This One's for You, Dad!

I woke up to an email from my father this morning asking me to update the blog. I would have been inclined to ignore him, except THOSE CAPITAL LETTERS THAT HE CHOSE TO USE WERE JUST SO INTIMIDATING, so here I am. Consider it a Fourth of July gift, Dad.

The last few days have definitely been our busiest yet. Saturday we had a speaker all day, but Saturday night we went to dinner at a Jamaican woman's house. The PVI program used to be based in Kingston, and when it was there they had what they called a "support team," which consisted of a group of Jamaicans who were pretty active in the community and who could advise the volunteers. (We have one in Mandeville, just it consists of different people). Even though the program has moved to Mandeville now, many of the former support team still make it a point to open their homes to current volunteers. It is for this reason that we had an enormous dinner in a beautiful house in Stony Hill on Saturday night. We had a great time and all really enjoyed ourselves.

Sunday was very busy. We were up early to get to mass at Immaculate Conception, the Catholic Church out of which the former volunteers in Kingston were based. Immaculate is associated with four mission churches, which are very small churches in areas where the people do not have the means to get to Immaculate for mass each Sunday. It is at these mission churches and the surrounding areas that the previous volunteers worked. After mass at Immaculate we all split up to go with the member of the Immaculate congregation that would be overseeing the mass (or service if it was not a clergy member) at the mission church that day. Kathryn and I went to the mission at Tom's River with the deacon from Immaculate. It was definitely a great experience. The church there was very small given what we typically picture for a church, as the interior was not much bigger than the living room at my house. There were not a great deal of people there, yet they sure filled the church. While we waited for the service to start one person would just start singing a chorus and everyone in the church would join in and sing with them. People remembered the former volunteers and were excited to greet us. The service started on time, but it wasn't more than 5 minutes in when the 87 year old "grandmother" of the church collapsed. Kathryn and I were definitely thrown into the experience as we helped a few members of the congregation to try to restore her breathing and consciousness. Luckily we were able to get her back. Calling a rescue was never an option, as we were in a pretty hard to reach location without the means for that sort of healthcare. Someone did call the woman's family to pick her up and bring her either home or to a doctor, but we didn't get much further past that. After about an hour of reviving this woman and getting her comfortable to wait for her ride, we started the service again. It was amazing the amount of enthusiasm and life that was in this small church. They had a complete drum set to accompany their singing, and you would have never known that there was a small amount of people there with the noise that they produced. Kathryn and I accompanied the children and their teacher to the table outside where they sat and did Sunday School during the Gospel and homily. The kids were my favorite part of the whole day, as they loved us. We were probably more of a distraction than an aid during Sunday School, but it was great to talk to them and to get so many hugs. Despite the scary start to our trip to the mission, I really enjoyed the whole experience.

After the missions another member of the old support team had us all over for lunch. The food at these meals has been great - definitely not what we will be eating on our budget in Mandeville! Anyway, after that lunch we finally made the trip out here to Mandeville. It's about a 2 hour drive from Kingston, which isn't too bad. The apartment in which we will be living is still occupied by this year's volunteers, as they do not leave until August 1st. Because of that, we're currently staying at the retreat house that is on the same property. It's nice to finally be in Mandeville but tough to still be living out of a suitcase!

I was happy to find out that we are not ignoring the Fourth of July; the current volunteers have actually planned a cookout for tonight. Given that I have only had meat options at some meals so far, I may even have my first hamburger in 4 years tonight. I mean it would make my Fourth of July a little more American, given that I'm in the wrong country and there won't be any Budweiser or pie! Happy Fourth of July to all of you! It's been great to hear from everyone (when it's more than one sentence in capital letters), so if there's anything you want me to post about or explain more about just let me know! And I'll definitely try to get some pictures of the grounds or apartment in the next week or two!