Over Winter Break, I had the opportunity to go to Jamaica on an Outreach Trip with fellow Sewanee students. Going into it, I didn’t really know what all it would entail, but I hoped it would be a life changing experience. Looking back, I see that it not only gave me the opportunity of a lifetime, but also taught me some important lessons. While it was not always glamorous, we were very blessed with the place where we stayed and the people we met. Our focus for this trip was to create a documentary film showing the lives of people who live in Riverton City, a part of Kingston that is known in particular for being the landfill that contains 60 percent of trash and waste from the areas surrounding it. We wanted to show a different view of Riverton, interviewing the people who have grown up and made a living there.
Patience
On an outreach trip, you have the mindset of needing to be involved in making some kind of difference. I figured I’d be hands on with everything we encountered, but that was not always the case. Being part of a film crew means sitting around A LOT. Sure, I was sometimes able to walk around and take footage of the area (called B-roll), but a lot of the time, I found myself sitting around and waiting until we found another person to interview. I look back and realize that this waiting was important, because it allowed not only for our team to become close, but also allowed for us to watch the life going on around us.
Flexibility
At the beginning of the trip, I’m sure I annoyed the leaders tremendously with my questions of “what are we doing next” or “when will lunch be,” but most of the time, we did not have these kinds of answers. Part of the experience of finding interviews was hoping that people would be willing to take time out of their days to talk to us. Therefore, we needed to be ready at any moment to talk to them. Did we know in specific who we would be talking to that day? No. Did we end up hearing some of the most amazing and inspiring stories in the end? Most certainly. I learned within the first two days that spontaneity and flexibility is important, especially when you are trying to experience a different lifestyle. If I continued to keep my concern on what we were doing next, I would have missed the amazing things that were happening in the present moment (like Professor Greg Pond riding on the top of a garbage truck to get footage of the landfill).
Being Yourself
Over the course of the trip, we met many different people, each of whom faced different struggles. They rarely sugar-coated their pasts and were very honest with us. A gang leader who changed his ways, becoming active in his church. A man who created his own pig farm from nothing and tries to support his son by himself, while also having a passion for riding his motorcycle around town. While these two and many many others all have struggles they face, they acknowledge where they come from. Often I think a lot of us feel the need to ignore our backgrounds, focusing only on where we are going. But it is important to acknowledge where you are from. Your roots many be placed somewhere else, but everyone still has a past that they should be proud of, even if it means eventually growing past it.
Love
Dixon Myers has been going to Kingston on outreach trips for over 20 years and has made many friends throughout the years. One of these friends who allowed for a way to bridge the gap with a lot of local people in the area was Selvin. Selvin was much more than just an aid in our documentary goals, though. He became our friend and our mentor. At the end of the trip we were able to meet his family, which was a wonderful blessing. Selvin was only one of many individuals who touched our hearts. Even now, two weeks after returning to Sewanee, I still think about those people and wonder how they are doing. When people ask me “How was Jamaica?” all I can say is “wonderful.” After all, how can I explain that in just a short period of time, we grew to love people living in practically a different world from our own. But this love is something that we should all have for people from all backgrounds. Selvin taught me that no matter where you come from, or what country you are from, people all have something to offer to one another: Love. One of my favorite things I learned was a handshake where you rub the thumb of someone else to signify friendship. Selvin taught this to us early on, signifying he was our friend before he really even knew us that well. In Bob Marley’s song, he says “One love, one heart, let’s get together and feel alright.” I think I finally know what he meant by that as I look back and miss Jamaica. We were able to come from a background very different from those in Riverton and connect on a deep level with the people. Just because they live in what people see as a landfill does not mean they do not have anything to offer. We all have the same kind of love to offer, and I hope more people can realize that.