Day 3: 4 Grades, 3 Activities, 2 Faculty, 1 Love!

Today was the first full day of work at the Falmouth Field School. Today was also the first day students finished rotating through the three different projects we will be working on for the duration of our time spent in Jamaica. The projects include: the renovation of a home, creating sketches of sections from an already built house and turning them into diagrams on a program called AutoCAD, and creating a video project regarding people's favorite places in Falmouth. All of the projects I have experienced have been exciting and interesting.
    I started off by working on the video project. One of the most interesting things we did was interview a Jamaican woman who happened to be the head of the crafts cooperative here in Falmouth. She was incredibly happy to be interviewed, and had wonderful stories to tell about the her experiences in Falmouth. Although I was the cameraman and did not get to ask any questions, I really thought it was incredible to see how much people open up, and how willing people were to talk about their experiences. I thought it was really incredible.
Secondly, I worked at the construction site. When I first arrived, I had few expectations for what construction we might be doing. I thought we might paint something, or maybe carry supplies to people that would be doing the "real work," but to my surprise, I turned out to be wrong. We were doing the amazing stuff; I even got to take part in building a staircase that will be finished later this week. I found it interesting when Mr. Harding explained to us why we were renovating these houses. The reason we were doing these renovations was because these houses have original pieces from the 19th century and this project was part of a historical restoration. It was at this moment that I realized I was making a difference in someone's life and that was really incredible.
The last great experience I had, during my last project, was in the sketching and diagramming group. When we arrived, I didn't realize what the living conditions were going to be like. I was surprised when I walked in, but it wasn't a pleasant surprise. The house was run-down, dilapidated, and falling apart. We got to work, immediately taking measurements of boards on the walls, rafters, windows, and more. After we had finished, we went to plug in the measurements on a program called AutoCAD. I had no experience using the program itself, but a fellow student of mine did, which was nice. While we were plugging in the measurements, I realized something. As students, we were taking something that was in meager conditions, and turning it into something sophisticated and clean that someone will someday be able to live in, and that, to me, was just another something incredible to add to my list of memorable things we've already done on this trip.

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.