Day one in Abaco by Ellison Ritzert, a student with Pella Christian’s team
Hello from the Bahamas! We made it to the Bahamas safe and sound, flights and all. Not having flown since I was five, naturally I was a little nervous to fly. With that, we had quite the adventure. In the airport in Des Moines, we played spoons in the middle of the floor while waiting for our flight. Everyone made it through the check except me, accidentally packed too much face wash so that it ended in the trash, oops 🙂 We had a smooth quick plane ride to Chicago where we got some food. Then we arrived in Miami at 12:30, found out shuttles shut down at 12:00 am so we all piled into a couple of ubers. Once our tired bodies made it to the hotel, the computers shut down so we couldn’t get into our rooms. That left us for the couches. Finally at 3 in the morning, we made it into our rooms and fell fast asleep. Woke up next morning bright and early at 7 to catch our flight. On the way over to the airport, I was blessed to speak Spanish with our kind driver! We later had no trouble jumping on our plane and headed over to Abaco. Flying over the ocean, all of us were drawn in and instantly amazed with the blues and greens of the water. After landing, the first thing I noticed was the warmth and sunshine! Coming from snowy Iowa you can believe I was not disappointed in the weather here.
After checking in, we were picked up and on our way to camp. As we began driving, we all made comments on the drivers. Believe it or not, the cars here drive on the opposite side of the road! That really threw us off. After heading down a bumpy and narrow road, we arrived to camp and boy I can tell you, these views are absolutely stunning. Our houses are right off the beach and the water is the greenest, bluest, clearest water I’ve seen. The rest of the day was well spent enjoying the beautiful weather and then an early bedtime to catch up on sleep. Today, the fourth, we went over to a church nearby to clean and paint. One of the coolest things we saw were some speedy lizards. Amelia and I were convinced we could catch them…to our dismay we could not. After painting with some pretty cool people, like the Keiths as Hattie mentioned, we went back to camp to eat and clean up the beach some more. You wouldn’t believe some of the silly things we found lying around from the hurricane. From pop bottles to shingles, to washed up beer bottles and a baby doll. Then the boys left us with a little entertainment as they tore down the old movie screen. The joy on the guys faces as they broke down the boards brought laughter and joy to the rest of us. Once they finished that, everybody dispersed to do their own thing. Some of us still tried catching lizards or crabs, and some of us took the opportunity to read on the beach…if you know me, you know that’s where I was 🙂 For dinner we enjoyed some delicious Bahamian pork and rice. It was so good and a bit spicy too. Following dinner, we journaled in our impact books and sang some joyous songs. Tonight, thankfully, we were awake enough to actually sing the right words. Now as I am blogging, some are playing basketball, and to my left sitting at the table is a heated game of cards. I will now be going on a night adventure with Karis in hopes of seeing some cool crabs, we will see if we are successful. I hope you guys can have peace knowing what we’re up to and that we are thoroughly enjoying ourselves! Till next time!
