We woke up to booming thunder and rain that followed shortly after. We excitedly looked outside the window to confirm that it really was raining, and then promptly went back to bed because we knew we wouldn’t have to go out and water plants.

Once we got up, we had a delicious American breakfast of Pancakes, Eggs, and Bacon, and discussed our happiness about the rain.  Earl gave me (Sara) credit for the success of the rain dance, and decided that today would be a team holiday  called “Be Nice to Sara Day” or, for short, “Sara Day.” 

Because we didn’t have to work, Sara Day started off very relaxing.  We spent the morning napping, reading, packing our things, and playing card games.  June, Miss Mary, and Miss May made us a lovely lunch.  Earl laughed at us again because we couldn’t figure out what type of meat we were eating.  I thought it was beef but apparently it was pork.  “If it looks like pork and tastes like pork, it’s pork,” Earl told us.  It didn’t look like pork. It looked like beef.  Nonetheless, the pork and rice and peas were delicious, as usual.  After lunch, we took some pictures with Miss Mary, Miss May and the Harrisons, and then decided to go down to the soccer field.

We introduced Andrew to “Sit Volley,” a game we learned while on our first Iowa mission trip.  Everyone stands in a circle and tries to keep the volley ball in the air.  Anyone who hits it out, at the ground, or fails to hit it altogether, sits in the middle.  When that game got old, we tried to play touch football.  The rules had to be explained many times during the game due to the fact that the majority of the girls (me included) had no clue how to play football.  We decided to play ultimate football (ultimate Frisbee played with a football) shortly after.  It seemed less complex, and therefore more fun.  As we were playing, some Jamaican kids came down to the field wanting to play football (we aren’t allowed to call it soccer here) with us.  So, we divided ourselves up into teams and started the game.  Unfortunately, none of us Americans are good at soccer, and all the Jamaicans were very talented.  They were quick and sure footed.  They had fantastic aim, and they even had good distraction techniques.  One guy kept growling.  It was actually pretty intimidating, but we still had a hard time keeping a straight face as he growled.  Andrew tried to give us some coaching advice throughout the game, and we got a little better as time went on, but we were pretty awful.  We had a blast though.  We were able to laugh at our lack our lack of soccer/football skills; the Jamaican kids laughed at us too.  It looks like Nik can check “Play a game of soccer with Jamaicans” off of his bucket list.

We were all disgustingly sweaty after the game, so, back at the manse, everybody split off to change or shower.  June made us burgers and fries for dinner, which everybody loved.  She said it was a trade off for tomorrow’s breakfast of Ackee and Saltfish and bread fruit.  Hopefully June will put bacon in the Aki and Saltfish again.

That’s it for today.  Beach tomorrow! I’m so excited!

--Sara Bratager

Saturday and Sunday are going to be busy days for us. We leave for the beach tomorrow morning at 9:30 am and will not get back until sometime around 9 pm. Sunday we go to Wesley Methodist in Brown’s Town in the morning and to a special service in the evening, each service will probably be between 2 and 2 ½ hours long. Hopefully we will have time Sunday to do a quick blog post to let everyone know how we’re doing. It’s good we had a day off, or as they call it in Jamaica a “holiday.”

Gary