Summary of Each Day

Here is a brief summary of what the team & I did each day. 

Every team member moves to different jobs each day, to work with different people and experience different jobs/worksites! 

If you want to know more details about each day, read my “journal” blog entries :) 

Monday

Morning: Whole team walked around Harmons for a tour

Afternoon: I went to house #2. We put up the Styrofoam walls, cut out the windows & doors, and sifted a large pile of marl!

Night: After dinner, the whole team had a meeting to discuss things we had seen or done throughout the day. Then, local Jamaicans came to the Harmony House and we had courtyard time. They played music, and many people danced and played with the Jamaican kids!

Tuesday

Morning & Afternoon: I spent the entire day at one of the local “elementary” schools. This school had grades 1-6, one class for each grade level. I was in the 5^th grade classroom.

Night: After dinner, the team met once again to share about the day. Afterwards, the guys had courtyard time. The local men of Harmons came to the courtyard to play dominos with the guys, while the girls sat in a circle talking, and getting to know each other.

Wednesday

Morning: I was at a foundation/marl haul site. I first helped marl haul over to the foundation, so they could then mix the marl with water, to lay the foundation!

Afternoon: Went to a infirmary to visit with the patients, read the Bible to them, and share God’s love.

Night: Met as a group to share about our day. Then local Harmons people came to have a worship service in the courtyard! After that the guys and girls split up to have separate bonding time.

Thursday

Morning & Afternoon: I was at house #1 all day Thursday. We spent the entire time there putting the second layer of cement on the walls, inside and outside.

Night: Small groups of 4-6 people each went to a local Harmons’ house for dinner. Won By One provided the food we ate (rice, fried chicken, green beans, brownies), and they prepared it for us! It was an awesome experience. When we got back from our dinner locations, we met as a group to share about our day. Then, Joanie (one of the group leaders) decided we should all stay in a circle together so people could give shout outs to each other! One of my favorite nights for sure. It was so great to see the relationships being built, and the compliments and support being given to each other.

Friday

Morning: First time at an official “marl haul”, up a decent sized hill! Almost the entire group was there. The few that didn’t go to marl haul, were at the two houses putting the finishing touches on them. At 11 am, we left marl haul, and went to go dedicate the two houses we built!

Afternoon: In the afternoon, we had “free time.” The requirement was that we could not be inside the Harmony House, but had to find something to do outside. Almost all of us went on a hike to “Sickman’s” house. Stickman carves really cool Bible verses into walking sticks. His house is up very, very high on the top of a hill. It was quite the hike!

Night: Just like Monday night, local Harmons people came to dance in the courtyard! Then, inside the Harmony House, the employees had set up different stations to walk around to. Each station had different Bible verses and questions or things to reflect on that related to different days/activities we had done. We also wrote letters to ourselves that we will get back in 6 months to read. After going from station to station, we moved into the courtyard. We sat in a circle on chairs, and each person had their feet washed by someone, and then washed someone else’s feet, just like Jesus did for his disciples. Very cool.

Saturday

Morning: We woke up and loaded the vans to head to Ocho Rios! The drive was about an hour and a half – two hours. When we got to Ocho, we had a quick meeting to find out who we would room with, then the people who were going to Dunns River Falls (me!) got back in the vans and went straight there.

Afternoon: After Dunns River Falls (we were there an hour or so), we went back to the hotel, got our money, and went to eat and shop. We ate juicy patties for lunch, at a fast food type restaurant. Then we went to the market, and I bought some presents for family and myself. After shopping, we went back to the hotel and sat on the beach. The hotel we stayed at was called “Rooms on the Beach” and the hotel was literally right in front of the beach!

Night: After some beach time, we all went to shower and get ready for dinner. We all ate pizza by the hotel pool/beach. Then we all sat in a circle on the beach, and had two tries to guess who our “Caribbean Comrade” during the week was. (A Caribbean Comrade is like a secret pen pal who you write notes to all week. Guys had girls, and girls had guys). My CC that I wrote to was Mike Yemm, and the CC that wrote to me was Nick Droege. After we all knew who had been writing to us all week, we went around in a circle and said what we have learned from the trip, and hope to take back with us. Then we stayed on the beach, and hung out in small groups talking. I actually stayed up until 3:30 am talking to people!

Sunday

Morning: We woke up Sunday morning, and had a small breakfast that the hotel was serving. Then, we loaded up the vans to go to the Montego Bay airport, which was about an hour and a half away. After we got through security, we had about an hour before our flight. Most of us got more food there, because by then it was 11 am, and our flight was at noon. I had a Cinnabon cinnamon roll! I was so excited (and surprised!) they had it, because the only time I ever get to have it is when I’m in airports, which is usually only every two or three years! I also bought a cool wood carved statue for mom and dad. I will post a picture of it on a different blog post.

Afternoon: We flew out of Montego Bay at 12:15, and got to Atlanta around 2:30 or 3:00. We then had a 6 hour layover, before our flight to St. Louis around 10:00 pm. The time actually went really fast. We mostly just sat around talking, and played a game (that we played multiple times all week) called “Signs.”

Night: Our flight to St. Louis left around 10:20 pm, so we didn’t get to St. Louis until around 11:30 pm. Parents of people on the trip who are from St. Louis picked us up, and took us to the church where I had left my car. Because Columbia is two hours from St. Louis, and because it was already almost midnight, I spent the night at Kayley’s (one of my sorority sisters that went on the trip) house (well, her parents’ house) in St. Louis. We went back the next day, Monday afternoon. Classes did not start Monday because of Martin Luther King Jr. day, so it worked out well!