Monday, July 2 – Today was our first full day back at Shortwood Teachers College in Kingston since we were in the Blue Mountains. I slept very very very comfortably and warm. It’s cool how Shortwood has become our home in Jamaica. We all adapted to the house quickly and it feels more comfortable than E.I.T.S. Our morning routine goes like this: Ms. Randee comes into our room and wakes up my roommates, Janee and Dajanae, an hour early so they can put makeup on and shower. I usually go back to sleep because they are loud when moving things around. At 6:00 am our Timekeepers wake everyone in the house up. Timekeepers are one of four leadership role groups we were assigned at the beginning of the trip. The other leadership roles are Housekeepers (in charge of cleaning up), Historians (in charge of taking photos and interviewing our Jamaican partners), and Activities (in charge of leading activities). We swap roles every 4 days. Sydney was a Timekeeper this week and came in the room yelling. I woke up and got dressed slowly because I was tired.
After I got myself together it was time to start our daily morning meeting. Every meeting starts with ‘For The Good of the House.’ This is when we go around the circle and describe what we are going to do for the good of the group that day. We also describe how we feel using one word. I’m a part of the Activities group right now so we started this part of the meeting. We also added a 30 second meditation to the meeting. After that we were served pancakes, eggs, and fruit for breakfast. As soon as we finished, the bus was already outside ready to takes us to Mary’s Child.
Mary’s Child was the project I was most excited for. They house and work with teen moms and their babies who can’t remain in their communities for legal or other reasons. When we arrived Malik, a two year-old, greeted us at the gate on his tricycle. Miss Tracy, the assistant director of the home, was also there to welcome us. She took us to their activity space and told us about their schedule. In typical Jamaica form, everything had changed from the previous day but we made it work.
The girls began to arrive (all holding their babies) and once everyone was there we started the meeting by going around and sharing our name, age, and favorite activity. Then we played human bingo. My partner wasn’t nervous at all and was excited to go around, asking her friends and LearnServe students questions on the bingo sheet. Then we had a rock, paper, scissors, shoot tournament.
My activity was up next. I was leading a workshop to write an “ I Am” poem. Students had to write a poem explaining their thoughts and wishes etc. using the “I Am” format. I was surprised at how deep the girls were. They put a lot of effort into their poems, and it felt great that they were comfortable telling us about themselves. They said it was an eye-opening experience because they thought they knew everything about themselves, but it was still hard for them to write. Overall, all of the girls said they would do it again. After writing we broke into lunch. It was fried chicken, peas and rice, macaroni, and cabbage. The food was good, but I am a little tired of it because we’ve been having chicken almost everyday.
Our last activity was a Q&A with the girls. They asked us questions about what the US was like and how we liked Jamaica. We asked questions about what they want to do when they leave the home and grow up. Some of the girls were saying they wanted to be doctors, vets, painters, fashion designers, and other creative jobs. Then we just started to have fun! We ended up having an off-the-record talent show. One of the girls did an amazing dance to a song written by Adele and three others sang a gospel song that lit up the room and left everyone in awe. It was just amazing.
Once we returned to Shortwood we had a surprise to set up. It was one of our team members (Zac’s) 17th birthday. Some of the girls and I went to the cafeteria and put balloons up. When he came in he was smiling. I think he was a little embarrassed but also surprised! We had his favorite meal: chicken alfredo and chocolate chip cookies. After that we went over our human centered design workshop to make sure we were ready for the next day.
When we first got to Mary’s Child I thought the girls would be shy to talk, share out, or interact with us. Little did I know it would be the total opposite. There was also a large amount of teen girls with beautiful babies aged from 2 months – 3 years, and I got to hold them! The girls were very open with sharing about themselves, how they got there, and just telling us their aspirations in life. Mary’s child was and still is the best thing we did on this trip (besides the beach we’re going to on Sunday), and it has definitely been an eye-opening experience to see that everyone has their own struggle, and you can never assume anything about anyone.
Destiny B., Maya Angelou Public Charter Schools