Today marked the fifth day of our trip as well as the last day of being at the Hanbury Home. Since it was $300 cheaper to fly out of Jamaica on Saturday compared to Sunday the group of five of us from Washington/Idaho decided to go home a day earlier than the other 50 from Indiana, so today was our last day with the kids. Along with the other days I woke up for devotions at 7:30, had breakfast at 8:00, we had a group game at 8:30, and then we were off to the orphanage by around 9:00.
Once we got to the orphanage we went straight to work because today was the day we had to finish up with most of our projects. On Wednesday we had done the majority of the base layer of paint on Babyland, so today we finished off with the base color paint and then we painted murals on the walls. The new Majors, who run the camp, decided they wanted the murals to be education themed, so we painted letters and corresponding pictures on the outside of the building and numbers and pictures on the inside. I ended up being named the go-to man for the outside murals in order to alleviate the confusion for people who did not know what to do. Since everyone was so eager to help we knocked out most of the murals before lunch so that we could be ready for the kids after they got back from school.
Along with the team on mural duty there were a number of people cleaning off mold from the ceiling inside the bathers of Babyland as well as a team who was finishing up a new garden bed, which entailed a lot of dirt carrying. After everything was said and done the garden looked great and Babyland looked like a wonderful place to spend time and learn
After our work was done for the day there was a group of us who got to go to a coffee factory, which was nearby the orphanage. Being a coffee fan myself it was great to smell the pleasant aromas of the coffee! While we missed the production time because they were closing for the weekend, we were still able to sample the coffee and walk around and get a tour of how things worked. At the factory we were at they primarily roasted Blue Mountain Coffee, which is one of the world’s greatest coffees. In the US Blue Mountain Coffee sells for about $50 a pound….if that doesn’t say it all in the price I don’t know what would.
Following the tour of the coffee factory we headed back to the orphanage just in time for the kids to arrive home back from school. For the next few hours we were able to spend time playing with all the kids. Since it was my final day I made sure to take lots more pictures so I could capture the memory of this trip and reminisce on it for many years to come. One of my photo highlights was of one of the little boys who had a YMCA t-shirt on who ended up doing a photo shoot for me where he help up his arms in a Y to symbolize the YMCA. Once it was time to say goodbye I went around to a few of the kids I worked with throughout the week and had a chance to say goodbye, while it was sad to say goodbye it was really heartwarming to see how much of an impact we were able to have on these kids and the impact they had on our lives.
After arriving back at the camp we had dinner and a devotion and then we were free for the night. Since this was my last night I stayed up late talking with people and collecting photos from everyone. Being coined as the photo master I was in charge of collecting peoples’ photos so I could then post them upon return home. Along with hanging out and getting photos I stayed up until 3 AM writing notes to people to thank them for a fun week. Throughout the week we all had bags where we could leave encouraging notes for each other, so I stayed up into the wee hours of the morning to write my last notes. As a whole today was a productive and fun day!
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