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This year for spring break, instead of spending the week being lazy or even cleaning my apartment (which, unfortunately, I still need to do), I had the unparalleled opportunity to spend the week in Negril, Jamaica with a group of wonderful fellow students from my school (Univeristy of Wisconsin - La Crosse) doing service work. A much better way to spend the week if I do say! Not only did my group and I get to lie on the beach soaking up some sun, we were able to do something useful at the same time. |
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In just five days, we painted three schools (one grade school and two pre-schools), installed a bathroom and a kitchen sink in one school, built swings for one, and spent time teaching pre-schoolers, tutoring for an adult literacty program, and touring a local technical college. Then after all the work was done, we still had time for plenty of good reggae, floating on a commandeered blow-up bed, snorkeling, cliff jumping, lots of jerk chicken, a yacht ride (albeit a small yacht), learning Jamaican dancing (thanks Dennis!), and getting to know the amazing staff at the Whistling Bird (I miss Chef Snow!). It was an amazingly busy week, but I don't think we could have had a better spring break.
I want to thank everybody who donated money and school supplies. You can rest assured that everything went to very good use. All three schools we visited were little more than one large room partitioned off with thin dividers to separate the grades, and children were crowded into the "classrooms" sitting two or three at a single desk. The conditions are shocking to someone coming from a place where schools lack little, if anything. I wish you all could have seen the kids' and teachers' faces as we passed out badly needed pencils, paper, textbooks, flashcards, and other learning tools; it makes our local schools' "struggles" to buy new textbooks or computers seem almost silly. Seeing children who have such a hunger to learn anything and everything they can get their hands on while having so few resources really opened my eyes and put thing in persepective. Our schools may fight for money to buy a new computer or to build a new stadium, and I may complain about being in debt for forever after I graduate, but at least we are able to go to schools that have books and even out-of-date computers and at least we don't have to take a taxi just to get there. |
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