Our Day Off

PRAISE THE LORD I got to go surf. The night before I was chit chat'n in " the bar " - our sort of home base and one of the staff members Janelle and I got to talk and it ended with, well do you wanna join our car for some surf tomorrow. I about pee'd my pants - YES! We headed out that next morning with a crew of great people. We went to this place called White Plains. It was crazy crowded because of the holiday and just I think it's a tropical Indian Beach. The surf was fun, mushy and small - but for my first time out here I was game with it. I had borrowed a water logged and I mean water logged bruised banana board. It served it's job and it was fun. I got a little nick on my heal from the glassed in fins that were not so glassed in any more but ehh no biggy. We surfed for a few hours and called it good. Man o man alive was it just what I needed. Than we came home and Zach and I headed to Haliewa. He had lived here awhile back for a few months on this farm and we went to go track this farm guy down. So this is a fun story coming.

We got off the bus and started walking down this side road. Than Zach goes its a good walk, you know by surfers church and all I could think of were the 8 chained up pit bulls that wanted to rip anyone's face off that walked by. But I was sorta just hoping that it was near there but we didn't have to walk down that road. Ya right. Here come the pit bulls. It's straight out of a movie but here it's real life. On one side of the road is a broken down van that has no windows and sheets over parts that are missing, along side other torn cars, burnt cars, rubbish, and if you walk by at the right time a young 7yr old girl walking bare foot in the dirt and filth. On the other side there are more stripped cars, more rubbish and dark thick legs sticking from one of the cars - the owner. In between both cars and rubbish are chains of pit bulls. You walk by and they run to the end of the chain until it whips them back to their confined area. You walk by and pray that the chain doesn't snap, knowing your toast if it does. I sort of just kept my thoughts to myself about it on the way to the farm and figured I would ask Zach on the way home what the heck that was all about. Just as I thought we were in the clear Zach turn over and says "Freedom" and reaches down to one of the pit bulls. He pets her and has his face next to hers. I was like uhhhh uhhh and he goes it's a God thing, when we lived here we just kept giving her love every time we walked by and she finally decided to accept us and look she still remembers me. It is so sad to see those dogs chained up but even more sad knowing that even though she is not physically chained - you know the little girl is locked up too.

We walked down the road a little more and skipped behind this fence and there we were. On this little farm with banana trees all around :) There was a woman there but the man he was looking for was out on the town. We poked around for a few and Zach was amazed by the transformation of the place. I guess it looked a lot worse.This is the house that was new. I guess two days before Zach left last time the other house fell down and this was like a luxury home for this property. We headed out back through the pit bull road and as we walked back into town I asked what the whole story was. Get this. He said that the property the farm is on and the property where the pit bulls are , are owned by the same person. A few years back the guy who as the farm - Anthony - was led by the Lord to use this land for good. It has been on the market for few years but no one wanted it because it floods every 4 years or so. Before the farm was there it was just cane grass and drugs. The pit bulls, little girl, and stocky legs I saw were the left overs of the biggest drug property on the island. The man was/is the most wanted drug trafficker around and that was his family. Before the farm there were syringes, beds, drugs and much more across the whole land. Anthony came in and with out a car, using only a bike to haul loads out - transformed a dark place into a fruitful land for the Lord. He has been there for a bit now and these drugs Lords are sandwiched in between Surfers Church and Anthony's farm. It's pretty epic. What a man of God to go alone to a place that is so dark and straight up scary. And get this - Anthony is only 24.

After the farm we went into town and than headed to the beach and on the way down we say this man picking up what we thought were seeds from the palm trees. Come to find out there are coconut palms and fig palms and he was picking up this baby figs. They don't have much meat to them but they are so good! From their we headed to the water - it was so hot and I was so needing some water time. We hopped in and look at that more interns!

(Mimi)

We had fun at the beach than headed into town to get some coffee ( i ran out ) and hit the bus back. Mimi ( one of the swede interns) really wanted to hit this gallery that plays concerts - so we did. It was pretty epic. You walk through all of these painted surf boards and into their "gallery". The whole family rocks it in there. They are a Jamaican family that play anything you could think of. The kids basically are the show and they are good and I mean good. I kept thinking to myself they are going to be found by someone and soon have their own reality show.

So from that packed day is what back on the bus where we ran into a guy we invited to Surfer's Church the other night. God is so cool! We got back home at 7:23 (the time I guessed ;) and than a good ol laugh attack with the girls in the room. So if you haven't been around Swedes .. do it. They are so funny and their language will crack you up! I'll just leave it at that and the fact my abs are legitimly sore from laughing so hard for so long. It was me and Ryan ( but it's a girl and she spells it different..Cali) against the Swedes both with eating habits (we are both sorta granola like that and swedes are meat meat meat meat ) and the language barrier is epic.

All in all I would say an epic day off. Today brings a whole new world of work, class, and STN orientation.