Today was our last day in Jamaica. I don't know if I can speak for the whole group in saying this, but I think it's safe to say that we are all getting pretty tired at this point—but I think it is a good sort of tired; we have had one heck of a week. There are plenty of stories I could tell about our week at this point, but most of them have already been posted by everyone else's blogs, and are probably better to hear in person anyways. So you'll have to ask us about some of those when we get back. Anyways, here's the rundown of our last day in Jamaica.
We woke up this morning at around 9 or so to have “traditional Jamaican breakfast”, which is ackee (the national fruit) and saltfish. Except without any ackee, I guess we couldn't find any of it. Apparently the national fruit is hard to come by. Then we learned that the saltfish is imported from Norway or something like that, so to be honest I don't really understand how this is considered the “national dish” when the main part of it comes from another nation. So our dish ended up being saltfish and “calaloo” which I am pretty certain is just the Jamaican name for spinach. Our two housekeepers, Gwen and Tunisia (i'm not sure how to spell her name, but it sounded like the country.) prepared it well, but spinach and fish isn't my ideal breakfast so I didn't have any. We had some fried plantains and toast though, which was pretty good.
After this we left for Doctor's Cave Beach which is right on Montego Bay's “Hip Strip”. The water here was so warm and clear, and it was a private beach so it wasn't very crowded. We stayed here and swam/snorkeled for a couple of hours. I dove off a raft thingy and forgot that I am really really good at diving really really fast and really really deep. So I face-planted the ocean floor and tore my nose open. Then I surfaced and swam on my side to the shore looking like a shark attack victim or something. I got all cleaned up and now I have a Harry-Potter shaped cut right between my eyebrows. Pretty lame story, I know, but at least now I look like some kind of tough guy. So we ended up leaving here shortly after my incident and went to walk around the “hip strip”. There's a lot of touristy-type shops here and some of our group took full advantage of this. Well alright, i'll be honest here, I bought a cheesy t-shirt here too.
We left here at like one o'clock or so and headed back to our villa for lunch. We showered, packed, and ate lunch, and it was time to go. So we left here and went to some shopping area that Wayne says he takes all his passengers to. He sent us to the shop of a lady named Bobby who was Indian and thought Lewis was really great. He sure knows how to charm the Jamaican ladies, let me tell ya. After walking around this district, being heckled by shopkeepers and solicited for illicit...substances, we got on the bus and headed to the airport. We got there, unloaded, and said our goodbyes to our driver, Wayne. If you are ever in Montego Bay, give him a call. You can tell him I sent you. Wayne was a great driver all week and i'm sure this week was very trying of his patience. The guy is a real champ though. Wayne, if you read this, thanks a bunch.
Well, we went through and did the usual airport stuff after this. From what we gathered, Montego Bay's airport doesn't have the same grade of scanners and stuff that American airports usually have, so a lot of us got our bags hand searched or were selected for “secondary searching”. This took a little bit of time but wasn't really any big hassle. A little more of the usual airport stuff (sitting around looking for spots where the Wi-fi signal was strong) and it was time to board. We all got boarded fine and whatnot. This flight was pretty empty so we could move around and stuff if we wanted. Well, actually, I'm not sure if we were “allowed” to, but nobody said anything about it when we did, so I guess it was ok. Our flight left about 20 minutes early and took us around three and half hours to get back in the States. Pretty nondescript flight, nothing really noteworthy. Arrived in St. Louis at like eleven or something (I don't really remember) and went through customs, then Dave (Abby's dad) picked us up at the airport.
We drove to some parking lot where we were to part ways. We all said goodbye to Sarah, assuming we were driving separately. Then she got in the same van as us and drove with us to our host home, where we got out and all said goodbye to her, again. All of us guys stayed at the Curran's house and the girls stayed with Abby. We went to bed pretty much as soon as we got there. Well we woke up and headed to the church this morning, and lo and behold, Sarah was there again. So we all said our goodbyes for a third and final time, and Abby drove off to take her to the airport. Now we're on the road heading back to Joplin, we should be there around noon, if we're lucky. So we will probably arrive at 3pm or so. So it goes.
So anyways, that's my long-winded summary of our Monday. Now here's some final important stuff I've got to say to you guys:
Earlier I said I might not be able to speak for the whole group, but I think I can now in saying that we all had a great trip. It certainly has been a long, tiring week, but was so worth it. I think a lot of good ministry was done and for that we praise God. Learning about the tornado that hit Joplin while we were all down in paradise was certainly difficult. I think for many (at least myself) it almost made me feel guilty for being “stuck” in Jamaica while so many of our friends and people we love were in Joplin, subject to such destruction. So I think that while we loved our trip, we are all ready to be back and get to work in Joplin. God has definitely taught us through this, though, and we are thankful for that.
We are on our way home now, so you can pray for safe travels. Actually, we will probably already be home by the time you guys read this...so you better have been praying in advance! But seriously...we thank you all for your prayers and support on this trip. We couldn't have done it without you. God is doing great things in Jamaica, and all of you have been a part of it. Thank you!
Now for the conclusion of our 2011 Jamaica Trip and Frontline 2009-2011 this is Andrew (Sunshine) signing out. It's been a great week and an awesome two years with Frontline and I am excited to see what God has in store for us next. Until then, later!
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