Score International

Friday was spent in the sun and surf. We took a boat ride out to the absolutely gorgeous uninhabited Catalina Island. Several yards off shore we anchored and jumped overboard to do some snorkeling in the clear Caribbean waters. Most of us braved jumping over and over again from the second level of the boat and after about an hour or so, we boarded the boat and were taken to the area of the island where we would spend the day on the beach. We swam, played volleyball against each other, football against the Canadians, read, sunned, and hunted for shells, coral and creatures of the sea. Despite applying sunscreen and reapplying, many came back much redder than before. At about 3:00 we reluctantly boarded the boat again and headed back to the main island. That night, we all went to the beach near SCORE for devotions and enjoyed the moon and stars and sea.

This morning we went grocery shopping at JUMBO, a very large supermarket. The whole group walked through the store in a long line with red hand carts trailing behind as we each picked up rice, beans, oil, salt, chicken bouillon, tuna, and coffee to take to a family. We bought enough food to feed 77 families for one week and delivered it to the third poorest batey (sugarcane village) in the country. The sugarcane factory where most of the people in this village were employed closed down. As we turned onto the dirt road that leads to the village, a few of us noticed a kites flying. When we got closer we realized that they were “village-made” kites constructed with sticks and frayed plastic grocery bags. One thing we have noticed in these villages is that the children seem to be very happy with what they have. There is joy and laughter despite the conditions they live in. As we drove up in our two buses, the children began running from their homes. We played with them for about an hour or so before handing out the food. Some of the boys played a game of baseball with the older boys of the village (it seems that each village has an actual baseball field) and the rest of the kids piled onto our backs and had us running around. Some of the village girls taught us a very fun game – their version of the Hokey Pokey, which we plan to teach to people when we come back to the States. While we played, some of the adults walked around to the homes to let the families know we were here to distribute some food and to ensure that each family got a bag and only one. This village was much different from the one we visited on Thursday and obviously much more impoverished. The homes are makeshift shacks, mostly made of corrugated metal sheets fitted together. Some of the families live in a long, narrow cement block building that looks as if it was intended to be something else that has a row of doors on both the front and the back. As much as we could tell in this building, each family has a room. In the village we visited on Thursday, the homes were more separated, larger, and there was lots of color. The one we visited today had no color, no paint.

Just before leaving this village, we gathered in the schoolyard with the members of the families there to pick up the food. After we sang a couple of songs, Suzie Jacobs greeted the villagers and a couple of the SCORE representatives spoke. We handed out wordless bracelets and explained the gospel using six of us who were wearing t-shirts of the appropriate colors.