un crisol de pensamientos

Our first weekend here is over! It's unbelievable that already a week has past and we only have 7 weeks left.

It rained a ton this weekend. Thankfully ending the 6 month drought that was going on down here, but causing a flash flood warning across the city. State of emergency, flash flood warnings.. whats next Kingston? A damn hurricane?

Anyways, the drought has caused us to be conscious of the precious resource that many of us take for granted. When Elin and I walked into our apartment we were informed that the water shut off around 5pm every night because of the shortage... our concerns for accessing water past this time was quelled however when someone pointed out two trashcans filled with hose water that we could boil and use for washing/bathing etcetera. Creative, no? Elin and I laugh as we scoop out the top layer of the water at night time. It is muddled with a clear white film and some questionable specks of dirt and other earth.  A second curveball that has been keeping it.. refreshing I may say is the lack of warm water. All of our showers are ice cold, nothing quite like one in the morning! One word to describe the shower experience at the current time: electrifying.  I have been enjoying the island side of me, and when a shower is unavoidable, I tip toe into the cold stream like a robber through a silent house. On a second note, the mosquitoes in Kingston have a little crush on me it seems. I wake up every morning with new love bites from my friendly buds. Elin has escaped unscathed so far, I wonder how long that will last until they find her room.....

Saturday marked our first yoga class! We spent an hour and thirty minutes doing yoga, followed by a 20 minute meditation session guided by the instructor. It was just the release and relaxation that Elin and I needed after an action-packed week. We came out of the room limber and at ease, with a loose chest, and a light spirit. The rest of the day was filled with visits and chats with old friends, ending with a trip up to Irish town in the mountains to see Gillian and Tiffany my cousins. We ate the most delectable mangos, called Bombay Mangos, and they are probably one of the most delicious variations of a fruit I have ever encountered. We stole 7 or 8 for the apartment, and Elin and I have been snacking on them inbetween meals. MMMMM! Everyone should come to Jamaica to eat the food here, I swear you won't regret it. If even just for the mangos, the trip will be worth it. And the best part is they are FREE! You can just pick one off a tree and there you have it. We also tried these odd ball-like fruits, in the lychee family. The fruit is a clear membrane covered seed inside a hard shell. I feel like i've discovered a new fun interactive snack. 

I forgot how strong the Jamaican Sun is. Elin and I (smartly) fell asleep in the sun today and are as red as lobsters. We went out on a boat today with some family friends to a small island called "Maiden Key" off the coast of Kingston. We spent the day reading, napping, swimming, and jet skiing. The whole time we were looking to one another and just saying "this is not real." As we laid out on the front of the boat, looking back at the city of Kingston, the vast contrast between the work that we are doing and the experiences that we are having came into focus. Being in Jamaica to work and serve at Marigold has shifted my entire perspective to frame each experience with the newfound appreciation for the adversities, diversities, and small triumphs in life. The children are in my mind constantly, and every moment that we were out enjoying everything the beach has to offer, I couldn't help but wish the children were right there with us.  Hopefully, we will have the chance to bring the kids to the beach on a Saturday this summer for a fun day so they can splash around and dig their hands into the sand.

I would just like to say that Elin cracks me up. I always new Elin would entertain me during our time down here, and we have always gotten along really well, but I severely underestimated the comedian in her. She keeps me laughing all day long. My dad takes hundreds of photos everyday (I swear we have a play-by-play of our nap on the today, how interesting I know) so sometimes I get a tad aggravated.  Elin always plays along and holds me together when I want to jump off the boat and swim away into the ocean.

Today, we swam into the little strip of beach and were greeted by thousands of tiny darting silver fish in the water. The water was like bath water, unreal, and crystal clear. Elin is one with nature it seems here..  First, she got stung by a bee. She looked down on her hip and said "hmm, looks like a stinger.. of a bee... oh well." Then as we were floating nearby the shore, she caught a baby starfish in her palm floating through the ocean water which, you could say fascinated her a degree more than the stinger from the bee. 5 minutes later, I turned my head for a moment to check out a large peach colored sand crab that was scurrying across the land as I turned back what do I see? Low and behold, Elin Bunch with a small silver dollar jellyfish in her palms tossing it from one palm to the other while saying "what is this thing?" hahahahahaha I laughed and laughed and laughed. Soon she figured out it was a Jellyfish and tossed it like a hot potato back into the ocean. The real kicker was when a minute later another jellyfish of the same species shimmied on up to her and gave her a love tap on the elbow. She was done with that side of the island after that one, and we retreated to the boat to eat some lunch. I look forward to see what this week has in store for us. Time for sleep, we are going by Rainbowland Preschool tomorrow for an hour in the morning before work.

keepin it irie,

tkm