Jamaica day 3...June 9, 2008…Monday…aka chicken kill day….the day started off pretty interesting… It was Monday, which I quickly found out was chicken kill day. The boys got up very early in the morning to kill the chickens. Luckily, we were informed of this “event” the evening before so on our morning trek to take out the trash we were not really confused why one of the coops was suddenly empty. It was a little…strange…for lack of a better word to be walking past the chicken coop the evening before, full of chickens…walk by it in the morning…where there are feathers left…and then go to dinner…and surprise we had chicken…but this really didn’t bother me…it was life. I started my morning by cooking breakfast. I made 2 dozen scrambled eggs. After that, we attended morning prayer. Sr. Susan had us all stand in the back. We were greeted when the boys said good morning Sister, teacher and friends. Sr. Susan welcomed us in front of all of the boys and had one the boys that knew one of us go get us and introduce us in front of all the other boys. To my surprise, a lot more of the boys remember me that I thought. They asked me my name again…but they were like “you play basketball yesterday” I replied yes and they asked me Miss, what’s your name again? I told them I was Lindsey. Although the others boys knew the names of the girls, I was really not offended they forgot mine. I played with a lot of the older boys that were in trade school, so the ones who I expected to know my name were not even there. I watched morning prayer in amazement. They boys were kept inline by all of the teachers circulating the lines. I felt bad because most of the ones who got in trouble got yelled at because they were looking at all of us. I felt like I was a distraction, but Sr. invited us, so I honestly couldn’t feel bad. The boys sang many songs, religious hymns and the Jamaican National Anthem. It was so cool. I could tell the love they have for their country, although thus far in their lives, they had not had the best experiences. After morning prayer, the boys were called to go into the school rooms. Sr. Susan gave us a tour of the school once the boys were settled. We first walked down the hallway into the computer room. But, on our way there, we looked in some of the classrooms. Compared to what I am used to, the classrooms were pitiful. There were books that were in terrible condition, a lack of right sized desks, and the overall supplies were not adequate…to my standards. Yet, I had to realize that these boys, without Bosco would have no education and no hope to ever getting a job or making it anywhere in life…other than jail or dead. Therefore, I’m sure that the school rooms to these boys were wonderful. We made our way into the computer room where Mr. Edny showed us around. The computer lab was amazing. There were many nice computers in a very nice room. They had nice chairs that Sr. told us were donated from Starbucks. Mr. Edny showed us how one of the programs worked. They were filled with bright colors, and even if a boy got an answer wrong, the right answer was reinforced positively. Sr. said she was surprised because for the habit the boys have of destroying things, the computers are the one things that are still in nice condition. Sister told us a funny story about how one of the boys tried to move the mouse up the wall of the desk because he didn’t know how to use one. After we saw the computer rooms, we walked passed the classrooms again where they boys were contently learning. We made our way upstairs to the dorms. We saw the bed wetters dorms, whose bed mats had to be covered in plastic, then we went to the other dorms. The dorms had M&M comforters. They were very nice bunk beds. They had the boys names printed on them. Sister told us that many of the boys cover themselves with the entire blanket, because they feel more secure. She then showed us the security camera they had installed. The reason for this was because of fights, boys sneaking out and a few other reasons. We then made our way to the bathroom. This is when Sister showed us the toilets that had to be grated into the wall because the boys would destroy them. I thought that was sad that the boys destroyed what little they had, but it was just natural to them. After touring the bed wetters dorm, we went into the main dorm, but not before first meeting Doogie. Doogie was one of the sweetest people I ever met. He was so kind to Sr. Susan. He was very welcoming to all of us. He showed us the dorms, but not before showing us his room. He always knew what was going on around Bosco…he didn’t miss a beet. He was always on top of things. In the dorm, we saw more beds, and a boy that was sick. After this, we went out onto the balcony where we got a view of the play field. Sister explained to us about the time out rocks…I actually knew about these from my friends who went down last year…one of the few things I was prepared for…and she showed us the graves of the two boys that died. She also pointed out the bathrooms that were near the swing set/slide thing area…I don’t remember what she called it exactly. The day before, I saw the library/play room that is open by the play field. They had a ping pong table, a punching bag, and books with a table to read them on. After our tour, I went back to my house to get some water to begin painting. ***much more to come tomorrow, busy night…working on pictures as well. Jamaica day 3...June 9, 2008…Monday…aka chicken kill day….the day started off pretty interesting… It was Monday, which I quickly found out was chicken kill day. The boys got up very early in the morning to kill the chickens. Luckily, we were informed of this “event” the evening before so on our morning trek to take out the trash we were not really confused why one of the coops was suddenly empty. It was a little…strange…for lack of a better word to be walking past the chicken coop the evening before, full of chickens…walk by it in the morning…where there are feathers left…and then go to dinner…and surprise we had chicken…but this really didn’t bother me…it was life. I started my morning by cooking breakfast. I made 2 dozen scrambled eggs. After that, we attended morning prayer. Sr. Susan had us all stand in the back. We were greeted when the boys said good morning Sister, teacher and friends. Sr. Susan welcomed us in front of all of the boys and had one the boys that knew one of us go get us and introduce us in front of all the other boys. To my surprise, a lot more of the boys remember me that I thought. They asked me my name again…but they were like “you play basketball yesterday” I replied yes and they asked me Miss, what’s your name again? I told them I was Lindsey. Although the others boys knew the names of the girls, I was really not offended they forgot mine. I played with a lot of the older boys that were in trade school, so the ones who I expected to know my name were not even there. I watched morning prayer in amazement. They boys were kept inline by all of the teachers circulating the lines. I felt bad because most of the ones who got in trouble got yelled at because they were looking at all of us. I felt like I was a distraction, but Sr. invited us, so I honestly couldn’t feel bad. The boys sang many songs, religious hymns and the Jamaican National Anthem. It was so cool. I could tell the love they have for their country, although thus far in their lives, they had not had the best experiences. After morning prayer, the boys were called to go into the school rooms. Sr. Susan gave us a tour of the school once the boys were settled. We first walked down the hallway into the computer room. But, on our way there, we looked in some of the classrooms. Compared to what I am used to, the classrooms were pitiful. There were books that were in terrible condition, a lack of right sized desks, and the overall supplies were not adequate…to my standards. Yet, I had to realize that these boys, without Bosco would have no education and no hope to ever getting a job or making it anywhere in life…other than jail or dead. Therefore, I’m sure that the school rooms to these boys were wonderful. We made our way into the computer room where Mr. Edny showed us around. The computer lab was amazing. There were many nice computers in a very nice room. They had nice chairs that Sr. told us were donated from Starbucks. Mr. Edny showed us how one of the programs worked. They were filled with bright colors, and even if a boy got an answer wrong, the right answer was reinforced positively. Sr. said she was surprised because for the habit the boys have of destroying things, the computers are the one things that are still in nice condition. Sister told us a funny story about how one of the boys tried to move the mouse up the wall of the desk because he didn’t know how to use one. After we saw the computer rooms, we walked passed the classrooms again where they boys were contently learning. We made our way upstairs to the dorms. We saw the bed wetters dorms, whose bed mats had to be covered in plastic, then we went to the other dorms. The dorms had M&M comforters. They were very nice bunk beds. They had the boys names printed on them. Sister told us that many of the boys cover themselves with the entire blanket, because they feel more secure. She then showed us the security camera they had installed. The reason for this was because of fights, boys sneaking out and a few other reasons. We then made our way to the bathroom. This is when Sister showed us the toilets that had to be grated into the wall because the boys would destroy them. I thought that was sad that the boys destroyed what little they had, but it was just natural to them. After touring the bed wetters dorm, we went into the main dorm, but not before first meeting Doogie. Doogie was one of the sweetest people I ever met. He was so kind to Sr. Susan. He was very welcoming to all of us. He showed us the dorms, but not before showing us his room. He always knew what was going on around Bosco…he didn’t miss a beet. He was always on top of things. In the dorm, we saw more beds, and a boy that was sick. After this, we went out onto the balcony where we got a view of the play field. Sister explained to us about the time out rocks…I actually knew about these from my friends who went down last year…one of the few things I was prepared for…and she showed us the graves of the two boys that died. She also pointed out the bathrooms that were near the swing set/slide thing area…I don’t remember what she called it exactly. The day before, I saw the library/play room that is open by the play field. They had a ping pong table, a punching bag, and books with a table to read them on. After our tour, I went back to my house to get some water to begin painting. Monday was the first day of painting. Sister Susan showed us to the huge storage warehouse where all the supplies were kept. We got ladders, and paint. Home Depot donated gloves, paintbrushes, rollers, roller pans etc. to us so we already had those. Our first task was to clean off the roof so that we could prime it. This was not an easy task, it was a hard, scary one. We had to use the ladders for all of us (10) to climb up onto the roof and use rags and small scrapers/can openers to scrape all of the junk off of the roof so we had enough time to let it dry and then prime it the next day. It was scary because…for someone like me because I am very clumsy, and usually hurt myself in strange ways…I was wearing flip flops and flip flops +ladders +roofs don’t go well together and also because the roof didn’t feel the most sturdy. I was the third to climb up. I scooted to my section of the roof that I was going to clean off. The others came up and we began scrubbing. However, we quickly ran into a problem…how were we going to get water up to the roof…and how were we going to clean our rags. We tried to hand water up, and this is when one person almost fell. They were carrying the water on the roof and slipped…but they did not fall off. Then, someone else almost slipped and fell because they were cleaning to close to the edge. It was scary and I was afraid to move. Shorty after the second incident, the one teacher basically had a panic attack and made us all get off. The moderators explained to Sr. Susan that they really did not feel comfortable with us cleaning that roof. Sr. Susan understood so we began to paint the house after lunch. We used oil based paints…which don’t come off your skin easily. I started on the back of the house. We painted the house with three solid color stripes on the back. We had a lot of random paint that was like a little less than ½ full, so we tried to use left over’s on the whole house. We came to a good stopping point, so we stopped and cleaned us. This way, we would have everything cleaned up by the time the boys got out of school…because none of us wanted to miss a minute of play time. Due to the tour, and the time lost cleaning the roof, we didn’t get a lot accomplished that day…but I knew tomorrow would be another day with a lot more time. I went back to Carolyn (house) and tried to scrub the paint off of me. This was not an easy task. I eventually got most of it off…I learned after day 1, that being “paint free” after everyday of painting was next to impossible…and just to give up trying to get it off. I then went onto the field to play with the boys. I was a little confused at first because Mario, the boy that asked me to play basketball was not there. I also did not see Andres and a few of the other familiar faces I was looking for. However, I played basketball with Millard, Marlin and a few others. I didn’t realize that the week days were structured differently than Sunday. The bell rang shortly for dinner. The boys immediately froze, lined up, and went inside to eat. They were back before we knew it…they eat very quickly. However, this time, Mario and a few of the other boys showed up to have a basketball rematch. I asked him why he was not there earlier. He explained to me that because he is in a trade, he gets off at dinner time and then gets to play. I then understood why the play field looked so empty. My friend Allison and I played a bunch of boys in basketball again. This time, it was a little more physics. The boys were no longer afraid to block us and cover us. I felt a little violated at first because we were not supposed to touch them, but they were touching us. However, after awhile, I was being just as rough back. Jamaican “street ball” was a blast! Although I walked away every time with a new, huge bruise, it was well worth it. The boys were so fun to play with and talk to. They tried to show off their skills, but most of the time, they were get too confident and I would steal the ball from them. It was funny to see what kinds of excuses they came up with. Most of the time, they said because I was a girl they were going easier on me. I just laughed and gave them a hard time. It seemed like before the night was over, all of the boys were playing basketball. The court got so cramped and it was confusing who was on whose team. I tried to take ONeil into playing but he wouldn’t. I think he was self conscience about playing basketball with boys a lot taller than him. He sat and watched. The boys decided they were going to play shirts vs. skins to separate the teams. After a while, all the basketball people were tired so we decided to take a break. Many of the boys entertained themselves by taking pictures with our cameras. I talked to Mario and Millard with my friend Allison and Meg. When we took pictures, many of the boys would make this diamond shape with their fingers. I asked Mario what that meant and he explained it was a Jamaican blessing sign. Mario and Millard then decided they were going to sing to us…this is how Millard got the name Chris Brown. He said he wanted to be the next Chris Brown so we talked him into singing. He sang “take you down” he was actually really good. Mario then sang “buy you a drink” by t-pain. It was really funny. Mario then went and told us all his rules for when he gets married…and about all his past girl friends. He told us that he would never leave her, take care of the kids, never hurt her, give her what she wants, etc. For the sake of his future wife, I really hope he was serious about this. I told him that these were very good rules and that he should take them seriously. We talked to Millard and Mario more about random things. Shortly, the bell rang and it was time for us to have dinner. I felt really good about the play time. It was a lot of fun and I felt like I know many of the boys. I had another delicious dinner. The rolls and the yellow rice and apple pie was amazing!!!! I went back to Carolyn, and went to bed to prepare for another day of work.