Nutten.
Whatever.
No mon.
These are the words that you'll hear when you set foot on this island, the birthplace of reggae. The landscape is as diverse as the experiences we had. Golden age home, children's home, homeless shelter, city council meeting, laying cement floors, looking for wifi, eating all the different types of mangoes, going to a cinema to watch the new Avengers movie, having patties at Tastees, ice cream at Devon House, hosting church services and prayer meetings, playing games in Emancipation park, visiting a chicken farm, going to the beach, eating ackee and salt fish with dumplings, walking in the rain, trying to sleep with a street party going on, marching against child abuse through Trench Town, and many more. Most people think that marihuana is legal on the island. It's not. Only up until 2 ounces is considered to be "legal". We spent our time in Kingston with Pastor Neville as our host. The team was split up as we had two ministry points. Something I got from Pastor Neville is that you need to "remove the obstacles and help where you can". I told him it would make a good bumper sticker. A new revolution that can have a ripple effect to the rest of the world. Jamaica has a lot of good stuff like athletes and singers and beaches...and people like Ps. Neville, who really goes the distance when it comes to being an active participant in the community. He reminds me that we need to be active in the change we all yearn for. We just can't sit back and hope. We need to listen to the prompting of the spirit and move. On another note, you would think that the island is full of Rastafarians, which is not the case. Most people are, well, just normal people. Not everyone has dreadlocks and wear excessively big beanies. For the most part it is a nation just like any other. I had this idea in my head that Jamaica is going to be something that it evidently was not. I don't even know what I expected. Maybe in my head I had this idea of palm trees and white beaches and everyone just lazing around sipping coconut water. Kingston is a city. It is the Johannesburg of Jamaica. Vendors, business towers, public transport, coffee bars, Pizza Hut, traffic lights, massive harbor, sport stadiums, malls, and Burger Kings. And the best was Toyota Jamaica...because only white South African farmers drive Toyota bakkies, right? What was I thinking? It reminds of the time in Guyana where I met a guy whose name was Phillip and I told the guy it's so refreshing to hear a South African name because it makes me miss home. Really? When I think about it now I can imagine how ridiculous that must have been to that guy. Because the name Phillip is only common to South Africa, right? Hahahaha! Humans are peculiar beings...