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 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 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!

Jamaica Day 1

Team Pullman: Ashley and Kayla

Team Pullman: Ashley and Gareth

Driving to Moorlands Camp

Driving to Moorlands Camp

Lovely Water

Beautiful Water Scene

Today started our journey to Jamaica at about 2 PM on Sunday afternoon when I drove, with three others from my group, from Pullman, WA to Seattle, WA. In Seattle we met up with Stephanie, a former YMCA Program Coordinator, and we enjoyed a delicious dinner with her and her mother. Later Sunday night we were dropped off at the Seattle Airport, where we started our series of flights to Jamaica. We flew from Seattle to Detroit, Detroit to Atlanta, and then Atlanta to Montego Bay, Jamaica!!! For the most part our flights went very smoothly, but we had about an hour delay in Detroit which caused us to only have 22 minutes in Atlanta to get from concourse E to A. Needless to say we got on the plane and had a splendid flight into Jamaica.

Once we arrived to Jamaica it was a balmy 78 degrees and sunny….it was AWESOME! After waiting in line at customs, and two members of our group almost being stopped because they didn’t have a contact number for the orphanage we were working at, we grabbed our bags and began looking for the rest of our group from Indiana. After about an hour we found the other 50 members of our group, loaded up buses, and headed to the Moorlands Camp, which is a Christian Camp that we are staying at for the week. Before leaving the airport I had a delicious chicken patty, sort of like a spicy chicken and bean quesadilla, which was my first introduction to Jamaican food. It was very satisfying and I can’t wait to eat more Jamaican food!

The bus ride consisted of a 3 bus caravan driving for 3 hours to the Moorlands Camp. Throughout the bus ride I was snapping photos right and left of the beautiful ocean scenes, the residential areas, the slums, and the scenery along the road. The drive was really exciting because we got to see a good portion of Jamaica while riding in a bus driven by a crazy local. I say crazy because driving in Jamaica is very different compared to America. For one, they drive on the opposite side of the road, their roads are also the width of a single lane, and you don’t really need to drive on a specific side of the road. Often times a two lane road turned into a three lane road or a one way road. Honking is another thing that was very different, they used the horn for three main reasons: 1) to warn someone that you would be passing them 2) when you almost get hit by someone or you are going around a blind corner 3) to say hello to friends in other cars or on the side of the road. While the driver was crazy, the drive way very exhilarating for our whole group!

Once we arrived to the camp we were greeted by some of the staff and fed a delicious spaghetti dinner. Shortly after dinner the group split with some people going straight to bed and other people exploring and looking around the camp.

Overall the first day consisted of many hours of traveling, meeting many new people, eating some great food, and experiencing a new, relaxed, way of life.

Alternative Service Break: Destination Jamaica!

Well it is about that time again when I get back to blogging about the current events that are taking place in my life. During my upcoming Spring Break I will be traveling to Montego Bay, Jamaica with the Intercollegiate YMCA to work at the Hanbury Home for Children. Along with a team of about 45 college students from around the country I will be helping to improve dorms and put in clean water systems at this orphanage. The opportunity to experience a new culture and work with an amazing group of children is something I am very much looking forward to, so keep checking back to see updates on the trip. I will be taking TONS of photos so if you want to join me on my journey in Jamaica stay tuned for more exciting stories and pictures.