Day 11: Reality

This trip to Jamaica has truly changed my perspective on the world and has truly humbled me to see all this poverty. Nevertheless, I saw smiling happy faces, and I look back on what we have, which is a lot compared to living in a hut made of scrap metal and wooden boards. We have so much luxury, and we take advantage of all of it everyday when some Jamaicans live in barely humane conditions.Every person I met had a good attitude and a smile on their face despite their situation and it really makes me feel good to see a happy face but also out of place at times almost like I felt disgusted with myself to have taken a lot of things for granted.  During my time in Jamaica I worked in the construction team and we did many things like paint and build a staircase etc. but one thing that I really touched me was when I was working on tiling with this man who's name I will not mention  and He was teaching me how to tile. As I was putting a piece tile up He came up and started talking about his life and how he " loves God" and how grateful he was for him,  after he went on about his life and how hard life is in Jamaica and what it's like to live almost dirt poor, he then told me that he was in a car accident a few years back and how he was riding with his mentor who taught him everything he knows about his profession and thanks to that man he is still able to put food on the table anyways he was in the car with him and all of sudden the car got hit, He broke his ribs and legs and have only reason he lived was because of his friend taking the brunt of the shrapnel, I won't go into detail but it was a truly sad sight to see a man tear up like this about the thought of losing a close friend.

This trip overall was an amazing to see a beautiful country and its people. To experience the raw reality of what the world really is outside our box of materialistic things. It helped us hopefully not to pity but to care for your fellow man or woman no matter their nationality. I wish more people could experience something similar and maybe their views would change. My wish before I came on the trip to Jamaica was to come back a changed person who learned to hope again for the world. My wish came true, I left Houston  an ungrateful  I came back humbled and forever changed by my experiences and what I saw in Jamaica, I will never forget this experience for as long as I live.