On a trip prior that week, Brandon and I noticed several beautiful beaches just a mere thirty minutes from St. Louis. We shared this news with a few others, and we all decided to have a beach day on Sunday. By the time we all went to church, had lunch, and left it was about 2pm. Mind you, we asked to leave at 1. We are slowly realizing time is irrelevant in this country.
We passed not one, but two, three, then four beautiful beaches as we drove along. They had clean white sand, clear water, untouched reef. We figured they must be taking us to an even more amazing beach. After an hour butt bumping ride, we arrived at the beach they had chosen for us. Mesame! Oh the look on Brandon’s face! I felt so sorry for him-and myself really. It was a beach, sure. But, it had a little whitewash, so there was sand all stirred up and the water looked brown. The beach had tons of rocks on it, along with a decent amount of trash. And since there were houses close by, within about five minutes we had quite the crowd watching our every move-even though there were more Haitians than us pasty folk. Nonetheless, we stripped down to our modified modest Haitian swimwear. And, to be honest, I was so grateful I was wearing shorts and a rash guard!!
After we had some time in the water, we both slowly forgot about the other great beaches we passed, and enjoyed the beautiful day. It was fun to play and swim with other Haitians too-they are not very fond of the water though! They only went as far as their stomachs. In fact, there were a few young girls hanging on Brandon as he floated all around in the water. They loved that he was fearless, and clung to him so tight! I was kinda jealous really, since in Haiti pda is not ok! In fact, if you are married or dating, you are not supposed to be affectionate in any way. Apparently, it’s okay if they are just your friend, but that is it. I miss holding hands!
Jessica Stone 
Oh man…no PDA and you guys are usually so affectionate! Those beaches look beautiful!
I love your hat! Proof that you can be a super cute missionary:)
what a bummer for you guys! Did you ever ask why those other beaches were passed up? Maybe there were sharks or other not so fun sea animals waiting for you there?!
Thanks girls, It sure is hard to look cute when all you do is sweat sweat sweat! I tried to ask why they were passed up, and no one knows really. That seems to be the case here. You can tell anyone anything and they will pretty much say, ‘oh, ok’. It’s strange. There aren’t sharks around here-or so BRandon tells me..