First update :)

Hello all!

Some of you may already know some of what you're about to read, as we have already sent out a few emails since we arrived. Kayla and I have decided to do a blog together, since we just found out that we will be living with the same host family for the first 6 weeks of our time in Jamaica (I, Lindsay, will probably be doing most of the updating). We will be stationed in Mandeville, which is in the south central part of the island. It is one of the "coolest" spots on the island, as it's in a mountainous area.

Ok, rewind. Our journey to Jamaica was a long and exhausting one. We slept for about an hour on Wednesday night, because we had to get up and meet south of the Union at 2:30 AM Thursday morning. We loaded our bags and our sleep deprived bodies onto a Greyhound bus with the Peru group and made the trek to Chicago O'hare. There, everything went smoothly for our group through check-in and security. Both the flight to Atlanta and the flight to Montego Bay went smoothly as well.

We arrived in Montego Bay around 2:00 PM local time (which is an hour behind Eastern). We were all very tired but in good spirits, until we got to customs. We went up to the officers in twos, and were questioned rigorously. We were told to tell them that we are in the country as tourists rather than students, because you have to have a visa to study in another country. We are staying in country the maximum time allowed without a visa, 90 days. The officers didn't believe us and we were all afraid that we would be detained. I was with Sarah, and we were the last to get through. We kept seeing other members of our group filter through and almost lost our composure until finally the officer stamped our passports and let us through.

We were so relieved to step out of the airport and see Josh, our leader, smiling and waving a sign that said "Welcome Goshen students!" It was pouring rain when we crammed into the van that would take us on the hour and a half drive to Ocho Rios, Jamaica. We were lucky enough to find a beautiful villa on the beach for a very decent price. We got settled into our rooms and then had a wonderful meal of spaghetti and salad as a group (we were met at the villa by Josh's wife Rachel and their son JP, as well as the staff of the villa, Lindo and Millicent).

After we ate some of us girls decided to swim in our pool and take a snorkeling lesson from Josh to prepare us for our adventure the next day. We all went to bed early after such an exhausting day.

Friday we woke up early and walked down to the beach. It is a rock beach, which makes it quite difficult to manuver, but still beautiful. We ate breakfast together, and then headed off to Dunn River falls. It was wonderful. We were all laughing and smiling as we jumped right into the reservoir at the bottom of the falls. We immediately started climbing up the rocks with the water crashing down all around us. The water was crisp, cool, and refreshing. For me, it was definitely near the top of my list of favorite days. :)

After that we ate peanut butter sandwiches and headed off to the beach to do some snorkeling. For me, getting in the water was quite a feat since I am deathly afraid of water that has living creatures in it. Despite that, I dove right in and was quite pleased with the experience. Kayla, ever the explorer of slimy creepy creatures, was one of the braver of the group as she dove right in (without much snorkeling experience) to see what she could find. She kept getting water in her mask though, because she laughed so hard every time she saw me freak out. After Josh told us to watch the ocean floor before stepping down because of sea urchins and sting rays, I decided not to touch the ocean floor the entire time I snorkeled. I swam like a fish and really enjoyed it, but near the end, I got tired and would swim up to someone who was standing and latch onto them so I could catch my breath.

Josh decided to have one of the locals take us out farther to a reef so we could see more fish. On the way out of the water, Brittany accidentally stuck her hand on a sea urchin (or sea needle as the locals call it). Josh, Brit and I headed to the shore to get her treated while the rest of the students went out to snorkel at the reef. Needless to say, seeing my friend get stabbed by a sea needle was enough to get my paranoid butt out of the ocean. We contacted some of the locals that Josh knows, and all of them said "Pee on it." So...Brittany tried to pee on it but didn't have enough. Being the wonderful, dedicated friend that I am, I volunteered to help her out. I peed on her hand. Looking back, I'm totally freaked out that I did that, but at the time, watching her hand bleed and seeing the black spikes in her fingers, I was more than happy to help out. Of course we got tons of laughs out of it. Brittany was a trooper and is feeling fine, she even went snorkeling again today.

At the ocean we tried some guinep, which is quite a strange fruit. They look sort of like grapes but have a very slimy texture. To me, it felt like I was eating an eyeball. For dinner Millicent made rice and peas (kidney beans) and chicken. After dinner Lindo and Millicent turned on some Reggae music and showed us how the locals dance. The entire group got up to join in, after me, of course. :)

Today has been a long day of orientation. We are learning facts about the island, the culture, the Deaf schools, etc. We found out who we are partnered with for the first 6 weeks of SST. For lunch we had patties, a typical Jamaican lunch (they cost about $0.90). They are a flaky pastry type thing with meat on the inside. We also had juice bags, which are literally just juice in plastic bags. You bite of the edge and drink it just like that.

Now it's time for more orientation. Tomorrow we head to Mandeville to meet our host families.

We love and miss you all,
Lindsay and Kayla