Our last travel day began later than the day of the first flight down to Jamaica, but today was the earliest morning after that. We all were up and moving at about 5:30 am and loaded into a van to take us to the airport by 5:45 am. We actually ended up having to do two trips down to the airport because of how much space our luggage took up in the car, but luckily the airport was less than five minutes away from our hotel. We made it through customs and security with no problems, just slower than anticipated.We are still working on following Jamaican time schedules (where everything takes an hour longer than expected).

Right outside of our gate we were greeted by the sweet smell of a Cinnabon store that the team was unable to resist. A large, gooey, cinnamon roll was the perfect way to start the morning. Our flight to Miami was pretty short and uneventful. After landing, we managed to find a storage locker to leave our bags in so we wouldn’t have to haul extra stuff around while we explored Miami. We figured out the bus schedule and left for Sunny Isle Beach. Once we arrived at the beach, we wandered a stretch of sand in front of a few of the many resorts along Miami’s coastline in search of a place to change into our swimsuits but when we couldn’t find anywhere we decided to head out for lunch instead.

We stopped in a café and hung out in the shade for a while before heading back to the beach. We all got at least one toe in the water (just to be able to say we touched two different bodies of water on this trip: the Caribbean and the Atlantic) before realizing we had to head back to the bus stop if we wanted to catch our bus. On the ride back to the airport, the man sitting next to us started chatting with some of the group members. Part way into the conversation we found out he was from Centerville, MN and had gone to Centennial!

Once we were back at the airport we made it through security a second time reentering the Miami airport and the team managed to find both a Starbucks and ice cream shop before boarding the plane. So far, everything is going smoothly…and we can’t wait to get home!

Rachel S.

Well we are on the flight back to Minneapolis. It is 7:40 pm Central Time, which means for us it feels like 8:40 pm. Rachel was very gracious about our trip to the beach in Miami, our hope was to spend a few hours swimming; but going through customs, a long bus ride and no changing rooms on the public beach we all had to disappointingly walk away from the waves and sand in search of something to eat. In the end we were able to put our feet in the water for 10 minutes rather than swim for the 3 or 4 hours we were all hoping for. I am sure you have noticed that we do not have a significant post for Saturday through Monday; we will update the blog with info about the missing days as soon as possible. For now let it be said we have all reached that point of happy, brain numbing tiredness of having a wonderful time together and knowing that our service in Jamaica has help give birth  to a new avocado orchard that will sustain the Jamaican Methodist Church and the people of the Brown’s Town area well into the future. Thank you for following our adventures and showing your support as we have stepped from the places that were safe and comfortable for us to meet the many challenges that have strengthened our faith during our service trip.

Gary

We have had a couple long days but we are all doing well. Saturday we went to Dunn’s River Falls beach. Some in the team like it so much they went up twice. After that we went to a “Jerk Center” and ordered one pound of jerk pork and four jerk chickens. Today we had a marathon church day; two and half hours in the morning then three and half this evening. We are all mostly packet and ready to head down to Mo Bay (Montego Bay) for the day tomorrow then off on Tuesday morning for home.

Gary 

We woke up to booming thunder and rain that followed shortly after. We excitedly looked outside the window to confirm that it really was raining, and then promptly went back to bed because we knew we wouldn’t have to go out and water plants.

Once we got up, we had a delicious American breakfast of Pancakes, Eggs, and Bacon, and discussed our happiness about the rain.  Earl gave me (Sara) credit for the success of the rain dance, and decided that today would be a team holiday  called “Be Nice to Sara Day” or, for short, “Sara Day.” 

Because we didn’t have to work, Sara Day started off very relaxing.  We spent the morning napping, reading, packing our things, and playing card games.  June, Miss Mary, and Miss May made us a lovely lunch.  Earl laughed at us again because we couldn’t figure out what type of meat we were eating.  I thought it was beef but apparently it was pork.  “If it looks like pork and tastes like pork, it’s pork,” Earl told us.  It didn’t look like pork. It looked like beef.  Nonetheless, the pork and rice and peas were delicious, as usual.  After lunch, we took some pictures with Miss Mary, Miss May and the Harrisons, and then decided to go down to the soccer field.

We introduced Andrew to “Sit Volley,” a game we learned while on our first Iowa mission trip.  Everyone stands in a circle and tries to keep the volley ball in the air.  Anyone who hits it out, at the ground, or fails to hit it altogether, sits in the middle.  When that game got old, we tried to play touch football.  The rules had to be explained many times during the game due to the fact that the majority of the girls (me included) had no clue how to play football.  We decided to play ultimate football (ultimate Frisbee played with a football) shortly after.  It seemed less complex, and therefore more fun.  As we were playing, some Jamaican kids came down to the field wanting to play football (we aren’t allowed to call it soccer here) with us.  So, we divided ourselves up into teams and started the game.  Unfortunately, none of us Americans are good at soccer, and all the Jamaicans were very talented.  They were quick and sure footed.  They had fantastic aim, and they even had good distraction techniques.  One guy kept growling.  It was actually pretty intimidating, but we still had a hard time keeping a straight face as he growled.  Andrew tried to give us some coaching advice throughout the game, and we got a little better as time went on, but we were pretty awful.  We had a blast though.  We were able to laugh at our lack our lack of soccer/football skills; the Jamaican kids laughed at us too.  It looks like Nik can check “Play a game of soccer with Jamaicans” off of his bucket list.

We were all disgustingly sweaty after the game, so, back at the manse, everybody split off to change or shower.  June made us burgers and fries for dinner, which everybody loved.  She said it was a trade off for tomorrow’s breakfast of Ackee and Saltfish and bread fruit.  Hopefully June will put bacon in the Aki and Saltfish again.

That’s it for today.  Beach tomorrow! I’m so excited!

--Sara Bratager

Saturday and Sunday are going to be busy days for us. We leave for the beach tomorrow morning at 9:30 am and will not get back until sometime around 9 pm. Sunday we go to Wesley Methodist in Brown’s Town in the morning and to a special service in the evening, each service will probably be between 2 and 2 ½ hours long. Hopefully we will have time Sunday to do a quick blog post to let everyone know how we’re doing. It’s good we had a day off, or as they call it in Jamaica a “holiday.”

Gary

Another day, another trip up the pyramid. Despite our best efforts, rain did not come, so the process of making sure the plants received water fell to us. Earl’s opinion is the dance worked for MN but not here. I have a feeling none of us are ever going to live that dance down… Breakfast kicked off the day after we forced ourselves half awake (fortunately Gary did not have to sing today to get us up and going, sorry Gary, no offense intended). June chose to serve us ackee and salt fish for breakfast. We were delighted when she told us she had Americanized it: bacon and extra salt. Our thanks went out to her.

After this we organized for work. Nick, Sarah, Rachel, Michelle, and I jumped onto and into the truck with barrels of water while the rest worked on the Avocados planted on the slope near the Manse. The truck rumbled down the roads to “the pyramid”.  Earl drove with Michelle in the passenger seat, and the rest of us were in the truck bed. Now, I’m sure it’s been mentioned that the roads in Jamaica are steep, narrow, and filled with pothole, but when you add two huge barrels with broken covers full to the top with water… You can imagine what happened to those of us in the truck bed. If only I’d had some foresight I would have sat inside the truck cabin; there were still three open seats. Hindsight is great and all, but it doesn’t always help all that much.

Once at the work site, we started filling up buckets and containers with water to lug up the hill/mountain. Among these were small plastic water bottles with holes poked in the top so that when left on the hill they would provide plants with a steady drip of water. Nick filled one and squirted a jet of water near the girls as a bit of a joke. As one of them was saying something along the line of “you just wait”, I took the opportunity to give the water bottle I’d just filled a squeeze. Unfortunately the water came out all over the back of Nick’s neck. Also unfortunately, it was a slight bit more water than I had anticipated. After another “you just wait”, we went to work. I am not going to go into details with this, but for those of you familiar with Wild Mountain’s “The Wall” ski hill, the pyramid is about that steep. Plus you have loose rocks and all kinds of plant and tree debris to worry about. Carrying water up and down it the entire morning, I’m almost amazed no one was injured.

Once finished, we rested at the bottom. Nick just happened to have a slightly larger container filled with water next to him. This is another one of those times foresight would have been nice. Needless to say, I got it full in the face and front of my shirt. After laughing for a while (both Nick and I), we high fived and one final “you just wait” was mentioned. I’m pretty sure that one will never happen though. By that time those who had been working at the Manse had finished and walked down only to find out we had just finished. We teased them a little for being slow walking down, and then piled into the truck and headed back to the Manse.

Lunch came about shortly after we arrived at the Manse. A delicious curry chicken dish served aside some rice. We were told that Jamaican cooking is often influenced by Indian culture as in the era of slavery many Indians were forced to come here.

Later today we took a trip to the local market and grocery store. This included a stop at the bank, since some, including myself, needed to exchange some more U.S. currency for Jamaican. At the market some fruit was bought and one or two other things, but the majority of our shopping we did at the grocery store. The market is basically a large tent structure with narrow lanes and sellers everywhere. This is where we go for fresh fruit and vegetables. People bring what they grow or otherwise acquire to stalls they are stationed at. Bartering is common. 

The grocery store is not what we think of when we think of grocery stores. It is a small building and has no refrigeration, so there are no fruits and vegetables.

Ezra

The team did a great job heading back into Egypt to water the baby avocado trees, which needed it  a lot. Some of them we planted last Wednesday and Thursday were looking bad, but the ones we planted on Friday are still green and healthy. Tomorrow we go out to give them a second drink. The team really enjoyed going into a Jamaican grocery store and seeing all the different Jamaican products, some of them are making their way back to Minnesota. We had a short work day and time to regroup and start to get our energy back. Everyone is doing well and spirits are in good shape. We are counting down the days when we will arrive back in Minnesota but still enjoying every day here.

Gary

Today concluded our work at the Methodist church in Stewart Town, where we were planting small palm trees and plants in flower beds we created with stones and topsoil. We woke up at around 7:30, and Gary roused Kenzie, Rachel B., and Michelle with a chorus of “Oh, What a Beautiful Morning”. Sara, Madeline, and Rachel S. made sure to get up before he could make it to their room. We were back to Jamaican food for breakfast, having journey cakes, also known as johnny cakes, and cod fish, as well as fresh oranges. Our job for the day was to plant some hardy, native plants in the flower beds we had created the day before, and we had to pick those plants off of the hillside near the manse.

We filled 4 bags full of them, and then packed everybody into the truck. We tried a new method of stacking peoples legs in the back of the truck, and it will not happen again, as it took people several minutes to get feeling back into their legs after reaching the job site. We got right to work, Carl, Nik, and Ezra taking the first shift of driving to the cemetery and loading the truck with dirt, and the rest of us worked on building a nice flower bed on the hill, with nice “undulating curves”, because they “look so much better” according to Michelle.

After 3 truckloads, people switched positions and Kenzie, Madeline, Rachel S., and I went down to the cemetery, while the others rested. We were able to finish putting dirt in the beds and planting the plants before lunch, but only with the help of the local children who joined us again after their VBS ended. As expected, the number of children roughly doubled compared to yesterday, but they were very helpful in gathering more plants.

Lunch today was another delicious meal prepared by several of the congregation members, and it included fried chicken, rice and peas, sweet potato, yams, a dumpling, and soda. All of it was delicious, especially the chicken that Gary prepared under the supervision of the locals. It was finger-lickin’ good! After lunch, we said good bye to the kids and loaded up the truck, heading out for the manse. When we arrived, nobody was allowed to go into the house before participating in the rain dance that a number of the girls and I had a part in creating. We need it to rain so we don’t have to haul water to the avocado plants that we planted last week! After that everybody showered and began the normal afternoon activity of reading or napping.

Dan

Yes indeed, I cooked the chicken today. It was fun learning how to prepare Jamaican Fried Chicken. I told the locals when I made it in Minnesota it would be “Stewart Town Fried Chicken.” I’m sad to say that we would all like to see a rainy day or night so the trees we planted last week get the water they need so desperately without us needing to carry buckets down into Egypt land, the land we slaved in to plant the trees.

It is correct that I made the team do a rain dance before they could get into the manse and shower. I have downloaded it to YouTube, the address is http://youtu.be/4OB79jqvIz4  I think you can use the address as a link if you click on it. I would suggest copying and pasting the address into the address line if you would like to see it if that doesn't work. The lyrics to the song are:

From the manse, from the manse

To the wall, to the wall

To make the raindrops fall

So all the trees grow tall.

Unfortunately the sky does not look like are rain dance is working; maybe tonight.

The team is beginning to look forward to heading back to Minnesota, but not before they can get to the beach as much as possible.

Gary

Say cheese!!! Well today we went to Stewart Town to do some landscaping at the Methodist church there and we all made a bunch of new friends who loved to take pictures with us!

It was a bit of a drive and we had to make two trips, with Dan, Sara, Ezra, Gary, and some palm trees making the first trip and the rest of the group made the second trip. The first group did a great job of digging holes and planting the palm trees while they waited for the second group of us to make the trip to the work site. Once we all were there, we began to take large rocks from the area and use them to make flower beds. Eventually lunch came around and we were able to take a break for some beef stew, rice and beans, and some fruit bread. We also were all treated with some pop that some of us had been dearly longing for! Afterwards we got back to work on the flowerbeds and shoveled some topsoil into the beds and around the palm trees. But the funnest (yes we are on summer break and in Jamaica so we can say funnest) thing about today were the new friends.

After lunch a couple of younger kids started showing up to watch us work and to hang out with us. They loved our cameras and were taking pictures endlessly with us as they took plenty of funny pictures. They would put on our sunglasses and go around taking pictures of everyone. It was truly a fun experience to be with all these little dudes and dudettes, for they were making us laugh constantly! We are all looking forward to seeing them again tomorrow, and probably more of their friends will show up to hang out.

We got back around 4 or so and we just relaxed and hung out enjoying a great day down here in Jamaica! We see that we have it very nice here with a constant wind that always cools us off, and that it is cooler here than back in the U.S.

Carl

There are a lot of good pictures from today’s time at Stewart Town; so if you haven’t checked out the pictures at the bottom of the page because you did not know they were there, scroll down.  I had been calling it Stewartville and then we drove into town and I show the sign; my bad. Today was like most days I have experienced on service trips to Jamaica; we show up at a church to do some work and all of the sudden church members, kids, and locals start showing up out of curiosity, start visiting and then start working with us. It was a very good day.

Gary

So far today we had a delicious breakfast of cereal; fishcakes, toast and juice, then we went out to work on a different hill than the previous days, near the mause. Dan, Carl, and Ezra were digging holes for the different plants, Madeline and Rachel B. carried the plants down the hill and planted them, Mrs. Bratager, Rachel S., and Sarah started off their workday on the original hills fertilizing those plants from the past week. We ran out of plants for today and lunch was close to being ready, so we stopped our work and rested. We are planning on getting more plants brought in form a near-by church for tomorrow, so we can finish up our planting then.

Andrew, Earl and June’s son, left for Kingston, where he is an intern at a pharmacy, soon after lunch. He will be back Thursday evening. Our lunch consisted of a dish similar to spaghetti, juice, potato salad, coleslaw, and rice with peas (beans). The meal was very good!

We have been watching TV, playing card games, and overall just hanging out and having fun. We will be having dinner, delicious as usual I presume, hopefully in about an hour, and then we will play our group games as usual.

We have all had a fabulously fun time so far and I’m sure we will be having tons more fun this next week! We miss you all and hope that you are all doing well! Maddeline’s foot is feeling better and Gary’s leg is still bandaged up, but he seems to be getting around just fine.

Rachel B.

Today was some hard work in the morning but then a quiet afternoon. Stewartville was not ready for us so we will go there tomorrow. I am glad the team was able to have some down time this afternoon. I think we will be excited to go tomorrow for the day and accomplish something new.

Gary