Catholic HEART Workcamp Mission Trips

Home Base:
Cannon Villas

St. Ann's Bay, Jamaica

(air-conditioned and located on the beach)

Jamaica is open to those entering the 10th grade in the fall of 2012 and older.

Individual registrations will be accepted from College/Young Adults/Adults that are not affiliated with a parish.

This beautiful Caribbean Island has pockets of severe poverty.
The mission trip will involve difficult work projects, sweat and flexibility so be ready to serve. The focus will be on relationships, discipleship, fellowship, the work project, sightseeing/shopping, and cultural exposure.

This Catholic HEART Workcamp experience will be unique because the morning and evening programs will take place on the beach. Mass will be offered each morning.

Sunday - Your group will need to fly from your home city to Montego Bay on your own.

Your group will be picked up from the airport in a air conditioned bus and be driven 1½ hours to St. Ann’s Bay (located next to Runaway Bay). Orientation will take place in the evening after you have settled in.

Friday - Free day at the Dunns River Falls and snorkeling ($10.00) and souvenir shopping

Saturday - Travel day back home. Earlier flights are preferred and easier managed for our travel to Montego Bay.

These projects are ideal for mature teens and their adult leaders. We prefer veteran workcampers. We recommend those entering 10th grade and higher register. We ask for one adult for every five teens.

All adult campers will have to verify they have had a background check according to their Diocesan policy. All adults working with Catholic HEART Workcamp and IsleGo Missions are required to have a background check in order to assure the safety of the young people.

The Cannon Villas are located directly on the beach. The sleeping quarters will be air-conditioned. St. Ann’s is located in a safe area. It is located 2 hours from Kingston. The villas are close to the work projects. Two to four people will be in a room in air-conditioned comfort, with adequate bathroom facilities as well. Most campers will have a bed of their own while some may crash on a mattress on the floor. The meals are Caribbean cuisine prepared by island cooks. Everything is delicious although not always what we are accustomed to eating in America. All our travel will be on local air-conditioned buses driven by professionals. Local teenage girls will come to the Villas on the free day to braid hair (25.00).

How many teens and adults will be in one villa? Is there security while they are sleeping? Are the girls all together and guys all together regarding the sleeping arrangements?
We will have an adult in the same sleeping villa room with their students. Some rooms have three beds, while other may have five. If a chaperone is not in the same sleeping room as their students (for example because some teens want to be together and there is not enough beds for an adult leader or their Diocese doe not permit adults sleeping in the same room as a teenager) he/she will be very close in the next room. Adults are placed throughout the villas for easy access to all of the students at all times. Each villa is diverse in size and will sleep a different amount of people. There will be a security person patrolling the area throughout the night but the doors to each villa have their own door-lock system. The area of the villas are "time share" units and considered a very safe area.

Safety is a primary concern and CHWC is very focused on providing a safe, secure and protected environment. Any mission journey traveling overseas though, involve an element of risk and hazard. There are some necessary precautions that CHWC takes in order to ensure your physical and emotionally safety. A journey oversees often involves more hazards than staying in one's local town to do service work. Poverty and living conditions in

One of the beauties of traveling overseas on a mission trip is to experience first hand poverty, to see how blessed we are in the USA and how much work needs to be done to overcome the social injustice that is so prevalent in other countries.. The "have" and "the have not" is obvious. The mission trip to Jamaica will not shelter the campers. They will see first hand poverty and the effects it has on a country. CHWC partners with another missionary agency called IsleGO missions. This organization provides a trained team facilitator who has deep-rooted relationships in the community as well as local Jamaican representatives who will assist and be in contact with the group the entire team of your journey. They have been trained by IsleGo missions to protect and care for each camper. They are friendly, insightful and careful no one is taken advantage of. They know the ins and outs, who to talk to, who to stay away from, where to go and which area to stay away from. They are great protectors and look out for the well being of our campers. But if campers choose to wander away by themselves from the worksite or lodging facilities they can find trouble. Drugs, such as marijuana is easily accessible. In order to deal with the pain and hopelessness of poverty some local Jamaica people smoke marijuana. When campers stay within the boundaries given to them by CHWC and IsleGo Missions, they will be protected from local Jamaican people offering them marijuana. If any campers or leaders though, intentionally choose to wander from the boundaries given to them, campers will not be shielded from local people offering them marijuana to purchase. We remind the campers though, if anyone is caught with marijuana or any other illegal drug, he/she could end up in jail.

What about construction materials on the Worksites:
In a 3^rd world country, construction and work project materials take on a whole new meaning than experienced in the U.S.A. At times this will be frustrating, you will have to adjust to limited tools and inconvenient and inefficient methods of construction. For example, when it comes to cement mixing it normally involves a high degree of manual labor. Jamaica has a limited supply of cement mixers or cement trucks that can pour concrete. In Jamaica to mix cement, we will use buckets to mix water, rock, and cement, and then pass it from person to person before it’s poured to make a cement floor.

A Jamaican and American foreman is present on all job sites with phone and immediate transportation access to local medical facilities. Campers are expected to follow the guidelines of the construction foreman and respect those in authority on the jobsite.

Since you will be in the tropics bring lightweight clothing. T-shirts with sleeves only. Please take at least one change of simple dress clothes, including dress shoes.

Service projects will range from construction, painting, children’s ministry, assisting at a orphanage and much more. CHWC worked on early stages of the construction of Grace Community Center. Grace Community Center is located in the parish of St. Ann’s and in the city of Steertown just outside of Ocho Rios in north central part of the island. Steertown is a community where over 90% of the children are born out of wedlock and are often raised by single parents or extended families. Grace Community Center will serve as a feeding center for malnourished children in the community, a vocational skills training center, and education center for abstinence/sex education. On the worksite you will interact with locals and in fact, CHWC emphasizes interacting with the local people on the worksite. This part of a mission trip is just as valuable as painting or pounding nails More than likely we will continue to build the community center project and we will be involved in various faith based projects partnering with leaders in the local community including the local Catholic church. Often the volunteers do not know what they will be doing until the exact day of arrival. We were also involved with painting a classroom in a local orphanage and interacting with the participants at the center. We know campers want to do manual labor but sometimes this kind of work is not always available. It is hard to explain because Americans have a certain expectation when it comes to building, labor, purchasing, and site development. The Jamaica way of life is as the slogan goes...."no worries mon". They do not get stressed out and "waiting around" is the norm and not the exception. This way of life can be frustrating and difficult for Americans since we are a “take charge” kind of people. You will have to adjust to “waiting around” since we are a guest in their country. In Jamaica they have a different concept of timing, speed and deadlines when it comes to building. Money availability and tools are a big issue.

CHWC does our part in being well prepared and organized in advanced but if the materials are not delivered on time, there is often nothing that can be done about it. But time will not be "wasted" in these kind of situations. This only gives campers more opportunities to talk and interact with local children and people in the immediate area. It is amazing how many locals are curious and will stop to talk and see what we are building. Another problem that arises from time to time is materials that cannot be purchased because the Jamaica supply store is depleted of the products. Sometimes we have to wait until the next day for a shipment of supplies. They do not have any local Home Depots or Lowes stores.

Will there be someone at the airport throughout the arrival day should our youth group need to split and take different planes to Jamaica?

Yes. IsleGO Missions in partnership with Catholic Heart Workcamp will have local representation through an American Facilitator and Jamaican Board Member. Your American Facilitator will be assigned through the IsleGO Corporate Office prior to your arrival and will be present throughout your entire time. Michael “Mikey” Stoddart is the IsleGO’s Jamaican contact representative and resides just outside of Montego Bay. If you are ever disconnected from your group, which should not ever happen, but in case, you can contact Michael Stoddart in Jamaica by dialing the local number without the area code listed below.

Michael Stoddart, Board Member, IsleGO Missions Lilliput, Montego Bay, Jamaica
Email: mikeinja@anbell.net

What about Crime/Illegal and Illicit Drugs in Jamaica?
According to the Unites States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Jamaica is a major transshipment point for cocaine and marijuana from South America to North America and Europe; illicit cultivation of cannabis; the government has an active manual cannabis eradication program of which over 6,000 people are arrested annual for possession or distribution of illegal drugs; corruption is a major concern; substantial money-laundering activity; Colombian narcotics traffickers favor Jamaica for illicit financial transactions.

“Drugs, such as marijuana is easily accessible. In order to deal with the pain and hopelessness of poverty some local Jamaica people smoke marijuana. When campers stay within the boundaries given to them by CHWC and IsleGo Missions, they will be protected from local Jamaican people offering them marijuana. If any campers or leaders though, intentionally choose to wander from the boundaries given to them, campers will not be shielded from local people offering them marijuana to purchase."

Campers will be offered drugs in public and are easily available wherever the team travels – on the worksite, on the beach, in the airport, in the villas, etc. Campers are responsible for their actions in Jamaica just as they would in the U.S., only in Jamaica the court systems are different and you have no rights. Under NO circumstances is a team member to accept, purchase, handle, touch, or use illegal drugs, responsibility of such actions will be left to the individual and handled by local authorities. Trust us, you do not want to be thrown into a Jamaican jail, CHWC is not responsible nor can we represent you in case you are charged or arrested while in Jamaica.

We will be going to Dunns River Falls on our free day. It is a national park and one of the most beautiful spots on Earth! It is a natural waterfall of clear, cool mountain water that goes down the side of the mountain right into the ocean. We will go after breakfast on our free day, climb the water falls (shoes with rubber soles, like tennis shoes needed) go (optional) snorkeling ($10.00), change into dry clothes, then we will go into Ocho Rios for lunch (campers will have to pay for their own lunch) and souvenir shopping (we suggest you do not bring more than $50.00 for souvenir shopping) .

Registration fee: $780.00 (airfare not included). The $75 deposit is non-refundable, if you find a replacement your deposit can be transferred to someone else from your group. If you cancel after March 31, 2011 you will be responsible for half of the registration fee ($390.00). If you cancel after May 26, 2011 you will be responsible for the full registration fee of $780.00.

The only other extra money you will need will be lunch money for your free at Dunn's River Falls and $25.00 if you plan to snorkel. Locals are available to braid hair (25.00). We also suggest you bring no more than $50.00 for souvenirs.

Practically everything! Included are lodging, food, ground transportation, insurance, tips, cultural exposure events, work project materials (tools/supplies), departure taxes, CHWC t-shirts, CHWC staff, IsleGo Missions staff, free day for campers, and various other costs. You will have to pay for one meal (fast food) on the free day at Dunns River Falls and $10.00 for (optional) snorkeling at Dunns River Falls and any souvenirs you want. (We suggest you do not bring more than $50.00 for souvenirs.

What do I need to bring?
Passport: Jamaica is a foreign country and in order to leave the United States you will need a passport. Please take care of this early this process may take longer than expected. Instead of a passport, you can use a birth certificate with a raised seal along with an I.D. with a picture of that person with the same name as on the birth certificate. BUT........ If any of that criteria is not there, they can be refused entry into the country and returned on the same plane they arrived on. Passports are more costly but always the best way to travel internationally and never denied entry.

Bedding: None needed; you might want to bring a beach towel and a towel for showers. You may also bring your own pillow but it is your responsibility to carry and care for it.

Clothing: We will be in the tropics so take only lightweight clothing. Please remember CHWC has a dress code and this still applies in Jamaica. No tank tops or sleeveless shirts at all, sleeves must be present at all times (contrary to the pictures of the Jamaica trip from the summer of 2003, listed on this web page)

We may be visiting a local church so please remember that islanders dress up in their very best for church so please take at least one change of dress clothes, including dress shoes.

Ladies- Sundresses are fine for the ladies for services. No bare midriffs, please.

At the construction site you will need work clothes and shoes. Your shoes need to be thick-soled and comfortable…it is a coral island. Shorts and t-shirts are permitted at the worksite but a shirt must be worn at all times.

Sports stuff: Remember your swimsuit (ladies, one-piece or tanquini, please). For climbing the falls (free day), bring water shoes or sandals that strap on tightly. For those runners in the group, there is a place for your morning jog so bring running gear.

Luggage: You are limited to one medium-size suitcase and one carry-on bag for all belongings. Please plan on leaving room in your luggage for some team materials. You may carry snacks or candy with you but it must be able to be sealed against insects. No fresh fruit or produce of any kind is allowed between countries.

Other stuff: ladies, please plan on sharing hair driers and curling irons with other girls for electricity purpose…we don’t want to black out the island. Currency in Jamaica is the same as in the U.S.

Food: Part of our project is to experience a cross-cultural lifestyle and enjoy all that the country we are visiting has to offer. The water in Jamaica is among the best in the world and you can drink it without worry. We will be blessed with cooks from that country and they will be blessing us with tropical foods of their culture. You will primarily be eating the same foods in-country that you eat at home, only prepared differently. We would certainly not want to do anything to offend these servants of God as they bless us during our missionary journey. Therefore, you need to try a little bit of all that is served. If you don’t really care for a particular item, you don’t have to eat any more of it and, at the same time, you haven’t left food on your plate to be wasted. If you do like it, you can always go back for more, assuming there is any left. In serving yourself, please remember that you are part of a team and there are others on the team that will need to be served. Please keep any derogatory remarks about the food to yourself.

1- The people of the country you are visiting are just as proud of their country as you are of yours. While things may be done differently here than in the U.S., that is not to say we do them better. This is a beautiful country of beautiful people…do all you can to encourage them.

2- For the duration of this missionary journey, you will be a part of a team of many members. Everything you do reflects on and affects each and every team member. If one of us is late, all of us are late. If one of us offends, we are all seen as offensive. Begin to think of yourself even now as a member of a team. Encourage one another, be sensitive to each other’s needs, and pray for one another. See how you can be a servant to each other this week.

3- While we will be doing a variety of activities on this project, this journey is about relationships. If we do everything else well, but fail in building relationships with the people of the islands and with each other, then we will have failed in what we came to do.