Blessings || Jamaican Mission {Part 3}

Unfortunately, we had no internet connection yesterday, and even now we have a very limited  and slow connection, so blog posts are now a day behind. I wrote this post yesterday evening but am just now able to get it up. 

| Part 1 | Part 2 |

What a difference a day makes!

We woke up to another beautiful sunrise and headed out to build a house after breakfast and Mass. Not long after we started working on the house, the rain decided to give us a visit. It started as light drizzling and the men continued to work through it until it began to pour. Us ladies were huddled under umbrellas while the men picked up one of the sheets of aluminum for the roof and held it above their heads.

Since us girls weren't able to help much with the actual building part, the local priest, Fr. Patrick,  ended up taking us to visit his nearby parish of St. Joseph’s and their primary school (children ages 3-6).

By the time we made it back to the house, it was ready to be painted. When the house was completely finished, Fr. Jim blessed the house and ceremoniously handed the key to the family. The house we built was for a 25 year old single mother of three children (ages 9,6, and 3) with number four on the way. They were all so excited about their new house.

The whole group, including neighbors and relatives who came to help and watch throughout the day. 

The completed house.

While working on the house, we were given fresh bananas straight from a banana tree (which were the sweetest, most delicious bananas we’d ever had), and we were given sugar cane. You cut the hard outer skin off the stalk and then just bite into it, but you don’t swallow it. After chewing it for a while and getting all the delicious, sugary juice out, you spit it out.

Pocket knife vs. machete 

We are thankful for such a good day despite the rain!

-Mary Kate

To the Sunshine || Jamaican Mission {Part 2 }

| Part 1 |

We've arrived safe and sound in Jamaica!

After spending the night in the airport hotel (due to the impending snow storm) we rose before the sun and took the shuttle to the airport. We made it through security with little fuss, and arrived at our gate just as the sun was starting to rise. Our gate happened to face due east, which gave us the perfect view of God's way of saying "good morning" to us.

Although we heard reports of snow starting to fall heavily in York, our flight took off and was high above the clouds before the snow hit Baltimore. BWI started canceling flights not long after ours departed and we are so grateful we managed to just barely miss the storm.

Once in Jamaica, we stopped for lunch right on the coast, enjoying the spectacular view of the turquoise water and appreciating the delightful ocean breeze. After lunch it was time to head up the mountains to where we're staying in Mandeville. The best way I can describe the van trip is to equate it to an old-fashioned wooden roller coaster. However, despite the bumpiness and nerve-racking-ness (and yes I believe I just made up that word), of the trip, it gave us a beautiful whirlwind tour of this part of Jamaica. One of the things we were marveling at was the gorgeous wrought iron work on many of the buildings, as well as the vivid colors and beautiful stone (and occasionally mosaic) walls that surrounded the nicer houses. We also found it quite fascinating that along our trip, the bigger and definitely higher end houses were mingled right among the run-down and much poorer houses.

We saw a great deal of interesting things during our three hour van trip, including fields of sugar cane (which is what I called Jamaica's version of corn fields, as the fields of sugar cane looked a little bit like fields of corn), a number of dogs and goats wandering around (which we were informed are not stray dogs or wild goats, as they all do have owners; they just roam freely all day and return to their home at nightfall), and a great deal of people, from all ages, walking along the road.

We are all exhausted from our long day of traveling, but we are excited for what tomorrow will bring!

-Mary Kate

Hello! || Jamaican Mission {Part 1}

Hello!

For those of you who are new to my blog, my name is Mary Kate Anthony and I will be the 2014 Jamaican Mission Team member who will be blogging while we are in Jamaica.

Please check out the Jamaica Mission page on this blog to find out more about where we're going and to "meet" all of the team members! Our team has been meeting every month since last April and our excitement is mounting as we grow closer and closer to our departure date of January 21st.

Over the past several months, we have organized multiple fundraisers and we have been collecting your generous donations. The donations you dropped off in the box at St. Joe's, were moved to a storage unit until they were packed in boxes and shipped down to Florida where they will continue on their journey to Jamaica.

Here are some "behind the scenes" photos of  the work we've been doing this past fall, specifically, with the donations.

As we come in to last few days before we leave, we are asking for your prayers and we hope you will follow us, through this blog, as we travel to Jamaica and serve the people of Mandeville, Jamaica.

-Mary Kate

New York City

The first time I went to NYC, we went in the summer, in June to be specific. We had daylight until almost nine at night, and we were walking around in shorts and t-shirts. We saw a huge amount of the city in one day, rushing through to fit it all in.

A month ago, my sister and I went to NYC again with three of our close cousins. This time we were bundled up in coats, scarves and gloves and the sun was down by 5pm.We knew we wanted to eat lunch at the Stardust Diner (the well known diner, where the waiters sing Broadway songs to you), and we had tickets to go up to the top of the Rockefeller Center (in time for the sunset), but those were pretty much the two major must-do's on our list.

Cecilia's many faces of delight during the various performances of the waiters at the Stardust Diner.

We had an amazing day and I'm so glad we went together!
-mk