Tuesday, July 3 – This morning was… as is probably often said… extremely hot and sticky. Sinuses are kicking my behind and I honestly think I have a summer cold, which is not easy to get rid of because of our location. I woke up early because my leadership role right now is Timekeeper. I happened to slip in the hallway on the way to the bathroom because it was still dark outside, but luckily no one heard or saw it so… it wasn’t too bad. However, that wasn’t the main problem at hand. The main problem was that we couldn’t wash clothes the night before because the director of our housing couldn’t find the key. One thing I DO NOT do is get into dirty clothes after I wash, it’s just not the way I was raised, especially if I have to sleep in them. So yeah… I’m up with a stopped up nose, it’s hot, I’m sweating, and I slipped and fell on my back… absolutely beautiful isn’t it? After all of that, what do you look forward to? Oh. That’s right. Breakfast. All I will say about our breakfast at Shortwood is that, (in the words of my teammate Reone’) “Worse.” Worse is a slang meaning “ouch” or “smh (shaking my 
head).”
Fast forward to the most exciting part of the day. We are on our way to Mary’s Child, our last project site. Our previous first day at the site was great and very informative. We all did a lot of activities, and from the frequent laughs we shared as a group to the serious and truthful moments we had in our one-on-one conversations, great bonds were made even in the short amount of time. Today was an exact pick-up from the day before, and I honestly think we got more done today than yesterday. Today was the first day of jam making. Our objective was clear. We were making jam because we are trying to be social entrepreneurs. All of the profits from the jam will go to help fund resources for the girls’ program. In the morning we conducted a human-centered design workshop to go through the steps of social entrepreneurship and make a plan for the jam. The girls were very cooperative with what we were doing. For the final part of the workshop we separated into 4 groups and designed a logo for the jam jar. At the end, we voted on the final design.
The jam process was way different than I had thought and quicker too. We were told that we would be picking the fruit, washing it, and fully preparing it to be made into a jam. On the contrary, the mango was already picked and washed. All we had to do was peel, mash, and mix it all together. This took about 30 minutes. After that all we had to do was wait and package the jam in which our labels were voted on earlier in the day.
After all the hard independent work and teamwork, our day was just about finished. I felt good about what we had accomplished throughout the longer day that we had. Our bus had arrived later than usual and it threw the whole group off. We usually leave at a certain time, so work is started earlier, but this morning we had an extra hour in the morning. The extra down time was not like down time. It was more of a slow-mo time, and it definitely showed in our first block of the day, especially with me.
On our way back to Shortwood we stopped briefly at the store for snacks. Thank god the bus driver left the air on or we would have baked inside the bus. I feel that the Jamaica trip has been very informational and inspirational. I’m looking forward to the long trip back to share my information with people who care about it. So yup this is my blog for Tuesday July 3rd, 2018… exactly one month before my birthday, which is why I chose this day to blog. I finished this in under an hour and I hope the people reading this laugh about me slipping in the hallway, because I sure did.
Michael R., DC International School