Happy 2nd Birthday Mason - in Jamaica

We enjoyed a great week working on our school computer projects and then on Thursday, we were able to travel to MoBay and meet Marc, Brittney, Mason, Carl, Cindy, and Brett as they left the airplane and entered Jamaica.  We then traveled to Ochie and stayed at the Sunset Jamaica Grand Resort.  In flight, Mason turned 2 years old!!  What a 2 year old -  We had a great time watching him play Grandpa Carl's Ipad and everything else with a button.  He is quite talkative and is soooo cute.  You don't know how much you miss family until they arrive.  I became quite emotional just seeing them come out of the airport.

We had a fun, relaxing time at the resort.  Carl and Brett took a beginning scuba course and Marc and Theron did a two tank dive.  The Pond and Schaefermeyer gang did the Dunns River Falls and grandma and grandpa Schaefermeyer got to stay at the hotel and watch Mason sleep - well for an hour or so.



Grandpa and Mason playing in the sand





A great time in the water and eating cookies - lots of sugar this week.

 Sunday we all went to the branch in Ochie.  The meeting started with a member of the branch presidency, one branch member two elders, one senior couple and the 8 of us. By the time meeting was over there was14 members.  Ponds got to see what a "branch" is like and the branch got to see what a 2 yr old is like.  A very different experience for all.

Ponds in Fern Gully

We then drove to Kingston and showed the family the sites -- everything from the towel racks at Fern Gully to flat bridge in Bog Walk Gulch to changing the mission president's tire on his car.  Yep, it's all a story for another day and time.

Shanna showing Gerda and her secretary and one teacher how to use the system.

Marjorie Bailey, the principal at Ewarton playing TuxMath - it's free, try it out.

After we left the family, we spent the rest of the week installing computer labs.  The first one was Achievers Multi Resource Center in MayPen and Ewarton Primary School in Ewarton.  Both of these schools were ecstatic about these new labs.   When we completed the install, we had the principals and some staff come in and we put them through the paces.  Gerda, at Achievers, is not as computer savvy as Marjorie is at Ewarton.  She got so excited thinking about the potential for the students.  We are not finished yet, but close now.

Yep, it's a mopping job.

In all the busyness of traveling and recreating, we haven't had time to wash the truck, so today, at Portmore, we found a mop and an outside faucet.  The truck is loaded with hygiene kits and newborn kits.  Oh, our containers came in!!  We now have 1008 boxes of hygiene and 768 boxes of newborn kits to deliver along with bundles and bundles of clothes and shoes.  Food for the Poor is distributing the medical and orphanage modules.  The only things we are still waiting for is school kits -- we will deliver 6 pallets of these when they arrive next week.  Life is never dull.  We are taking the truck load to Sav-la-Mar this weekend and then on Monday install the Godfrey Stewart High School Reading Lab computers.  Thanks to all for your donations, it's a rush to see the joy and appreciation.