Happy Independence Day to everyone who’s reading this! Honestly, I can’t believe it’s already been twelve days since we came to Jamaica. In addition to that, I think this is the first time for many in our group, myself included, spending 4th of July away from our families. Today was also another first; the first day since we’ve come to Jamaica that we spent the whole day relaxing. In the morning, we engaged ourselves in a self-planned field day on the Mico College’s campus where we’re staying. They were all simple activities constructed around the limited sporting equipment we’d brought- basically, a soccer ball and a few plastic cones, courtesy of Ryan- but as simple as the games were, they were stress relieving nonetheless.
Afterwards, at around noon, we headed over to the Bennett’s (the founders of KBC, the organization LearnServe was working with in Kingston) who had graciously invited us to their home for a cookout to celebrate the 4th. When we got there, we were greeted with a picturesque home and a backyard decorated with red, white and blue paper matte lanterns and ribbons. Although the event was formally titled a “cookout,” most of us spent the day marinating in the Bennett’s pool. That isn’t to say the food wasn’t brilliant too- more than a few of us helped ourselves to second and third helpings both at lunch and dinner. So… overall, maybe it wasn’t the 4th of July we were used to with fireworks or family… but it was entertaining in its own way. Like most everything I’ve experience since I came to Jamaica, it was new, not new in a bad way, just different. And sometimes, different isn’t a bad thing, especially when it means getting to spend the 4th of July having an amazing cookout with 16 other people as devoted to service as you are.
Mira Sridharan, Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology