Jamaica trip continues...

my brother Braxton
This is ________ & Pauline they are my uncle cory's (who is married to Cindy) sisters husbands parents... HA HA HA
Lori and Kirk friends of Cindy
My father and mom Max and Nancy
Cindy and Cory (aunt and uncle)
Joe and Tiv (tiv is Cory's sister, Joe is the husband.. pauline etc is his family!)
Joe's little brother and girlfriend... no names. LOL
Joe's other siblings... TIv... being where's waldo in the background... she does this a lot throughout the TRIP!
Angela and Gary. Gary is my dad's uncle and Angela is his girlfriend... who we found out happens to be related to some friends of ours in New Harmony

US
my drunkle Rod and Robin
Jason and Vonnie... this is my dads boss and his wife

Leslie & Brad cindy's friends...

Ok, so more Jamaica.

So Sunday we got to swim in the ocean. Jamaican's from off the resort were allowed in only in the ocean... so they would wander through trying to barter and sell stuff, we saw some huge conch shells, necklaces... which my mother bartered down cheap enough I got me one. AND althought I had an appointment at the salong to get my hair braided for $65.00 which is a lot but worth it to not have to blow dry and curl it each day just to put it in a ponytail in the end. LOL Another Jamaican said that she would braid my hair for 20.00 or whatever I could afford, because she needed the money more than the resort and she would appreciate us supporting her... so I thought that was a good idea. Cindy said she had done that once and just take a few people (at least 4) with you so that you are safe. ... sounds appealing doesn't it LOL But She told us it was right there past the fence so I could still see the resort etc... so I asked and dad said they would tag along. Braxton and Chris were snorkling a bit but they only rented the gear our for an hour so by the time we had to return the stuff it was time to get my hair done. Needless to say I canceled the salon appointment to save some money!

WOW So we cross the fence... picture this it was my dad, brother, mother, husband, Jason and Vonnie(Vonnie wanted her hair done too!) that all went, we went tracking over the fence line... Immediatly after about 10-20feet we got BOMBARDED by Jamaican's there were a lot of them, and they EACH wanted to sell us something... Seriously it got LOUD!!! It was scary and I had to say gee... this was a mistake for a few of them to start backing a little away from me... but they carried on bugging everyone else... I wish I could do a list of what everyone else in the group thought of this experience because we all had such interetesting things happen. My dad finally told one guy he would give him money just to be left alone, but the guy insisted he give him a bracelet which Braxton took. Then one guy got Chris interested in some carvings, and my mom and dad in carvings, then we ended up shopping at each SHACK on the way to the hair ladies shack. Anyway at one point, I was truely frightened because I guess since no one had asked Vonnie to get her hair done before crossing that fence line they ladies were all screaming and fighting over who got it done. But In the meantime we didn't know, so Vonnie had already told one lady she could do it... Which ticked off a few of them because they were always going over the fence line to recruit and this particular lady who got Vonnie had just been lazy and sitting around that day I guess so they all thought it was un fair that she got the money., one guy short and skinny came up and SCREAMED at Vonnie it was scary... Thank heavens Jason had been pulled in a shack 5 ft from that or I know a brawl would have broken out and that would NOT have been good!!!!!!!!!!ANYWAY!!!! (for those of you who don't know Jason, he has some what of a short temper!!!)
So after like 30min I finally got my way to the right place to get my hair done... I wasn't going to move onto the Val (the lady who did my hair) until my group was with me... HA HA HA

So Finally I sit and anyway more people come bug Chris and one guy seriously didn't leave he said no, and no thank you like 1 million times... we also got offered GUNJA which is Marajuana... So while I got my hair done most of the group was split up, my mom and Chris and I were at Val's place about 20feet from the rest of the group staying by Vonnie and each person that wasn't getting their hair done was still being asked to look at stuff and purchase it. They kept saying "you haven't bought anything from me yet" like it was a requirement to buy from each person on the beach !!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Actually while I was sitting there Val asked questions like do you have kids etc... which I thought was small talk... but no, I got handed a pile of small childrens shirts to look at in my lap once I said I had a toddler daughter... IT was a little crazy but I guess those are memories... LOL

So once my hair was like 80% done the lady was talking about the prices on the shirts... and well Chris and I were going to get Addie a shirt anyway... we discussed prices and the originaly 20$ hair jumped up to $70... uhhhhhhhhh noooooooooooooooooo. So I argued ... nicely... while she was doing my hair, because I was nervous she would flip out I did argue for a good 20min while she finished my hair... it was crazy because I told her for 65 the salon would have done it in air conditioned place with no one bothering us!!! and she kept budging little by little... anyway I was pissed at the end but nervous to tell her to just stop or take it out then... she could have her beads back I was lied to and PISSED off... (sorry for the french!) Anyway I told her I hadn't even brought that much I had brought enough to pay her and that's all because I didn't know how safe it would be to bring extra money. ANyway she insisted that it was fine and she trusted me to go back and get the rest. I finally did get here down to 50 and she would make Adlanna a braclet with her name on it (out of thread stuff) for free. Chris was mad too so he said he didn't want the bracelet anymore... (I don't think he realized we were still going to pay her 50 with or without the bracelet so she might as well make it!) So we left and right after crossing the fence I explained that to Chris so he ran back to the fence line... and mentioned that we will be back for our free braclet and that's when we will pay her... she told chris (and I was far enough away I didn't hear her) that the braclet was 5dollars. AHHH! So when Chris told me that I was more furious. Anyway when I finally got the money and took it back to the fence line... VERY careful not to pass that line... I told her that she said it was free and she needed to make it for me. Jason and Vonnie in the meantime had spent a few hundred dollars on stuff and had to come back with money as well so I told her to give it to them... Because I honestly didn't want to go close to that fence line again!!!!!

Jason and Vonnie never got it... and that lady wasn't around again that we saw... we purposely didn't go back to the fence because we had had it... BUT we saw a few of the jamaican's over the line in the water selling to the rest of the resort and we asked them and they said they would bring it back etc. but we NEVER got it... **deep sigh**


Ok now let me say.. yes the Jamaican's need the money.. yes I felt bad that they had to do some of those things to get people over the line and shopping. HOWEVER... the money is translated to be like 1 of our dollars is 150 appox. of their dollars... anyway in short my first necklace my mom bartered I spend 600 jamaican dollars on. So I guess my point is, that I felt like these particualar people got a lot of money from the people from the resort and they admitted that they have people bring food from the buffet for them when they come etc... I saw lots of cell phones and lots of thick jewelry men in chains etc.. that made it seem like they weren't the Jamaican's that really truely needed the money... but I really didn't know so I guess it was money well spent. But wow for the hassle I would not even go over that fence again if I was paid!!!!

So anyway that was until nearly dark, we ended up getting drinks on the way to talk to Britt on the phone. We had changed the time to be 6pm because 9 was just not going to work. 6pm was when it started to get dark, so we didn't need to know the time... all the time... with no phones and no watches that was hard! plus 9pm was the time all the dress up theme parties began.

So we went and talked to Britt and Adlanna and then went back down for dinner and see what theme was going on. On the way down to dinner we saw a animal... ran and stop along the pathway... and we got really really close before it moved it was a HUGE RAT....

aren't you jealous of my trip so far. LOL No really I am sure it sounds worse than it was.. it was a nice resort just a little guy got in... I hadn't seen any coachroaches yet so I was ok and the rat wasn't near our room so that was good too, it was down in the outside garden area...

Nope sorry no pictures because I knew we were going to be in the water, I wasn't going to take it and leave it on the chair a few hund. feet from me and hope someone doesn't take it... Anyway so no pics. Braxton and Chris did both get sunburned on their backs splotchy spots from snorkeling and that was about it...