Destination Paradise Week One, orientation week:

This week has been full of newness. New relationships, new country, new weather and some of the most amazing new experiences I have had in a very long time. I arrived safe and sound to Belize, a little tired but nonetheless super excited to be here. I was greeted by the wonderful Destination Paradise, (DP) staff, Lynn and Chris, the directors, Andi and Maggie, two of the staff on our DTS. They took me and Torguier aka Simba, directly to the boats where we began the interesting process of orienting ourselves with the boats. I took off my sandals Tuesday morning and haven’t worn shoes since, it’s pretty amazing! We stayed on the boats in a little marina about 5 miles south of Belize City, called Cucumber Beach. The marina was kind of like a little resort village, they had a huge restaurant that catered to the cruise ships, also a beach with a huge water slide, kind of strange but the people were amazing, so friendly and welcoming. We stayed their one night and tried not to get eaten alive by the ‘noseems’ which were these seemingly invisible bugs that left stinging itch bumps all over. It was a surreal experience to arrive here, step aboard the boats where I will be living for the next three months and meet the people who I will be experiencing this all with. There are 13 students total, Simba (Norway, no one can say his name so he told us to call him Simba), Hannah and Andreas (Sweden, a wonderful married couple), Lisel (Minnesota), Beck (Canada), Stacey (Oregon), Brenda (Wisconsin), Tyler (Michigan), Tyler (Montana), Jordan (North Carolina), Jessi (Germany) and Corbin (Minnesota). We are a wonderful collect of people from all over the world, with very unique giftings and stories to tell. I have know these people for about a week and I already feel like they are all family. We live in such tight quarters and I know things will get intense, but this community centers around others, putting others first in all we do in the small and big things, this helps a ton.
Wednesday afternoon we set sail (literally) for the Spanish Islands. This was my first sail ever and I absolutely loved it and no sea sickness!! Praise God! The waters were calm and a beautiful turquoise green. Early Thursday morning we woke up and continued sailing until we reached Rendezvous Island. So, picture a deserted tropical island, look it up in the dictionary even, you will see a picture of this island we have been anchored at for the past four days. Utterly amazing. The colors of the waters are so vivid, crystal clear waters make snorkeling such a treat as well as the amazing reefs just a few yards away from my bed. Orientation week has been focused on building our team, getting to know one another and learning the contents of the student handbook. The handbook highlights the important aspects of living on boats, conserving water and energy, pumping the toilets, garbage, cooking, how we plan to live together, etc. We were tested on it Saturday morning and I am happy to say I did quite well! I have been overwhelmed by the beauty here, God’s creation is magnificent and I am so blessed to see a whole new side of it. But even more I am so impressed by the relationships and the people, all that we, collectively as a group have sacrificed to come here, all that we purpose to do, it’s amazing. I know that these months of studying and growing are going to change me in such beautiful ways, I can’t wait to see what God does.
Our schedule for the school is pretty much the same week to week. We will usually sail out of port on Sundays, find a place to anchor for the week, have school during the week days and then return to port on Friday for the weekend. So I will be able to respond to emails on the weekends which is nice. I hope everyone is doing well, I miss you guys a lot and will update you soon! Write me when you can.