Today the JASY group started our day by experiencing an enriching Catholic service in Stella Maris Church. The congregation was more interactive with the priest, the music was life-changing in the way that made us open our eyes to accept and be tolerant of other ways of thinking. We experienced both a baptism and Communion. In addition, two of our team members, Tim Mayer and Calder McEneany, got to be blessed by the priest for their birthday celebrations. Tim and Calder were blessed with a generous spritzing of holy water.
Today was setup day for JASY Camp. We unloaded our supplies from the bus, packed each camper's bag, and reviewed the plans for each of the venues.
During the set-up of JASY camp, I enjoyed working with all of the new people I just met. It is very cool to see when everyone works together we can get a lot done and it can be done efficiently. My favorite part was just getting to know everybody and where they are from. I also really like how everybody works so well together as if we've all known each other for longer than we actually have. I love the spirit of the group and the determination that we all have and I really think it just brings everybody together. --Sheila Tomlin
My favorite part of today was probably the water volleyball game of Team USA vs. Jamaica. There was a group of locals playing and we asked them if we could join in. It was a really interesting competition because we all expected to be crushed from the get go. What made it surprising was that we didn't get crushed, we ended up losing by two points in a little over-time tagged on to the tie game. Seeing the Jamaican team play was very different from how a lot of team play works in the US. It was really cool seeing the friendly competition that they had among themselves, splashing whoever caused a lost point or the way they got so ecstatic after winning a point. Seeing the ease at which they were happy really inspired a lot of our team to try and be the same. I'm really excited for the rest of the week having that influence on us. -- Michael Thomas
Please check out yesterday's blog post which has been updated with a couple of videos.
We're looking forward to the start of camp and opening ceremonies tomorrow!!
With much love, The JASY 2017 Team