LearnServe Jamaica Day 7: Teamwork

July 1, 2011

While we were journaling today, one of our group leaders asked “How is the Penlyne Community, including host families, different from our own community?”I answered, “Teamwork.”

Our LearnServe group started to dig a trench to fix the sewage pipe by 9:00 am. By noon, the Penlyne Castle community members took over. And not just the adults, primary school kids too. As soon as the children got out of school, they didn’t take a detour to the soccer field, instead they ran up to clinic where we were working, took the shovels out of our hands, showing their eagerness to help. That afternoon I witnessed a community coming together as a team to accomplish a problem they were suffering from for months.

To connect back to the question “How is the Penlyne Community, including host families, different from our own community?, Penlyne Castle community is a team where as my community is not. If my community was experiencing difficulties that required a team effort, then I’m sure the job will not get done. The job will not get done because my community is spoiled, as well as others in the United States. When our sewage pipe is not working properly, there’s the Department of Waste Management. Penlyne Castle does not have that luxury. But I’m certain that if my community didn’t either then there still wouldn’t be any teamwork. I admire Penlyne for that. Where I live, I don’t you usually see a community work together.

From today, I’ll take home with me teamwork. My mother is always telling me that that is something I lack, therefore this one experience that I seen today as turned into a life lesson.

~Shade’