Link to original post: [drupal=1810]My Jamaica Service Trip...[/drupal]
Sucked
not rly
but kinda
so let's see...
There were 8 of us, plus 2 leaders. We were there for a week.
We were located outside of Kingston, way up in the mountains:
Here's my living quarters, 3 to a room
It's actually way dirtier than it looks, there were also multiple holes in the windows which means sleeping with mosquitos chewing on your legs. The bathroom here wasn't shown, it was pretty old and there were quite a few bugs. We had running water 2 hours a day in order to conserve, within those 2 hours we had to take our showers.. and the water was freezing cold. We didn't use the sink water to brush teeth etc because it might be dirty, we used bottled water for all of that.
We got 3 meals a day, breakfast and lunch was usually Jamaican food and dinner was usually more Americanized. It was the first time I had goat, wasn't that bad >_>
After having mass every morning at 7 AM and then breakfast, we would start our service projects. Our biggest project was renovating classrooms. We spent most of our time in a small building outside the main school so that they could have more room for kids. It looked like it hadn't been used in years and was really dirty/graffiti everywhere. We focused on repainting it, but since the walls were so bad we had to chip off a lot of the old paint where it was practically falling off. It took a while, especially the ceilings.
Chipping:
(I'm not in these pics)
The kids! Since we were white, we were complete novelty in that area of Jamaica. The kids were so interested in what we were doing. They'd always come up after school (or during their lunch) to come watch us or talk to us. One day they even took the chipping tools (i forget what they're called) out of our hands and wanted to help us:
Then there was Tennesse (yes pronounced like the state). Tennesse was a native Jamaican who worked at the Ministry where we stayed. He came along with us and did service with us every day. He was pretty much the freaking bomb. We had a lot of fun making "Chuck Norris" jokes out of him. He was really funny and just fun to be around.
Here he is, i'm on the right
One day I stayed back at the Ministry/School where we stayed to work with the students. I tried to help young kids learn how to read (like 30% of the country or something is illiterate), if they didn't memorize the book/look at the pictures to remember what to say, they struggled mightily. They aren't good at sounding out words to read them which is how we learned how to read. We also played Monopoly, they love that game. They pronounce it Mon-a-pole-ly. Yeah.... I kicked all their *****.
I think I got like 35 mosquito bites during the week, I counted.
The painting really made the place look better, hopefully they'll be able to use it next year.
The last day before we left (Saturday) went to a resort. The beach was really nice and there were falls there that we climbed (forget what they were called). This place was a huge tourist attraction, before that day we basically never saw non-Jamaican people besides ourselves.
The shops there... The vendors are relentless. They are VERY persuasive and catch tourists in traps very easily which basically forces them to buy something. One example: Someone will give you a small trinket and say "Here, this is for you it's free" and when you take it they take it back and say "Hey what's your name? I'll carve your name onto it." Once they do that they will ask for a small tip, and since your name is on it now you are FORCED to buy it. If you don't then they pull the "respect" card on you and say "You gotta respect me mon!" Respect is a HUGE thing in Jamaica among the people.
If we weren't warned before we went to the shops by Tennesse then we probably would have bought way more stuff than we wanted. Also, when you try to buy something there is no "set price" like how it is in America. If you start to look at an item the vendor will notice it and try to sell it to you. He (or she) starts throwing out prices until you finally agree. Also, the first price they throw out for an item is ALWAYS too high. Never take it. I wanted to buy a big wooden turtle and, with the help of Tennesse, got it for a much lower price. The vendor wanted $5000 for it, I bought it for $2500 Jamaican (the conversion rate from Jamaican to US is 90:1). These guys REALLY want to sell stuff so they will be willing to bargain with you.
All in all, this trip was a great experience. I had a lot of fun with my group and formed some close friendships, most of the bad stuff about it was mostly getting used to having no technology (we couldn't bring our phones etc) and not having the food you want/water when you want it. I think I can learn to be much more grateful for the things I have. Much more grateful for the gift of simple things like water. The people here don't care that they don't have all the material goods that we have, they rely more on Faith and family and friends for happiness. They seemed extremely happy. Everyone waves to each other even if they don't know each other, so when you look past the violence it's practically one big happy family.
Sucked
not rly
but kinda
so let's see...
There were 8 of us, plus 2 leaders. We were there for a week.
We were located outside of Kingston, way up in the mountains:
Here's my living quarters, 3 to a room
It's actually way dirtier than it looks, there were also multiple holes in the windows which means sleeping with mosquitos chewing on your legs. The bathroom here wasn't shown, it was pretty old and there were quite a few bugs. We had running water 2 hours a day in order to conserve, within those 2 hours we had to take our showers.. and the water was freezing cold. We didn't use the sink water to brush teeth etc because it might be dirty, we used bottled water for all of that.
We got 3 meals a day, breakfast and lunch was usually Jamaican food and dinner was usually more Americanized. It was the first time I had goat, wasn't that bad >_>
After having mass every morning at 7 AM and then breakfast, we would start our service projects. Our biggest project was renovating classrooms. We spent most of our time in a small building outside the main school so that they could have more room for kids. It looked like it hadn't been used in years and was really dirty/graffiti everywhere. We focused on repainting it, but since the walls were so bad we had to chip off a lot of the old paint where it was practically falling off. It took a while, especially the ceilings.
Chipping:
(I'm not in these pics)
The kids! Since we were white, we were complete novelty in that area of Jamaica. The kids were so interested in what we were doing. They'd always come up after school (or during their lunch) to come watch us or talk to us. One day they even took the chipping tools (i forget what they're called) out of our hands and wanted to help us:
Then there was Tennesse (yes pronounced like the state). Tennesse was a native Jamaican who worked at the Ministry where we stayed. He came along with us and did service with us every day. He was pretty much the freaking bomb. We had a lot of fun making "Chuck Norris" jokes out of him. He was really funny and just fun to be around.
Here he is, i'm on the right
One day I stayed back at the Ministry/School where we stayed to work with the students. I tried to help young kids learn how to read (like 30% of the country or something is illiterate), if they didn't memorize the book/look at the pictures to remember what to say, they struggled mightily. They aren't good at sounding out words to read them which is how we learned how to read. We also played Monopoly, they love that game. They pronounce it Mon-a-pole-ly. Yeah.... I kicked all their *****.
I think I got like 35 mosquito bites during the week, I counted.
The painting really made the place look better, hopefully they'll be able to use it next year.
The last day before we left (Saturday) went to a resort. The beach was really nice and there were falls there that we climbed (forget what they were called). This place was a huge tourist attraction, before that day we basically never saw non-Jamaican people besides ourselves.
The shops there... The vendors are relentless. They are VERY persuasive and catch tourists in traps very easily which basically forces them to buy something. One example: Someone will give you a small trinket and say "Here, this is for you it's free" and when you take it they take it back and say "Hey what's your name? I'll carve your name onto it." Once they do that they will ask for a small tip, and since your name is on it now you are FORCED to buy it. If you don't then they pull the "respect" card on you and say "You gotta respect me mon!" Respect is a HUGE thing in Jamaica among the people.
If we weren't warned before we went to the shops by Tennesse then we probably would have bought way more stuff than we wanted. Also, when you try to buy something there is no "set price" like how it is in America. If you start to look at an item the vendor will notice it and try to sell it to you. He (or she) starts throwing out prices until you finally agree. Also, the first price they throw out for an item is ALWAYS too high. Never take it. I wanted to buy a big wooden turtle and, with the help of Tennesse, got it for a much lower price. The vendor wanted $5000 for it, I bought it for $2500 Jamaican (the conversion rate from Jamaican to US is 90:1). These guys REALLY want to sell stuff so they will be willing to bargain with you.
All in all, this trip was a great experience. I had a lot of fun with my group and formed some close friendships, most of the bad stuff about it was mostly getting used to having no technology (we couldn't bring our phones etc) and not having the food you want/water when you want it. I think I can learn to be much more grateful for the things I have. Much more grateful for the gift of simple things like water. The people here don't care that they don't have all the material goods that we have, they rely more on Faith and family and friends for happiness. They seemed extremely happy. Everyone waves to each other even if they don't know each other, so when you look past the violence it's practically one big happy family.
