They made it!

Today was arrival day for the work teams and is always one of my favorite days. I love to meet the teams for the first time, see where they're from, show them around and see their fresh excitement. Every time I come back to Jamaica, I pray for my eyes to be opened as if I'm seeing everything for the first time. I never want to find myself in the habit of seeing devastating living situations or chronically ill babies and looking at it as if it's normal. It may be hard to understand, but I want to forever have my heart broken when I see starving children or families without a roof over their head. When you come somewhere for so many years, it's easy to fall into that "going through the motions" attitude. This morning I woke up and prayed to have my heart broken the way His is broken when he sees these things. I'm reading a book, Outlive Your Life by Max Lucado and keep playing an analogy he provided over and over in my head.
He talked about how we all have a nice clam shell around us where we have everything we need right in our nice little shell. As soon as the shell is disturbed by seeing a homeless person, somebody paying with food stamps or hearing about the results of a mission team in Africa... our clam shell's quietly close their doors. We all have a shell and are all guilty of it to a certain level but I think that in the United States we all come with a clam shell and some even provide some for our kids who may go on all of their lives without knowing that they are needed more badly than they could ever imagine to help save and change lives. As I was reading this book I also realized that the underlying happiness and overwhelming joy that is felt here on the island isn't only from the love that is given and the lives that are changed. It's not from the people I see and consider family, those things are all factors that make me undeniably full of joy. The euphoria, however, comes from all of these shells breaking down and opening up, which is what begins to happen for these teams on the first day. All if these high-schoolers are letting down the only social defense they've ever had... their guard... and letting others in while they give back love. It's seeing large groups teenagers gather together without preconceived notions, no judgments, welcoming attitudes and it's all coming together in preparation for the week ahead of us. Monday is another one of my favorite days because they will be going out to the work sites and seeing the reality of Jamaica for the first time.

Anyways, after that tangent... I woke up, Chelle & Corinne made breakfast (fresh pineapple included) and we had a nap and morning by the pool planned for the day. I'm not entirely sure where the day went but I can tell you that as soon as I had my suit on and was stepping in to the pool, a bus rolled up. The first team arrived around 1:00 and was the team I'll be in charge of up at Mirmar. There is nothing that makes my blood pump like working with a new team. I love everything about it... from room assignments to showing them around to answering questions to being with them on the worksites to staying in touch and seeing what God's doing with them. I absolutely love it. Today I walked up to make sure everyone found their rooms and peeked into the kitchen where I found Dorette. As usual, there is no way of explaining how full my heart was after seeing her! She turned around slowly, asked if it was a ghost and then fully turned around yelling "my baby is back my baby is back! I am blessed, I am blessed!" I am so grateful that God has put her into my life... if it's not for anything else it's for me to see what it's like to be with a woman who is grateful for everything she has! I talked to her the day after a family member was in a car accident and when I asked how she was doing, her response was "I am blessed." Her happiness, silliness, constant laughter and personality are irreplaceable. She is my Jamaican mama. The same routine followed when I saw Alma from a distance and she squinted over her glasses before saying "is that katie?" and squeeling before wrapping her arms around me. I'm always in disbelief when I go to the first debrief at the end of the day and compare it to the last night where we hear over and over "I thought I was coming here to give and had no idea I'd be the one taking anything away." The teams continued to arrive throughout the day and once their rooms were found, I hid under a coconut tree to read. I'm finally starting to feel like the cobwebs are clearing out of my brain and I am really excited about working tomorrow.

The day ended dinner and orientation in St. Ann's bay followed by a shower and an immediate face-to-bed maneuver.. Good night! xx