Day 3: New and Improved Shopping Carts (by Emory)
Today was the testing day; not in the academic testing sense. We were testing the difference activities to help us decide what to do for the rest of the trip. In the morning, my group went to film. We walked around Water Square, which is their Times Square, but instead of millions of TV's in your face, there is music in your face. Because it was the first day of activities, we focused on brainstorming what our film topic should be. We also bought some newspapers to help better understand current events in Falmouth and Jamaica and scout out topics. I finally understand why old people like newspapers. Three words: Sudoku and comics; obviously the most informative part of the newspaper. Although, the newspapers did help us find a film topic: what Jamaicans think of the port and tourism.
After some newspaper brainstorming, we had lunch and the switching of activities. The afternoon was restoration. I love restoration. It was my favorite activity from last year. This year we are restoring a house that we also worked on in A-Term. The building of the house was pretty much already finished. We were painting the roof, window sills, and walls. In my opinion restoration is very important because not only does it benefit us, with giving us experience in hard work and hands-on labor, but it is also giving back to community, in a very obvious way, which is something I appreciate. We are helping give the people of Falmouth, safer and better quality homes. It makes me feel very accomplished after a hard days of work. Also during the restoration process, we see the family everyday and how they benefit from every small improvement we do. The hard work gives us a purpose and seeing the family and their joy over the improvements gives us motivation.
During restoration I got to experience what it was like to be tall. It's scary. To paint the roof, we had to get on ladders. Ashwin and I were the only ones in our group to get on the ladders. Don't get me wrong, I like being tall and being able to look down on everyone and do an evil laugh. However, ladders always gave me a bit of fear, but today I braved my fear and climbed up on very tall and kind of unsteady ladders. I was pretty sure I was about to die a few times, but I think that's just my newness to being tall. After some hardcore roof painting, I took a little break with Anna T; on the break we saw the most amazing thing. A cart with a steering wheel! This doesn't seem like something that big, but anyone who has used a shopping cart will complain about how hard they are to steer and not run into anything. That's because they don't have steering wheels! This is an important invention that is a necessity within the US. If Costco had these new carts, I guarantee they would be millionaires in a day. It's very interesting to observe how ingenious the people of Falmouth are. Unlike in the US, they don't have as many resources or money to buy small things. For example, instead of buying a fancy paint mixer, the builders in restoration cut down a stick from a nearby tree to use. This shows how they have to work with the resources they are given and in turn making an ingenious and creative invention that we would have never thought of.
Today was a fun filled day. I love restoration, being able to do hard physical labor to help a family live in a better home makes me feel very accomplished, as well as being able to see my hard work improving the house after every day. Today was very successful day of hard work and fun times. Can't wait for tomorrow!
After some newspaper brainstorming, we had lunch and the switching of activities. The afternoon was restoration. I love restoration. It was my favorite activity from last year. This year we are restoring a house that we also worked on in A-Term. The building of the house was pretty much already finished. We were painting the roof, window sills, and walls. In my opinion restoration is very important because not only does it benefit us, with giving us experience in hard work and hands-on labor, but it is also giving back to community, in a very obvious way, which is something I appreciate. We are helping give the people of Falmouth, safer and better quality homes. It makes me feel very accomplished after a hard days of work. Also during the restoration process, we see the family everyday and how they benefit from every small improvement we do. The hard work gives us a purpose and seeing the family and their joy over the improvements gives us motivation.
During restoration I got to experience what it was like to be tall. It's scary. To paint the roof, we had to get on ladders. Ashwin and I were the only ones in our group to get on the ladders. Don't get me wrong, I like being tall and being able to look down on everyone and do an evil laugh. However, ladders always gave me a bit of fear, but today I braved my fear and climbed up on very tall and kind of unsteady ladders. I was pretty sure I was about to die a few times, but I think that's just my newness to being tall. After some hardcore roof painting, I took a little break with Anna T; on the break we saw the most amazing thing. A cart with a steering wheel! This doesn't seem like something that big, but anyone who has used a shopping cart will complain about how hard they are to steer and not run into anything. That's because they don't have steering wheels! This is an important invention that is a necessity within the US. If Costco had these new carts, I guarantee they would be millionaires in a day. It's very interesting to observe how ingenious the people of Falmouth are. Unlike in the US, they don't have as many resources or money to buy small things. For example, instead of buying a fancy paint mixer, the builders in restoration cut down a stick from a nearby tree to use. This shows how they have to work with the resources they are given and in turn making an ingenious and creative invention that we would have never thought of.
Today was a fun filled day. I love restoration, being able to do hard physical labor to help a family live in a better home makes me feel very accomplished, as well as being able to see my hard work improving the house after every day. Today was very successful day of hard work and fun times. Can't wait for tomorrow!
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