night this evening. I am excited about trying it out. We had a small meal of peppersteak and rice with salad and more Ting (grapefruit soda) and Pastor Nathan said we would go out later this evening to try some Jerk Pork and Chicken. Pastor Nathan said one meal we would call supper and the other will be dinner. I thought my whole life that these two meant the same thing. That may not be the case in Jamaica. Before going for Jerk we drove to the countryside where sister Gail grew up, to deliver some packages to poor families. On the way we stopped to deliver water jugs to Sister Gail’s sister – Marsha – who has no water at her house. I felt bad about complaining about the shower experience earlier. I got my picture taken with somebody’s pet goat who was tethered to a tree by a long rope which was so tangled around other trees that the goat had very little room to roam about. The goat was very nervous about getting its picture taken with me and kept moving away from me when I approached. It probably recognized me as a hungry American and thought that I would eat him.
We made our way to the countryside and parked the car in the driveway of someone who lived near the road. The reason we did this is that the people we were visiting lived at the bottom of a very steep slope that cars were not able to drive on. On the way down we saw more goats, a few pigs, and a donkey just standing around doing nothing. The slope was quite unstable and several times we each slipped going down. By the time we reached the house it was getting pretty dark and we had to call the house by cell phone to have the people call off their attack dogs. We met an elderly couple and their mentally disabled daughter who live in a very small house. I had to turn sideways to get in the narrow door. They had been married for 52 years and usually walked up and down the slope to go to church about 2.5 miles away. I told the man that he must have very strong calf muscles to have been walking that slope for the last 50 years. He smiled.
Pastor Nathan told them that I would be presenting a gift to them, so I did and told them that I had a song on my heart to sing for them. I sang ‘the Blood Will Never Lose Its Power’, offered a few words of encouragement, and said a prayer for them. We took a picture together on the way out and they both went inside beforehand to change clothes for the picture. As we embarked upon the journey back up to the car it was completely dark and we had to borrow a very dim flashlight to light the trail before us. I was breathing heavily and sweating profusely by the time we reached the top. It was so dark that I completely missed the donkey on the way back. I could have run right into him and not realized it until I felt his donkey fur on my face. It was too late to go visiting anyone else so we decided to come again at a later time. I don’t think I was up to climbing another rocky slope this evening.
We then drove to the Jerk restaurant for some Chicken and Pork with hot sauce. My lips were burning from the hot sauce and I had to keep rubbing my bread on them to put the fire out. Driving back to the house was even more frightening in the dark. There are no center lines painted on the road so you have to kind of guess where the center might be if they did ever decide to paint lines on. Some people overestimated how much they should be allowed and drove more in the center. The curvy mountainous roads are poorly lit and spotted with crater-like potholes. There seems to be no common rules about the distance one should travel behind another vehicle or if passing on a blind curve around a cliff is a wise decision. I felt very tense throughout the trip and braced for impact several times. People here truly drive by faith and not by sight. Tomorrow I will share more adventures I’m sure. For now I will see if my newfound sleeping position will be successful. Good night and God Bless!
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