better late than never...

anyone who has been reading this blog for the past year has heard about my frustration with the lack of volunteers from the SOs.  I have begged people to help to no avail.... but last Monday afternoon my prayers were answered. 
We had our first visit to Queen Elizabeth Home for the semester & as I approached Charter Hall I was welcomed by a massive group of volunteers.... 19 in total!
NINETEEN!
We had 3 returning volunteers from last term and 16 new SOs!
It was incredible. 

There are only 14 kids at QE right now so we had more than one adult per child and I was amazed at just how smoothly things went.  The kids were engaged and having fun and no one was acting up.

I realize that 19 people each week probably isn't realistic... but if at least half of that group remain faithful to visiting QE each week it will be awesome!

I am getting ahead of myself and daydreaming about how awesome Limes will be this term if we can get that many volunteers.... 

I heard this quote this week "Delays do not weaken the promise of God"

This past year was a bit of a struggle and wouldn't have been possible without the dedication of Amber Gazo, Michelle Nanney, Adriana Pardo, and Jessi Steinz. 
When people were bitter and doubted that we should continue Limes and other volunteer activities we said no.  These programs are way to important to these kids to just toss it aside.
And look what is happening!  So many people want to get involved and help out and I believe that God has sent the right people for the job and I am optimistic about the future.

Goodbye Jessi!

As I've probably mentioned before that one of the things I hate about  being here is that all your friends either will leave you, or you'll leave them.
Darn the short 2 year stay.

Yesterday Jessi flew off to American with Eric and puppy Nima...
I'm glad they all went as a little family... but part of me was hoping they wouldn't let her on the plane!

Jessi was so helpful to me this past year with the volunteer stuff and I think she personally saved like 30 dogs :)  Grenada will miss her so much!! and so will I!

 the kids lplay with Jessi's hair everytime they can get near it!! and she is so sweet to let them! it hurts!

 Nima & her momma

 this picture will always make me laugh!! haha

and this one too!! HAHAHA

Port Louis

We had lunch at Port Louis this week before Amber left.
We played with the parrots, saw the worlds largest sailing yacht (owned by Diane von Furstenberg's husband Barry Diller), and explored a little out of the way beach.
Fun day with fun girls!

 this is HUGE.

 from this spot you can see the General Hospital (too far to the left to be in the picture) Fort George, and the Carenage.  Beautiful!!

All 4 Christ

I saw a flier at the grocery store one day for an island wide food distribution
so I went to their website
and requested more information

flash forward a month (or more!)
Friday night, around 7pm I receive a call informing me that there is a food giveaway on Saturday, can I meet them at 8am? a little more than 12 hours later....
ha! this is Grenada and of course I said yes



I drag my friend Jessi along with me, because I don't know what I'm getting myself into
and sure enough, it was quite the adventure!!! 

the morning started off great.
as I was waiting for Jessi and a reggae bus at the Texaco at 7:30am I see
a man walk by carrying a forever21 bag
a man driving down the street clapping, clapping along with a song... no hands on the wheel.
and then we hop on a bus and it's entire ceiling was airbrushed... two hand guns in the front, creepy trees in the back, and some dogs (or goats we couldn't tell) running over some sand dunes


we finally arrive in St. George's and meet David, a member of All4Christ and he tells us we're going to pick up a package.
from the post office??
no, from a red truck.
we walk along the street searching for the red truck, and alas it is there & the man does have a package.... a case of corned beef! :)
we turn around and luckily enough there is a bus going to Tempe stopped in the street right behind us, so we all jump in!

in Tempe, we walked up to a Pentecostal Church and helped carry bags of groceries from storage to the door to get ready to load the truck.
then we wait.... just the 3 of us...
little by little a few people wonder in...
9am passes
then 10am
and 11 is nearing.... and we are sitting in this hot, stuffy church waiting.

finally a truck arrives. after spending 20 minutes trying to park perfectly & ending up parking in the most inconvenient location (nothing, and I repeat nothing is done in a well thought out way in Grenada) we start loading up.
food, clothing, and an entire drum kit in the back of a truck...haha!

looking around I didn't see many other cars or a van... so I look to Jessi & say "I think we're riding in this truck!!"
and sure enough... we all load in!
they thought the floor of the truck was a little damp so they laid out trash bags for us to sit on. not the best idea... the first couple turns and Jessi and I were sliding all over the place!

As soon as I get my hopes up that we are actually going to be on our way.... we need to make a pit stop for a generator.
turns out the generator may not be working... so we sit and wait for someone to come check it out.
mind you Jessi and I had both taken Dramamine in prep for this trip because bus rides through the mountains have proved to be quite hard on the stomach.  so it was kicking in and making us sleeeeepy

another 20 minutes and we are on our way! for real this time... at least until we had to stop for gas :)
the actual truck ride was short and enjoyable.  nice breeze, great views.


We finally arrive and meet the people at the government housing scheme in St. David's where we were handing out the food and clothing. 
Lots of cute kids running around!  & one little girl bit and pinched me :/ just for fun!

The group set up and about 5 minutes into the generator running, smoke fills the air and the generator is broken. all that for NOTHING.
so we continue on... singing without instruments (which really would have been fine in the first place)
someone along the way pulled out some extension cords and hooked the mics and keyboard up from someone's house... so a little later the music picked up. 
It was nice listening to everyone singing and praising God... even in the hard times they were facing.
and it was nice to be able to give them some food and clothing (even if I had very, very little to do with it and the whole production could have very easily gone on without me)

After distributing the stuff Jessi and I had to make a break for it because I was supposed to be back to babysit at 2!

we walked down the road, until we found the "main road" and waited for a bus to pass.
one finally did & we got on
and it took us to St. George's. again.
so we had to take ANOTHER bus to get home!

craziest day.

I got back to the Lance Aux Epines roundabout to find that no bus would be passing for another hour, so I had Kerrie (my babsitting mom) come pick me up there.
eeesh.

I fell asleep the minute I got home from babysitting (dramamine) and didn't wake up for 2 hours.
the best nap ever.



now after the longest post ever, some pictures!