Day 2: The House on Rodney Street

I had an experience today that I will never forget.

After our tour of the town of Falmouth, I went to a house on Rodney Street to do the architectural drawing with Mr. Harding, the executive director of Falmouth Heritage Renewal. The reason why architectural drawing is important is so the history of the house can be documented and the changes over time can be seen. 

The house had a total of two rooms, which was typical for the time era it was built in. Even though most houses only have two rooms, it was still astounding how there are five children living in it. The first thing I noticed upon entering the house was how hot it was. There was no air conditioning, only one fan in the bedroom. At one point, I looked up and there was a mosquito catching contraption made out of some sort of sticky paper. While measuring the back wall of the house, I noticed many things. The roof was in shambles, there was no floor in certain places, areas were packed with belongings, and they used newspaper to cover up holes in the wall. 

The whole time I was in there, I was thinking about how I will never be able to know what it feels like to live in a space like that, in a country like this. I will never say that I'm lucky, or #blessed, because who am I to decide that I'm the fortunate one? No matter the situation, some people will be happy, and some people won't. Ultimately, your attitude is what affects your happiness in the end. It's not my place to come into a foreign country and feel bad for people who maybe don't have as much as I do. They never asked me to do that. Even so, I will always remember this experience. I have realized that people will be people, and just keep on living, no matter the situation they're in.