Day 1- First day at the work site

 

 

The day began at 7:15 AM. We had a wonderful breakfast. Our work-van arrived at 8 AM to take us to our work site. As we embarked on our 45 minute journey to the work site, our Jamaican driver infomed us on new trivia about Jamaica. Some of the new information that we found interesting were that there are so many students, the school day gets split into two shifts. The first one starts at 7 in the morning and runs till noon. The second shift starts at noon, and runs to 5 PM. Another bit of information that we all found interesting was that the average income for a Jamaican family is around 50 dollars a week.

Once we arrived at the work site, we were still a bit confused on what we were going to do for the day. This confusion cleared up very fast when we got shown a big pile of dirt (and rocks) and a hole that we had to fill that will eventually become a playground for the nursery school kids. We had two wheel barrows, and about seven buckets to complete this task. Luckily, not too far into the task, we were welcomed with some much needed help from some of our Jamaican friends. In the hot sun, and humid weather, we were very lucky to be relieved by pastor Earl when he brought us fresh watermelon, pineapples, mangos, Jamaican apples and some cold water.

The hot morning quickly bleed into a very delicious meal that we had the pleasure of smelling being cooked all through the morning. Our meal for lunch consisted of fried chicken, rice and beans, and some mixed vegetables. It was super yummy!

Our work for the day came to an end with half the dirt pile gone, most of the hole filled in, and all of us covered in dirt from head to toe. We all have concluded that it was all in a good days work!

Below: a panoramic view of our work site.
next:  the pile of rock and dirt to be moved....
third:we get help from some local jamaicans:)
fourth: smiles and dirt at the end of the day
finally........beautiful poinseitta tree