Yesterday was full of activity. After Prince Charming removed all the bench seats out of the van we loaded the kids in the back, on a blanket, and headed over the mountain to Kingston. It is usually about a 3 (ish) hour trip. The princesses spread their dollies out and played house most of the way over. Only pausing their game so Moriah could “lose her breakfast” out the window. I heard her weakly call, “Mama,” and turned around to see her bleach white face. We were on a winding mountain road with a cliff going straight down on one side and straight up on the other side. There were a string of cars behind us....so the only thing I could do is help her crawl to the window and hold her head out. Poor, baby. 5 minutes later she was laughing and playing again.
Our friend, T.J., had used his connections to help us get a really great price on some mattresses and two couches. I was so excited. We had talked to a man named “Brown Man” last week, and this man told us that one of our couches were ready. (They build furniture out of wooden pallets and cover them with foam and imitation leather.) Prince called the man as we were heading out to pick it up. After driving through some pretty hairy roads in lower Kingston, Josh pulled into a place that I can honestly describe as a scene from a bombed-war-torn-military movie. All around us were tall crumbling concrete buildings minus the windows. There was a hodge-podge of discarded rusty broken couches and chairs sitting in unlikely places. Brown Man was a big man with a belly to big for his shirt. We walked through a large dark room full of furniture. Some excellent leather pieces, some ripped and broken pieces....and amongst it all sat our unfinished couch. Uh...huh. The piece that he told us was finished last week. It’s not like we surprised him, we told him that morning we were coming to pick it up. And on top of that, we were told it would be a full couch...this was a love seat. After a lot of headache and phone calls we decided that we would take the love seat and they would build us a full size couch we could pick up on Saturday. {Humm} With promises that we could pick our finished love seat up at 4 o’clock, we left.
Josh surprised us by taking us to T.G.I. Friday’s for lunch. Kingston is so different then Mo Bay. They have nice restaurants and shopping places. It was a wonderful lunch in the a/c and American atmosphere.
From there we went to our friends house and spent a wonderful afternoon. I love spending time with my friend, Christa, and letting the kids {including the daddies} play together. I feel so comfortable with her and love Praise the Lord for giving me this friend. Around 5 the guys headed out to check on the couch. Around 7:30 the couch was finished. I really like the finished product and am anxiously awaiting the bigger couch to see how they will look in my living room! I’m so thankful to our friends for helping us find these furniture makers and helping us negotiate a good price.
Pineapple season must be in full swing, because everyone and their grandma were selling pineapples alongside the road. Prince purchased us a large sweet-smelling one for less then $4 US. Fresh Jamaican pineapple is my favorite fruit! It was melt-in-your-mouth delicious! I learned that they get more acidy each day after they’ve been picked, this one was fresh off the tree! I love Jamaica.
3 comments:
I love tropical fruits too but they do NOT grow on trees! They are ground dwelling plants so, now you need to take a trip out to the country and see the lovely fields of pineapples. Also, I have a feling you will look back one day and laugh at how much you spent. A national would have paid much much lower than that for a pineapple. Enjoy them we certainly do not get them as sweet in the states.
Oh, and I am really blesssed that God has given you a sweet friend. Living overseas makes dear friends like that all the more special.
My husband's sister and her husband have been missionaries in Costa Rica for 30 plus years, and when visiting there once, I had fresh pineapple. It is like eating candy! She loves the fresh fruit she can always get there. She just told me that they eat papaya (spelling ?) by the boat load! Wish I had some about right now! I love the love seat, btw!
Dear Heather, I googled pineapple trees. Huh, I learned something. We have a cocoanut tree in our yard, and I thought, they’d just look similar. Prince Charming just shook his head when I told him. Actually that was the bargained price for the pineapple. Prince got a hand of bananas free with it. He always tries to bargain, but with our white skin, they only give in so much.
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