I love Jamaica. It is the best. Unfortunately, internet access costs $2.50/hour here and I just used $1.50 checking my two dozen messages. Please forgive me for not writing individual responses, I would not only go broke, but I don't have enough time. 

(This is no longer a valid address)
Address: 
Chris Rolling 
C/O YWAM 
Newport P.O. box 7 
Manchester 
Jamaica, W.I. 
Phone: 876-965-7342 

It occurred to me that nobody had my number in case my parents died or something. This phone is answered at random times, but evening is best. I haven't figured out how to call out yet. 

I love it here. Last week there was a moth as big as a sparrow terrorizing the men's room. It swooped around like a bat and when it hit the wall it went "whump". There are little lizards everywhere and I love them. I prefer them to the many mice and rats that make noise in the night. The lizards only make noise when they fall off the wall. It has started to rain A LOT. I learned that you can sweat even while being rained on. Mostly though, the temperature is reasonable, being in the mountains, but it is very humid. A few nights ago my flashlight landed on a frog as big as my head. I stayed a reasonable distance away because I thought it might eat my foot. Jamaicans call anything from the waist down "foot" and anything from the shoulder out "hand". 

I found out I am the only student that plays guitar. We need to do music for outreach, so I bought a guitar on the trip to Kingston we made on Friday. I love my new guitar, and I will definitely play it a lot here and when we go on outreach: outreach will be to Gambia, Cuba, or Aruba. I haven't figured out which country I will go to yet, but I hope to figure out soon. I am really happy that I had enough money to buy my new guitar. 

Thanks again to all those who contributed money for my Jamaica venture - I have had to use very little of my own money for expenses, and was able to use VW repair money for the guitar. It's a Washburn acoustic. I want to tell you all about travel in Jamaica. Taxis don't have meters. You know it's a taxi if it has a red license plate, but other cars will stop too. Each person pays a certain fare ($50 Jamaican, or $1.15 U.S. for the 9 miles to Mandeville, for instance) so the Taxi driver likes to cram people in. Typically, the cabs are 5 seat Japanese cars imported used from Japan (some even have Japanese inspection stickers still on them) and 4 people in the back, two people in front passenger seat plus driver is pretty standard occupancy. The roads have many holes, and are very windy. When it rains, lakes appear. I like going fast and I even like passing, but I don't like it when the driver passes on a blind corner. It's like a carnival ride (or riding in Joel's car). There are lots of cool VWs here. "New" old busses, VW bugs circa 1980s, etc. 

Gotta go study. The curriculum is pretty intense, and it is combined with work and such. Oh yeah, shipping stuff here is a problem. I would love to get care packages, but I will have to pay an import duty on most items. Occasionally boxes arrive with items missing (not often). 

Barb: call me.

Love and smooches, Chris