Ya Man

I went to The Salvation Army's school for the blind this morning. It is a sprawling campus covering almost 8 acres. Ages of the students range from 3 to 20 and they live at the school 10 months a year. The school is in excellent shape a teams from Canada have come regularly and have fixed the school up. I was amazed to see the students running around and running around me as if they could see me. They were preparing the field for sports day next week. They will have running races using rope to guide as well as playing cricket. The cricket ball makes a sound and they play by hearing, amazing. The school is the only school for the blind in the Caribbean, so there are students from many countries.

After the school for the blind, I went to the ARC. Yes they have an ARC here. There program has 8 men in it and can have a maximum of 12. A couple from Australia came about a year ago to get the ARC financially and programmly on track. He went to Miami and spent time at the ARC learning there system so to make the ARC in Kingston viable. He is working hard to open 5 to 7 more thrift stores on the island in the next year. He believes he can make the ARC profitable at the same time infusing capital in to other Salvation Army ministries. On the program side, an officer was brought in how has counseling experience who has made a tangible difference in the success of the men in the program. I would like to come back in a year and see how the ARC has changed.

I was taken around today by Captain Jonah, who is from the Dominican Republic. He is awaiting his work permit for St. Martins where he will be in charge of a corps. Being from the Dominican, we talked baseball and he asked me if I knew who Vladamir Guerrero was. Oh yea! We talked about the Angels and Nates and Davina's baseball teams.

Good day. Right now I am being updated about Nate and Davina's baseball games happening back home. I am stressed sitting here waiting for updates. I new a web cam at the park.

Grace and Peace,

Michael.