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!

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.