alrighttt. i'm back! so many things to say!!! first of all, thank God cuz everything went wonderfully and smoothly. was a bit of a cultural shock, cuz the pple were really forward and aggressive. especially the guys. haha. got hit on countless times i lost track. i'd be walking along the street, and the guys would be..hey china! lookin pretty! or.. want some marijuana? it's good for u!
haha. china was my nickname from my team n the pple in jamaica. tried explaining to the jamaicans i'm frm s'pore..but..in vain.
the conversation went something like this:
'where are u from?'
'singapore. it's in asia.'
'ohhh...is that china or japan?'
'it's s'pore. it's a country in asia.'
'ohh..i see. so it's china?or japan?'
'(grrr) s'pore!! not china!!'
'ohh. but..china? or japan?'
'(giving up) china.'
apparently jamaican guys like asian girls cuz they hit on me n another asian girl on our team nonstop. haha. and there's quite a big chinese n indian population there! there's even a chi church! and some pretty gd chi food. :) jamaican food is yummilicious.
earned a few more nicknames..like fish. cuz they said benita is a type of fish. or bonito. anw that's how the jamaicans remembered my name the best. haha. bonded with the team really well. was an awesome experience! we made our own home video dubbed in chinese. haha. it was hilarious teaching them chi and singlish. and they found it hilarious when i tried to do italian/british accents. haha. basically they found my accent hilarious.
anw..we went to a couple of schools and did our love skit, our mime about how Jesus is the only one that can fill our emptiness, and some worship songs. got varied responses. most schools loved it. went to churches and led worship..i played guit. was a pretty cool experience. was half performance half worship i felt. cuz they didn't know the songs..they were pretty traditional, the jamaican churches. but i felt the presence of the Lord n saw them worshipping along with us even though the songs were unfamiliar to them.
went to orphanages, elderly homes, handicapped homes, a boys juvenile deliquents home. i must say, was quite an experience. have to admit that i wasn't too excited about these. i thought it'd be awkward n i wouldn't know what to do or say..but it turned out really well. we sang to the elderly, who really enjoyed our presence. interacted with the children..they were adorable. carried a few snot-filled and drooly kids..and the Lord really showed me His love for them. i learnt to look beyond their appearance n to just love them like Jesus does. one song that most of the kids orphanages sang in common was 'jesus loves me this i know'. was incredibly special. cuz Jesus does love them even though the world has abandoned them. even though the orphanages weren't exactly the cleanest places on earth, i still loved the experience, cuz the kids were really the epitome of childlike faith. their lives were simple - just love Jesus. especially the handicapped children..they appreciated our presence there alot. so even though i got buckets of drool over me n got slobbered by kisses, it was all worth it to see the smiles on their faces :)
the boys home..was abit of a crazy experience. they swarmed us the moment we arrived. and they were really touchy feely. like really. think they were from 8-17years old..we did our skit n mime performance for them..then some of them played soccer with the guys on our team while the girls got swarmed by little boys. of cuz i got called 'china' numerous times and i gave up explaining. got kinda freaked out by how they were trying to touch me..even in inappropriate places. a little boy abt 12 yrs old totally followed me all around. he was really quiet but he progressed! frm standing next to me, to sitting closer n closer to putting his arm arnd me then to hugging me. heh. was kinda a weird experience. but upon reflection with the team, i realized these boys really have a lack of love in their lives. one of my team members said that if he were one of them, he'd do what they did and try to get that little bit of love from us. made me feel kinda bad. like i should've been more caring towards them.
one thing i loved most (besides bonding with my team) was that we got to do some street evangelism. was kinda initiated by me. haha. me n a few other girls sat along the pavement at the beach n played guit and djembe (drums) n did some worship songs sometimes at night..and we attracted alot of pple. mostly guys. heh. but we did manage to get into meaningful conversations with them..about their lives..about God..etc. alot of them say they believe in God, but they admit they don't live like a Christian cuz they're smoking weed..living in the ways of the world..stuff like that. got into some really interesting conversations. loved mixing arnd with the pple. although they're aggressive, they're not stalker-scary-like.
met a guy named JahClarity, who claimed to be a famous reggae artiste in jamaica. so some pple got his autograph. haha. he turned out to be what he claimed to be! which was cool. i met someone famous! haha. he invited us to go to his studio n record some songs..but we didn't. haha. n we lived on the Hip Strip, so we were surrounded by clubs n stuff. every night, without fail, the place would be booming with loud music. pretty cool, but we weren't allowed to go to clubs of course. heh.
and we got some free time on the beach..went to Glistening Waters..saw glowing micro-organisms in the ocean! the water's completely dark. but when the boat moved, the water glowed! and some pple jumped into the water, and they glowed! it was the coolest thing ever. climbed a waterfall too! and my legs ached so bad the next day. haha. and i got a tan!
so..pretty much happy now.
although our flight did get delayed 5 hours. but it was ok, cuz they gave us food vouchers and free snacks to make up for their inefficiency. plus we entertained ourselves by doing a scavenger hunt in the memphis airport in tennessee. took lotsa crazy pics. and made friends with the cleaners in the airport, cuz they were the only ones left. haha. every single shop in the airport closed by 8pm! so early! so by the time we reached chicago it was like 2+am..by the time we drove back to taylor, it was like 7am. i slept for 3 hours then went for all my classes. proud of myself! altho i slept in most of them. haha. think i'm gettin sick now..lack of sleep. gonna slp after this. btw i got my hair braided! well..some of it. haha.
thank You Lord for the most awesome mission trip ever! :)
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