Jamaica

It has been a while since I went to Jamaica, but it is still fresh in my mind. It was my first missions trip out of the U.S. The trip was 11 days from start to finish, it seemed like a couple of days to me but to my wife and little girls it seemed like a month or more. We flew into Montego Bay and proceeded to get on a bus that would eventually take us deep into the islands interior where we would work and minister to a school for the deaf. We didn't get far before we stopped and had something to eat, at the local KFC (Kentucky fried chicken), then we got back on the bus and took a four hour ride into the heart of Jamaica's mountains. We saw much of the countryside and went through many small towns and villages. At one point we came down out of the mountains to be surprised by a picturesque view of a fishing village. The turquoise waters and blue skies were a vast change from the hills and trees we 
had been seeing for the past two hours. Not to take away from the beauty of the mountain regions of Jamaica it was very beautiful in it's own right but the unexpected beauty of the bay was almost awe inspiring. It was one of the highlights to my trip, it was the type of scene that screams Jamaica when you see it. If you were not familiar with Jamaica you might mistake the mountainous areas for some part of South America or maybe even Africa. It was short lived however as we were soon going up another mountain and once on the other side of this mountain we never saw the ocean again until it was time to go home. Our ultimate destination was CCCD (Caribbean Christian Center for the Deaf). It is perched on the peak of mountain surrounded by a town (of which I cannot remember the name). It had a wonderful view of the surrounding town from one side and a view of the mountains from the other side. I tried for days to get a really good shot of the sunrise but never was happy with the results. It was always very cloudy in the mornings and the sun seemed to stay behind them until it was so high that the sunrise was over. The one day that I decided I needed to get some extra rest was the only day that there were no clouds at sunrise. I berate myself for being a lazy photographer every time I think of missing the only opportunity for a good sunrise photo, so that I could get an extra hour of sleep. A dedicated photographer would have been up on the off chance that that was the day. I hope I have learned my lesson. Once we arrived it was dark so we just unpacked had dinner and hung out until bedtime. The next day started out with work, work and more work. I however was there as a photographer and I didn't have to participate in all of the physical work, my job was to photograph the work that the students were doing. Did I ever, I took a bunch of photos about 2o gigs of images. Another one of the trip highlights for me was a trip into the local town with the school director. I was able to accompany him into town when he went out for supplies. It was an interesting experience, we went to a hardware store, an outo part store, a couple of other places and a grocery store. I couldn't wait to get to the grocery store so that I could get a Pepsi, it had been a few days since I had had one. What I found was even better than I could imagine, they still had Pepsi in glass bottles with pry off pop caps. Like we had when I was a kid, only smaller, I think they were about 12 ounce bottles instead of the 20 oz. bottles I would get as a kid. It didn't matter, I bought every bottle I could find. I think I ended up with about 8 bottles. One of the things that I didn't like about the Jamaican pop was that it tasted different because of the type of sugar they use. Our pop is made with a corn syrup sweetener, in Jamaica they use cane sugar for a sweetener. It had an unusual taste, I was used to it by the end of our trip but it was different. The Pepsi in the glass bottles however, tasted just like the Pepsi I remember as a kid. I looked at every store or carry out after that for more Pepsi in a glass bottle but never found any. I was told that Jamaica had just within the last couple of months changed from glass bottles to plastic and that finding it in glass was unusual. I managed to keep two bottles that I brought home and shared with my family, so that they could taste Jamaican Pepsi, in a glass bottle. After we finished our ministry to the Deaf School we headed back to Montego Bay for our last night. We had an opportunity to go to the beach and do some shopping before we had to leave the next day. There were many things that we did at the school that were fun and I would love to tell you about them all but I think this blog would be so long you wouldn't finish it, so I will save them for another blog. I have posted a photo of the sunrise that I attempted to take the best I came up with, and a sunset photo from the last night in Jamaica. I also inserted a photo of the bay that I mentioned we were treated to view of. Keep in mind that this photo was taken from the window of the bus at about 60 mph. I was amazed that they came out, but very pleased. This was perhaps the most scenic part of the trip and we couldn't stop. So I tried to get a few shots while we sere speeding along. Once again I hope you enjoy the photos and I never say this but I hope you enjoy the reading as well.

Photoman