The End Is Just The Beginning

There's a bit to catch up on since the last time you heard from the Kingston Crew, so here it goes...

Yesterday we woke up well rested after our day of relaxation on the beach. I got a solid 10 hours of sleep and headed off to another leisurely breakfast. I was brimming with excitement to return to Ferry to finally finish our job on the soccer field. All we had left was to pick up the plethora of broken glass and clear the field of the thorn-infested weeds. What struck me most was that all of the kids were eager to help us clean up the field. It wasn't about playing soccer or running around hand-in-hand; rather, it was the relationships that they were building with us no matter what we were doing and the time spent together to bring our common goal to fruition. I was able to make cleaning up the glass into a game that I played with two boys: Tyler and Reno. We collected the coolest pieces of glass that we could find. It helped turn the back-breaking activity into something fun that we could all enjoy. After a couple of hours, everyone was clearly getting very tired and we were so close to finishing. Will stepped up and constructed a plan for us in order to finish the field with the time that we had left. After another hour of everyone working together, we finally reached a point that we were all proud of. Alex gave us many thanks for the work and sweat that we put into clearing out the field, but I think I speak for everyone when I say it should have been us thanking him for the opportunity he gave us and the incredible leadership that he displayed throughout the week.

When we finished up or work at Ferry, we all piled into the bus and were given new life by the wonders of air conditioning. A huge thanks to Elin and Will for making our PB&J sandwiches for the day. After a day in the unforgiving heat, PB&J served as the life blood of the group and gave us all energy enough to continue on with the rest of the day. We then went to a place called Jerusalem which is a part of the Mustard Seed program. This experience impacted me more than anything else has the entire trip. The first part of the Jerusalem community that we visited was a place for physically and intellectually handicapped individuals. The community consisted of people ranging anywhere from infancy to  adulthood. As soon as we got there, Elin told us that it was nap time for them. I figured that we would walk in and see them all in beds, probably crammed into a few rooms, but at least with their own personal space. I found that assumption to be quite contrary to the truth. When we walked into the main playroom, there was a wall with thin mattresses with as many as 25 kids all asleep and barely enough room for them to avoid sleeping on top of one another. Flies were crawling over them and I could tell that none of them even knew that there was something more to hope for in this world. Everyone soon went their separate ways to go spend time with one of the handicapped people. I met a boy who didn't even know his own name, but seemed happier than a kid in a candy store. I read him a few books, and played the "I got your nose" game with him countless times. He never seemed to become desensitized to the game and gave a genuine, gut-filled laugh every time I did it to him. It really amazed me to see such pure joy and happiness in a place with some of the worst conditions I've ever experienced.

The next part of Jerusalem that we got to see was a program called Dare to Care. This is a community for teenagers and youth that are HIV positive. Just about everyone was very nervous before going in to see these kids, but as soon as we got there, we noticed that, aside from their disease, they were no different than you and I were as a kid. They loved being held, holding hands, playing tag, being swung in the air, and riding piggy back. I carried around one girl, who had lost the ability to use her legs, for just about the whole time. She showed me her friends, where she lived, and her favorite games to play. We laughed and ran around and she bounced up and down on my shoulders as I ran through the grass.

After witnessing some of the most inspiring people who are in charge of running these communities and seeing a side to life on this earth that many of us had never been exposed to, we were all emotionally and physically drained. As the bus drove back to the Liguanea Club, there was a piercing silence as everyone recovered from the tiring day we had just had. We finally got back around 4 o'clock and had to shower and pack quickly as we were about to embark on yet another amazing Jamaican excursion: hiking Blue Mountain to watch the sunrise over Jamaica.

We loaded onto the bus a mere 30 minutes after we had arrived and began our trip to our hotel for the night. The first 1 and a half hours of the trip was normal. People either read, slept, or listened to music as we rode in our bus. At about 5:30 or so, we began climbing the mountain in our large passenger bus. The sites were beautiful. I'm not going to lie, there were a few points where I wasn't completely sure how our bus was going to make it around a hairpin turn, but sure enough, Alvin's crew did not fail us. At about 6:15 or so, we got to a point at which our bus could go no further. We then split into two groups and loaded up into two trucks. It was getting pretty dark at this point and we thought we were fairly close to our final destination for the night. Little did we know, it had much more in store for us.

In my car, we packed Vig, Reid, Gary, Halee, Tara, Danny, Katie, Kendra, and myself into the back of a Land Rover. But this Land Rover is not the kind that you are probably thinking of. It probably had a good 300,000 miles on it, and looked more like a truck with a roll cage over our heads. There was not the most comfortable seat in the house. Finally some of us made the movement to stand up in the back and get a better look at what was coming before us. I don't know if that was the best of ideas, but it sure made for quite the comedic adventure. We drove through many sketchy villages, across a river, and up hills that I would have never guessed were surmountable by car.

Two great stories came from this 1 hour ride. The first stemmed from all of our paranoia that this "trustworthy" driver of ours was just going to lead us into an ambush of cannibals or that we were going to be taken over by some wild native. A few times, I jokingly said to Gary, "Crap, who is that guy running after us?!" Well, sure enough, this turned into quite the "Boy who cried Wolf" scenario. At one point, we passed one of many hitch hikers who didn't exactly look like your ideal hitch hiker. Well, this guy decided to actually start running after our car to try to jump on the back with us and bum a ride. Well I expressed my concern to Gary, but at this point he was past the point of not believing me. He finally caught up, started jumping onto the car, and that was when Gary knew I was not joking around. Thankfully, our fearless leader, Tara, came to the rescue and convinced the man that we were not about to have that happen and he went about his peaceful way waiting on the next car (which may have taken another couple of days where we were).

Secondly, as people incessantly expressed their unease about whether or not we were actually going to make it up the mountain to our hotel, Tara attempted to abet our concerns by saying, "Guys, chill out. These men drive this route twice a day. They know what they're doing." Just 5 minutes later, our car stalled out on a steep incline, the driver threw it into neutral, and we started coasting in reverse down the mountain in the pitch black dark. Everyone started panicking and wondering whether or not we should bail when all of the sudden our "fearless" leader Tara threw her leg over the back tailgate and began her attempt to bail and save herself. Thankfully, Gary spoke some sense into her and she decided to stay in the car because he actually did know what he was doing and got back to level ground before building momentum and getting us back on track towards the hotel.

As we started nearing the hotel, I began to think to myself, "Hmm... I wonder what kind of hotel this is going to be when it takes trained drivers to get you there and is the farthest piece of civilization up the mountain." I hadn't seen a power line in a few miles, but I thought surely they would have at least a few basic electrical amenities. Well I think we all had our hopes a little higher that what we were actually in store for. Let's just say that telling stories of creepy serial killers that lived in shacks in the woods was not the best idea for the ride up there. As we unload all of our stuff into the "hotel" I quickly realize, this was going to be one interesting night of sleep. The whole place was candlelit, no fans, 5 beds in rooms the size of a Kissam single, etc, etc. We quickly turned our fear into laughter, but I don't think it actually eased anyone's fears. I will say though, the management of this place consisted of some incredible chefs. We had an amazing home-cooked dinner once we were there and then headed off to our respective bedrooms around 9 o'clock because we were due to wake up a 2 am the next morning. We decided it would be safest to have a couple of guys in a room with girls because we really weren't confident in the alarm system, or lack there of. Unfortunately, my room had quite a while before any of us were going to get a chance to sleep. In my room was Vig, Halee, Stephanie, Elin, and myself. (Will started off there but couldn't take the seemingly never-ending chatter). Possibly my favorite verbal exchange of the whole trip happened while we were all coming into the room to get into bed. (I'm going to reword the conversation for discretionary purposes).

Elin in her sweet, motherly voice: "Hey everybody! Is everyone good and comfortable and got a bed to sleep in? Is there anything I can do for you?"
Vig: "Yeah everything is fine except Halee is freaking out because she heard mice."
Elin in quite a different tone: "WHAT IN THE WORLD?!?! PLEASE DON'T SAY YOU'RE SERIOUS! I ABSOLUTELY HATE MICE MORE THAN ANYTHING IN THE WORLD!"

Needless to say, this set up the rest of the night for something straight out of a sitcom as I had to switch beds 4 different times because of the mice that were scurrying around in the ceiling. Nobody could handle sleeping in one bed in particular because the mice seemed to have an entire colony about 1 foot from your face, so Elin and Stephanie ended up cuddling up in fear for the entire night.

The next thing I know, Tara is waking us up saying, "It's 1:50 and time to get started on our hike." I thought for sure that was a dream, but that would have been too good to be true. I can firmly say with complete certainty that I have never woken up at 1:50 in the morning with the intent on starting a full day of activities. The 6 mile hike up the mountain started right around 2 and I think it was only 2:20 before I was questioning my sanity. We hiked 6 miles in about 4 hours with about 30 breaks and only a couple of bumps and bruises. We made it just in time to see the sun rising over the beautiful landscape of Jamaica. I brought a frisbee with me and threw it as far as I could from the very peak which was pretty awesome and we got some incredible photos to add to our collection. It was incredibly cold at the peak so we could only bare to stand there for more than 25 minutes before we began our decent. Around 9:15 we got back to the hotel and were greeted with one of the most gratifying breakfasts I've ever had. Fried eggs, fresh Blue Mountain coffee, toast, cabbage salad, and doughnut-like pastries. It was delectable. We then loaded up yet again into our Land Rovers and journeyed back down to meet up with our bus. Just about everyone slept the whole way back to Kingston and then we headed straight to Ferry for our last day.

When we got to Ferry, Alex was just getting the grill going for his Jamaican feast he had planned out. As he prepared our lunch, we played with all the kids one last time on their new field. The joy in the kids' faces at their ability to run around on their new field was heartwarming. Even though we were all so beaten from the 12 mile hike that morning, we all mustered up every last bit of energy we had to run around with these kids one last time. After an hour of grilling, Alex served us with some of the best Jerk Chicken on the island of Jamaica. His secret sauce was really what put it above the rest. We sat down, dug in, and just let every part of Ferry sink into our very bones.

I think I can speak for the rest of the group by saying that all of the incredible memories that this community gave us are some that will never be forgotten for the rest of our lives. Every last one of us grew incredibly as individuals while we were here and I think we would all say we are better people because of the relationships that we built in our few days here. Not only the relationships with the kids, but the relationships with each other have really taught me a lot about who I am and what we can do and what we are called to do as privileged citizens of America and students at Vanderbilt. It truly has inspired me to bring back everything that I learned here and never lose the love and hope that I have for Ferry and for places like it across the globe.

While this incredible Manna trip is drawing to an end, it is just the beginning for us as people to really start to make a difference in the places like Ferry across the globe.

- Nelson