Saturday was our one tourist day for the week. We headed down to Ocho Rios for the local market and beach. We spent the morning bartering at the market and fending off persistent venders. We got some good bartered deals, and some people got ripped off. After we were done with the market we had an American meal at a restaurant in town. Almost everyone ordered a burger. After lunch we headed down to the beach, which ended up being the most excitement for the day. Before we were even settled on the beach, Gary came barreling down toward the water. Halfway there he pulled or tore a muscle in his leg and limped with the momentum still carrying him into the water. Poor Gary sat on the beach the rest of the afternoon. The water was nice and we played various catch games with our water football. Later in the afternoon Rachel S. said she was getting stung by something and we later found out baby jellyfish were stinging her arm and leg. As we were playing catch again, I stepped back onto a sea urchin. The urchin left four spines in my foot. Andrew, the son of Earl and June Harrison who was home for the weekend, and some of the others helped pull them out but some of the tip broke and were left in the skin. Sara carried me from the water to the first aid station because my foot was slowly going numb. The first aid building turned out to be being used as a storage closet. My foot was burning and numb at the same time, but the scary part was that my foot was quickly turning very blue. Locals walking by told us that the urchin is not poisonous, which is hard to believe, and all we had to do was someone take me into the bathroom and pee on my foot! We all thought they were joking because that’s only what people do in movies. But everyone around the beach ensured that this is what had to happen. So my mom found some cups and she and the kids from the group took turns peeing in the cup, bringing it out, and pouring it over my foot.  It was disgusting but it was working.  The numbness went away and the color came back to my foot.  After all that excitement we went out to a really good place for dinner that Gary picked out.  All and all it was an eventful day!

Madeline

Once again, the members of the team who were injured are doing fine. Madeline is good except for a little tenderness. I will be hoppling for a while. It is not unusual for me to pull/tear my left calf. I will be limping for a couple weeks but other than that I am fine. I feel the worst about not being able to do the physical activities with the group. I am hoping I will be able to limp into the ocean next Saturday. Jamaican worship services tend to be long but the one this morning was really loooooooong. We showed up at 8:30 am – 12:30 pm. The team told me that running a little long at Peace has a whole new meaning now. Sorry the post was late but we were not able to get on the internet last night.

Gary