Day 3 - Monday July 6

On Monday morning, I woke up a little after 7 o' clock. Robyn had woken by then too, so we both packed our bags for the day and I picked some clothes. Unika then called us to have some breakfast. She had made us sandwiches with egg and some fried plantains. We got some tea as well, which was the sweetest tea I have ever had (but it was nice). Now that we were having breakfast, I had the time to have a nice conversation with Robyn. I asked her about her journey to Jamaica and I told her about mine. After breakfast, we both got ready and then the children woke up and came to say hi to Robyn, since they were already asleep when she arrived the day before. We were then picked up by our taxi driver, Andre, who brought us to Mandeville town where we met all of the other volunteers. Here we met Allison (California), the other girl who was working on the building project, and the five guys who would also be working with us on the bathroom: Alix (England), Simon (Sweden), Thomas (France), Harry (England) and Charlie (England). We also met our supervisor, Romario, who lives in Mandeville and who would be helping out at the placement as well. Besides the building volunteers, we also met the care volunteers and the sports volunteers. In total we were with about 30 volunteers, from all over the world, who were all here on the teen special. We were then guided through the town where we were shown some nice food places, the bank, the local supermarkets, the hospital and the church. It was a lovely walk and it allowed us to get to know each other a little bit already. We then walked over to the Projects Abroad office, where we were given a briefing by Bridgette about our host families, medical and safety procedures, insurances, money, communication, responsibilities, the Jamaican culture, social events and so on. We were all given a Projects Abroad Volunteer T-shirt and got a little gift. We were then taken by Stacy (the building project supervisor) to the placement, where we could look around and meet some of the local builders and people working at the primary school. I got really excited when I saw the bathroom and actually wanted to start immediately, but our first day of work would be on Tuesday, so I still had to wait for a little while. I also met some of the regular volunteers, who were from Germany and were already working on the bathroom for a couple of months by then. We would then drive back to Mandeville town where we would all have lunch together. But before that, we went to the supermarket to buy some water and juices, since not everyone had carried something to drink. We then crossed the street where the other volunteers were already seated outside. We ordered our lunches (I got myself some fried chicken) and we sat down too. The food was really good and we were having a good time as we got to know each other a little. After the lunch we would walk back to the Projects Abroad office, which was just around the corner. We had to wait for a little while before the second briefing would start, so we just relaxed a bit, talked a little, played some games and took some pictures. Then somewhere around 3 PM, the second briefing started. This briefing was given to us (the building group) by Stacy. She told us about the placement expectations, timetables, dress codes and weekly activities after the work. After all the three groups had their individual briefings, we walked over to Bistro Regies where we would be having a welcome dinner together. As we walked to Regies, I was talking to a girl named Joy and it turned out that she was from the Netherlands too! She came from the east of the Netherlands, but she also often came to Amsterdam because her father lived there. It was nice to talk to her and get to know her a little more because she was a really nice girl. She was on the care program together with Kaat and Sanne, who I had met on the taxi on the day of my arrival, so that made that there were four of us who could speak Dutch.

Once we got at the restaurant, we all sat down around three large tables. It was nice to see that the three volunteering groups were all mixed up a bit, it was not like each group would only sit within its own group of volunteers. We then played a little game before we would start the dinner. We all had to imagine that we got stuck on a deserted island. We all had to come up with one thing that we could not live without and would therefore have taken to this island. Each table was then given a different task on the island, for which they had to use each and every object in a useful way. My table was given the task to come up with something to escape from the island, another table had to build a house with their objects, the last table had to host a track and field event and the table of the staff members had to build a party with their objects. This game was so much fun, it allowed us to find out what everyone couldn't live without and we could come up with the most funniest ways of using our objects.

After the game we got dinner. We could choose between Escoveiched fish and Cordon Blue, and I got myself the Coron Blue. We were also served bread pudding as a dessert, but I was so full by then that I had to pass. When everyone had finished their dinner and desserts, we played another game which enabled us to get to know each other even better. Every time we were asked the question: What do you prefere? We had to choose between two things such as Hip hop or Rock music, Mango or Coconut, Winter or Summer, Singing or Dancing, Chicken or Fish, Iphone or Samsung, Red or Blue and so on... and we had to walk over to the side you prefered. It was a lot of fun and I just had a great evening! We were then picked up by Andre. First we brought Allison home and then we were brought home. When we came home, Unika and the children had already eaten too, so she asked us if we would like to go to Mandeville town with her, and of course we did. We walked to the supermarket where we bought some water and Unika bought some food. On our way to and from the supermarket, Unika showed us around a bit and showed us where Russhanya went to school. When we got back home, I played some cards with Javier and the game Uno with Russhanya and then joined Robyn and Unika in the living room where we watched some television and talked about anything and everything. Somewhere around 11 o'clock I was going to find my way to my bed. It had been an absolutely amazing day; I got to meet so many lovely people, had some really good conversations and laughs and was thrilled to start working at the building side. I couldn't wait for the next day to start!

#Introductionday #Placement #Welcomedinner #Games