Jamaica 2009
Eight members of St. Dominic Parish returned from Jamaica just past midnight on Monday, June 15, having had a good experience with the people in the Diocese of Mandeville. We certainly thank the parishioners of St. Dominic for your support and prayers, without which, the trip would not have been possible.
The Diocese of Mandeville had lumber and supplies available, thanks to generous people here and around the world. We were able to build three houses, one each day the first three days we were there. Each building site was in a different part of the diocese; one pretty close to the city of Mandeville, and the other two pretty far removed from any city or village. The supervisors of the building teams are able to orchestrate the building and even the painting of a house in less than a day. Even considering the small size of the houses (12’ x 12’), it is only with the ingenuity of these local workers that a house can come together without power tools when the generator won’t start, or when the people have built a very uneven foundation.
After the homebuilding part of our trip was completed, we visited the St. John Bosco Home for Boys. The boys in the cooking and catering departments served a dinner consisting of a variety of pizzas, topped with various meats, fruits and vegetables that they raise themselves. The boys in the school provide over one half of their own support through raising pigs, chickens, goats and sheep, operating a butcher shop and meat packaging plant, selling pork and chicken to restaurants and others costumers in the cities, and providing a top-notch catering service to businesses in the area. On the night of our arrival in Mandeville, the boys delivered a meal of fried chicken, salad, side items and dessert that compares to any catering service we experience here in the States. One of the reasons they bring dinner to us that first night is so we can experience the results of an education and training that is only possible with financial support from people like you.
We visited Mary Help of Christians Home for the Elderly, where the Missionaries of Charity (Mother Teresa’s order) care for the abandoned and dying aged. With a minimum of resources, the sisters care for the patients with love, providing them with dignity. The patients themselves are spiritual, joyful men and women, always ready to pray for their visitors and sing songs and hymns.
We also visited several families in the Bush Country, where we met with a mother and her newborn baby, and an elderly woman relative who was washing clothes using rocks as scrub brushes. This woman prayed over us and told us how blessed she was to be born and raised on this “Holy Mountain”.
Another woman we visited was caring for her severely physically handicapped 26 year-old daughter. Her daughter had the physical body of a young child, weighing less than 20 pounds. This woman not only had to do total care for her daughter, she also had a severely mentally handicapped son, about 20 years old. She had one other younger son who was receiving an education in the Catholic school. This woman was able to provide for her children by growing vegetables and raising chickens and goats. None of us could imagine the commitment involved in caring for her family, or the work that both of her sons do in helping her provide for the family. We also saw, that without the help of others, the family would not have been able to get a start in providing for themselves. Without the Catholic school there would not have been the hope of the youngest son as he awaited results of testing to find out if he scored well enough to continue to the next level of schools. (There are many basic schools, fewer elementary schools, and even fewer of what we would consider junior high, or high schools.)
We attended mass in the chapel at the place we stayed, Our Lady of Dunsinane, a Jamaican national shrine. We discussed the issues of Jamaican culture and the Catholic Church in Jamaica with the pastor and the deacon from the parish, and a deacon from the bishop’s office.
I believe I can speak for everyone who went to Jamaica in June when I say that this was a meaningful, even life-changing trip, and thank the St. Dominic parishioners for your continued support of the Jamaican People.
Deacon Mark