Finally!

I am here! Today was my first full day here in Jamaica and it was a really good one! Yesterday I arrived and moved into Sophie's Place, my home for the next year or so, as well as the home of the other volunteers. My room is small and simple, but all my stuff fit just fine and I have a comfy bed and wireless internet (so not typical for a developing country). Today I went with Chelsea, another volunteer, to My Father's House (MFH). MFH was where Mustard Seed started and is home to probably about 30 or so kids as well as all the MSC administative offices. The morning started off with Morning Prayer with the rest of the staff and then Sr. Cathy, one of the staff members involved with the volunteers showed me around. At the end of the tour she just sort of left me in the middle of a big group of kids (nearly all of whom are in wheel chairs and non-verbal). I also had two new best friends, Keemar and Brittania, as soon as I walked into the children's home. Neither of them are in wheel chairs and do a lot of roaming but are always up for a free "ug" (thats hug for you non-Jamaicans!) Anytime I walked out into the open area of the home Keemar would come running at me out of no where and hold onto me for dear life. So, yea most of the day I spent with the kids. In the morning we wheeled all of them out to the open-air chapel and one of the care-takers just sang songs and prayed with them. It was so fun to see all their faces when she would start singing a new song that they liked...they would get these HUGE smiles on their faces and start clapping. It made me so joyful to see those smiles and their eyes lighting up. Chelsea and I also took a couple of the kids out to a garden they have and worked on stretching out their joints and just giving them some time out of their wheelchairs. Some of the kids are severely crippled and so stretching out their arms and legs as much as possible makes them feel really good. Tomorrow, I will go with Maggie to Jerusalem! (another of the apostalates) and I will see what I will actually be doing everyday for the next year. Unfortunately, as the nurse I am expected to do more than just roam around and hang out with the kids. So, hopefully it goes well and I fall in love with some more beautiful smiling children. I hope all is well in the States! If anyone is interested in getting in touch with me, my email is sebegin@comcast.net, I also have googlechat and skype and my name for both those is sebegin. God Bless!