May+20,+2011

Service Learning Today was an absolutely amazing experience. We traveled to an impoverished area of St. Thomas, Savan. Historically, this area was preserved for free slaves; over time, the land has had a hard time overcoming violence, crime, and several other facets inherent to economically struggling towns. In coalition with Habitat for Humanity and My Brother’s Workshop we worked to revitalize the play area outside of a local elementary school. The same men from My Brother’s Workshop that we worked with at the Historic Preservation Trust yesterday arrived to help us again today. We started by clearing out all of the visible trash from the basketball courts, playground, and surrounding areas. It was distressing to see the vast amount of broken bottles, drug materials, and simple trash dispersed all around the area meant for these kids to play in. We also worked at de-weeding the surrounding areas and fences known to promote unhealthy criminal acts at nighttime. Ridding the fences of weeds allowed better visibility of all the playground areas creating a safer environment for the children. Several times throughout the day we stopped to play with the children who had come outside for recess. They were an incredible group of young kids who really enjoyed our presence at their school as they immediately included us into their fun games and activities. We put up new basketball nets and donated a brand new ball to the school as well. From what we saw the only ball the children had to play with before was a flattened old soccer ball. At the end of the day, by simply looking at the amount of trash bags we had filled, you could easily see the progress we had made. Several members of the surrounding community (local men, police officers, school teachers) stopped almost in awe of the coalition we had put together for the day. Upon reflecting, we realized that yes maybe the playground won’t stay clean for long considering the gangs will still litter their empty bottles and drug materials; however, our hope was that a couple people of the community will see what we did and will continue to want to make their school a cleaner place which is exactly what happened before we left. Two men that walked through the park and saw what we were doing decided to help a little and talked to the director of My Brother’s Workshop. This was great to see because more men that join the program means less men in gangs and a better community. Once we were done with our work and had taught some of the kids how to play basketball, we ourselves got a chance to play full court basketball against the local men from My Brother’s Workshop. The basketball game was the closing event of our stay on St. Thomas. It was nice how the men from My Brother’s Workshop opened up by playing a fun yet competitive game against us. This game not only was an enjoyable way to end the trip but it showed the extent we have grown together as a team. Not only did we learn to work together to clean up a school but we also came together to beat a group of local men in a basketball game. It is our final day here in the villa so we had a team meeting discussing our overall thoughts so far after sixteen days on the island and a group dinner to cook all of the excess food we had left. Afterward we split into groups to do final inspections and clean ups so Gil and his family wouldn’t be left with a mess. It has been an amazing journey so far and we truly look forward to what lies ahead in St. Croix for our final five days in the U. S. Virgin Islands.