Friday, January 18th Journal

Friday (January 18^th, 2013)

Journal Entry

House dedication

 

House dedication

House dedication - Picture I used for thank you support letters 

Boys at Stickman's 

Girls at Stickman's

Boys at Stickman's

Girls at Stickman's

Whole group at Stickman's  

Whole group at Stickman's  

My feet after the hike with my Z strap dirt lines from my Chacos

Helena & Katie, the girls in my dinner group (groups that met to have dinner with multiple times before the trip, to get to each other each!)

Jamaican baby :) 

Jamaican boys :) 

Opal, an amazing Jamaican woman

Justin :) 

My "husband" when going through customs!

Ganga! 

Friday morning almost the entire group went to marl hall, while the rest of the group went to the houses to put on doors, windows, and the roof.

Then, around 11 am, the entire group went together to both houses we built during the week, and dedicated them. It was really cool. We gave the homeowners a plaque, a Bible, a bag of rice, and of course, their keys to their house! I loved that the WBO director Josh told us that this house dedication to the Jamaicans is like Extreme Makeover Home Edition. They are so excited, and thankful for the house!

After the dedications, we went back to the Harmony House to eat lunch.

All of Friday afternoon we were given “free time.” The only requirement was that we could not be inside the Harmony House. A few people went down the road to play soccer with some Jamaicans, but almost everyone decided to go on a hike to “Stickman’s” house. Stickman carves beautiful pictures and Bible verses into walking sticks that are available for purchase. He also can carve your name on the sticks if you want!

When I say we took a hike up to his house, I’m completely serious. It was a hike. I know I’m out of shape, but this hike was crazy hard! (For me at least, probably not for some!) Although even a girl who says she runs said it was super hard for her. Parts of the hike were very steep, to the point where you had to squat down to climb up some rocks! I cut my knee on a rock pretty early on the hike, so it was bleeding the rest of the way, which was pretty gross. I had to stop multiple times to (try) to catch my breath, and was sweating. It was crazy. I wanted to quit so badly, but everyone just kept going together, and finally we all made it to the top! It was incredibly beautiful (like everywhere else in Harmons) and the view was amazing. You could see so far out.

We took pictures up there, and hung out up there for awhile, then climbed back. The hike down was definitely easier, but terrifying too, because it is so steep. I was scared I would fall on the person in front of me, or that the guy behind me would fall on top of me! With a lot of grabbing onto to trees, a couple times of sitting down on my butt to jump down to a rock below, we made it to the bottom.

Just like Monday night, local Harmons people came to dance in the courtyard! Then, inside the Harmony House, the employees had set up different stations to walk around to. Each station had different Bible verses and questions or things to reflect on that related to different days/activities we had done. We also wrote letters to ourselves that we will get back in 6 months to read. After going from station to station, we moved into the courtyard. We sat in a circle on chairs, and each person had their feet washed by someone, and then washed someone else’s feet, just like Jesus did for his disciples. Very cool.