Mandeville, Jamaica
“It is lunchtime, and the usual line of 4-year-olds forms in front of the outdoor trough, empty cups in hand. On any other day, they would be granted a cup of cool water to have with their lunch of chicken and rice. But today was particularly hot, and the city has turned off the water. Some of the children are wealthy enough to be sent to school with a juice box, but the majority who are not look on with jealousy as their classmates drink. They ask me why they can’t have the water, what they did wrong. Some of them cry. For the rest of the school day the children are distracted, thinking, as I am, about when the next opportunity to drink water will be.” – excerpt from a short piece I wrote in 2011 reflecting on my time in Jamaica. The 10 weeks I spent in Jamaica during my senior year of high school forever changed my perspective of the world. Although I have always known that somewhere in the world, drought affects many peoples’ everyday lives, I had never experienced it personally. This experience was more powerful than anything I could have imagined, and since then, not a day has passed that I have not thought about water as a privilege. |
This was the first time in my life that I had to act as a leader without the guidance of someone else to follow. I was in a different country by myself and was placed in charge of 40 three-year-olds. Although intimidated, I utilized everything I had learned about leadership up until that point, and because of that I have never learned more in my life. I found out quickly that it wasn’t enough to just know how to take hold of and organize a situation. I needed compassion, to show the students that I cared about them and wanted to help them succeed.
I volunteered in Jamaica through Projects Abroad.
I volunteered in Jamaica through Projects Abroad.