If anyone is still reading this, we're home! After a long day of flying on Tuesday, we arrived in Minneapolis at 11:00 pm. Our biggest problem in all of our travelling was Susan's hiccups which came and went the whole trip. She hiccupped for 4 hours total! Poor girl. But for all the things that could have gone wrong, we're thankful that that was our biggest problem. All of us travelled safely home to Iowa and Minnesota on Wednesday. We definitely have mixed feelings about being home. It's good to be here again, but we all miss Jamaica and the wonderful people we met. And we're definitely missing the weather. We froze in the air conditioned airports and now at home where it's in the 60s. We're so used to the heat that we once complained about that now we want it back. Thank you all so much for all of your prayers and support while we were on our trip. It could not have gone as smoothly as it did without a lot of help from God and your prayers. Keep Jamaica in your prayers! We're looking forward to sharing with you more aobut what God did in Jamaica while we were there.

This morning we went with the California team to the airport and said our sad goodbyes. It was hard to watch them leave since we grew so close to them during our time here. Then we did some last minute shopping on the Hip Strip before walking back for lunch. We had a lazy day sitting around and going to the beach. It was raining pretty much all day so it was a dreary last day. It seems way too quiet around here with no other teams at Fairhaven and the California girls gone. We still have to finish up packing before our flight tomorrow afternoon, which we aren't looking forward to doing because it makes it seem like more of a reality that we're actually leaving Jamaica. We enjoyed spending more time with our driver Mikey today and we're looking forward to doing rounds with Wayne, the security guy one last time tonight. Please pray for safe travels for us as we return home tomorrow.

Yesterday was such a fun day that we didn't even write on our blog! We started out the day spending some time with God and reflecting on our time in Jamaica. Then we went out on a glass bottom boat and went snorkeling. Even though our tour guide Joe was quite odd and the snorkeling equipment tasted disgusting and didn't work very well, it was still really fun and an amazing experience to go snorkeling in the Caribbean. We went shopping (again) on the Hip Strip in the afternoon. For supper we went to Glistening Waters, which is a restaurant on a lagoon. The food was delicious, though the jerked chicken that Susan and Amy ate set their mouths on fire. Then we got to go on a boat into the lagoon, which is one of the three places in the world where you can experience the bioluminescent waters from a microorganism. We don't really know how to explain it besides saying that everything glows in the water. Including humans. So we went swimming and became glowing creatures. It was an incredible experience. This morning we went to The Meeting Place again for church with the people from Robin's Nest. It was another long service. Then we have just been enjoying spending time with the California girls since they leave tomorrow. We're planning on having a celebration tonight before bringing the other girls to the airport tomorrow.
Prayer Requests:
*Pray for two of the girls on the California team who have both been sick since last night.
*Pray for Robin's Nest as the couple in charge, Andy and Laura, leave on Tuesday after being there for a year. The special education teacher, Dana, is also leaving this week. They will be going through a lot of transition, and it will be hard on the children who we've grown close to you.
*Pray for safe travels for all of us we leave in the next couple of days.

We had an early start to our morning today. We got up at 5:45 to go to the market to by fruit with Lisa, one of the women who works for Fairhaven. It was an interesting experience to say the least. We bought some Jamaican apples, pineapple, and sugarcane. Emily liked the sugarcane but Susan and Amy weren't big fans. After the market we came back to Fairhaven and took a nap before leaving for Blossom Garden which is an orphanage run by the government. We had a few issues when we arrived and ended up having to call our driver back to pick us up so we could change our "inappropriate" clothing and then return. It was frustrating because we felt like we wasted a lot of time that we could have been helping, but there wasn't anything we could do about it. We spent most of our time helping with the babies. The youngest was 3 weeks old. Some of the girls also spent some time outside with some of the older children. We had a lot of fun even though our time there was short. This afternoon we did some more shopping on the Hip Strip. Then after supper we went to Blue Beat, which is a jazz club down the street from Fairhaven. Since we went so early we were the only ones there, which was a little disappointing, but the view was gorgeous and we had a blast. Today was our last day working down here, and the rest of our time will be spent doing debriefing. The California half of the time doesn't know what we're doing so we can't write it on here just in case they read it. But tomorrow we will hopefully have time to write quickly and let you know about our fun filled day.

This morning we got to sleep in a little bit finally. Then we went to Westhaven, which is a home for children with disabilities. There are 81 people living there in total, ranging in age from young children to 31 years old. It was very difficult to see all of them as the living conditions were not the greatest. We sang and danced with some of the kids because almost all of them love music. We also helped feed people at lunch. The majority of the people at Westhaven are either in a wheelchair or are bedridden. It was a draining experience but one that we are still glad that we could have. We hung out and did a little shopping for the rest of the day. Here are some things that we have learned and about Jamaica and its culture so far.
*There are goats everywhere. Lots of them.
*People honk their horns all the time when driving...to warn that they are going to pass, to say hello, to warn drivers that they're coming around the curve or up a hill, and countless other reasons.
*Everyone here is very welcoming and wants to know a lot about us. Sometimes too much.
*Besides honking all the time, the drivers are just crazy in general. We are very thankful that we don't have to drive here since we have a driver.
We've learned to love a lot about the Jamaican culture, but there is too much to write here.

Today was our last day at SOS. We were very thankful to be done. It was an extremely stressful day as we tried to control and teach the children. When we were finally done we literally jumped in the van and told our driver to get out of there. But we are done there. For the afternoon, we went to Margaritaville. But don't worry...we were good girls and got virgin daiquiris even though we are old enough to drink the real things here. They also have a water slide and trampolines there, and we had a blast playing on them. We also met a really funny lady named Jodi who came to jump and the trampoline in the rain with us and took pictures with us. It was pouring rain, which just made everything more fun. It was the stress relief that we needed. Tonight we went to the beach after supper and had more fun. Everything is so much funnier after a stressful day when not much was fun. There were a few special moments at SOS and we are still glad for the experiences we had even though they were difficult. Less than a week left!

Today we returned to the kindergarten at SOS Children's Village. It was kind of a stressful day because of a lack of structure and discipline in the school. Largely due to cultural differences, the teachers tend to hand the class over to us and expect us to control and teach the children. Obviously, we were not exactly expecting to due this, so it put us in a difficult situation. Despite the difficulties, we still are falling in love with the children and have even more that we want to take home with us. We also got a tour of the village, which includes 13 houses, in which 110 children live. We're hoping to be a little more prepared for tomorrow, which will be our last day at SOS. We went to the beach again in the afternoon, which we are starting to take advantage of since we only have a week left. We're excited to be home and see everyone again, but we also don't want to leave this wonderful country in a week already.