Jamaica Day 8

Well now I am safe in the US, but still faced with another 11 hours of travel from Philadelphia to Washington. After waking up and going to the airport I got my bags checked, boarding passes printed, and I even got the airlines to give me a voucher for breakfast! With breakfast in hand and a pillow to sleep on I boarded my flight to Phoenix and was on my way home again.

The flight to Phoenix zipped by seeing how I was counting stars as I was zonked out up against the window. Once I arrived in Phoenix I got a small bite to eat and then prepared for my next flight. While waiting for my next flight I was blessed to find out a friend from school set up a ride for me with his parents so that I could get from Spokane, WA to Pullman, WA. Although I was tired and ready for bed, I was feeling pretty good because I was within hours of being back to my dorm and my bed!

After arriving in Spokane I waited a little while and then was picked up by my friend’s parents: Carol and Curtis Troll. Once my bags were loaded in the car we I joined the Trolls in a few errands to Home Depot and Costco. Although at that time I should have been back at school, it was great to spend time with some friends and have some good conversation.

About an hour after I got back to my dorm I went to a Bible Study before crashing for the night. While very tired, I got a second wind of energy when my phone rang and I realized my driver Wayne was calling me. While brief, it was great to hear from Wayne as he was making sure I was home safely and he told me to go to bed because I sounded tired. At that moment I realized that although it may have cost a bit extra to get “stranded” in Jamaica for one last day, it was truly a blessing because in that last day I was able to make a new friend, spend another night with a group of new friends, and partake on an exciting adventure of getting back home!

All together my weeklong trip to Jamaica left me feeling renewed and excited for what is in store for me in the next few years. While my trip started out as an alternative service break, it ended up being a life changing experience that I will cherish for the rest of my life!

Jamaica Day 7

While originally I was supposed to be home on Day #7 I was blessed with one final day of adventures in Jamaica and the travel back home. Since we were all leaving this morning we woke up at about 6:00 in order to get everything packed and ready to depart at 7:30. Since we were all very tired the majority of us slept the three hour bus ride to the airport.

Once we arrived at the airport we spent the next few hours waiting in line to check bags and get through customs. After going through customs we had a little bit of time to fill up on some food and then board our flight. In general the flight from Jamaica to Philadelphia went very smoothly, I was editing pictures throughout the whole flight. Following our arrival to Philadelphia, however, I got the news that my connecting flight had already left before I got back through customs. While I had booked a different flight, somehow I was assigned a different itinerary, thus my flight left before I could get on it. Thankfully I worked with the airlines to get a hotel for the night so I could get a little rest before my 6:55 AM flight the next morning.

Upon arriving at the hotel I was grateful to hear I had a single room with a king size bed all to myself for the night, so I grabbed some food and went to my room to jump in bed and watch some basketball. Although it wasn’t too late I made sure to get to bed so I would feel marginally rested by the time my alarm clock rudely woke me at 5:00 AM.

Jamaica Day 6

Goodmorning!

Group Picture

Ready for the ride

Gotcha!

Today was my final day in Jamaica, well it was scheduled to be I should say…that story will come later on. We started off the morning around 7:30 again and went through our normal routine and then I had to make sure I was packed to leave by 10:30. Between the time we had breakfast and the time I was scheduled to leave we split up into groups to work on projects at the camp.

I was with a group of about 5 who worked on repainting one of the building next to the dining hall. While I only had a few hours left it was great to be able to talk more with people in the group while we were working. In no time at all, however, I was called to grab my things so we could drive to the airport.

While it was a bitter sweet goodbye, it was great to see how many new friends I had made in such a short time. Before the 5 of us departed to go home we had a group picture with everyone in it. After our picture we said our goodbyes and were headed off to Montego Bay to catch our flight. After loading our luggage into the truck we realized we were one seat short so I almost had to ride in the bed of the truck, but luckily we got another driver to take two people from our group.

Once we loaded up in the cars we set off four our last 3 hours drive to the airport. My driver was a really great guy named Wayne. Wayne grew up in Mandeville and went to the same church as the people who were in charge of the camp we were staying at. Throughout our drive it was great to talk with Wayne and hear more about his plans for the future and his upbringing in Jamaica. While 3 hours seems like a long time it flew by very fast since we were having a good conversation. Once we arrived at the airport I unloaded the truck of our luggage and then heard an announcement come over the intercom that said, “Please take you luggage, passport, and confirmation information to the nearest kiosk to sign in for your flight. Once you have your boarding passes proceed to the ticket counter to check in your bags.” While normally I don’t think twice about these announcements I felt there was something wrong…then I realized my passport was with the director of our trip and she was 3 hours away at the orphanage.

After telling my group that I would not be joining them on the flight I said my goodbyes and then loaded up with Wayne to take another car ride. The funny thing was that on our drive to the airport I had been thinking that it would be great to give Wayne company on his drive back to Mandeville, little did I know I would be able to join him! On our ride back we jumped into conversation again and had a wonderful time talking about Jamaica, our Faith, and our plans for the future. After driving about 2 hours I asked Wayne what fruits we were seeing people selling and he told me they were selling coconuts and upon me saying I had never had one, we stopped and we each got one. With a nice snack in our tummies we got back on the road to finish off our drive to the camp. Once I got to the camp I gave Wayne my number and he went on his way.

Shortly after I got back to the camp the rest of the crew got back from the orphanage and I was bombarded with questioning about still being in Jamaica. While everyone was in a bit of shock it was great to be able to enjoy another evening with the group. After dinner we had a bonfire where we all went around and told stories about our favorite moments of the week and as a whole there were many tears flowing. For me it was very empowering to see how big of an impact one week had on the lives of all of us who came on this trip. While we all anticipated serving and working with kids, we all came out with a new sense of freedom and joy over our lives. While it may have cost $700 to change my flight, it was worth every penny to be able to enjoy the last night with the group and spend many hours driving with my man Wayne!

Jamaica Day 5

Look at them Dawgs!

Kayla rocking a whale!

Lewis high on paint

Painting with emotion

Bros in hair nets

Team YMCA Pullman (Minus Me)

Tour of the coffee factory

Ladies lovin the tunes

SMILE!!!

Mother Daughter duo

Laundry Time

Strike a pose!

Poster Child

Michael and I

Today marked the fifth day of our trip as well as the last day of being at the Hanbury Home. Since it was $300 cheaper to fly out of Jamaica on Saturday compared to Sunday the group of five of us from Washington/Idaho decided to go home a day earlier than the other 50 from Indiana, so today was our last day with the kids. Along with the other days I woke up for devotions at 7:30, had breakfast at 8:00, we had a group game at 8:30, and then we were off to the orphanage by around 9:00.

Once we got to the orphanage we went straight to work because today was the day we had to finish up with most of our projects. On Wednesday we had done the majority of the base layer of paint on Babyland, so today we finished off with the base color paint and then we painted murals on the walls. The new Majors, who run the camp, decided they wanted the murals to be education themed, so we painted letters and corresponding pictures on the outside of the building and numbers and pictures on the inside. I ended up being named the go-to man for the outside murals in order to alleviate the confusion for people who did not know what to do. Since everyone was so eager to help we knocked out most of the murals before lunch so that we could be ready for the kids after they got back from school.

Along with the team on mural duty there were a number of people cleaning off mold from the ceiling inside the bathers of Babyland as well as a team who was finishing up a new garden bed, which entailed a lot of dirt carrying. After everything was said and done the garden looked great and Babyland looked like a wonderful place to spend time and learn

After our work was done for the day there was a group of us who got to go to a coffee factory, which was nearby the orphanage. Being a coffee fan myself it was great to smell the pleasant aromas of the coffee! While we missed the production time because they were closing for the weekend, we were still able to sample the coffee and walk around and get a tour of how things worked. At the factory we were at they primarily roasted Blue Mountain Coffee, which is one of the world’s greatest coffees. In the US Blue Mountain Coffee sells for about $50 a pound….if that doesn’t say it all in the price I don’t know what would.

Following the tour of the coffee factory we headed back to the orphanage just in time for the kids to arrive home back from school. For the next few hours we were able to spend time playing with all the kids. Since it was my final day I made sure to take lots more pictures so I could capture the memory of this trip and reminisce on it for many years to come. One of my photo highlights was of one of the little boys who had a YMCA t-shirt on who ended up doing a photo shoot for me where he help up his arms in a Y to symbolize the YMCA. Once it was time to say goodbye I went around to a few of the kids I worked with throughout the week and had a chance to say goodbye, while it was sad to say goodbye it was really heartwarming to see how much of an impact we were able to have on these kids and the impact they had on our lives.

After arriving back at the camp we had dinner and a devotion and then we were free for the night. Since this was my last night I stayed up late talking with people and collecting photos from everyone. Being coined as the photo master I was in charge of collecting peoples’ photos so I could then post them upon return home. Along with hanging out and getting photos I stayed up until 3 AM writing notes to people to thank them for a fun week. Throughout the week we all had bags where we could leave encouraging notes for each other, so I stayed up into the wee hours of the morning to write my last notes. As a whole today was a productive and fun day!

Jamaica Day 4

Friendly Singer and Salesman

Banana Boat

John....

Rachel and Sarah

Pretty Ladies at the Beach

Look of Disgust

Argggg (AJ and Katie)

Scott - Wazzup

AJ, Kevin (Security Guard), Scott, and Alex

"No Problem Man"

Today was another splendid day, but rather than working at the orphanage we were at the beach. While we were all excited to be going to the beach, we had to be up and running by 6:30 AM this morning, so we were all a bit tired to say the least. Last night a group of us stayed up late watching the stars and playing games, so we had limited sleep, but the cold showers this morning helped to solve that. After a quick shower and breakfast we headed to Negril Beach for a day of fun on the water!

After about a two and a half our bus ride we arrived at Negril Beach and we took off exploring what the beach had to offer. Within seconds after we got off the bus I was confronted by a very sociable man and offered to buy some “great weed,” while this would typically catch me off guard, in Jamaica this has been a daily, if not hourly offer. As the day progressed our stories involving run-ins with drug sellers got progressively worse and worse, but luckily we all came out safe and sound with some hilarious stories! The top of the list from these occurrences was when a man came up to Alex and I and pulled Alex into an alley to try to convince him to buy drugs. While I would have preferred to stick right with him, I knew this would not be the best idea, so I bartered with his partner in crime and he ended up telling his friends to back off because we were from further inland where they had all grown up. While a bit scary, Alex and I both now have a great story to remember from the beach!

Despite frequent offers from drug dealers we were also bombarded with awesome musicians who would post up right in front of us and play us songs on the guitar and sing. We also had a security guard named Kevin who we became best of friends with. While Kevin was a bit scrawny, he was a really nice guy and he ended up giving us his contact so we could all become his friends on facebook. While enjoying our time on the beach, ten of us decided to brave the banana boat and experience the time of our lives! While a little tame to what I am used to, it was a lot of fun cruising around the ocean on a banana boat getting thrown off from time to time!

After leaving our post at the beach, by Kevin, we embarked on a further journey to a market where we were a bit surprised because we ended up walking through a path through shanties where we presumed drug dealers lived. Although the first section of this endeavor through the market was sketchy, we were able to find the shops and barter and buy some cool things from the locals. Through our experiences with bartering we realized that name-dropping was very important to get good deals. After a while we started letting people know we were living in Mandeville and working at an orphanage so they all dropped their prices to the “Jamaican price.”

In general today was very relaxing and filled with experiences that will strengthen our street smarts. The beach was supreme, the sun was wonderful, and the company was excellent. Along with the nice whether, however, came sunburns, but I was fortunate to only get burned on my feet. Other people in our group got major burns and may be hurting in the days to come. Although we had some scary interactions today, we had a great time at the beach!

Jamaica Day 3

Hanbury Home for Children

Orlando the camera man

Katie and a little boy

Happy Guy

Michael Playing Soccer

Amber and a little one

Michael with his new Yo-Yo

Me teaching O'Shane how to make the Jamaican Flag

Little ones eating ICE CREAM

Danielle playing games with ice cream!

Peak a boo with Matt

Wazzup

"You need more lady friends!"

Our third day in Jamaica was again full of exciting and memorable moments. My morning started out at 7:30 when I woke to go on a morning run with other members of our group. While I fully intended to run, I missed the group by about 1 minute so I was unable to go on the group run. Although the area we are staying is safe, it is best to be with a group when running so I decided not to sprint down the road to try to find the group. Instead I relaxed on the rope swing for a little bit and then did devotionals with some members from our group. We proceeded to have breakfast and load up to go do our service projects for the day. Since there was some work that needed to be done at the camp we are staying at we split up our group so we could tackle projects at both the camp and the orphanage. Since I have become our unofficial photographer I went to the orphanage so I could keep up on photographing the children with the members from our group.

At the Hanbury Home I was working in Babyland painting the inside and outside of the building. Right after we got to work for the day there were a number of kids who sacrificed their break time to come help us paint, while they painted in some of the wrong areas, it was great to see their desire to work with us and contribute to the projects we were doing. After a few hours of painting we had lunch, finished up our base layers of paint, and then got ready for the older kids to come home from school.

Yesterday I was taught some yo-yo tricks, by our Yo-Yo Guru, so I was in charge of helping the kids learn how to use the yo-yos that we gave them. It was really exciting for me because I was able to work with an older boy name O’Shane who had been eyeing us the whole trip but hadn’t talked to us very much. After about 20 minutes with him we were progressing and having a grand old time. Within the hour or so we were working together O’Shane was able to do a variety of tricks and he promised me he would help teach other boys and show me how they were progressing when we go back to the camp on Friday.

Along with fun times yo-yoing there was a group of high school students who came to lead some games with the kids and feed them ice cream. Since I love ice cream myself I was naturally drawn to this ordeal and ended up taking a number of precious pictures of the little kids eating their treats.

After playing with the kids for a few hours we loaded up in our buses, headed to the store to grab some snacks and then headed back to the Moorlands Camp for the night. As a whole today was really inspiring because we were able to work more closely with the kids and build stronger relationships with them. Tomorrow we have a free day where we will be going to the beach and getting bronzed…or so we think!

Jamaica Day 2

Sweeties!

Studying in class

Working Hard

Rocking the tunes

Natural Photographer

What a Cutie!

Looking Groovy

Nice Shades

Happy Boy

Laughing ladies

Amanda: Leader of the trip

Boys playing soccer

Michael

Today I started off the morning at 7:00 AM with morning devotions and breakfast at 7:30 AM. After breakfast we lathered up with sunscreen and prepared ourselves for the day full of work ahead of us. Once showered and ready we met for a team bonding game where we played Super Ninja. For those of you not familiar with Super Ninja it is a game where every person has a special name and action specific to themselves and then when their name is called they call their name and do their signal and then say the name and do the symbol of somebody else. In our case we did an adjective followed by our name to help people learn names, so I was Daring Daniel. This game was a great way to wake people up and get us more familiar with the names of the people in our group.

Once we finished our morning routine and game we headed off to the Hanbury Home for Children, which is the orphanage we are working at this week. On a side note, normally I would have a better sense of time for when we were leaving for different places/activities, but in Jamaica their cultures is set up on a relaxed schedule, so clocks aren’t really used much. As soon as we arrived at the Hanbury Home we split into groups and took a tour of the area. While on our tour we were bombarded by the little kids who were not yet in school. Many of these little kids took the liberty to show us their rooms and the areas where they do their chores, like the chicken coop and the pig pen. These little children were really adorable and that is where I started taking my pictures for the day.

Throughout the day I helped clean walls for painting, by using rocks to rub off paint chips, and then we painted Babyland, which is where all the little kids live. Over the course of the week we will be painting the outside and inside of Babyland to make it more appealing to the eye and filled with educational images to help the younger students. Along with doing our painting project there were people working on carrying dirt to an area where they are planting a new garden, so there were a number of people who turned orange because of the dirt. Overall the projects were really fun because the kids were helping us throughout the whole day.

Outside of our projects we were able to spend a lot of time with the children. I was able to help out in one of the classrooms for the younger kids where I read them books, helped them with counting, and helped them with their alphabet. It was really cool to see how excited the kids were to work with us, although it did draw them away from their studies a bit. We were also able to sit in on one of the older kids’ classrooms where they were singing songs like Father Abraham. The kids also really liked to where our sunglasses, get their pictures taken, and take pictures. The thing the kids were most excited about besides us were Sweeties (candy) and the toys we brought.

Throughout the day I was able to work with many of the children and take a lots of pictures…776 to be exact. All in all today was another full of many fun and uplifting experiences!