posted July 29th

Negril is one of the ‘must go’ tourist destinations in Jamaica as there’s a magnificent beach & so it’s supposedly a paradise for sun, water sports, marijuana & ‘other activities’.

As it sounded so touristy, we were not sure whether to even go there, but during our stay in Montego Bay, we were blessed to meet Indian Sunil—an enterprising & hospitable jeweler who appreciated the value of our work in Jamaica. He told us that friends of his were starting a church there & that he could drive us down: we gratefully accepted the offer.

We told Sunil about how we try to get hotels to donate accommodation, but as he knew the place very well, he already had contacts & was able to negotiate a very favorable off-season rate for one week which he then paid for. He also introduced us to another hotel owner that decided to donate breakfast every day of the week! At the end of the week, he then took us back to Montego Bay—a big ‘thank you’ to Sunil for his help & friendship!

 

 

 

One open door led to another as the breakfast donor took us to see a soup kitchen that gives lunch to over 100 needy people every day. We spent a morning helping out there, (see photos), & met the person that was running the operation, Winston. When we showed him our photo album that starts off with Fiji, he surprised us by telling us that he was married to a Fijian & used to live in Fiji!!

[/caption]As we talked further, it turned out that we actually knew some of the same people in Fiji! While there we also found out that there was a Fijian priest living in Falmouth: the next place on our itinerary….

 

 

Although the schools in Negril were officially closed, Winston drove us around to visit them & we were able to arrange programs as part of  their ‘summer school’ activities.

We also spoke at the local Rotary Club. As you may know, every Rotary Club meeting starts off with the usual introductions, plus one joke.

Here is the joke from that meeting:

An argument broke out between a husband & wife about who should brew the morning coffee. The husband argued that anything to do with the kitchen was the wife’s department: shopping, cooking etc, & therefore making the coffee should also be her job.

 

The wife replied that it should be the husband’s job, saying words to the effect of, ‘You always get up before me & reach the kitchen before me, so it should be your job; besides, it says in the Bible that the man should brew the coffee!’

The husband replied: ‘You’ve got to be joking! Show me in the Bible where it says that….’  The wife opened her Bible & showed that it was clearly written across the top of several pages: HEBREWS