Yea man, we be in Jamaica

It's hard to believe that we have been in Jamaica for a week already but this past week has just been a blur.

Jamaica is always one of the busiest countries for the ship. Everyone here knows about the Logos or the book ship as they all call us.
The first weekend we already had

significant crowds and this week we have seen thousands of school children coming onboard already. Many come for organised programmes but hundreds just show up to come to the book fair and trying to manage them all can be a real challenge.

We arrived in Montego Bay in the early hours of the morning last Weds and since then it has just been a constant barrage of challenges.
It has taken us 8 days to get our vans cleared to drive on the roads and I personally have had to get involved on a number of occasions, talking to customs and other parties to help move the permissions along. Everything seems to take longer than it should.

Finally today we had passed every hurdle and we can drive. We have had similar issues with getting containers cleared.

A real highlight of this past week was the arrival of my parents who have come out for 3 weeks. They love the ship ministry, have supported it for 25 years and have been onboard Logos Hope many times already. Today they both spent a number of hours down on the visitor deck and in the book fair, helping out. We are very short staffed at the moment as this is our changeover port so many people are leaving the ship and the new recruits don't start work for another couple of weeks.

Recently we made the decision that we will finish our commitment and leave the ship at the end of May, before Logos Hope sails back across the Atlantic to Africa. We plan to meet up with Heather's parents in Florida and have a vacation before returning home.