BY LUKE GALLION Jamaica holds a special place in my heart. This year’s trip marked my fourth trip to Jamaica in the past three years, and I consider it my second home. In addition to going on the Intercollegiate YMCA spring break trip for three years now, I also spent six weeks this past summer staying at Moorlands Camp and doing various service projects. With all of that being said, I was very excited to go on this year’s spring break trip. I was ecstatic to get to see some of my Jamaican friends and to serve the people of a country that means so much to me. What I learned, though, was that the trip would benefit me just as much as it benefited the people of Jamaica. One of my favorite components of the trip is forming new friendships and strengthening existing friendships. Throughout the week, our group of students became closer than any other group with which I had served in the past. I can personally say that I had positive interaction with every member of our group and formed a number of new friendships with people who I had previously never met. I also grew closer with people who I knew before going on the trip. These friendships formed in numerous ways - inside jokes were formed while working on projects together, laughter was shared on our crazy bus rides, and people shared feelings and personal stories during late night conversations and star watching. These friendships, which were formed on a common ground of a passion for service, are friendships that will last a lifetime and that I will never forget. Not only did our group become particularly close throughout the week, but we also accomplished a lot of really awesome work! At Moorlands Camp our group managed to do everything from chopping weeds with machetes, to painting a roof, to making a zipline landing zone safer. Though this work may seem trivial and unimportant to some, it meant a lot to me to see us help Moorlands. One of their main employees recently took another job and the staff is shorthanded; our work helped the camp accomplish things that would not have been done if we had not been there. This is going to help to give the children that go to camp at Moorlands in the summer an amazing experience that they will never forget!
Later in the week, our group split up and went to a couple of different sites. A large group went to Hanbury Home and painted several buildings, which looked fantastic! I was part of a smaller group that went to Youth with a Mission (YWAM) to build a playground. I can honestly say that this was the experience of a lifetime! On the first day, I took a short break from working to simply observe the rest of the group. It was such a neat experience to just sit back and watch people laughing and joking as they worked toward building an awesome new space on which the kids could play! During my break I turned around and heard screaming and laughter as the kids came outside to recess. They ran right over to me and started climbing all over me. The first little boy that got to me, Joseph, yelled “I’m so excited that you guys are here to build us a new playground!” Other children gathered around to ask if they would have swings to play on. The look of joy on their face whenever I told them that they would indeed have a swing set is a look that I will remember forever. This moment quickly reminded me of the impact that our group was making in Jamaica. As the week progressed, I began to realize how much I would miss my second home in the coming years. I am a senior and plan to graduate in May. Following graduation, I plan to attend graduate school to pursue my Ph.D. in chemistry. Once I leave Butler, though, it is going to be difficult to find time to travel back to the country I love so much. I tried to push this nagging fear to the back of my mind as much as possible throughout the week in an effort to enjoy the week and get as much work done on the trip as I could. However, a moment at the end of the week made me come to the realization that I would have to face this daunting fact. We will come back to this moment in a little while. Although I love the fact that our group forms so many close friendships and accomplishes so much work, my favorite part of the week is visiting Hanbury Home. Hanbury Home is an orphanage in Jamaica that is run by the Salvation Army. The Intercollegiate YMCA has a long-standing partnership with Hanbury Home, and as a result I have visited the orphanage every year that I have been to Jamaica on spring break. The kids there are so sweet and so loving, and I love hanging out with them so much that I even went on my own when I was in Jamaica for the summer. Throughout my time at Hanbury Home over the past few years, I have become particularly close with a little boy named Kemar. I met Kemar during my sophomore year when he was just nine years old. At the time, Kemar was a quiet boy who was always being chastised by the older children at the orphanage for his behavior. I decided to reach out to this shy boy and learned his story. By the end of the week during my first year in Jamaica, I was in tears as I hugged Kemar goodbye and told him that I would be back in a year to see him. My friendship with Kemar has continued to grow over the years. We have been pen pals and written letters back and forth, and occasionally I have the chance to have a quick conversation on the telephone. We talk about everything from girlfriends (or lack thereof) to future career goals, and everything in between. Even though Kemar is half my age and lives in a different country, he has become one of my best friends. This year at the orphanage, I was ecstatic to see Kemar branch out and make new friends besides me. I watched as other people in our service group interacted Kemar. That being said, it still warmed my heart when I would show up to Hanbury Home after working at YWAM and people would tell me that Kemar had been asking where I was or he would come running out of nowhere to come and give me a big hug. Now, back to that nagging feeling that I talked about earlier. On the last day of the trip, the feeling would not go away. I spent the first half of my day at YWAM helping to finish the playground. While the end result was amazing and I couldn’t help but smile, behind that smile my mind was filled with anxiety and worry. I had no idea how I was going to deal with the fact that I was about to go spend what could potentially be my last time at Hanbury Home for a very long time. When I got to Hanbury Home, I got my usual hug from Kemar. “Sir, did you bring me any sweeties today?” he asked. I smiled as I pulled some candy out of my pocket and handed it to him. We spent the rest of that day doing our usual thing of just talking and hanging out. Then I heard the words I had been dreading all week – “Okay! We only have fifteen minutes left before we have to get on the bus!” I only fifteen minutes left with one of my best friends. Kemar and I headed to the boy’s dormitory, where I gave him some more candy before I started to tell him goodbye. I had planned this really awesome speech that I was going to give Kemar, but it didn’t come out at all as I had planned. Instead, while fighting back tears, I told Kemar how proud I was of him. He had grown from a shy, quiet boy to an outgoing, mature young man in the short time I had known him. I told him how much he meant to me and how much he has taught me more than I would ever be able to teach him. Then I uttered the most difficult sentence I have ever had to speak in my life. “Kemar. . . I am graduating from Butler this spring and don’t know when I will be back to see you again.” Every other goodbye with Kemar I had been able to say “I’ll see you next year!” or “I’ll be back this summer and I’ll get to see you every week!” This one was different. I had to tell him that I had no idea if I would ever be back to Hanbury Home again. I could barely look him in the eyes – partly because of my tears, partly because of his, and partly because I felt so guilty that I was leaving a child who meant so much to me and anxious about whether he would be okay without me.” After sharing some tears, a long hug, an “I love you,” and our secret handshake, I made my way outside and witnessed one of the most beautiful moments of my life. I looked around the play area and saw other students saying their goodbyes. Some groups sat in silence holding hands or hugging. Others ran around getting in some final laughs before we got on the bus. Some people were handing out candy or extra clothes. In short, I got to just sit back and see the difference that everyone was making. It was at this moment, while I was standing there looking like a fool with a big smile as tears streamed down my face, that I realized how stupid it was of me to ever doubt that Kemar would be okay without me. I looked out and saw so many amazing people that would continue to come on this trip long after I went off to graduate school. I realized that a few years from now, Kemar would be asking about another YMCA student and running up to give that student a big hug. I knew that Kemar and all of the other kids were going to be okay because I knew that my new friends that I met on the trip would continue to come back and make a difference. I knew that the YMCA would continue to send amazing student volunteers to Jamaica to build paint roofs, build playgrounds, hug children, and do whatever is asked of them to help the people of Jamaica.
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