Thursday:
Today was to be a work day to finish up what we could to clean up Spring Garden. We ate a leisurely breakfast and took off when everyone was ready. Shorty and Marvin were there to meet us and we got right to work. Everyone kind of knew what their job was from the day before. We hauled and burned trash. We raked and cut and trimmed. We cleaned out the inside of the buildings and swept the floors. We discovered that the driveway continued on in a circle where we originally thought that it just stopped. Nick uncovered an outdoor bathroom that had been completely covered with overgrown vegetation. It was hard work, but it was fun doing it together.
Shorty and Marvin had prepared lunch for us again. This time it was curried goat with rice and peas along with breadfruit and pumpkin taken right from the property. Everyone enjoyed it and some even went back for seconds.
After we had done all the cleaning up that we thought we could accomplish, we asked Shorty and Marvin to take us on a hike to the spring. We walked down the lane and up the road toward the spring that gives this place its name. As we walked, our tour guides told us about the different Jamaican fruits and trees along the way. When we came to the spring, we climbed down the slippery little path to where the water comes right out of the mountain. The kids splashed in it and cooled off, we all filled our water bottles back up, and climbed back up the steep rocky hill to the road. I prayed that no one would slip or sprain an ankle.
On our way back, we turned down Lynette’s lane. She greeted us and showed us around her place a little. Marvin and Shorty took the kids over to one of the large coconut trees. Shorty shimmied up to the top, picked a couple of huge coconuts, and threw them back down to the boys. Marvin cut the top off with his machete and we passed them around. Meanwhile, Lynette took us over to her apple tree. It was heavy with fruit. We picked some Jamaican apples and shared them around. Everyone had an apple or two. They are so different than the apples that are grown in the US, almost more like a pear. We all enjoyed the apples and drinking the fresh coconut milk. Tori even fed apples to some wandering goats as they were passing by.
It was late afternoon when we went back to the hotel to get cleaned up and then to Rock Cliff again for dinner. When we got there, it wasn’t quite as dark yet as when we had been there the night before. We could see a little more of the state of disrepair of the hotel and grounds. Even though we didn’t venture far from our tables, we could see that there were several buildings, an empty pool and a rickety gazebo off toward the ocean. The candles were lit again and we sat down to eat. We talked about the day and shared a devotion after our meal.
Ms. Pat is a good cook. We helped her clean up and thanked her for our meal before heading back for a swim before bed.
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