On the move...

Wednesday, March 27

Word of the day: Mozartichoke

Today was traveling day. With a bittersweet farewell to the Whistling Bird and its warm, hospitable staff, James, the resort owner, saw us off with complimentary local coffee, jerk sauce, and a hearty farewell. We packed our bags into our cozy bus as tightly as we have become over the past few days. We stopped briefly for some souvenir shopping and with that, we departed Negril. The game that dominated the bus ride was Stacer’s clever idea of combining musician names with foods, which eventually progressed to our names and animals, etc.

On our way to our final destination, we drove to the YS Waterfall, a beautiful falls tucked into the hills, which Kate nicknamed Jurassic Park. Fun fact: she kept observing imaginary dinosaurs throughout the park during the afternoon. We were pleasantly surprised to run into Lobster, our happy and hilarious friend who had persuaded us to jet-ski back in Negril. (His real name is Dwayne, but he introduces himself as “Lobster the Fun Man.”) After a mini trek over yonder, we arrived at a series of stunning falls and freshwater pools surrounded by their own greener than green jungle. Although some cruise passengers beat us to the much anticipated zipline, we made up for the lost opportunity by eagerly lining up for the rope swing. It was refreshing from the humidity, but only poor Kary landed a belly flop.

For lunch, our ever-thoughtful Whistling Bird hosts had packed us PB&J sandwiches and tuna salad sandwiches, which we enjoyed following our Ting (grapefruit soda) and ice cream cravings. Another sleepy bus drive away, we arrived at our second site, the more rural St. Elizabeth, at a beautiful and truly special hotel called Taino Cove. Some of us wandered along the beach collecting shells while others checked out the waves on this new side of the island.

For dinner we were served a delicious variety of meats, fish, and vegetables, continuing our constant fascinating conversations over our plates. We tied up the day with the same (maturing) genuine reflections we’ve been sharing all week. We dwell seriously on our growth and goals, while occasionally throwing in the inevitable laughs that reflect our individual quirks and collective moments of comedy that make our team so unique and eccentric. Our team has demonstrated an impressive ability to reinforce and lift up our morale with positive motivation, patience through listening, and expressing our mutual appreciation.

Tomorrow, we will be painting a local school and interacting more with the delightful children. We’re about halfway through our trip, but we still have a lot left to give, and we can’t wait to give our alls tomorrow. More to come!

Gordon's Early Childhood Development School

Tuesday, March 26

Today was an incredibly rich and productive day in Negril. We continued constructing an addition to Gordon’s Early Childhood Development School, finishing the sheet metal roof, wooden walls, and walkway ramp. It was a scorching hot day, with temperatures and humidity hovering around 90 degrees. 

The first thing we did once back at the school was to move a massive mountain of merle from the side of the school to the front in order to create a ramp. The merle was extremely hard so we used pick axes, shovels, and buckets to move the material. It was backbreaking labor, yet our whole team was in high spirits and fantastic conversations swirled around the pile of rock and dirt. We talked about how urban education is such a massive problem in America, using the example of San Francisco Schools. Eventually, with the help of many people we moved the final bucket of Merle.

While the merle was being moved, other members of the group were continuing to construct the walls of the school addition.  Our Jamaican contractors  (Paul, Richard, and Javi) were both extremely patient and skilled. Our team hammered countless nails into the thick wooden boards in order create a sturdy wall.

One of the teachers at the school asked us to create a model town out of card board boxes. After much deliberation we built a shop, police station, and church. The only materials we used were cardboard, tape, and a few markers. When it was all finished, three accurate and downright beautiful cardboard buildings rose from nothing.

Throughout the day, every member of our team interacted with the children at the school. We played with them, talked with them, and helped them with their school work. Sadly today was the last day we would be working at the school. It is bittersweet because we are proud of what we have accomplished but would have liked to finish the total job.

Once back at the Whistling Bird we relaxed on the beach and enjoyed the beauty of Jamaica. Yet even during this relaxing time we constantly interacted and befriended local Jamaicans on the Beach. 

To start off, I can speak for us all when I say, Jamaica is absolutely incredible, and we were all in awe the from the moment that we got here.
Travels went as smoothly as we could have asked for, with a 4 hour layover in Salt Lake City to watch the snow and another bit of time in Georgia where we got to listen to their enticing accents. When we landed in Montego Bay we went straight to the Whistling Bird, where we were all blown away by the view, the beach being approximately a 25 feet away from where we eat all our meals. All of us spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying the crystal clear water and then fell asleep before the sun did.
 Sunday morning we woke up, some of us still believing that we were in a dream, and enjoyed another delicious meal from Whistling Bird. Then we ventured off to church, with no idea what we were getting into. It was breathtaking. The community there was energetic and passionate and for an hour we got to participate in their day long celebrations. After church we came back, quickly changed into swimsuits and set off on our glass bottom boat tour with our very own "Captain Papa".
The rest of the afternoon was spent on the water; looking through the bottom of the boat to see starfish and sand sharks and many different fish, snorkling through a cave with local children, and jumping off a 35 foot cliff with the crowd at Rick's cafe as our audience. That night we returned exhausted, and after enjoying dinner and wonderful conversation until late in the night, we fell asleep with great anticipation for the morning.
Monday was more incredible than any of us expected. The children and staff at Gordon's Institute for Early Childhood Development welcomed us with open arms. Inside the school there are three rooms, one for 3 year olds, another for 4 year olds and the last for the 5 year olds. The rooms are only partially seperated and each hold roughly 25 children and only one teacher. Outside of the school we could see the start of the addition that would make up our manual work for the rest of the trip. Even though most of us were amateurs, the construction men and experienced team members taught everyone how to hammer, saw, and essentially build this school without any power tools. It was amazing how quickly the whole team got right into the work and performed as a functioning team. The rest of the day was a blur of children loving on us, delicous frozen fruit drinks brought to us by the wonderful Kay to cool off, and building the school. When it was finally time to go, the children made us promise to the return the next day, which all of us reassured them that we would happily do.
We end the night with yet another wonderful conversation, learning about each other and this beautiful country that we are in. Tonight I am sure we will all fall asleep dreaming  of hammering and becoming living jungle gyms for the children, and live those dreams out again in the morning!