Jamaica - Day 1

Jamaica was AMAZING!!!!!!!  Hands down the most amazing experience of my life. I have so many things to talk about...I'm going to post them in Day by Day posts...It's just easier that way, and  ALOT less reading at one time for those of you who have children and lives and stuff...you'll thank me lata!

Day 1
We got up at 430 in Moncton and grabbed a couple of taxi's and I was in with a group of teens where I was lovingly dubbed "Mama Jill". A name which is now a term of endearment to me.  (Since then even some of the teens' parents have been calling me Mama Jill!)

First impressions:

Flying in to Montego Bay is BREATHTAKINGLY beautiful...you feel like you are going to land in the ocean and then you touch and say a wee little Thank You Lord because you actually did land on the runway...it's so amazing though.

I don't know if you know this...but Jamaica is HOT! Stepping outside of the airport it was super sunny and we started glistening (girls don't sweat, they glisten) shortly after being outside waiting for our ride.  But it wasn't tooo hot that we couldn't stand it. We all climbed in the lovely Air Conditioned van that took off for a place called "the links" where we would wait for another ride to come get us.  When we got to the links we had some time to kill and it was very close to the airport and we watched a couple of planes coming in and it was so COOL to see from the ground too!

While we were waiting at this lovely beach there was a man literally selling seashells by the sea shore and he came up to our group asking if they wanted a shell for $5 and then he gets to me and he says while grabbing my hand " oooo I like your physique, where you from? for you - 4 dolla!" I look over at Jason (our head honcho, who gave me plenty of warning that I would be irresistable here, well those weren't his words, but I'm pretty sure that's what he meant...) and he's busting a gut saying "10 minutes Jill, we've been here 10 minutes!".

The ride to the college from Montego Bay was terrifying...Jamaica at rush hour is INSANE, and then we start heading into the mountains and their main roads were skinny and people drove so fast and all the turns are blind turns and I'm a nervous driver on a good day, so I was holding my breath for the most part, but it's amazing how you just get used to it after a few days...

We got to the college and it was alot nicer then I had anticipated! cockroaches and ants aside. We had bunk beds and about 3 girls per room and it was nice! we had a front room with a couple of gecko friends that lived on our walls.  One was drake and I can't remember the others name but he had two tails...

We had our first supper...Chicken and rice and beans! It was so yummy...we were so thankful for the food that was prepared for us each day in the Dining Hall...it was delicious and we always had fresh fruit and sometimes we even got ice cream for dessert! What a blessing those lovely ladies in the kitchen were to us....

We spent the rest of the evening getting settled in and at this point we were completely unaware of the amazing experiences each of us were going to have - individually, and as a 'family'.