Jamaica

The first foreign country I went to was Jamaica (other than Canada, which feels kind of like home). I had the incredible opportunity in the 11th grade to go on a mission trip with my church to a boys orphanage called Sunbeam. The experiences I had there changed me a lot. I identify this experience as the beginning of my desire to do social work.

I have a few quotes from my journal that I would like to post. Please excuse the poor writing...

"Today I left for Jamaica. The plane ride took about four hours. We got to Jamaica and circled the airport for a while - the view was breath taking. I got kind of scared when we landed because the airport is right on the ocean and all I could see was water until we were almost ON the ground. It took almost an hour and a half to get through customs! They checked a lot of our bins. When we went outside for the first time, it was so incredibly hot! But I loved it. We went to Doctor's Cave beach right away. I rented a snorkel and the tropical fish were beautiful. It is so pretty! The driving was insane... I felt like I was inside of a video game! When we pulled into sunbeam, the boys were all starring at us with curious faces." 3-21-02



"The time came to leave Sunbeam and our van slowly started to pull away. Of course I was crying. Driving through the Fern Gully rainforest at dawn was beautiful. We didn't get to see it on the way there since it was dark. When we arrived at the airport, a guy checking bags asked Erin to play her guitar. She got it out and played "Leavin' On a Jet Plane" as we all sang along. I felt like I was in a movie! Everyone around was looking at us, even on the balcony above! It was a great time for transition for me, after all I was going home. When the plane took off, I started crying. Instantly, this amazing country was out of sight." 3-28-02